Migrating business systems to the public cloud unlocks immense potential. But realizing ROI depends heavily on reining in easily ballooning expenses. Mastering cloud cost optimization and governance determines sustainability.
This guide provides prescriptive techniques to transform AWS expenditures from an inconvenient necessity to a profit center, including:
- Enforcing Financial Discipline in the Cloud
- Architecting Systems for Maximum Efficiency
- Scaling Usage Elastically
- Buying Discounts without Upfront Commitments
- Tapping Spot Markets to Arbitrage Capacity
- Tracking Spend Patterns and Forecasting Usage
- Automating Policy Driven Cloud Governance
- Creating Shared Accountability through Visibility
- FAQs on Managing Cloud Costs Applying these strategies flips overspending from an existential threat to a competitive advantage.
Enforcing Financial Discipline in the Cloud
Migrating to the variable costs of cloud computing requires adapting financial management:
● Institute spending authorization gates through AWS Service Quotas
● Set usage alerts tied directly to billing data
● Enforce mandatory tags on resources tied back to departments
● Build cross functional cloud governance teams
● Empower all teams to optimize their resources from detailed reporting
Architecting Systems for Maximum Efficiency
Certain architecture patterns achieve vastly better ROI on AWS:
Leverage Serverless by Default
Embrace serverless offerings like Lambda, AppSync and DynamoDB to eliminate paying for idle capacity when workloads vary. Only pay for actual compute consumed.
Decompose Monoliths into Microservices
Avoids overprovisioning for functions rarely used. Granularly scale what is needed moment to moment across isolated services vs the one size fits all approach.
Rebuild Systems through Code
Immutable infrastructure makes scaling easier through templates instead of accumulating stateful servers. This “cattle vs pets” approach facilitates management at cloud scale.
Scaling Usage Elastically
Instead of provisioning for peak capacity upfront, auto-scale resources aligned to actual demand to maximize utilization and savings:
● Configure scaling policies based on metrics
● Scale out to maintain performance during spikes
● Scale in to shut off unused capacity
● Pay only for active computing needed minute to minute
Buying Discounts without Upfront Commitments
Balance commitments with flexibility by leveraging 1 to 3 year Savings Plans for automatic discounts up to 72% when used – no up front payments or instance restrictions required. Applies to a wider range of services like Lambda vs just EC2.
Tapping Spot Markets to Arbitrage Capacity
Leverage unused EC2 capacity available in the Spot Market at discounts over 90%. Define max price thresholds then access additional capacity for fault tolerant workloads where interruptions are acceptable.
Tracking Spend Patterns and Forecasting Usage
Getting historical visibility into usage categories, trends and spikes enables shaping future consumption:
● Slice usage data across multiple dimensions
● Identify anomalies indicating problem areas
● Detect ghost resources contributing to unexpected charges
● Extrapolate projections based on product direction
This intelligence precipitates action.
Automating Policy Driven Cloud Governance
Applying rules and constraints systematically eliminates waste and enforces compliance by:
● Shutting down inactive resources past set time thresholds
● Terminating stale forgotten resources
● Validating launch configurations align to standards
● Continuously checking security settings across environments
Such automation codifies best practices.
Creating Shared Accountability through Visibility
Broadening transparency creates accountability:
● Charge back reports matching spend to departments
● Granular resource tagging attributing utilization
● User level visibility into consumption data
● Threshold alerts on billing spikes
● Empowering teams to optimize their resources
This circulates data prompting responsibility for controlling expenses.
FAQs on Managing Cloud Costs
Answers to frequent questions business leaders have:
How do you prevent cloud sticker shock?
Institute pre-emptive goverance like usage alerts, monitor overall consumption velocity, enforce active ownership of expenses across teams and nurture an organization wide culture focused on cost consciousness, not just engineering velocity.
Should I purchase RIs or Savings Plans for discounts?
Savings Plans provide flexibility across multiple services while RIs focus just on specific EC2 instances. Blend both approaches based on predictable steady state usage for RIs vs variable capacity needing Savings Plans.
What are strategies for estimating cloud spending?
Analyze current consumption by categories, identify trends, extrapolate how those extend based on product roadmap. Factor adoption of savings levers like auto-scaling, Spot, Savings Plans etc. This models a projection vs shooting blind.
Which tools can help manage costs?
Leading solutions include Cloudability Optimize, CloudHealth, ParkMyCloud, AWS Cost Explorer etc. Core capabilities are granular analytics, custom reporting, budgeting, notifications and automation of policy enforcement.
Conclusion
Thriving with cloud scale requires adapting management models from CapEx to OpEx, bolstering visibility and architecting systems for maximum efficiency.
Internalizing these lessons will help transform cloud computing from a cost center into a value driver – converting expenses into sustainable impact. Financial prudence unlocks innovation potential otherwise throttled due to runaway costs.
