Quick Study: Optimizing Cloud Spending

From Day One, the key selling point for a move to the cloud has been financial. Organizations foresee cost savings on IT equipment, real estate, and data center staffing. Let's face it, for all the chatter about greater employee efficiency and better company products and services, it's the bottom-line savings that put the gleam in an executive's eyes.

So, how did cloud bills get so darn high?

Consider just a few likely causes:

So, now that you have a dozen or more cloud services, how can your organization reduce its cloud spending without losing the cloud's benefits? This Quick Study is a compilation of recent InformationWeek articles providing advice on cloud spending optimization provided by experts in the IT field.

Tactics for Managing Cloud Spending

6 Secrets of Cloud Cost Optimization

Getting the most out of your cloud budget requires thoughtful research and planning. Here are six proven tactics recommended by experts that will help you bring your cloud costs under control.

CFOs and IT Spending: Best Practices for Cost-Cutting

CFOs must proactively address the challenge of identifying outdated or redundant technologies that are driving up IT spending in the midst of an economic downturn.

How to Trim Your Cloud Budget

Cloud costs are rising, and 8 out of 10 organizations say keeping costs under control is their leading cloud challenge. Here’s how to keep ‘cloudflation’ from busting your budget.

The Case of Climbing Cloud Costs – Optimizing Hybrid IT Strategy

A comprehensive look at rising cloud costs, with insight into the best practices for reducing costs and successfully implementing a hybrid infrastructure.

Cloud Spending: How to Get a Grip on Cost Overruns

Which cloud budgeting approaches should CIOs consider -- and which areas of budget waste should be targeted for cost improvements? Here are four ways to control your cloud spend.

How to Minimize Multi-Cloud Complexity

Successfully juggling multiple clouds can sometimes feel like performing a circus act. Fortunately, a few simple tricks can keep the task from becoming a showstopper.

3 Ways to Maximize Cloud Investments

Optimizing cloud investments and driving the return on existing investments will require strong governance processes and a deeper view into how cloud fits in with the broader business strategy.

4 Cost-Saving Strategies to Optimize Your SaaS Budget

C-suite executives and IT leaders must be vigilant when it comes to understanding cost inefficiencies and wasted spending. Here are some strategies to reel in SaaS spending.

Tapping AI to Alleviate Cloud Spend

Through predictive analytics and other applications, artificial intelligence can help organizations better monitor and control their cloud spending by switching to a cloud plan that better fits their usage habits.

What You Might Not Want to Do

Top 5 Cloud Cost Optimization Mistakes

Here’s a drilldown on common cloud cost optimization mistakes or oversights that separate desires from reality when it comes to reducing cloud spending.

Can You Renegotiate Your Cloud Bill by Refusing to Pay It?

Twitter has reportedly withheld payment to Google Cloud as it haggles over price. Is it a risk for other companies to try such methods?

Cloud Cost Management for Vertical Industries

FinOps: The Driving Force Behind Effective Cloud Cost Management

With efficiencies top of mind for IT leaders, it’s time to take ownership of cloud usage through FinOps.

Cloud Cost Optimization: 3 Tips From FinOps Leaders

Businesses are increasingly turning to cloud services to increase agility. While adoption rates are on the rise for FinOps firms, there is still a need to prioritize efficient spending.

Why Cloud Savings Matter

Assessing the Cloud and Its Benefits

The average organization has at least four cloud services, but their cloud spending includes an average of 35% waste. How many of those cloud services are delivering value? Or wasting money?

Turning High Technical Debt Into Low Cost

Technical debt, a developer’s term for tradeoffs, is starting to affect IT choices for AI, ML, and every technology in between. Here’s how IT teams can reduce the impact within an organization.

How to Minimize Multi-Cloud Complexity

Successfully juggling multiple clouds can sometimes feel like performing a circus act. Fortunately, a few simple tricks can keep the task from becoming a showstopper.

Combat Inflation by Consolidating Your Cloud Services

Cloud costs have grown in recent years, and IT leaders are unsure how to handle the strain. Consolidating cloud services is a good place to start.

Leaders Should Pay Attention To These 4 Major Cloud Trends

Here’s how organizations adopting cloud-native architectures can bypass missteps on their migration journey and find value from their investments.

3 Steps to Keep Cloud Growth and Business Value in Step

Cloud is delivering growth for companies. However, companies risk losing control over cost, security, and management as usage expands. Here are ways to address this.

3 Key Cloud Computing Trends to Consider When Planning Your IT Budget

As remote and hybrid work rises in popularity, so will the adoption of technologies that prioritize agile, secure end-user computing.