30 Dec Why Cloud Cost Optimization is more than Saving Money

Cost optimization in cloud solutions, specifically on AWS, is an outstanding resource that businesses have to get more results in their development projects. However, most organizations don’t make use of the full potential.

In the following lines, we will explore what cost optimization is, what the features offered by AWS are, and how this can become much more than a reliable way to save money. Though, this article focuses on AWS. Other cloud vendors like Google and Microsoft are offering their set of tools too. Moreover, we use Abiquo and Cloud Health with multi-cloud customers who are benefit from working with multiple infrastructure vendors. 

What is Cost Optimization for the Cloud?

Cost optimization is the process conducted on the cloud, for AWS-hosted solutions or from any other providers, to manage resources more efficiently and avoid unnecessary operative costs for the project. 

If resources on your cloud used inefficiently, that situation could quickly lead to considerable losses, something any organization must prioritize to solve. One typical example is when an instance is offering more resources than your workload requires. So, if your workload requires 4 GB of RAM, there will be inefficiency if resource booked more. 

In the case of AWS cost optimization, there is a wide array of tools that allow businesses to adjust and optimize in great detail how they operate on the cloud and how the resources used. Here, organizations can demand and meet the capacity requirements on the cloud with high precision, wasting no funds in the process. A significant advantage is that the team can re-adjust the on-demand resources from the cloud is a flexible, convenient way so that workflows can be as agile as possible.

But the monitoring capabilities of AWS cost optimization go beyond this, allowing organizations to understand in great length how all the resources are being used, providing insights that enable them to become more efficient in future projects. One of the valuable tools in this matter is Amazon CloudWatch, offering a plethora of options and abundant data to keep track of everything.

But the whole point of this article is to explain how Cloud cost optimization can go beyond the mere fact of saving money.

AWS Cost Optimization Detects Rogue Infrastructure

Many organizations that make use of cloud storage today, exposed to the risk of rogue infrastructure. A simple case of rogue infrastructure occurs when individuals with access to the cloud solution create unauthorized setups for personal use, taking illicit advantage of their access privileges and wasting the organization’s resources.

Here, AWS cost optimization can be highly beneficial as it allows, through comprehensive monitoring, to discover such misuses and abuses. This way, it’s easy to make sure that all members of the team are compliant with the organization’s policies, ensuring at the same time the highest standards in performance, resource management, and privacy.

AWS Cost Optimization for Effectiveness and Security

Powerful cost management, such as the one provided by AWS, is also helping businesses to become more productive and guarantee the security aspects that their projects require. 

First, on the effectiveness and efficiency side, monitoring, tracking, and analyzing your resources through AWS cost optimization also allows detecting more significant issues in the project, leading to greater operative improvements in the future.

Then, on the security side, AWS cost optimization allows through Amazon CloudWatch and Cost Explorer tools to acquire highly relevant insights that will help businesses to prevent security issues on time. A good example is detecting an anomaly in terms of heavy resource usage, a situation that may be a brute-force attack going on undetected by the cybersecurity mechanisms in place.

The Bottom Line

While cost optimization was, in theory, conceived to allow businesses to keep cloud costs controlled, the kind of insights it provides also helps significantly in many other aspects that are consistently essential for the organization.

Productivity, efficiency, and security are as important as keeping costs down, especially in tech. Without proper controls, having a cloud solution can become a liability for the organization. Cost optimization (in this case, the one provided by AWS) offers a significant opportunity to have everything on point. Many options to optimize your cloud infrastructure. Wasting its potential can be a severe mistake for your business, one that may cost much more than money.