Michael Welsh

Aug. 26,2020

There are a couple ways to interpret the title of this article, and neither are necessarily wrong. The more appropriate context is meant to convey the various ways in which cloud utilization is sub optimized and therefore getting wasted. Taken another way however, you could interpret your Cloud as a living breathing entity that has overindulged in mind altering substances and is currently out of control.   If we’re really being honest, neither description is wrong as a generalized assessment of enterprise cloud utilization and spend. According to multiple research reports, company executives are projected to:

• Waste $17B in the Cloud as an industry in 2020
• Waste 30% of their own Cloud
• Significantly increase Cloud spend (41% of respondents) over next year

When priorities are focused on deploying resources to keep the workforce productive and customers happy, often maintenance and optimization of the underlying technology lags, as does the expertise to manage it effectively. It doesn’t have to be that way, however! Below, we outline the five ways companies are wasting their cloud, and more importantly, what they can do about it:

Usually not until it’s too late, do organizations find out that Cloud costs are hard to dynamically monitor and account for. Supplier cost management tools are difficult to set up and cost monitoring and planning quickly become a burden when combined with loose governance and lack of cost management oversight. With widely varying Cloud consumption across different instances, regions and workloads – getting meaningful insights on your cost drivers will continue to be a challenge until there is a comprehensive program in place to manage it.

Cloud agreements themselves contribute to the cost uncertainty. There are many components and potential complexities to these agreements, that if not fully understood in the context of the operating environment, could cause substantial pain and cause your budget to…..get wasted.

Reporting and understanding of how and where your data us being used is scarce. All too often we see Clients utilizing tools that will show what was spent, but don’t provide real time, actionable feedback that can help you sober up and optimize cost now. Further, many companies that have the reporting tools are often unsure of how to both understand the results and implement changes that will lead to better utilization and reduce waste.

Some of the most sub optimized environments we’ve seen, started with the notion of trying to plan cloud deployments by looking at current on-premise installations. Imagine planning the cost and resources for a trip from New York to Amsterdam using your experience taking an ocean liner or cruise ship. For this next trip however, you’re taking a private jet. The start and end points are the same, but the associated costs, resources, and skills required are completely different.

The resources available to the market right now are scarce to help IT properly scope a cloud deployment based on their current usage and roadmap. This kind of ‘right sizing’ and ‘right buying’ requires deep understanding of all Cloud environments and the various options on-premise, public and hybrid.

Staying with the same example from above, let’s say for that same New York to Amsterdam trip, you are now taking a cruise ship, private jet, commercial jet, and a rowboat to get there. Optimizing that trip for cost and resources will be problematic, especially if you must do it round trip every day of the week, 365 days a year.

Even when (and if) you get Cloud utilization and cost under control, what’s the plan to keep it that way? With dynamic consumption, rapidly changing workforce requirements, obtuse price models, and lack of internal resources, it’s a challenge few are up to conquering without help. There must be a dedicated program in place to monitor and manage your entire Cloud landscape to truly optimize usage and eliminate waste.

Unfortunately, there are even more ways to waste your cloud, but these are some of the most prevalent in the industry right now. While these are daunting challenges, we stand ready to assist with Cloud Cost Optimization programs that will literally save your Cloud. Imagine what IT could accomplish in recapturing 30% of their Cloud spend? Accolades aside, IT would be able to shift resources in such a way as to innovate and transform other areas of the business . The alternative is to blow out the budget year after year with uncontrolled Cloud costs and be the target of unending scrutiny.

Our methodology offers four distinct points of analysis that ensure waste is mitigated and usage optimized:

• A proprietary technology enabled process to not only analyze but optimize and predict cloud costs with high level of granularity and confidence
• Having analyzed thousands of workloads in different environment and industry verticals, there is an 85% probability that we can show 25%%+ in savings
• Reporting that shows precisely what consumption is vs what is being paid for
• Analysis available as one-time or ongoing managed service

To learn more, please contact us to schedule time with a NET(net) Subject Matter Expert.

About NET(net)

Founded in 2002, NET(net) is the world’s leading IT Investment Optimization firm, helping clients find, get and keep more economic and strategic value. With over 2,500 clients around the world in nearly all industries and geographies, and with the experience of over 25,000 field engagements with over 250 technology suppliers in XaaS, Cloud, Hardware, Software, Services, Healthcare, Outsourcing, Infrastructure, Telecommunications, and other areas of IT spend, resulting in incremental client captured value in excess of $250 billion since 2002. NET(net) has the expertise you need, the experience you want, and the performance you demand. Contact us today at info@netnetweb.com, visit us online at www.netnetweb.com, or call us at +1-866-2-NET-net to see if we can help you capture more value in your IT investments, agreements, and relationships.

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