Here are cloud computing best practices that can help you control the costs of your cloud computing environment.
- Visibility on the cloud inventory
A recent survey of IT professionals indicated that as high as 75% of them lack visibility of their cloud resources. This has been blamed as the main cause of poor management of those resources. Effective cloud management should start with an in-depth analysis of the entire cloud infrastructure. A challenge emerges when some of the cloud resources in an organization are paid for but are not used. It results in unnecessary costs and reduces the infrastructure savings and other benefits from using the cloud. Admins can better organize and optimize their cloud ecosystem with visibility, including accounts, clouds, teams, and departments.
- Cost analytics
Regardless of the cloud you use, it is always a good idea to project what you will be spending in a given time. This should come along with tracking what you have spent. You must clearly put the details in the form of tabular or graphical reports based on different dimensions like timeframes and dimensions and analyze data against the objectives of the business.
- Budget allocations
Projecting what you are likely to consume is not enough. Rather, you need to follow it up with budget allocations. This will help you avoid costly surprises on your cloud bills and allow you to track your actual spending against the planned spending. While doing this, set limits for the billing account. You can do so by grouping different projects or narrowing focus to specific ones. Setting a budget allows monitoring tools to trigger alerts when approaching a predetermined threshold.
- Use role-based access
After setting up an enterprise-wide mechanism that defines user permissions and accessibility within the organization, users should be permitted to manage the infrastructure actively. Data and actions that are visible to the users should be limited, and roles and identity of those who launch, terminate or change infrastructure and what they did to take corrective actions to control costs identified.
- Invest in a cloud management solution
Most cloud providers offer native cloud cost management solutions that can help manage smaller environments. However, as the environment increase in size and complexity, some of these solutions may fail, leading to companies struggling to identify their spending as invoices transform into lengthy, complicated documents. However, investing in a financial management solution for the cloud can offer the necessary visibility into the complex cloud expenditures. It can also provide tools like budget management, tagging strategies and trends analysis. Furthermore, you can benefit from things like invoice verification, reporting and detailed dashboards. With this great insight into your cloud environment, your organization can operate more effectively and responsibly. You can make informed buying decisions, money will never be wasted, and you will have control over consumption.