Cloud spending has surged in the last year and isn’t stopping anytime soon. A standout in a crowded market has been Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, which offers some of the best cost-effective, secure, and highly reliable workplace and hybrid solutions for cloud optimization of your businesses.

With the recent spike in remote work many companies were forced to leverage cloud in some capacity to migrate to the cloud, increasing their IT budgets cloud spending significantly. According the IDG Cloud Computing Survey, Cloud Computing budget is expected to be 32% of IT budget within the next 12 months.

Cloud isn’t just for enterprise; small businesses are also realizing the benefits of cloud services and are migrating at record pace. For small businesses, Cloud services delivers agility that allows them to scale up and down as needed without having to invest into expensive physical equipment that need to be maintained. Additionally, it offers the additional layers of security that a small business otherwise would be unaffordable.

Gartner forecasts Cloud End-User Spending to grow another 18% in 20212. In fact, according to Deloitte cloud spending will be 7 times next year than overall IT spending globally. They report that “78% of CIOs ranked “migrating to the public cloud and/or expanding private cloud” as the top IT spending driver in 2020, up 20 points from a similar survey only six months earlier” 3.

If your Cloud spending is sucking dollars out of your budget, you are not alone. CFOs and CIOs who are familiar with budgeting for server hardware and software licenses are now struggling with how to best manage costs of Cloud services.

The truth is most company did not and still do not include Cloud Optimization Plan in their Cloud Strategy. That is why we build a Cloud Assessment Methodology designed from the ground up that examines Cloud environments not only based on resources but also from the lens of current business objectives and long-term planning.

 

Here are 7 key areas that should be incorporated in every Cloud Optimization Strategy.

  1. Replace Virtual Servers with Cloud Services
  2. Eliminate unused licenses.
  3. Consolidate cloud applications.
  4. Use automation to reduce resource usage.
  5. Implement a scheduling plan.
  6. Eliminate waste and pay only for what you need by optimizing your resources.
  7. Understand and keep up with Cloud provider’s available programs and benefits.

Many companies are not aware of how much they are overspending on cloud and the many ways they can reduce these costs.

We have found that companies are overspending by as much as 40% for hosting in Azure. Cost-cutting measures include using automation to pay for what you need or reserving Virtual Machines rather than committing to a Pay-as-you-Go Model.