5 Ways to get your cloud spending under control

5 Ways to get your cloud spending under control

As your business moves more and more of its operations to the cloud, it’s becoming increasingly important to keep costs under control. If you don’t manage your cloud spending properly, it can quickly spiral out of control and eat up a large chunk of your budget.

Fortunately, there are many ways to get your business’s cloud spending under control. Here are five strategies that will help you save money and ensure that you get the most out of your cloud infrastructure.

1. Monitor cloud usage and infrastructure

First, you need to know where your money is going in order to make changes and cut costs. Keep an eye on your cloud usage and infrastructure to identify areas where you can improve efficiency and reduce waste.

There are a few different ways to do this. One is to use a cloud management platform that provides visibility into your usage and costs. This can help you track your spending, optimize your resources, and find opportunities for cost savings.

Another way to monitor your cloud usage is to set up alerts that notify you when your spending reaches a certain threshold. This can help you catch overspending before it becomes a problem.

You should also track your company’s growth and projected cloud needs. This will help you forecast your future cloud costs and make sure that you’re not overspending on resources or services that you don’t need.

2. Prevent cloud sprawl

Cloud sprawl occurs when an organization has too many cloud resources and services, which leads to inefficiency and wasted funds. To prevent cloud sprawl, you need to have a clear understanding of your company’s needs and requirements. Monitoring your current cloud usage can help you identify areas that you must continue to invest in and those where you can scale back.

It’s also important to establish governance policies for your cloud environment. These policies should define who has access to the cloud, what resources they can use, and how those resources should be used. Enforcing these policies will help you prevent unauthorized spending and keep your cloud environment under control.

Finally, you need to periodically review your cloud resources and services to ensure that they’re still needed and being used efficiently. If not, you can eliminate them to save money and reduce your cloud footprint.

3. Manage cloud activity

In addition to monitoring your cloud usage, you also need to manage the activity taking place in your environment. This includes setting up controls and processes to ensure that your resources are being used productively and in accordance with your company’s policies.

One way to do this is to use a cloud management platform that provides centralized control over your environment. This will give you visibility into all activity taking place in your cloud and allow you to quickly troubleshoot any issues. Auditing and logging features will also give you a complete record of everything that happens in your environment, which can be useful for compliance purposes.

Another way to manage cloud activity is to establish user roles and permissions. This will ensure that only authorized users have access to your cloud resources and that they can only perform actions that you’ve approved.

4. Automate cloud processes

To improve resource efficiency and reduce costs, you need to automate as many cloud processes as possible. This includes tasks like configurations, installations, security, and data backups. By automating these typically complex and tedious processes, you can not only save time and money, but you can also reduce the risk of human error.

5. Explore different pricing models and services

It's essential to find a cloud solution that best suits your needs and your budget, so explore different pricing models and compare the costs of different services. For instance, you may be able to save money by using a pay-as-you-go model instead of a subscription model. However, you'll have to determine which payment model will let you maximize the cloud services based on your company’s cloud needs and usage.

You should also consider using discounts and reserved instances to lower your costs. Discounts are available for a variety of cloud services, and reserved instances can save you up to 75% on your bill.

By following these tips, you can get your cloud spending under control and ensure that you’re getting the most out of your investment. However, keep in mind that every company is different and you may need to tailor these tips to fit your specific needs.

If you need help managing your cloud environment, contact outsourceIT today. We offer a variety of cloud and IT solutions that can help your business save time and money.


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