Posted on July 14, 2021
Cloud
Optimization and cost-cutting. Those two words are like candy to small and large business owners alike.
A lot of management teams cut costs by eliminating birthday parties, understaffing, removing donuts from the conference room, etc.
But have you ever thought about cutting costs with IT? There are ways you can leverage technology to help cut some of the biggest expenses in a company’s budget. There are some methods you should be looking at to trim those costs.
One of these methods is cloud optimization.
In the modern age, most business is done on the cloud. Many businesses that have been around for decades are starting to transition over to cloud-based storage and cloud computing. But once you’re on the cloud what do you do?
Do you know how to get the best performance out of the cloud? Well, that’s what we’re here for!
Today, we’re going to talk about thirteen tips for digital cloud optimization and cost management. Let’s get started!
GCP stands for Google Cloud Platform and once again Google has outdone itself. Not only does this cloud platform come with a sleek, user-friendly interface, but it also comes with some pretty cool functional add-ons too.
One of those is GCP Billing. The purpose of this plug-in is to get your team all on the same page as far as expenses.
This software is smart! GCP billing can automatically distribute regular reports on spending. It can also give your team budget alerts and spending analysis.
It can even give you recommendations on how to stop your team from overspending.
This is a great finance option for companies that are already on Google Cloud. However, the functionality GCP offers is at a very high level. If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of your finances and expenses, this one may not be for you.
Cost Explorer is the cost analysis tool provided by Amazon Web Services. This tool helps businesses to understand how much money their cloud usage is costing them.
The smart software can spot abnormal spending, your company’s spending trends, and it can even help to stop overspending. Cost Explorer operates very similarly to GCP Billing.
The one major difference between Google and AWS is the user interface. Google’s Billing platform is very user-friendly. Cost Explorer’s user interface doesn’t stack up in that department.
This software allows a clear, transparent look into your company’s cloud usage. Cloudability offers a wide variety of cloud optimization tools. They offer forecasting, anomaly detection, rightsizing, and reservation purchase management.
Cloudability comes with customizable tags, dashboards, and dashboard views to help companies see exactly what they need to see to keep their cloud performing at its best.
This platform provides much more transparency than other platforms. It’s also a better pick for bigger businesses as it supports multi-cloud visibility.
One of the major benefits of this platform is cloud security. Yes, it does cloud optimization too, but it also helps to keep your data safe and secure.
CloudCheckr has as many of the financial tracking metrics as any of the other cloud cost optimization tools. Where it sets itself apart is the security feature for public platforms.
Not only does this keep your data safe, but it meets all of the major protocols for industries that handle sensitive data.
The creators of the platform give strong support to its users. They also offer 500 out-of-the-box best practices to get users up and running in no time.
Azure is the built-in tool provided by Microsoft’s cloud platform. Much like GCP’s Billing plug-in or AWS Cost Explorer.
This platform is very nimble and allows for a lot of different integrations. However, much like the other two, it still doesn’t offer a granular view of costs within your company.
Experts view this one as more of a “jumping-off point” for businesses that are just getting started.
If you’re a smaller business that only needs a high-level overview of costs, this one should do nicely for you.
If you’re looking for more advanced cloud optimization then Turbonomic is for you. This platform’s main focuses are resource scheduling and automation.
This platform is continually monitoring and optimizing costs. The way it does this is through matching demand within the app to the corresponding supply.
Aside from its central functionalities, Turbonomic doesn’t have much to offer. The creators of this platform decided what they were going to focus on and set out to be the best in the business at it. And they succeeded.
Densify uses machine learning capabilities to help you take control of cost optimization. This software can cut costs for you, identify risks, and give you and your team all the reports you could ever ask for.
One of the pros of this platform is that it can work in a variety of cloud environments. Densify does well whether it’s on a multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, or single cloud framework.
Densify will also monitor and optimize CPU usage.
Harness Cloud Cost Management offers some of the details that other platforms lack. Teams can get down to the granular expenses to see exactly what money is going where.
This platform is perfect for companies with multiple teams. If your teams need to lock down on how cloud resources are used, Harness can help.
Harness is also useful because of its proactive approach to cutting costs. The software can detect anomalies and forecast accurately. It can even set cost thresholds to help manage your budget.
CloudAdmin is a good fit for companies of all sizes. The platform helps teams to minimize the costs of their public cloud infrastructure.
CloudAdmin offers unmatched visibility of cloud resources. The platform is designed to work well whether it’s in a single cloud or multi-cloud framework.
This platform also boasts a more user-friendly interface than some of the other platforms. It’s also very easy to sign up. Teams can get started tracking their cloud metrics in minutes with Cloud Admin.
Users will be surprised at the lack of a learning curve with this software. CloudAdmin gives recommendations that are easy to understand. This allows teams to come in and start optimizing their cloud usage right away.
CloudHealth allows you to set goals and go for them. If you have concrete metrics for efficiency, VMWare will help you get there.
Its rightsizing engine is very flexible. It’s enough to help any team start to operate their cloud more efficiently.
What’s even more impressive is that VMWare thought of more than just your cloud. Through integration with vRelaize, CloudHealth can actually help to optimize on-site IT equipment.
Most cloud optimization tools recommend savings opportunities for your team. But Spot goes a step further. Rather than your team having to brainstorm and implement the necessary changes, Spot suggests them for you.
If your team loves automation, then Spot is the perfect fit. It can also produce fairly granular reports. It can display data as detailed as daily usage but it doesn’t go further than that.
Flexera’s specializes in hybrid cloud frameworks. This product is very flexible and can be tailored to fit your team’s individual needs.
Flexera comes equipped with its own policy language. This allows you to further expand the platform’s functionality. It adapts in much the same way an open-source software would.
This tool uses its own containers called Kubernetes. It then analyzes a company’s optimization opportunities across these Kubernetes. From there, the platform can recommend measures your team can take to reduce costs.
One of Kubecost’s unique features is that it can zero in on energy optimization. By analyzing the Kubernetes, Kubecost can offer recommendations and tips on how to prevent outages due to lack of, or overuse of, resources.
How do you know which cloud optimization tool is best for your business? Well, you’re going to want to ask yourself and your team a couple of questions first.
Firstly, what is the size of your company? Are you a smaller or larger team? The size of your team is going to indicate how much tracking you need.
Some of these platforms don’t offer in-depth reporting. If you’re a smaller team that’s ok. In fact, these are exactly the type of cloud optimization platforms you’ll want to start with if you’re a smaller team.
Next, you’ll want to consider what problem your optimization is trying to solve. If you put your right shoe on the left foot, it just isn’t going to work.
The same goes for cloud optimization tools. If you pick out the wrong tool for the job, you might as well just not have gotten a cloud optimization platform in the first place.
Cloud optimization can be overwhelming if you’re just starting. We hope that this list of some of the best platforms available puts you well on your way to selecting the cloud optimization tool that’s right for you.
NetDepot is here for you if you have any questions. Just contact us directly and we’ll be more than happy to help you navigate your cloud needs.