Instead of a reactive approach to cost cutting, here’s how to find a proactive approach to value realization.
Auctor purus, aliquet risus tincidunt erat nulla sed quam blandit mattis id gravida elementum, amet id libero nibh urna nisi sit sed. Velit enim at purus arcu sed ac. Viverra maecenas id netus euismod phasellus et tempus rutrum tellus nisi, amet porttitor facilisis aenean faucibus eu nec pellentesque id. Volutpat, pellentesque cursus sit at ut a imperdiet duis turpis duis ultrices gravida at aenean amet mattis sed aliquam augue nisl cras suscipit.
At elit elementum consectetur interdum venenatis et id vestibulum id imperdiet elit urna sed vulputate bibendum aliquam. Tristique lectus tellus amet, mauris lorem venenatis vulputate morbi condimentum felis et lobortis urna amet odio leo tincidunt semper sed bibendum metus, malesuada scelerisque laoreet risus duis.
Ullamcorper pellentesque a ultrices maecenas fermentum neque eget. Habitant cum esat ornare sed. Tristique semper est diam mattis elit. Viverra adipiscing vulputate nibh neque at. Adipiscing tempus id sed arcu accumsan ullamcorper dignissim pulvinar ullamcorper urna, habitasse. Lectus scelerisque euismod risus tristique nullam elementum diam libero sit sed diam rhoncus, accumsan proin amet eu nunc vel turpis eu orci sit fames.
“Sit enim porttitor vehicula consequat urna, eleifend tincidunt vulputate turpis, dignissim pulvinar ullamcorper”
Nisi in sem ipsum fermentum massa quisque cursus risus sociis sit massa suspendisse. Neque vulputate sed purus, dui sit diam praesent ullamcorper at in non dignissim iaculis velit nibh eu vitae. Bibendum euismod ipsum euismod urna vestibulum ut ligula. In faucibus egestas dui integer tempor feugiat lorem venenatis sollicitudin quis ultrices cras feugiat iaculis eget.
Id ac imperdiet est eget justo viverra nunc faucibus tempus tempus porttitor commodo sodales sed tellus eu donec enim. Lectus eu viverra ullamcorper ultricies et lacinia nisl ut at aliquet lacus blandit dui arcu at in id amet orci egestas commodo sagittis in. Vel risus magna nibh elementum pellentesque feugiat netus sit donec tellus nunc gravida feugiat nullam dignissim rutrum lacus felis morbi nisi interdum tincidunt. Vestibulum pellentesque cursus magna pulvinar est at quis nisi nam et sed in hac quis vulputate vitae in et sit. Interdum etiam nulla lorem lorem feugiat cursus etiam massa facilisi ut.
In a previous blog, we discussed how while as many as 90% of businesses have adopted cloud in some capacity, almost half of that majority are also struggling with cloud costs. This leads to many questions about cloud value, and the feasibility of what many may consider a hefty investment – and one they could find workarounds for, whether that means repatriation or decreased usage.
Another important factor to consider here is how many believe the inflated cloud bills could be avoided. A staggering 44% say that a third of their cloud spend is wasted annually, while 46% of executives blamed overprovisioning as the main culprit behind cloud waste.
46% of executives reported that overprovisioning is a primary source of cloud waste, while 45% blamed cloud assets' fragmentation across teams and vendors.
Cloud costs are also becoming increasingly complicated to keep track of, especially in multi-cloud environments. This confusion also often leads to misspending, with 45% attributing it to the fragmentation of cloud assets across teams and vendors.
But amid the chaos, one thing is clear: When a cause and problem are easily identified, a solution is rarely far behind – this is very much the case when it comes to positive cloud value realization and effective cloud cost optimization.
This clarity is especially important not only for those who devise cloud strategies but also for business executives who introduce workflows and team leaders who must inevitably deal with infrastructure. For FinOps Analysts and DevOps leaders, optimizing cloud spend, both financially and resource-wise, is essential.
The ultimate goal: Financial control while enabling growth and innovation.
Fortunately, with the help of proper cloud management, you can have both – and more.
When the phrase ‘cost optimization’ comes up, what often comes to mind is how costs can be cut – and this is for good reason. Managing budgets and stretching dollars has long been the underlining conversation for businesses.
The conversation has now shifted: it’s now value realization that demands attention. Rather than lowering financial input or tightening pursestrings, businesses have expanded their view to consider the long-term results of any investment. In short, to think smart, not cheap.
Cost optimization should align with strategic business goals, ensuring that reductions in spending support, rather than hinder, growth and innovation. Meanwhile, efficiency involves streamlining processes, automating tasks, and eliminating waste to get better results with fewer resources. Accountability is also crucial to avoid mismanagement and ensure that cost-saving efforts are sustainable, with transparent tracking and performance metrics driving long-term impact.
In a cloud context, optimization maturity involves identifying inefficiencies, implementing improvements, and fostering a culture of optimization, with DevOps and platform teams playing a key role in cost-aware engineering.
By integrating cost visibility and financial accountability into the software development lifecycle, these teams help optimize infrastructure usage, automate resource allocation, and prevent unnecessary spending at its core. Through strategies like autoscaling, rightsizing instances, leveraging spot instances, and using serverless computing, they can ensure that cloud environments remain efficient without compromising performance or reliability.
“Achieving higher optimization maturity in cloud cost management means evolving from a reactive cost-cutting mindset to a proactive, data-driven approach.”
Ultimately, achieving higher optimization maturity in cloud cost management means evolving from a reactive cost-cutting mindset to a proactive, data-driven approach that continuously refines cloud usage, enhances operational efficiency, and maximizes return on investment.
While achieving the perfect balance between cost-cutting and value realization is the goal, the journey is not one without challenges. Several factors need to be considered when formulating your cloud-spend and FinOps strategy.
Two major things to watch out for are complexity and lack of visibility. For example, the complexity of your cloud can lead to uncontrolled spending due to fragmented resources and inefficient provisioning. When the control of your cloud isn’t in your hands, things can spiral out of control, and quickly.
This is also fueled by a lack of cost visibility. Siloed teams and fragmented reporting can negatively influence your decisions, and lead to expenses you weren't expecting, or ones you would otherwise have avoided
Effective cloud management platforms can prevent lock-in, sticker shock, and unexpected overages
These unforeseen costs lead to sticker shock – users once excited to dive into cloud technology now find themselves in over their heads and swallowing huge expenses they hadn’t factored in or anticipated. Adding insult to injury are other factors such as unmanaged autoscaling, orphaned resources (unused resources that continue to incur costs) and unexpected overages, where you end up exceeding your planned usage or budgets, leaving you with higher-than-expected cloud service costs.
Barriers to adopting cloud cost management and optimization strategies manifest in more ways, too:
With all that considered, it’s fair to deduce that multi-cloud and hybrid complexity and trying to manage and govern costs across cloud providers can be difficult. In some cases, you’re left with a cash-guzzling investment that you’re too deep in to abandon.
Enter effective cloud cost management platforms: where you’re ensured of an easy and insightful way to regain control of your cloud use.
If you’re looking for ways to drive financial accountability and maximize cloud ROI, effective cloud management is key. Here are some points to consider when weighing your options:
To avoid sticker shock and allow yourself to make well thought out decisions that factor in what you need given the constraints you have, real-time cost insights come to the rescue. Rather than a surprise at the end of the month or the quarter, you can actively monitor and adjust your allocation and budget, spending where you need to with far less waste and underutilized resources.
At the same time, chargeback and showback models provide a way for organizations to foster accountability and hold individual teams responsible for optimizing their cloud costs. This clear allocation of cost across teams and departments helps improve cost attribution and encourages better management of cloud and IT expenses.
Ultimately, it is a clear and transparent view of what you’re spending on and where in the cloud, that leads to informed decisions and better cloud choices.
Optimization is all about reducing cloud costs while maximizing performance. Automated cost-saving measures like rightsizing and utilizing the right blend of spot instances, Reserved Instances (RIs), and Savings Plans can significantly reduce expenses by aligning resource allocation with actual usage needs. Strategic workload placement further optimizes cost and performance by making informed decisions based on the best cost-performance trade-offs across clouds and regions. Additionally, AI-driven insights and predictive analytics play a crucial role in proactively forecasting spending patterns and recommending adjustments before overspending occurs.
Place emphasis on the importance of collaboration across different functions within an organization (including Finance, Engineering, and Business teams). This cross-functional accountability ensures that everyone is aligned on financial goals and cloud usage. Automated guardrails and budget alerts are essential tools that prevent cost overruns by proactively managing spending. The evolution of FinOps maturity – from basic cost-cutting measures to advanced value optimization – is key to fostering a culture of continuous improvement in cloud financial management and ensuring long-term, sustainable cost efficiency.
Native cloud FinOps tooling, while useful, often falls short when it comes to managing costs across multiple cloud environments, lacking the necessary multi-cloud cost governance. emma addresses this gap by providing end-to-end visibility and deep cost intelligence across all cloud platforms, enabling organizations to gain comprehensive insights into their cloud spending and optimize their resources effectively. emma’s use of advanced predictive analytics allows businesses to forecast future expenses and make data-driven decisions, while automation capabilities allow them to streamline complex and time-consuming cost management tasks.
Real-world examples of companies successfully using cloud management platforms demonstrate how these tools deliver significant value, helping organizations drive efficiency, reduce waste, and ultimately optimize their cloud spend. emma’s users report up to a 75% reduction in their cloud bills, thanks to AI-powered, real-time recommendations for optimal workload placement, resource allocation, and eliminating waste.
Heads of Cloud & Infrastructure should prioritize investing in cost visibility and automation tools to enhance resource management and optimize spending. Cloud Financial Analysts should leverage real-time reporting and forecasting to maintain control over costs, ensuring financial accountability. Similarly, DevOps and Platform Engineers need to adopt cost-aware development practices, enforcing policies through Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to proactively manage cloud expenses.
For executives, it’s the right time to shift from a cost-cutting mindset to a value-driven cloud strategy, focusing on long-term benefits such as innovation, scalability, and overall business growth while effectively managing cloud costs.
All things considered, even as companies rush to keep up with the changing technology of today and the future, it’s important to realise that FinOps is a continuous journey, not a one-time fix or a quick solution. It is then important to take a proactive approach to value optimization, rather than a reactive approach to cost-cutting. Here, automation, governance, and fostering a cost-aware culture is key.
To find out how emma helps FinOps teams optimize cloud costs and maximize value, sign up for a 14-day free trial, or request a personalized demo today.
