The process of migrating to the cloud can be a challenging undertaking, but it is not the end of your work. The migration has only consolidated apps that you have already completed and given you a multitude of new work opportunities, the work’s just beginning. To optimize your cloud presence you have to keep on top of things and make updates that can impact both your financial and operational performance.
Here are the 7 best practices to achieve optimal outcomes:
1. Identify Unused Resources
One of the easiest ways to effectively optimize cloud costs is by identifying unused resources. Spinning up a temporary server for a single-use operation and forgetting to turn it off later or not removing storage associated with terminated instances are common use case anomalies that contribute to an increase in cloud costs. In these cases, an enterprise is footing the bill for resources that are no longer in use. Identifying such resources and removing them is a good starting point for cloud cost optimization that every organization can benefit from.
2. Rightsizing the Resources
Rightsizing refers to an analysis of computing services to identify the most efficient size for your operational requirement. With the correct Right-Sizing tools, you can optimize not just the size of your server but also other elements such as database, memory, storage capacity, and graphics, among others. Besides helping with cost reduction, this approach also helps in cloud optimization that facilitates peak performance of the resources you pay for.
3. Merge Idle Resources
A resource that is lying idle but is being charged for by the service provider is a significant waste that needs to be plugged for cost optimization. For instance, let’s say your CPU utilization for current operations is 5 or 10 % of what you have availed, but you are being charged for 100%. It’s a classic case of computing resources being wasted. You must work to zero in on all such resources in your system and merge these to cut costs.
4. Leverage Heatmaps
As visual tools that show valleys and peaks in your computing demand, heatmaps are vital for achieving cloud cost optimization. The insights offered by a heatmap can be a valuable asset in putting in place – start and stop cut-offs for different resources to reduce costs. For instance, you can use these to identify a time when certain resources are practically lying unused and shut them down for that duration of time.
5. Invest in Reserved Instances
Enterprises that seek to embrace the cloud for the long haul can improve on costs by investing in Reserved Instances (RIs). These are lucrative discounts offered based on time commitment and upfront payment. Your savings through the right RI adoption can be up to 75%, which makes it a valuable cog in your cloud cost optimization plan.
6. Make Use of Spot Instances
Spot Instances, which are available for auction, can be a smart way to cut back on your cloud spending. Once purchased, these are for immediate use. However, the window for making the bid is usually small, so you have to be on the lookout consistently and
move swiftly if the price is right. These are best suited for short-term projects or jobs that can be completed quickly, as they may come with limited validity.
7. Leverage Cloud Optimization Tools and Services
You cannot optimize the cloud without monitoring cloud performance. There are a number of tools that help you to monitor and assess cloud performance. You must take advantage of robust tools to optimize cloud performance by taking the right decision at the right time. Alternatively, you can even avail of the specialized services provided by managed cloud service providers to make the cloud perform optimally in the long run.
Cloud optimization is a must for any enterprise with cloud-based, medium-to-large applications that need to reduce cost while retaining reliability and performance. If you have a solid annual cloud spend (or internal chargeback), and frequent rollouts/updates, then you need cloud cost optimization. Finding the right cloud optimization solution should be one of your top priorities.
