06-16-21 | Blog Post
This headline is from a recent article from ZDNet explaining how cloud can potentially reduce margin in your business. The article goes on to note that cloud can impact cost of goods and revenue. There is another side to this debate. A properly constructed and monitored cloud solution can provide ongoing cost optimization while complimenting the growth or contraction of your business. Still, the article lands its point that building out a cloud strategy, like building out a datacenter or starting a repatriation effort, requires the appropriate resources, automation and policy to achieve the desired economic benefit.
Cloud-onomics Can Have Significant Impacts on the Business
When a business doesn’t have an optimized plan for cloud usage, there are many potential side effects. A survey by 451 Research and Apptio offers that inferior cloud management has a negative impact on innovation, provides a lower quality of service, promotes Cloud Sprawl and underutilization of resources, and leads to higher costs. Some estimates put the 2020 “wasted cloud spend” at $17.6B, made up of categories that are largely correctable with a properly optimized cloud plan. The categories include: nonproduction (44%), oversized (40%), overspend (50%), and idle workloads (76%).
Cloud Sprawl
When you’re running more cloud instances than you need, it leads to wasteful spending, hampers productivity and opens more threat vectors thereby increasing security risks. Sprawl shows itself in a variety of ways including idle or forgotten workloads, non-persistent workloads and over-allocated workloads. A component of Cloud Sprawl is Shadow IT or independent procurement of cloud services without IT engagement.
A couple of things you can do immediately to right size your Cloud costs:
Knowing which cloud to use for each workload (and assuring the application of commensurate compliance measures, backup and data recovery services) is a complex science. “The right” cloud services provider will consider your business and technical needs, as well as cost limits, from initial design to ongoing monitoring, thereby ensuring your goals are met.
Automated Protection Against Cloud Sprawl
SprawlGuard® technology is a unique, powerful tool included with all Otava cloud services that’s specifically designed to help you manage your cloud spend. You define precise cost centers, and watch SprawlGuard® technology employ advanced usage analytics to manage them. You gain visibility into your overall spend, its changes, and its impact so that you can see and measure potential sprawl in real time.
If you’re ready to start optimizing your hybrid cloud and controlling costs better, we can help! Otava is great at optimizing cloud costs and ensuring alignment to your Cloud needs with SprawlGuard® technology. Get advanced analytics and a deeper look into how and where your cloud is running. For more information visit www.otava.com.
More Information
3 ways to optimize Hybrid Cloud Costs
Hybrid cloud is on the rise, so what kinds of issues are organizations facing?
Avoid these Cloud Security Pitfalls and Headaches
The rapid and sustained increase in the use of cloud services by business today has provided significant benefits for sales and customer service, time to market, collaboration, prevention of loss and cost savings.
Manage cloud costs with SprawlGuard™
SprawlGuard® technology is a unique, powerful tool included with all Otava cloud services that’s specifically designed to help you manage your cloud spend.
