Article How ISVs can Avoid Uncontrolled Cloud Spending
By Insight UK / 2 Aug 2021 / Topics: Cloud
By Insight UK / 2 Aug 2021 / Topics: Cloud
The cloud is a powerful platform for Independent software Vendors (ISVs). Dozens of developer tools and services are available to guarantee your software solution to be available, scalable and agile. The pay-per-use pricing model in the cloud – as opposed to owning the infrastructure on premise – keeps you from incurring high costs, right? And yet the cloud does not always yield the cost savings you expect. Here are 4 pitfalls ISVs can avoid to fully benefit from the agility of the cloud without incurring unjustified costs.
Cost optimization for ISVs starts with the design of the first workloads in the cloud. The danger is that you focus purely on cost control and lose sight of business goals. However, cost optimization is all about offering the solution that matches your goals. If high availability is important, the cheapest design will not do. Therefore, cost optimization starts already in designing the cloud workloads with thorough consideration of the tradeoffs between costs and design aspects such as scalability, resilience, and operability. For now and with an eye on how your business will develop.
Sizing resources in the cloud requires a different mindset than on premise. In the data centre, most – already paid for – VMs are always 'on', while 90% of the capacity is idle during most of the time. Not really cost efficient in the cloud, where you pay for consumption. Optimizing VMs to the capacity demand you need for the business will immediately save money. Choose the right resources that are aligned with your business goals as an ISV and can handle the workload performance for your software application. The use of Microsoft's Pricing Calculator, for example, manages Azure and AWS spending in one tool, which could lead to 20-34% total Azure spend reduction, says Forrester.
A key benefit of the cloud is dynamic scaling, which allows the cost of the workload to scale in line with demand. But you wouldn't be the first to forget to reset a scale-up and receive unexpected invoices. Automated scaling based on usage metrics and performance analyses eliminates the human factor. Bear in mind that when you need a higher level of performance, it is more lucrative to scale out smaller instances, instead of scaling them up. Smart auto-scaling allows you to be flexible and optimize your cloud spending.
Whether you are a cloud-native ISV, or have already migrated all legacy applications or just a few, ISVs are increasingly building, deploying and managing applications, systems and datasets across hybrid or multi-cloud environments. In such a mixed environment, cloud costs quickly spiral out of control. How do you optimize? Adequate monitoring and analysis helps you to uncover hidden cloud costs and unforeseen increases in resource spend. VMware has developed adequate tooling for this, which we as cloud specialists at Insight are keen to use at ISVs throughout Europe and with great success.
These are just a few examples of how we work with our partners to innovate and optimize their business in the cloud. At Insight, we have been working with MSPs like you across Europe for many years, providing valuable time, knowledge and support in many (hybrid) cloud scenarios.
Contact one of our cloud specialists to find out how we can support you in optimizing your cloud costs in line with your business goals, whether you are designing your first workloads in the cloud or entirely cloud-based.
This article is part of a series of articles about Microsoft’s WAF (Well-Architected Framework), where you find much more helpful guidance. WAF improves the quality of workloads operating in the cloud by focusing on a set of common architecture principles, including cost optimization, operational excellence, performance efficiency, reliability and security.
As a multi-vendor software licensing, workload and platform specialist, we can guide you through all stages of your strategic cloud journey with a series of workshops, assessments, services and best practices. From the first exploration of cloud or hybrid opportunities and benefits to support and optimization after migration. No matter where you are in your journey, we help you to find new ways forward and accelerate your business.
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