Cost optimization on the cloud is an ongoing journey rather than a final destination. It requires continuous monitoring and effort to sustain optimized cloud usage. Managing your cloud costs can be overwhelming. When it comes to cloud hosting, it is often likely that your energies are focused on your operations rather than the costs that creep up alongside it. Cloud costs can quickly become an untamed beast if you do not align your services with your usage.
The answer lies in good governance and efficient resource management to overcome cloud cost optimization challenges.
Here are some common challenges that contribute to higher cloud usage in enterprises:
- Orphaned resources: Unused or decommissioned resources that are not properly deleted or terminated.
- Idle resources: Provisioned resources that remain unused but continue to be billed.
- Inefficient backup/snapshot management: Lack of a well-managed backup strategy and process.
- Usage of premium resources in lower environments: Provisioning high-cost resources for non-production environments.
- Incorrect resource provisioning: Overprovisioning resources based on peak loads.
With Orion’s COMET – Cloud Optimization Maturity Enhancement & Transformation – solution, we can help you get there faster systematically and make sure that you stay there for the rest of your cloud journey.
To address these challenges, Orion has developed the COMET (Cloud Operations Management & Efficiency Toolkit) framework. It provides a holistic approach to optimize cloud usage and improve an organization’s return on investment (ROI).
The first initiative within the framework is establishing a governance model. Cloud providers offer native constructs like subscriptions, accounts, or projects that serve as resource containers. These constructs help manage and isolate resources, enforce policies, and reduce security risks. Implementing a hierarchical structure facilitates adherence to best practices and policy enforcement.
Chargebacks are essential for understanding and optimizing cloud usage. They enable tracing costs back to specific business units or applications, promoting accountability and informed decision-making.
Discounting mechanisms offered by cloud providers, such as reservations, spot instances, or savings plans, can significantly reduce costs. Orion’s framework provides guidance on identifying and implementing relevant schemes.
Cost optimization involves quick wins like decommissioning idle and orphaned resources, as well as short-term and long-term goals that may require deeper analysis and implementation. COMET offers technology integrations and tools to support each phase of cost optimization.
Orion’s cloud governance and cost optimization framework encompass a governance model, set of policies, and technology integrations to improve an organization’s ROI on the Cloud. It provides a holistic and well-defined approach for enterprises to gain visibility and optimize their financial operations for public cloud services.
In conclusion, COMET empowers enterprises with standard operating procedures, best practices, and technology solutions to drive sustainable optimizations and reduce repetitive efforts. A strong governance model is the foundation for efficient cost optimization.
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