Are you ready to get more cloud for your investment? As cloud computing models evolve, and more companies make the move to modernize their infrastructure, its just as important as ever that technology leaders make informed decisions about which products, services, and payment models deliver the best results.  

With this in mind, as more of our customers move to the cloud, we find the importance in educating them on the importance of cloud cost optimization. Cloud cost optimization is the process of reducing your overall cloud spend by:  

• Identifying Mismanaged Resources 
• Eliminating Waste
• Reserving Capability for Higher Discounts
• Right Sizing Computing Services to Scale 

Did you know that according to Gartner analysts Brandon Medford and Craig Lowery, as much as 70% of cloud costs are wasted? While the cloud offers organizations the ability to be charged only for the resources they use, there are several other best practices to keep in mind, to ensure you get the most cloud for your investment.  

5 Best Practices for Optimizing Costs in the Cloud

1. Identify unused resources

One of the first steps you can take is looking for unused or unattached resources. We see it often; a developer spins up a temporary server to perform a function and forgets to turn it off when the job is done. The result is your organization’s bills will include charges for resources that you’re no longer using.  

2. Identify and consolidate idle resources

Second, identify idle resources that could be wasteful. A great approach is identifying idle instances and consolidating computing jobs onto fewer instances. In the days of the data center, administrators wanted to operate at low utilization rates so they would have room for spikes in traffic, but it was difficult and expensive to keep adding new resources. Instead, with the cloud, your business can auto–scale, and deliver on-demand capabilities that allow you to scale up your computing power at any time.  

3. Right size computing resources

Right sizing is the process of analyzing computing services and modifying them to the most efficient size. With more than 1.7 million combinations to choose from, sizing instances correctly can be difficult. There are a variety of right sizing tools out there that can recommend changes across instance families, and we highly recommend investigating how you can improve sizing your compute resources.  

4. Invest in reserved instances

If you’ve committed to a long-term cloud strategy, we encourage you to invest in Reserved Instances (RIs). Paying upfront for specific periods of time, you can benefit from larger discounts. Did you know that RI savings can reach up to 75%? 

5. Take advantage of spot instances

Spot instances can also help you save more on your cloud spend. Available on an auction basis, they can be purchased for immediate use. Opportunities to buy spot instances are limited so they may be better suited for batch projects or computing cases that can be terminated quickly.  

Optimization is Key

If you’re paying attention to cloud cost optimization, the promise still exists that you’ll save money in the cloud in the long term. Take proactive action in ensuring you have the right resources available to monitor and manage your cloud spend.  

Take Action

MacroNet’s team of experts are well-versed in a variety of tools that will help you manage and monitor your spend in the cloud. Complete the form found at the link below to schedule a consultation with our team to discuss your cost optimization strategy.