Cloud waste is the unnecessary spending of resources and money on cloud services. These services are often not fully utilised or optimised. About 32% of cloud spending is wasted, which can lead to budget concerns as spending skyrockets. However, that figure also holds opportunity. It means that you can reduce nearly a third of cloud spending by optimising how you use cloud tools.
Here are some smart tactics to reduce cloud waste and save money:
- Conduct a Comprehensive Cloud Audit – Conduct an audit before implementing any cost-cutting strategies.
- Put in Place Right-Sizing Strategies – Analyse your existing data using tools such as Panzura’s Symphony and then resize data silos accordingly.
- Use Reserved Instances and Savings Plans – Cloud providers offer cost-saving options like Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans. Seek out cloud providers which can provide cheaper pricing.
- Install Automated Scaling Policies – Dynamic workloads have a need for dynamic resource allocation. Install automated scaling policies where available.
- Track and Optimise Storage – Regularly review, delete, or archive unnecessary data to free up storage space.
- Schedule Your Cloud Resources – Schedule your cloud resources to run only when you need them.
- Delete Unused or Orphaned Cloud Resources – Regularly audit your cloud environment to delete any unused or orphaned resources your business is not using.
- Weed Out Duplicate Services – Centralise cloud resources and remove duplicate tools.
- Embrace Serverless Architecture – Serverless computing allows businesses to run applications without managing the underlying infrastructure.