As we head into 2024, as cloud engineers it is a great time to fine tune your strategies to ensure efficient cloud resource utilisation. With the ever present economic headwinds, we should always have one eye on our cloud budget and make savings where possible.
1. Know Your Cloud Bill
Your cloud bill tells you what just happened in your organisation's cloud landscape. You need to understand the charges associated with various services your team have provisioned. A good start is to keep an eye on:
- Compute Costs: These include expenses for virtual machines (VMs) and server resources. Consider instance types, regional variations, and utilization rates. Surprisingly, over 50% of organizations underutilize their servers1.
- Database Costs: Optimize database configurations and choose the right storage options.
- Storage Costs: Efficiently manage your data storage needs.
- Networking Costs: Minimize data transfers and bandwidth usage.
- Support Costs: Evaluate support tiers and their impact on your budget.
- Managed Services Costs: Leverage managed services wisely.
2. Set Cloud Budgets
Budgets act as guardrails. Define spending limits for different projects or teams. Regularly review and adjust as needed.
3. Identify Idle and Underused Resources
Your cloud environment may harbor hidden inefficiencies. Use automation to discover idle or redundant resources. Scanning your cloud accounts with Hava can surface unexpected resources, or sometimes entire environments left over from development or testing. Eliminate what’s unnecessary.
4. Avoid Unnecessary Data Transfers
Data movement between regions or services can inflate costs. Opt for efficient data transfer practices. Visualise your architecture using Hava to see where data is stored and accessed from.
5. Monitor Cost Anomalies
Set up alerts for unexpected spikes or unusual patterns. Investigate and rectify promptly. You can use Hava's architectural monitoring alerts to warn when new resources are provisioned so you can stay ahead of bill shock.
6. Minimize Software License Costs
Unused licenses drain resources. Audit your software licenses and optimize usage.
7. Leverage Load-Balancing and Autoscaling
Distribute workloads efficiently across instances. Load-balancing ensures optimal resource utilization. Autoscale so you're only paying for additional instances during peak load times.
8. Use Appropriate Storage Options
Choose storage solutions based on your data requirements. Don’t overspend on unnecessary storage tiers. You can also use cheaper archival storage like AWS Glacier to store data that isn't frequently accessed
9. Save Costs With Multicloud Deployment
Explore multicloud strategies. Distribute workloads across providers to avoid vendor lock-in and optimize costs. While it sounds counter intuitive leveraging lower cost resources from different vendors and/or taking advantage of better performing resources can provide better efficiencies and often lower costs.
10. Optimize Cloud Costs at Every Software Development Stage
Integrate cost considerations into your development process. From design to deployment, prioritize efficiency.
In Summary
As cloud engineers, your mission is clear: maximize value while minimizing costs. By embracing these best practices, you’ll navigate the cloud landscape with precision, ensuring financial health and sustainable growth in 2024. Make every cloud dollar count!
Remember, the cloud isn’t just about technology; it’s about smart financial decisions that empower innovation. Happy optimizing!
