Common DIY Cloud Computing Mistakes That Can Cost Your Business
When it comes to implementing and migrating your business to the Cloud, DIY is not the way to go. Sure you could do it yourself, but doing so can mean the difference between a properly managed and configured environment, or massive cost overruns and security concerns.
The decision is quite simple. Trust a Managed Cloud Services Provider to take care of your business.
Imagine completing your first batch of cloud workload migrations for your company and believing you have a solid understanding of what the costs are after all the applications have moved into production on the Cloud. You have carefully budgeted for monthly operations costs at $15,000. After the first month of usage your bill is $25,000. Where did that extra $10,000 in monthly costs come from? And more concerning, how were the costs missed with the original estimates? Most importantly, what will your CFO, CTO, and CEO do when they find out you cost the business an extra $10,000 per month?
In our many years of experience deploying the Cloud for other businesses, we see the same four missed costs over and over again.
Missed Cost #1: Resource overprovisioning
It’s easy to start checking off all the options and overprovisioning cloud resources including storage, compute, databases etc. because you might need them. But that’s like buying a 15-bedroom mansion even though you’re single.
An IT and Cloud managed solutions provider will identify exactly what resource requirements you have and provision the correct resources to keep your costs in check, as well as monitor your usage and costs to proactively identify new cost saving areas. Using the Cloud means only using what you need. A properly configured cloud environment will do that for you.
Missed Cost #2: Using free resources that are no longer free
Free trials, credits, and promotions are all great ways to test the Cloud and get started inexpensively. But businesses prey on consumers that forget to cancel trials and keep using their services. And when you get a big bill, then you’re in for a shock!
A managed cloud services provider will not only help you utilize trials and credits that are available, but they can also provide additional incentives not available to consumers to help manage costs.
Missed Cost #3: Forgetting to shut down resources
The beauty of the Cloud is that you can scale up resources on-demand to meet unexpected resource requirements. The downside is if you forget to scale back down after, you could be hit with a costly bill. Businesses are throwing money away on resources that they don’t need.
Businesses can save on resource costs by shutting down unused services during off-peak hours. An IT managed services provider actively monitors your resources and can scale up and down or shut off resources as needed to minimize any unexpected costs.
Missed Cost #4: Ignoring that cloud applications can spike traffic
A simple programming error in your custom business management software could be eating away at CPU, memory and storage resources. All these can lead to large bills.
Part of our commitment as your managed service provider is to diagnose potential errors that can cause higher than expected usage and actively identify a solution.
Why you should work with a Managed IT Solution Provider
A Managed IT Solutions Provider is your first line of defense against unexpected cloud resource costs. 360 Visibility is a Toronto IT and Cloud Managed Services Provider. Our team of Microsoft Azure Cloud Specialists have deployed and managed Cloud environments for businesses across Toronto, Ontario, Canada and USA. Our goal is to implement a Cloud environment that is tailored to your business needs and budget, while being tightly monitored to ensure you only pay for what you actually need.
360 Visibility is a leading Cloud Services Provider in Canada, a Tier 1 Microsoft CSP Partner, and the winner of the Microsoft IMPACT Awards for Fastest Growing Cloud Provider in Canada.