When it comes to managing a Cloud environment, there is no such thing as running and decommissioning physical hardware for years, as is the case in traditional IT. Instead, there are a few aspects that need to be continuously optimized such as: cost, performance, consumption, capacity, business innovation. So, why is Cloud optimization important and what key elements does it include?

Cloud optimization is the process of enhancing cost-effectiveness, performance, and reliability of Cloud computing resources and services. Key elements it includes are: 

• Cost optimization
• Security optimization
• Scalability optimization
• Disaster recovery 
• Resource utilization
• Capacity planning 
• Performance optimization 

It is critical to keep in mind that whatever Cloud environment you choose, the Cloud provider does not take the responsibility of managing your IT. This responsibility still falls on you. If you want to have a successful Cloud journey, you should consider how you run and optimize your Cloud estate. Here are some of the key questions you need to keep in mind: 

What new skill set is critical for achieving success?

When managing your Cloud estate, you need to focus on key skills necessary to do it right. It is important to keep in mind that some skills that seem foundational one day may appear to be completely obsolete the next day. While some aspects of Cloud require full stack roles, other aspects require greater specialization. 

However, technical skills are not the only ones you should consider here. Other skills, including business strategy, design thinking, and industry-specific skills should all be encompassed into one operating model. Finding the right expertise with a deep domain knowledge and experience can be a challenging task as many companies are competing for talent. This is where a third-party can help a lot. 

What should the new operating model involve?

Since you are the one to take the responsibility of managing IT, it is important that, when optimizing your Cloud estate, you focus on application performance, business innovation and consumption. One way to do this is to take advantage of the right synergy of Cloud services to maximize the performance of your application. On top of this, you should fully leverage Cloud services to gain new insights and get the most out of your data. 

Who is responsible for security?

While hyperscalers can provide a range of tools and capabilities that can improve the security of what you put on the Cloud, managing and ensuring security is still your responsibility. This is where managed services can help — DevSecOps is key in ensuring cloud security. Deployflow DevOps engineers have an immense experience working on projects where they had to identify vulnerabilities and remediate them to enable the company’s Cloud to run smoothly. 

The bottom line is that a managed service provider can help you bring your Cloud optimization to a higher level as long as you fully understand your goals.

Cloud cost optimization strategy 

While optimizing in several key areas can help you get value from the Cloud, the right strategy on how to optimize your Cloud costs can surely maximize the value of your Cloud resources. Here are some of the best practices on how to reduce your Cloud bills. 

Identify mismanaged resources — Companies tend to overlook unused resources such as idle load balancers, unattached storage volumes and instances. They usually forget to turn off these resources when they are not being used. One way to solve this issue is to scan your Azure and Amazon Web Services bills and find charges for resources you once purchased but no longer use. 

Consider moving to a microservices environment — Moving your legacy applications to a microservices environment can help you save lots of time and funds, and significantly eliminate inefficiencies. 

Use heat maps — Heat maps can show you if there were any peaks in computing demand which can help you estimate whether any of the services could shut down. Identifying these resources and configuring schedules to run them when necessary could reduce your Cloud costs.

Consider multi-cloud versus single cloud — One way to avoid vendor lock-in is to choose multi-cloud solutions. This will increase your uptime and availability. However, you should also keep in mind all the administrative hussles when switching between platforms, the costs of training staff and paying for network traffic between clouds. To make the right decision, it is important to consider all the factors as well as your organization’s size and business needs. 

Leverage real-time analytics for better decision-making — To avoid huge costs, it is better to be proactive and identify any cost-saving opportunities before it is too late. One way to do so is to monitor cost indicators and determine any unusual patterns to see if the indicators are staying within normal ranges or if there are any activities that may lead to huge spending. 

Minimize data transfer fees — Shifting data across regions and platforms may lead to high Cloud expenditures. But, there is a way you can avoid data transfers between Cloud setups and on-premise. You can minimize mandatory data transfers by transferring the apps from on-premise to the Cloud. It is also important that you evaluate which transform method suits you the best depending on your business requirements. 

Rightsize your cloud computing resources — Rightsizing includes identifying, reviewing and modifying Cloud resources so that these could meet your app’s unique requirements. Since there are 1.7 million combinations of rightsizing in AWS, you can use different tools to get advice on which instance type would be the right option for you. 

Get the most out of cloud with IT managed services 

As one of the leading IT managed service providers, we understand that more and more businesses require effective Cloud managed services to get ahead of the curve. We can help you with maintaining and monitoring your existing environments and look after and preserve your infrastructure, regardless of whether it is on-premise or in the Cloud. Reach out to us and learn how we can help you triumph on your Cloud journey and achieve better results.