Chances are you don’t know how much your public cloud is really costing you. In one survey, more than one third of respondents said they don’t understand how they’re affected by cloud services and billing options. Of those who have hybrid cloud, more than one third said visibility into the cloud component of their infrastructure was lower than visibility into the on premises component.

Cloud Waste

The wasted cloud spending comes both because companies don’t understand how to best utilize cloud resources as well as not understanding how they’re charged for cloud resources.

There are several ways cloud resources are wasted:

• Oversized resources. On premises, allocating too many resources to a VM doesn’t have much impact; resources can be shared by VMs and if one doesn’t use the resources, another will. In the cloud, you’re paying for those resources whether you use them or not. Because it’s easy to obtain resources in the cloud, it’s simpler to simply purchase a large instance rather than spend the time to analyze true requirements and properly size instances. This problem is especially likely to occur if departments are making their own shift to cloud, rather than going through a cloud migration managed by the IT department.

• Unused resources. Those oversized resources may be underutilized, but businesses likely have resources that have zero utilization. These include development and test environments for projects that were completed (or abandoned), as well as servers for applications that are only needed 9-to-5 on weekdays.

• Wrong resources. Sometimes the problem isn’t that you’re paying for too much capacity, but you’re paying for more expensive capacity than you need. There are many different types of cloud storage, with different characteristics, and you’ll pay different dollar amounts for the same number of terabytes. Make sure you are using lower-cost archival storage for data you don’t use frequently instead of more expensive storage that allows rapid access.

• Unused discounts. It’s quick and easy to sign up for cloud, but the instances you default to may not be the cheapest. Cloud providers often offer discounts for reserved instances or spot instances.

• Too many clouds. Using multiple clouds can allow you to match cloud capabilities to workload requirements, but it also makes cloud spending harder to track.

Overlooked Cloud Costs

In addition to the ongoing costs of cloud that show up on your cloud provider’s bill, there are other costs associated with cloud that can make it more expensive than you anticipated. These include the costs of data migrations and training your team. In addition, using cloud effectively often requires integrating applications that reside in different locations, and there are costs associated with that effort.

Get Cloud Costs Under Control

Managed cloud services from Prescient Solutions can help you get your cloud costs under control. With a team dedicated to monitoring your cloud’s usage and performance, cloud spending is matched to cloud results. Contact us to learn more.