How to optimize costs for hybrid cloud

13.10.2020 1,575 16

Martin Deshev

The hybrid cloud is a popular strategy for companies to offset their tasks and get the most out of two or more cloud services they use. Companies don’t want to rely only on one provider or get vendor locked-in, so the hybrid cloud is a good solution. Moreover, it brings forward a lot of opportunities.

One of the risks that are often quoted when adopting a hybrid cloud strategy is the potential high cost. Yes, employing a hybrid cloud is not meant to lower your expenses. It’s for the time when you are ready to scale up and maximize opportunities. With that said, it doesn’t mean that a hybrid cloud equals expensive. It all depends on your strategy, plans and preparations.

Be careful with the spending

According to a whitepaper by RedHat, 58% of enterprises want to move to a hybrid cloud environment and integrate on-premises systems with the cloud. Takeaserver.com offers such an opportunity with a free consultation for the optimal option. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the opportunities that will arise as you start exploring the hybrid cloud. This is why you have to keep costs in mind from the start.

Have a budget in mind, but be prepared to change and adapt it as you continue to develop your strategy. In order to better forecast your expenses, explore similar use cases, metrics and budgeting solutions and tips.

This will help you create the baseline and will make it easier to discover what to expect in different scenarios. Do not forget that this info is preliminary and will differ when you start implementing it.

Monitor usage and management software

When you have implemented the hybrid cloud, you have to monitor the usage of the cloud services and features. There’s plenty of management software out there which will help you monitor usage in real time and in turn manage each resource as needed.

This is also important for the times when you are on a “pay-as-you-go” plan. Thanks to the real-time monitoring, you will be able to verify if you are really using what you’re paying for. In turn, you can optimize costs better and relocate funds towards the features you actually use.

Set up alerts

This is also part of the monitoring, but with a twist. Let’s face it, it’s easy to say “monitor in real-time”, but it’s not possible to do so. So, setting up alerts for specific events, limits and so on can be of great help to let you know when something happens and needs quick attention. And if an alert starts to happen way too often, then it’s a clear sign that you need to change and optimize that feature.

Alerts are also useful to monitor your costs on the “pay-as-you-go” plans and you can find out when to lower or optimize the spending for that feature. Similar warning systems can be helpful to keep your spending in check.

Cost optimization is not a one-and-done

As you’ve probably gathered by now, cost optimization for the hybrid cloud is not something you do once. Yes, you plan for it and place it as one of the priorities in your hybrid cloud strategy. But then you also have to make it a continuous process which is part of your daily routine.

Only this way can you make sure that you get the most out of the hybrid cloud not only as in features, but as in costs, too. A successful cost optimization process can indeed lower the spending in the long run.

Or at the very least, it will help you manage the process more easily and in a timely manner. Otherwise, if you leave it as-is and just use the platforms and pay for whatever you get in the bill, you will for sure be spending a lot more than you have to.