The cloud has become the cornerstone for contemporary businesses, affording unparalleled scalability and adaptability. Despite these benefits, the expenditure involved in sustaining cloud-based infrastructures can soar swiftly if not adeptly managed. This argument holds especially true for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), known for their more constrained budgets. In our work at Gislen Software, we have encountered numerous SMEs grappling with escalating cloud costs. We have significantly reduced their monthly cloud bill using cloud cost optimisation techniques. The following are some of the techniques we use. It is not a comprehensive list since different cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, Google, and many more exist. Based on the nature of your specific application, we have to optimize the cloud cost while ensuring that your application runs fast enough.
Understanding Cloud Usage
Harness Cloud Monitoring Services
The initial phase in mitigating cloud expenses lies in comprehending your existing usage. Employ cloud monitoring services to oversee your utilisation of resources vigilantly. This category of cloud monitoring helps in proactive cost management.
Cost Allocation Tags for Precise Budgeting
Integrate cost allocation tags to scrutinise your cloud spending on a per-project or per-department basis. This granular approach enhances budget precision and illuminates areas where spending may be excessive.
Storage Optimisation
Effective Right-Sizing of Storage
Superfluous storage can be an unwarranted cost. Various storage choices come with distinct pricing structures. Scrutinise your requirements and select the most cost-effective option, contributing to cloud cost management.
Enforce Lifecycle Policies
Employ lifecycle policies to automatically shift older, seldom-accessed data to more economical storage tiers or even an archive.
Streamlining Compute Resources
Serverless Architecture
Many older cloud applications run on a cloud-based Virtual Machine (VM). Transitioning to a serverless architecture can offer several benefits. The company would no longer need to manage server maintenance, patching, or software updates, as the cloud provider automatically handles these tasks. This can free up valuable developer time, allowing for a quicker time-to-market for new features. The pay-as-you-go model of serverless can also result in cost savings, especially for variable or unpredictable workloads, as you only pay for the actual compute time your code uses. Additionally, the serverless architecture scales automatically in response to demand, eliminating the need for manual capacity planning and reducing the risk of over-provisioning or under-utilising resources.
Compute Instance Right-Sizing
Over-provisioning computing resources is a common pitfall. Examine your requirements and settle for instances offering adequate CPU, memory, and storage, further aiding in cloud cost optimisation.
The Advantages of Reserved Instances
For predictable workloads, contemplate choosing reserved instances, which are more budget-friendly than on-demand options.
The Role of Auto-Scaling in Cloud Cost Management
Incorporate auto-scaling to adapt the number of operative instances in real-time, ensuring you pay solely for the computational resources.
Network Cost Optimisation
Implementing Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
By utilising CDNs, you can cache static resources such as images, JavaScript code and CSS near your customers, diminishing the volume of data transferred from your primary servers. This can culminate in appreciable cost reductions apart from improving your website’s performance. There are even free options such as CloudFlare that also provide many other benefits for free.
Opting for Regional Data Transfers
Intra-region data transfers usually come at reduced rates. Retain your data and applications within the same geographical region whenever feasible to avail of these discounted rates.
Regularly Review and Monitor Your Cloud Setup
Periodic Cloud Audits
Conduct systematic audits to pinpoint underutilised or idle resources that could be downsized or removed.
Real-Time Alerts for Cloud Cost Management
Establish billing alerts to maintain an eye on your cloud expenditure, facilitating timely interventions when the need arises.
Conclusion
Mastering cloud cost management isn’t a one-time activity but rather a continual process. SMEs can significantly pare down their cloud costs by understanding their usage patterns, optimising storage, compute, and network resources, and recurrently reassessing their configurations. At Gislen Software, we’ve successfully deployed these methods to minimise cloud costs for our clientele. Taking command of your cloud costs today will yield immediate savings, streamline future operations and strengthen your bottom line.
Gislen Software has helped many companies to reduce their cloud cost. We want to help you take control of your cloud costs. Are you using Microsoft Azure Cloud? In such a case, we’re now offering your business a FREE Cloud Cost Audit to start your journey to cost savings. Our experts will assess your cloud usage and provide tailored recommendations to optimize your costs. Please get in touch with us for a free consultation.
If you use another cloud environment other than Microsoft Azure, please get in touch with us, and we will try to help you.