Practical Tips for Cloud Optimization
Let's talk about streamlining costs and efficiency
Every week I engage in a conversation that goes like this, “We moved our workloads to Azure and/or AWS. It’s much more expensive that we estimated and the monthly bill is completely unpredictable! Some months it rises dramatically and we don’t know why!”
This is all too common. Migrating VM’s like for like to a hyperscaler will never reduce your expenses, but that should not diminish your interest in a hybrid model. If you’d like to learn more about which cloud offering is right for you, try this quick article I penned on hybrid cloud offerings.
Cloud optimization is not a one-size fits all exercise. Here are a several practical steps you can consider in your cloud journey:
Choose the right service provider: The first step to optimizing cloud computing is selecting the right service provider. You should consider factors such as scalability, reliability, security, cost-effectiveness, architecture/engineering assistance and support. There are a number of suppliers in this space, and they are not created equal!
Use automation: Automation can help you optimize cloud computing by reducing the time and resources required to manage your infrastructure. This includes automating deployment, scaling, and monitoring processes. Most organizations are struggling with hiring resources. This is a great opportunity to shift care and feeding to a managed service, while your resources focus on your core business.
Monitor resource utilization: Monitoring resource utilization is critical to optimizing cloud computing. You should use monitoring tools to track resource usage and identify potential bottlenecks or areas for improvement. This evolution drastically improves the planning process that you’re used to with premise-based appliances.
Use caching: Caching can help reduce the load on your servers and improve performance. You can use caching techniques such as content delivery networks (CDNs) and in-memory caching.
Use load balancing: Load balancing helps distribute workloads across multiple servers, which can improve performance and reduce downtime.
Optimize storage: Storage optimization can help reduce costs and improve performance. You should consider using compression, deduplication, and tiered storage to optimize your storage infrastructure.
Use serverless computing: Serverless computing can help you optimize cloud computing by reducing the need for infrastructure management. You only pay for what you use, and the service provider handles the underlying infrastructure. Again, migrating VM’s like-for-like is not a strategy for optimization.
Use containerization: Containerization can help you optimize cloud computing by making it easier to deploy and manage applications. Containers are lightweight, portable, and can be deployed quickly. The utilization of containers has been especially slow in AL, but this market that I call home also lags behind by a decade.
By implementing these strategies, you can optimize cloud computing and improve performance, reduce costs, and enhance the scalability and reliability of your infrastructure. This lists is a great place to start, but it can’t replicate the benefit of a cloud optimization exercise. If you’d like to discuss generating this content, please holler at me!