Are you paying up to a third more for cloud than you should?

Cloud services are now an essential part of how we operate. They're flexible, scalable, and cost-effective on a price/performance basis.

Cloud services are now an essential part of how we operate. They're flexible, scalable, and cost-effective on a price/performance basis. One of their downsides, though, is utilization — or to be precise, under-utilization. Roughly a third of purchased cloud services goes unused. In today's post we'll look at how to optimize them, and maybe save some money along the way.

Run a cloud audit

Before you dive in and start tweaking subscriptions, it's worth doing an audit. Ideally a thorough one that covers exactly what you use and how heavily you use it. That way you can zero in on areas you're under-using or not using at all.

Right-size to your scale

A lot of companies fall into the trap of buying way too many spare licences and lose serious money on it. How to avoid that? Find out how many licences you actually need — most cloud services have tooling for this — and don't buy much more. It's good to be prepared, but enough is enough.

Don't go overboard with storage

True, shared storage is great. True, it's often easier to work with. But again — enough is enough. How to get by with less space? Simple: walk through what you have and delete what you don't need. If you do this just once a month, you'll be surprised how much space you save.

Don't pay for what you don't use

I know this might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people simply forget about a subscription and keep paying for it without using the service. Right now: check what you're paying for and whether you're actually using all of it.

Need help?

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