Cloud Optimisation

Cloud optimisation will model and analyse the patterns of each workload – including usage, history, and operational cost – then combine this analysis with knowledge of the cloud services and configurations available to arrive at recommendations to improve workload-to-service matching.

New generation optimisation solutions allow workload automation through service management platforms like ServiceNow, or even made ongoing through optimisation-as-code-driven continuous optimisation.

Right sizing is the process of ensuring that all of the virtual machines in the cloud infrastructure are allocated the correct resources for their workload.

Map workloads to resources, orchestrate your workflow and move closer to automated continuous delivery.

Power scheduling refers to configuring a schedule to shut down and restart instances automatically, so that they are not left running overnight or on the weekend when they are not in use.

This basic cloud feature sits at the core of the cloud flexibility benefit. Correctly defining the minimum and maximum sized instance pools along with fundamental scaling metrics can have a great impact on both performance and overall costs.

Metrics and rules can be set to terminate unused instance capacity. A dynamic approach to managing instances can have a positive effect on cloud costs. This is also known as ‘killing the zombies’.

Enterprises committed to the AWS public cloud for the long-term should invest in reserved instances. These provide larger discounts based on upfront payment and time commitment. RI savings can reach up to 75%, so this is a must for cloud cost optimisation.

Spot Instances are very different than Reserved Instances, but they can also help save more on AWS or Azure spend. Spot Instances are available for auction and, if the price is right, can be purchased for immediate use. However, opportunities to buy Spot Instances can go away quickly. That means they are best suited for particular computing cases like batch jobs and jobs that can be terminated quickly.

Server tagging is the process of creating a name and value for the workloads hosted in the cloud environment. Typical attributes include filtering by application, department, region, database or web server, and multiple tags can be assigned to make it very clear which servers are being used and monitored by which departments.

Cloud cost analytics allows accountability for usage and spend by providing accurate and timely visibility of expenditure breakdown across all clouds, and proactively detects and alerts to instances of overspend or unauthorised spend.

Cost allocation allows accurate allocation of cloud spend across business units, products, cost centres and roles. This gives finance stakeholders the ability to chargeback and operations the ability to optimise resources.