Strategies to achieve cost savings whilst maintaining performance levels
80% of organisations overspend on the cloud (according to a 2023 Gartner report). “Cost overruns aren’t just a financial issue – they erode trust in the cloud’s ROI and slow down your business.” But they are preventable.
In this context, Vikar Singh, Cloud Essentials’ Cloud Solution Architect, discussed common challenges such as unexpected cost spikes, overprovisioning, inefficient services, licensing mix-ups, and admin overheads, which significantly impact budgets and business trust in the cloud. The webinar also discussed the importance of governance and how crucial it is for visibility and control over Azure environments, with regular housekeeping practices recommended to identify and eliminate unused resources like VMs, storage, IPs, and load balancers. Vikar also drew attention to the importance of implementing lifecycle management for storage and backups to reclaim costs.
Our top 10 tips for cost optimisation are:
- Implement Governance: Establish clear policies and visibility tools to manage resources effectively.
- Regular Housekeeping: Identify and eliminate unused resources to reclaim costs.
- Data Lifecycle Management: Use lifecycle policies to automatically tier data storage.
- Leverage Hybrid Benefits: Utilise existing licenses to save on VM costs.
- Right-Size VMs: Choose the appropriate VM size and SKU for your workload.
- Use Spot VMs: For interruptible workloads, spot VMs can offer significant savings.
- Adopt Serverless Solutions: For applications with downtime, serverless options can reduce costs.
- Modernize Applications: Move to web apps, serverless databases, and containers for better efficiency.
- Automate Scaling: Use automation accounts to manage scaling and reduce admin overhead.
- Streamline Reporting: Utilize tools like Azure Monitor and Power BI for efficient cost tracking.
Catch up on the full webinar here:
