The growing prominence of cloud technology has placed managed service providers at the forefront of facilitating efficient cloud infrastructure management for their small and medium-size customers. But as cloud adoption continues to rise, so do the complexity and costs associated with managing these environments. For MSPs, considering cloud cost optimization is not merely a suggestion but a necessity when managing client cloud infrastructures efficiently.
Cost optimization in the cloud is paramount to maximizing resource utilization, minimizing waste, and, ultimately, driving business value in the increasingly cloud-centric world. Without a comprehensive approach to cloud cost optimization, businesses can incur unnecessary costs, impacting their financial health and operational efficiency.
By implementing the following practices, you can achieve substantial cost savings for your clients while maintaining performance and functionality:
- Reserved instances. Consider utilizing reserved instances (RIs) for workloads with steady and predictable usage. RIs provide significant discounts compared to on-demand instances and can result in substantial cost savings over the long term.
- Rightsizing instances. Analyze the workload requirements and select instance types that align with client needs. Avoid overprovisioning resources, as it can lead to unnecessary expenses. Utilize monitoring and analytics tools to identify underutilized instances and downsize or terminate them accordingly.
- Spot instances. Take advantage of spot instances for noncritical or fault-tolerant workloads. Spot Instances can offer discounts of up to 90% compared to on-demand instances, allowing you to run cost-effective workloads while leveraging available spare capacity.
- Auto scaling. Implement auto scaling to dynamically adjust your client resources based on demand. Scaling up during peak usage periods and scaling down during lower demand helps optimize costs by ensuring clients use resources efficiently and only pay for what they need.
- Storage optimization. Optimize storage usage by identifying infrequently accessed or no longer needed data. Migrate such data to lower-cost storage tiers or use object lifecycle management policies to automatically transition data to more cost-effective storage classes.
- Cost allocation and tagging. Implement robust cost allocation practices using tags to accurately categorize resources and track costs. This enables you to identify cost drivers, allocate expenses to specific departments or projects, and make informed decisions for optimization.
- Data transfer and network costs. Minimize data transfer costs by strategically designing client architecture to reduce unnecessary data movement between regions or services. Leverage in-cloud direct connect or VPN connections for cost-effective and secure network communication within the cloud service provider’s backbone.
- Monitoring and optimization tools. Leverage cloud management and optimization tools, such as the native cost explorer or third-party solutions, to gain insights into your clients’ cloud spending patterns, set budgets, and receive proactive cost optimization recommendations.
- Regular reviews and audits. Conduct regular cost reviews and audits to identify areas of potential optimization. Analyze usage trends, evaluate cost-saving opportunities, and adjust your clients’ cloud infrastructure and strategies accordingly.
- Tiered storage for cost-effective backup retention. Typically, the “hot tier” is used for recent backups that need to be accessed frequently. However, as backups age, they’re accessed less often, making the more cost-effective “cold tier” storage a suitable option for long-term retention. Transitioning these older backups to a colder storage tier will significantly reduce costs without compromising data availability or safety, given that retrieval times are acceptable for your client’s recovery objectives.
- Optimized backup strategy. Employing the right backup storage strategy is not only cost-effective, but also plays a critical role in ransomware and malware protection. By retaining longer backup chains across various storage tiers, you are equipped to perform clean restores from any point in time in the event of a malicious attack. This access to historic clean backups is invaluable, given the rise of sophisticated malware and ransomware attacks that can infiltrate systems and lay dormant before activation.
The Role of Immutable Backups
Let’s also remember the tremendous value of immutable backups in saving money when things go awry in the cloud. Immutable backups provide additional protection by ensuring your customer data remains unaltered and immune to accidental or malicious deletions or modifications.
When unexpected events occur, such as data corruption, ransomware attacks, or accidental deletions, immutable backups act as a safety net. With immutable backups, you can restore client data to a known, reliable state without worrying about compromised or tampered files. This saves clients from potential data loss, downtime, and the associated financial implications.
Immutable backups also minimize the need for costly downtime or data recovery operations. Instead of spending valuable time and resources on recovering data from unreliable sources or restoring from outdated backups, you can quickly restore from immutable backups and resume normal operations swiftly. This reduces downtime, minimizes the impact on productivity, and saves money by avoiding extended periods of inactivity or disrupted business operations.
Ultimately, the right backup strategy offers dual benefits: enabling cost optimization while fortifying an organization’s defense against cyber threats. By continuously evaluating and refining your strategies, you can unlock long-term cost savings and create a solid foundation for your clients’ sustained success in the cloud environment, ensuring your “trusted adviser” status.
SEBASTIAN STRAUB is principal solutions architect and head of global systems engineering at N2WS. He has been working in the software industry for numerous years, encompassing both the private and government sectors. With a diverse background, he has gained invaluable experience in every facet of computer-related businesses, having served as a customer, vendor, and support engineer in the trenches. Throughout his career, he has held positions at prominent organizations such as the US Department of Defense, Oracle, Dell, Quest Software, as well as lesser-known but impactful companies like ActivIdentity, HID, and Identiv.
