Cloud cost management is not simply an operational concern. It requires detailed analysis, budget planning, and above all, the right strategy. One solution is to embrace the public cloud, which means you are accepting a modern methodology and a new business strategy. Success on that front entails agile collaboration across various areas, including governance, architecture, operations, and, of course, finance.
Global Market Cloud Statistics
Worldwide statistics show public cloud global growth. In addition to that, the period between January 2020 and April 2020 marks an increase in the usage of enterprise cloud services both in Government (45%) and in Financial Services (36%). Meanwhile, 2020 cloud adoption statistics show that 74% of Financial Services strongly believe that cloud computing gives their businesses a competitive advantage.
Cloud Cost Management and Return on Investment (ROI)
Over the years, financial services firms and asset managers have strived to achieve unique business goals while staying ahead of the curve. Even with immediate, quantifiable financial benefits of cloud implementation, companies still struggle to maintain ROI. Why does this happen? The primary reason is being unprepared and the tendency to overspend. The best solution is to keep a close eye on cloud costs and manage your cloud spend to ensure a healthy ROI. Top cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) bestow their clients with native cloud cost management tools. These tools unlock effective ways to optimize and monitor cloud costs. Rightsizing or removing idle resources makes it easier to zero in on what is profitable. Utilizing these tools, companies can slash costs without disrupting workload performance.
Switching to OpEx With Caution
This is something we have touched on in the past, especially when talking about refactoring legacy applications. As companies switch from CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) to OPEX (Operational Expenditure), things can change rapidly. Businesses pay only for the resources that are used when they are used. So, yes, logically, the switch makes sense, which is why OPEX is becoming a cloud adoption trend. Smaller companies usually make the transition quickly. Large-scale enterprises, however, are more cautious when it comes to cloud services. Eager to jump on the cloud, they turn to private cloud services, which traditionally involve higher expenses and long-term commitment. These companies need to process and run lots of data, so they wind up overprovisioning and high OPEX costs that are not within the intended budget. That is why caution is advised before any resource consumption spin out of control. Learn more about cloud adoption missteps.
Optimizing Cost with Granularity
Even though OPEX is the way to go for most businesses, some concerns linger. How can large enterprises remain vigilant regarding resources, compute power, and cloud cost in general? Easy – with granularity. The public cloud usually leads to a more granular approach. The optimization of services and having costs managed can refurbish financial business operations to a more auditable workflow. You also can segment your data management according to business requirements: trading team, dev team, and other business units.
Smooth and Painless Upgrades
With cloud-managed services or public cloud in general, companies frequently reap the benefits early on. Once your business has fully moved to cloud infrastructure, maintenance and upgrades can be built around a sophisticated automation system, with the least or even no disruption to end-users. The best part is that the bulk of these changes can be incorporated seamlessly within the cloud platform offerings at no additional cost.
Technical Staff, IT Governance and Innovation
Technical professionals devoted to complex IT operations and cloud management are not easy to come by. Their role also changes significantly towards more IT governance and architecture skills. One of the priorities is to refine the cloud consumption process. Teams should be responsible for their own consumed cloud resource and services, but they need to be supplied with resources to forecast and manage costs independently. The other key role for your technical staff is to be the cloud evangelist, constantly pushing the internal technologies towards the next level of cloud services innovation. These roles are complex operations, and relying on an expert cloud managed services provider can help modernize your applications and move the entire firm towards a healthier ROI. Your business becomes more cost-effective, and your staff can continue enhancing the core business.
Public Cloud Assessment and Takeaways
Cloud adoption has become an essential component of business growth in 2020. Moving to the cloud is a difficult decision, however. Whether this is the right thing for your company is another matter entirely. Cloud assessment can be an extremely challenging process; something Portfolio BI experts can help you with.
Feel free to reach out to our cloud solutions and cloud engineering team if you have any questions.
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