Regardless of a single or a multi-cloud environment, most people spend a lot of money on resources they do not even use. Cloud cost optimization acts differently for engineers and those in the field of finance. In the case of engineers, the cloud resources are innovated quickly, while cloud resources would be obtained in the form of a cloud bill for those in finance.
For many reasons, even though cloud cost is an issue, many do not know how to optimize it. This article will look at some cloud cost optimization methods depending on the user’s grade and complexity.
1. Harness cloud cost management
It is a tool specifically designed for modern-day software companies in the cloud. Various teams, including engineering and finance, will be able to understand the source of costs and manage them effectively with its help. The pros and cons of the tool include:
Pros
- No tagging is required, and relevant information can be received at every level and in any context
- It gives more visibility to the cloud resource at hourly granularity by unallocated, idle, or even utilized.
- There would be recommendations for surface saving and even data justifications.
- Performs root cost analysis and can even try to deploy charges and cloud events.
- Other features include anomaly detection, forecasting, and budgeting to avoid surprise spend data.
Cons
- It can be expensive depending on the features required.
- Many miss some crucial functions as it is a new tool in the market.
2. AWS Cost Explorer
It is a built-in tool provided by the amazon web services. It is the best for small-scale business owners, but there are problems when the application gets sophisticated. It is primarily helpful for finance teams. The pros and cons include:
Pros
- Provides recommendations for cost-saving
- Provides the feature of budget alerts
- AWS customers do not have any additional cost to access this
Cons
- Can find any costs outside of AWS.
- Can’t access idle or unallocated resource costs.
3. GCP Billing
It is a built-in tool provided by the Google cloud platform. This is also best for small-scale businesses as it does not have the necessary level of granularity. The pros and cons include:
Pros
- It has a low-cost structure and provides a high-level view of the costs
- Provides recommendations based on the usage
- Throttle GCP compositions and budget control recommendations
Cons
- Not fully reliable as it can’t see costs outside GCP
- Asks for good tag hygiene for granular cost visibility
4. Azure
It is a built-in tool provided by Microsoft Azure to understand the Azure cloud bill teams and get a high-level view into their cloud spending. Their pros and cons include:
Pros
- Good for small scale management as they have a simple cost structure and very few teams
- Better dashboards and reporting facility due to their integration into AWS and PowerBI
- Budgeting alerts and recommendations for better optimization
Cons
- Not built to be proactive
- Cannot see unallocated or idle resource costs
- Asks for good tag hygiene for granular cost visibility
5. Apptio Cloudability
This tool helps in cost optimizations and the visualization of their cost profiles during cloud migrations. Their pros and cons include:
Pros
- Helps in multiple cloud visibility across AWS, GCP, and Azure
- Tag explorer is an additional feature to explore missing tags
- Other features include forecasting, budgeting, and anomaly detection.
Cons
- Costs visible only at daily granularity
- Cant drill into idle and unallocated cost resources
6. Cloud health
It is the first significant tool that helps its customers access their spending data, optimize and create policies based on the finance teams’ needs. Their pros and cons include:
Pros
- Provides cost-saving recommendations and reserve rightsizing and instance purchasing
- It helps in correlating cloud deployments with security risks
- Supports hybrid cloud cost visibility and multi-cloud features
Cons
- Asks for good tagging practices for complete visibility in spending
- Cost visibility at a daily granularity
7. Spot by NetApp
This tool helps companies to automate their cloud cost optimization based on the available data. Their pros and cons include:
Pros
- Supports multi-cloud visibility
- Automation capability feature to optimize cloud infrastructure
- Feature to show forecasted spend data based on history
Cons
- Require good tag management for better granular visibility
- Risk in allowing the vendor to manage internal data
8. Kubecost
This tool focuses explicitly on optimizations and also the identification of costs. Their pros and cons include:
Pros
- Provides tooling, which helps in infrastructure improvement
- Allocates and optimizes Kubernetes costs
- Real-time visibility into costs
Cons
- Only changes in costs are visible
- Potential risks involved in the technology adopted
- Cannot use this single product alone to manage all costs outside Kubernetes
That’s all on the top Cloud Cost Management Tools.
