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Amazon Web Services (AWS) is perhaps the most preferred cloud service provider available in the market today. And the credit goes to its bestseller, sheer size computing resources, hands-on customer support and the user-friendly pay-as-you-use pricing policy.

AWS customers often complain about receiving giant cloud bills and spending more than their estimation on the cloud. For the organizations moving workloads to the cloud for the first time, cloud bill emerges as a new factor consuming a sizable piece of their IT budgets. Users keep struggling to find the right balance between cloud performance and cost. The unending battle to control the heavy cloud spending can be annoying for those who have already identified mismanaged resources, switched to good discounted cloud deals, and right-sized the computing services but did not succeed in slashing the cloud cost.

Paying only for the resources you use can help businesses achieve higher benefits of the cloud with unlimited scalability at lower IT cost. But the truth is that you are charged for the resources you have ordered regardless of the fact that you use them or not. Other cost drivers are a lack of visibility over cloud accounts and activities resulting in unauthorized access and use of services. This leads to costs addition without notice and charges of un-used, unnecessary resources. A study by Craig Lowery and Brandon Medford on cloud spend waste reveals that “Near about 70% of the cloud costs are wasted”.

Attaining cloud cost optimization is the main concern for organizations eager to control their cloud expenses. Here are the ten best practices to reduce your cloud spend and save big on your next cloud bill.

10 steps closer to reduce your AWS cloud spend

1. Visualize computing demands with heat maps

2. Abolish Shadow IT

3. Review EC2 auto-scaling groups

4. Track mismanaged EBS volumes and EBS snapshots

5. Optimize reserved instances

6. Release disassociated elastic IP and carrier IP addresses

7. Manage AWS services properly

8. Know free trial limits

9. Spot overlooked resources

10. Limit data transfer or recovery requests

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The bottom line

Cloud holds great potential and can unlock many financial opportunities for businesses if used effectively. Reducing cloud spend will not happen overnight; companies shall follow the cost optimization strategies efficiently with few reviews and modifications frequently. It is essential to understand that cloud cost optimization is not a one-time activity but an ongoing effort that needs the contribution of the whole organization. Everyone using cloud resources in an organization shall take the responsibility to use the cloud optimally and sensibly. Educating various teams on their cloud-saving role, pricing attributes, and best practices to cut down cloud expenses can help shun unexpected cloud cost waste and keep your next cloud bill in control.

It is always good, to begin with, a free consultation to initiate saving on your next cloud bill. Talk to our cloud experts to know where you stand on your cloud cost optimization journey and how we can help you cut down your cloud expenses by 50%.

Book 1-hour free consultation with pricing details

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