Does your small to medium-sized organization in Ontario use cloud-based technology? If not, did you know that there are a huge range of benefits that your business can realize from moving over to the cloud?
As we discussed in a recent blog, 6 Ways Your Business Will Benefit From Cloud Computing Services, making the most of cloud technology will help your organization save money, scale up on demand, improve productivity, increase security, create a flexible workforce that works from home and many other benefits.
The issue is, cloud computing costs can quickly start to add up if your organization doesn’t stay on top of them. That’s why it’s important you introduce a cloud cost optimization program into your IT strategy.
What is cloud cost optimization?
When used properly, cloud technologies are a great way for your organization to save money. When they aren’t managed properly, however, cloud technologies can rapidly become an unnecessary expense for your organization.
To help you understand what we mean, let’s take the example of streaming services in our personal lives. Streaming services - such as Netflix, Disney Plus or Crave - are a great way for customers to save on expensive TV packages and access TV shows and movies on demand. Since these services are so cheap, it can be easy to end up paying for all of them even when you’re actually perhaps only using two.
Consumers who do this are still saving money as they aren’t paying for expensive TV packages, but they’re also spending more than they need to since they aren’t using three of the five streaming services they pay for each month.
This is a similar concept to cloud technologies. Small and medium-sized businesses that use cloud technologies are still saving money on the expensive hardware and software that they would have bought if it wasn’t for the cloud, but it’s likely they are still paying for services they no longer need.
That’s why cloud cost optimization is important.
Cloud cost optimization is simply the process of reducing your overall cloud spend. This is done by identifying mismanaged resources, rightsizing computing services to prevent paying for under-utilized capacity and gaining complete visibility into all cloud services.
How your business can reduce its cloud bills
If your business is struggling to gain visibility into cloud costs or is currently overpaying for cloud services, OT Group has created a quick list of five best practices that once implemented will help your small or medium-sized business in Ontario save money.
#1 - Gain complete visibility into your cloud environment
Changes in cloud usage, utilization and over-provisioning of resources can easily slip under the radar. Without complete visibility into your cloud spend, it’s very possible that you are wasting money on unused services.
To prevent this allocation that decreases ROI on your cloud infrastructure, conduct a complete audit of your cloud usage. This should include analyzing how your cloud applications work with each other, the amount of time you use each cloud service, and how much data you are storing and transferring (over your network) to each service.
#2 - Analyze storage costs
Most cloud providers have different storage tiers that incrementally increase the price of the platform. There are two main issues here that could leave your business wasting money. The first is that perhaps you are storing a ton of data that you no longer need on your cloud network. Deleting old data that you no longer use could help you drop down to a smaller data pricing plan.
The second issue is that many companies are paying for way too much data, more than they would ever use as a “safety net”. The biggest benefit of the cloud is that it can be adapted as you need it, so you should make sure your company is only paying for the data it needs, when it needs it.
#3 - Rightsize under-utilized services
Rightsizing is the process of modifying, upgrading or downgrading your existing cloud infrastructure to meet the spend demands of your organization. Once you have complete visibility into your cloud services, you can start rightsizing any under-utilized resources to save your business money.
#4 - Pick a cheaper cloud region
Did you know that cloud services are more expensive in some regions than others? The cloud offers regional storage to help businesses store resources closer to where they need to be, but most providers charge different rates for the same service in different regions.
When choosing your cloud provider, make sure you shop around by geo-location. You could save a significant amount of money by avoiding premium regions, but still storing your data in a region that’s accessible to you.
#5 - Setup usage and cost monitoring across your organization
Once you have optimized your cloud costs, it’s important to maintain that optimized state. You can do this by setting up a management program and reporting strategy that exposes hidden waste and spend patterns across your company. Make sure all departments are on board with this program and that they are following company-wide guidelines around cloud usage.
A program that gives all decision-makers complete visibility into cloud usage and spend will ensure that each part of your organization is focused on cloud cost optimization techniques that improve your bottom line.
Want to learn more about how your business can gain complete visibility into its cloud spend and save money? Contact OT Group today. Our team of IT experts would love to answer any questions you have about implementing a cloud cost optimization strategy.
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