Cloud cost optimisation tools that are worth a look

Cloud costs spiralling out of control? Discover cloud cost optimisation tools that can help you make savings.



At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we're always looking for new ways to help businesses optimise their costs. Because contrary to what you might think, the cloud isn't intrinsically cost-effective. Those cloud savings will only be felt when you use the right tools.

The alternative is stark. If you don't take the right steps to optimise your costs, you could be in for a bad dose of cloud shock.

At this point in time, cloud shock is such a common phenomenon that it really shouldn't be a shock anymore. "Cloud sad reality" describes it better.

It goes like this. A business becomes convinced that it can improve its performance and save costs by migrating to the cloud or changing up its cloud environment. IT gets to work, all guns blazing. Only a matter of time, they say, before those coffers look delightfully full.

Fast forward a year and they're reading the invoice through bitter tears. "How did we get here?" they say. "How did we end up paying this much?"

The answer is that they put migration above cost optimisation when, in an ideal world, they'd go hand in hand.

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we want to help you avoid cloud shock. Here are some handy tools that could help you keep those costs under control and give your performance a boost while you're at it.

Budget tracking

One of the great things about public cloud services is the speed at which you can scale up and down. Spike in storage demands? Simply change your subscription tier and pay accordingly. It's a far cry from the intensive labour required should you want to scale up your private data centre.

Like all things, however, this comes at a cost. It's not unknown – in fact, we'd say it's fairly well known – that authorised staff can purchase more cloud resources than strictly necessary.

This can only happen when budgets are poorly defined and inconsistently monitored. Whether you use dedicated budget tracking software or a simple spreadsheet, clearly defined budgets let you quickly spot overpayments and identify areas where savings can be made.

There are a huge number of budget trackers available – some specific to cloud costs, others for more general use. Whatever your sector and whatever your cloud infrastructure, we recommend you take the time to take a look.

Autoscaling

Paying for cloud solutions isn't just about the software itself. It's also about the time it takes IT professionals to scale your workloads.

Manual scaling has its advantages. Cost-effectiveness isn't one of them. Using a system like Kubernetes to orchestrate your containers and autoscale your resources can lead to savings that are not to be sniffed at.

Cloud pricing comparison 

At the time of writing, it seems there are price comparison websites for pretty much everything. But how about cloud platforms?

Well, there's no Bonkers.ie or PowerSwitch.com for cloud providers. But time spent on Gartner's website can tell you a lot about pricing and how it relates to the services on offer.

When it comes to cloud technologies, Gartner is an invaluable resource for businesses. It's clearly written and approaches the cloud world from a business perspective. We recommend it.

AWS Cost Allocation Tags

AWS is one of the most popular public cloud providers for a reason. It's scalable, flexible and easy to use, with a manageable learning curve.

It also provides some cloud cost optimisation tools such as Cost Allocation Tags. These are worth investigating if some or all of your workloads run on AWS.

These tags are assigned to instances, S3 buckets and other resources. They let you organise your costs, associating specific resources with projects, departments and billing codes.

Essentially, it gives you greater visibility into how much you're spending and what you're spending it on. This puts you in a better position to proactively manage your costs and avoid nasty surprises.

Why is cloud cost optimisation so important?

You might think the answer to this is obvious. Cloud cost optimisation tools, um… optimise your cloud costs. It's better to spend less money on your resources. What more is there to say?

But did you know that cloud cost optimisation can help you improve efficiency, enhance your performance, tighten security, increase sustainability and give you youthful-looking skin? (OK, one of these isn't true – not yet, anyway.)

Let's take efficiency and performance first. If your cloud infrastructure is littered with unused or idle resources, it's not just costing you too much. It's also running at less than peak performance. Rightsizing and autoscaling tools don't just cut your costs – they also improve your overall performance.

Cloud cost optimisation isn't a substitute for a robust security posture – but it can help. By merging or removing underused resources, your organisation's attack surface is reduced.

Then there's the question of sustainability. Those resources aren't running themselves – they require energy that could be limited or reallocated. Taming your budget can also help tame your carbon emissions.

Cloud cost optimisation is a great example of how business sense is about more than just money. Budgets and performance go hand in hand. By taking care of the pennies, you can give other areas of your business a lift.

Why should you work with a cloud consultant?

Cloud cost optimisation can be challenging. No one tool can bring your budgets in order. It takes trial, error and a combination of different tools.

This is where a cloud consultant can make a big difference. By handing cloud cost optimisation to an external advisor, you're leveraging expertise and offloading tricky technical tasks.

An experienced cloud consultant will look under the bonnet of your cloud infrastructure and identify areas for improvement. Done well, this can lead to significant cost savings as cloud shock turns to cloud nine.

Are you looking for help with cloud cost optimisation? At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we've enabled organisations of all stripes to do more with the cloud – for less. Get in touch today to book a free discovery call.