Cloud cost management is not new, but it remains a top concern for enterprises undergoing cloud transformation. According to Flexera's 2023 State of the Cloud Report, 82% of IT professionals from organizations of all sizes believe high costs are the biggest cloud challenge. And Gartner predicts that global cloud spending this year will exceed $679 billion.
In the multicloud era, public cloud costs tend to increase, leading some decision makers to consider moving all workloads back on-premises before fully migrating them. Anton Grishko, Chief Architect at ProfiSea, has been in the DevOps field for over 10 years, primarily working on public cloud migration projects. “Saving money in the cloud is real. When you migrate, the first thing your customers ask is, why are we paying so much for AWS, Google, and Azure? Can we save money? ” Can you optimize it? ”
Grishko said a few years ago that understanding cloud costs could be done by writing scripts, leveraging Excel spreadsheets, and using the invoices already built into public clouds and a number of other tools. It was necessary, he added. “Then, after analyzing all of that, Cloud He can give you some sort of or recommendation on where to cut costs,” he says. “There's a big problem with that. First of all, you're already losing money, and only after that do you start saving money.” It is done only after spending a large amount of money. “It's reactive. Setting up governance requires working in proactive mode. FinOps needs to shift from thinking about where to save money to not forcing engineers to spend more than they have to.” .”
To optimize cloud spending to align with business goals, enterprises are turning to cloud FinOps. Cloud FinOps is a framework that combines people, processes, and technology to foster financial awareness and accountability. “With what's going on in the economy, there's been a huge push towards FinOps, and the question is, 'What are we actually using in the cloud?'” said Google Certified Cloud Practitioner, says author and podcast host Chris Love. . He says companies waste billions of dollars a year on public cloud spending. “That's crazy to me. Businesses still don't have visibility into their cloud and haven't taken the time to look at where they're spending that money.” In fact, many companies don't have a cloud optimization strategy. Gartner reports that over 70% are overspending on cloud services. FinOps could be the answer to unlocking the economic potential of the public cloud, but there are still challenges to overcome. For one, FinOps is a practice, not software, and without the right tools in place, understanding and managing cloud costs becomes increasingly complex. . Second, it's easy to identify recommendations that can reduce costs, but someone has to make changes to realize the savings.
It's like leaving a light on for 16 hours instead of flipping it on because you know it's going to arrive the next day.
Stephen J Barr, CloudFix
“Cloud overruns are very easy to happen, especially when you don't have to worry about hardware costs,” said Stephen J Barr, principal architect at CloudFix. That is, until the bill arrives. Barr says one of the biggest mistakes developers make in the cloud is clinging to a physical mindset. “When you visualize a server in a data center somewhere…even if it's real, there are so many layers of abstraction on top of it that you end up caring about the instance or you might need it later.” You keep maintaining instances because you don't have them.'' He added that it's important to use the cloud for its intended purpose: as a flexible pool of resources. “You can turn things on and you can turn them off. ” he says.
“When renting [cloud], it becomes a utility,” says Claire Milligan, CEO of Amily. “Don't think of the cloud as buying a house. You're renting a house. Think of it in terms of a meter, like water or electricity. This is how all these cloud systems work. We didn't need it. If you leave the water running, you will still be charged a fee.
Don't think of the cloud as buying a house. It's about renting a house.
Claire Milligan “Affectionately”
For Milligan, eliminating wasteful cloud spending often comes down to differentiating between what businesses need and what they're actually paying for. Increasing cloud spending to create a buffer is common, but business leaders need to be aware of what is being spent and where. “[At Amiably]We analyze what is being used, how prices can be changed, and what companies can reconfigure to get exactly the same performance without leaving the water running. ” she says.
CloudFix identifies misconfigurations and applies fixes. “We don't just find it; we take the next step. We click a button and it fixes the problem,” Barr says.
From over-provisioned resources to unused or underutilized instances, it's estimated that organizations waste approximately one-third of their cloud spend. While the introduction of FinOps has reduced this percentage, it is more important than ever for organizations to manage their finances in a cloud-first world. Find the right tools and never leave the light on.
Total respondents: N=750, Enterprise, N=627, SMB: N=123 Source: Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report