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Cost optimisation strategies for cloud and telecom expenses
It’s no secret that modern businesses are spending more and more on IT infrastructure and that these expenses are expected to continue growing in the coming years. This is why it is crucial for all organisations, regardless of their size, to incorporate strategies to optimise cloud costs.* Besides keeping cloud computing spend in check, such strategies come with a host of other benefits, including better system performance, insights into possible future issues, and a smooth customer and end-user experience. This blog will take an in-depth look at cloud cost optimisation strategies and highlight the best practices to keep cloud and telecom spend in check.
What is cloud cost optimisation?
Cloud cost optimisation, also referred to as cloud cost management, encompasses all the practices, tools, and strategies that businesses use to monitor, analyse, and control all expenses related to cloud resources and services. These may include processing power, storage, network bandwidth and more. The primary goal of cloud cost optimisation is to reduce cloud spending while also maximising the performance of these resources and services.
Benefits of cloud cost optimisation
As mentioned above, optimising cloud value at minimum expense is the chief aim of cloud cost optimisation. Let us break down how an effective strategy to manage cloud costs can benefit your business.
Lower cloud spend
There are a number of ways in which a comprehensive cloud cost optimisation strategy can substantially reduce cloud spend. This is typically achieved by eradicating avoidable or superfluous expenses, such as unused resources, inefficient procedures, and services with excess capacity.
Better resource allocation
Effective cloud cost management solutions ensure optimal distribution of resources, boost operational efficiency and minimise wastage. A better understanding of cloud resource allocation can help businesses implement practices like showbacks and chargebacks to ensure accurate reporting and billing of processes for used resources.
Meticulous financial planning
A clear and precise understanding of cloud costs and how resources are distributed helps businesses craft precise financial plans based on data-driven predictions. With an in-depth knowledge of how cloud resources are utilised, organisations can make informed decisions about their market approach and broader cloud strategies.
Popular cloud cost optimisation strategies
Having covered the benefits and importance of having a comprehensive cloud cost management solution in place, let us look at some of the popular strategies for optimising cloud costs.
Consistent monitoring and reporting
It is impossible to optimise your cloud spending without a system in place for the accurate monitoring and reporting of cloud usage and associated costs. Keeping track of your usage and billing offers a better understanding of predominant trends while making it easier to spot anomalies. It also makes it easier to align costs with value and helps keep stakeholder communications clear and precise.
Incorporate budgets, baselines, and guardrails
It is important to assign important KPIs, baselines, and budgets and monitor them closely. Doing so will provide clarity on which factors are most impacting costs, whether or not the cost optimising measures that are in place are having the desired effect, and make it easier to spot and identify irregularities.
Incorporate a tagging strategy
The performance of a cloud cost optimisation program hinges on having an excellent tagging strategy in place. Everything within the cloud-computing framework has to be tagged, including database engines, storage, virtual machines, flexible computing services, networks, groups, and more. When used correctly and integrated with contemporary automated systems, tagging has the potential to greatly simplify cost optimisation and allocation.
Use automation to streamline operations and reduce costs
Attempting to optimise cloud costs manually can be extremely labour-intensive. Not only will employees have to be trained on tasks specific to cloud spend visibility, such as labelling, tagging, categorising, allocating, and reporting, but they will also need to dedicate a large chunk of their time to these tasks. Maintaining a robust cost optimisation strategy under these conditions gets even more difficult when it comes time to scale up operations. Incorporate a modern automated cloud cost management solution to speed up processes, boost accuracy, and keep costs down.
How can Infosys BPM help?
Infosys BPM cloud based spend management solutions (CTSMS) is a managed service that offers state-of-the-art spend management tools to businesses of all sizes. The system is designed to enhance transparency across various spends, monitor inventory, and offer a great deal of financial control.
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