Arnab Sen is VP, Data Engineering, Tredence Inc. - a global leader in data science and AI solutions, solving the last-mile problem in AI.
Migrating to the cloud has long been seen as a way for organizations to save money. The whole point of implementing this practice, after all, is to reduce operational costs. But these promised savings from migrating workloads to the cloud have failed to appear. In fact, many face the opposite problem: surging costs.
Most enterprise IT leaders say their number one cloud challenge this year is reining in spending, according to Flexera’s 2023 State of the Cloud Report. That spending is on the high side, too: More than two-thirds (67%) of enterprises are spending more than $2.4 million annually on cloud computing, while one-third of that same group spends 10 times more on these services.
Here is how to address common cloud spending challenges.
As economic uncertainty grows, chief data officers and chief financial officers are beginning to take a deeper look at cloud spending to determine how to eliminate wasted investment. If you are a senior leader responsible for profit and loss, here are the critical challenges that need to be addressed.
- Improve visibility into cloud spending. Your company is likely prioritizing innovation over cost. Individuals and teams might even be investing in their disparate cloud resources. This leads to a lack of visibility that incurs more costs.
- Enable cross-functional collaboration. The teams within your business might operate in silos, which makes it difficult to coordinate spending decisions, especially as it pertains to the cloud.
- Improve cloud spending governance. If you go cloud-first, you can shift IT spending from those expenditures that require on-premises technology to the expenditures enabled by cloud services.
Cloud FinOps (cloud financial operations) can provide the tools you need to accomplish all of these goals while helping your company achieve savings it might never have thought possible amid the confusion of your existing process.
Cloud FinOps pave a new way forward.
Imagine having to look through only a single pane of glass to monitor how much your company invests in cloud spending, rather than the myriad views that are required when spending is not being tracked properly.
It feels like a financial epiphany, but it is possible. And when deployed correctly, you’ll be able to better share cost savings data with key stakeholders and help to build your company’s reputation as a disciplined innovator when it comes to cloud services.
Here are four steps you can take right now to create the visibility you need to make better cloud spending decisions that will make your leadership happy.
Create a single view.
First, evaluate your company’s technology, including services, applications and tools. Then, analyze these resources to understand tracking at the subscription level and assess data governance, ownership and security policies.
This will give you greater insight into how your team is consuming cloud services that will help with the next step.
Track and trace cloud spending.
Analyze key processes to gather metadata, map tool lineage and enhance data quality management. Design a system to monitor cloud usage, receive alerts for spending anomalies and identify unnoticed expenditures, enabling immediate cost reduction measures.
Build a better structure.
With the right capabilities, you can regularly monitor IT spending and infrastructure usage. Enhance your IT infrastructure if needed, creating solutions to optimize costs, set accurate budgets and prevent overspending with predefined service limits.
It all becomes seamless.
Once data is trackable, establish patterns like multichannel alerting and multicloud management. This accelerates insights, streamlining processes. With everything optimized, your company can meet cloud goals efficiently without excessive costs or upsetting a cost-conscious CFO.
Consider the tough side of cloud FinOps.
While cloud FinOps promises a lot of benefits, it’s vital to recognize the challenges that come with it. Navigating the intricacies of cloud FinOps is essential for effective financial management and robust security. However, several challenges can disrupt the smooth operation of this process.
- Cost Tracking And Attribution: Modern cloud service providers have made strides in facilitating cost tracking at broader levels like subscriptions or resources. Yet, the absence of detailed breakdowns, such as those for SKUs or query levels, complicates our ability to establish granular financial insights. This can obstruct the creation of detailed chargeback processes, leading to potential inefficiencies.
- Shared Resource Attribution: In the dynamic cloud environment, resources often get shared among multiple stakeholders. This introduces complexities in accurately attributing costs. Pinpointing individual usage and tying it to specific program ownership becomes an intricate task, potentially muddying the waters of financial clarity.
- Data Collection Methods: How organizations collect, process and interpret data can play a pivotal role in their understanding of associated costs. Ensuring precision in every step of data gathering and analysis is vital. Any deviation can compromise financial optimization and weaken the system’s security infrastructure.
Embrace the potential of cloud FinOps.
Nevertheless, the obstacles listed above should not deter organizations from harnessing the full power of cloud FinOps. With the right approach, your company can efficiently track data, attribute resources and overcome these hurdles.
Implementing FinOps can increase profitability and help you harness the full potential of the cloud, enabling your organization to achieve its cloud goals without breaking the bank or compromising on efficiency.
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Arnab Sen
VP, Data Engineering, Tredence Inc
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