Cloud cost management, also known as cloud cost optimization, is the activity of monitoring, measuring, and controlling cloud spending on providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The goal is to find ways to reduce costs while increasing the value of your cloud investment. This article talks about cloud cost management tools, including its best tools, its multi CCM tools, the Gartner tools, open source tools, and AWS cost management tools.
What Are Cost Management Tools?
Cloud cost management software is defined as the software used by a firm to manage all costs associated with cloud resources, optimization, and management. The software allows businesses to control the costs associated with cloud computing. The goal of managing cloud computing expenditures is to maximize cloud use and boost operational efficiency.
There are numerous factors that influence cloud expenses, and not all of them are visible at first glance. All of these aspects must be considered in a solid cloud cost management approach. Costs may include the following:
- Virtual machine instances
- Memory
- Storage
- Network traffic
- Training and assistance
- Web services
- Software licenses
Cloud Cost Management Strategies
Businesses can employ a variety of ways to manage cloud costs. Some examples are:
- Right-sizing: Make certain that the public cloud instances you select are a good fit for your organization’s needs.
- Instead of planning for optimal utilization at all times, automatic scaling allows businesses to scale up resources when needed and scale down the rest of the time (which can be needlessly expensive).
- Power management: Not all instances must run continuously. It is more cost-effective to schedule non-essential instances to shut down overnight or on weekends than to keep them operating continuously.
- Unused instances should be removed: If you’re not utilizing an instance, there’s no reason to maintain it (or pay for it). Unused instances must also be removed for security reasons, as they might lead to vulnerabilities.
- Discount instances: Because they typically do not guarantee availability, they are not suitable for mission-critical workloads that must run continuously—but for infrequent use, they can provide significant cost savings.
Best Cloud Cost Management Tools
The best cloud cost management tools are listed below;
#1. Harness
By offering insights such as utilized, idle, and unallocated cloud resources, Harness enables IT teams to make data-driven decisions. It also automates idle resource management. The harness can be a valuable asset to your company’s IT, engineering, and financial teams.
#2. ParkMyCloud
ParkMyCloud is a multi-cloud management solution that assists enterprises in identifying and eliminating wasteful cloud costs across AWS, GCP, and Azure. It enables you to keep expenditures under control by rightsizing and scheduling when your resources run out and cease. It also allows teams to manage, govern, and optimize their spending across numerous public clouds.
#3. NetApp’s Spot
The Spot is a simple cloud cost management application that has extensive features for automating cloud infrastructure cost minimization. Unlike standard cloud management solutions, it optimizes recommendations automatically rather than having teams do it. It also offers multi-cloud visibility across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platforms.
#4. Densify
Densify allows businesses to manage cloud resources across several platforms, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Its machine learning-based analytics aid in resource optimization by removing waste. Furthermore, it ensures that performance is maintained once over-provisioned resources are removed.
#5. Cloudability of Apptio
Apptio Cloudability provides visibility into cloud spending and assists in cost optimization. IT, finance, and DevOps teams utilize it to collaborate on optimizing cloud resources for speed, cost, and quality. It also provides a plethora of tagging options, mapping, views, dashboards, and reports to help you organize and manage your cloud spending.
#6. CloudZero
CloudZero is a simple and powerful cloud management solution that aids in the optimization of cloud spending. It reduces the time and effort required for human tagging and is automated to obtain pertinent data. It also gives reports on the necessity for the organization to make data-driven decisions.
Multi-Cloud Cost Management Tools
The following is a list of multi-cloud cost management tools:
#1. Optimize Virtana
Virtana Optimize, originally Metricly, is a cloud optimization software that includes cloud cost management capabilities. It may assist you in identifying wasted resources, rightsizing, analyzing cost vs. utilization information, receiving advice for Azure VM instances and Amazon EC2 instance optimization, and even planning the most cost-effective and simple cloud migrations.
#2. ParkMyCloud
The ParkMyCloud platform is a significant resource for businesses that use public clouds such as AWS, Azure Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud. Controlling costs can be accomplished by rightsizing and scheduling when your resources run and cease. You can also use Slack and Teams to build reports and share cost insights, interact with corporate technologies like monitoring and CI/CD tools, and even override schedules as necessary.
#3. CloudHealth
Although there is a CloudHealth for AWS version, VMware’s CloudHealth is their own cloud financial management solution. You may boost cloud cost accountability by using CloudHealth’s show back and chargeback tools, which allow you to understand which cost centers are driving up your cloud costs. Then, you can track your cloud costs over time and utilize that information to forecast future cloud costs. It also allows you to see wasteful spending, options for rightsizing, and export cost reports.
Cloud Cost Management Tools Gartner
Gartner researchers Marco Meinardi and Traverse Clayton released “How to Manage and Optimize Costs of Public Cloud IaaS and PaaS” earlier this year.
We the Gartner naturally show interest in what they should say in startup on providing cloud cost management tools and intelligence to engineering teams. We were happy to learn that Gartner is considering cloud cost optimization in the same manner that cloud-savvy organizations like Netflix, Lyft, and Expedia are. As they talk to businesses about their cloud computing concerns every day, we hear many of the same themes. The following are the Gartner cloud cost management tools:
- Centilytics
- CoreStack
- CloudForms by Red Hat
- Observability in Tanzu
- Platform9 Kubernetes Gartner cloud cost Management tools
What is Cloud Cost Management Software?
Software used by a business to keep track of the money spent on cloud computing and related activities like optimization and administration is known as “cloud cost management software.” The program helps businesses control the expenses that come with using cloud services. The primary objective of cost management in cloud computing is to maximize cloud use and improve operational efficiency.
How Do I Optimize My Cloud Costs?
Consistent cost monitoring, locating underutilized resources, appropriately sized cloud service provisioning, and cost forecasting all contribute to cloud cost optimization. The primary tactics involve expense tracking and analysis using cloud-based cost management software.
What Is Azure Cost Management Tools?
With Azure Cost Management, you can look back on your cloud spending and see how much you really spent, as well as plan for the future. Daily, monthly, and yearly cost trends are all shown so that you may track changes, spot outliers, and optimize spending.
How do businesses control their Amazon Web Services spending?
The AWS Cost Management Panel provides tools for cost planning and forecasting, as well as price optimization strategies for cutting down on your monthly AWS payment. Managing costs in AWS is done in the same place where you pay for those costs, in the Billing console.
Cloud Cost Management Tools Open Source
The following are the top open-source cloud cost management tools for businesses;
#1. OpenStack
OpenStack is well-known as an open-source cloud cost management tools platform. As a result, it provides a set of tools known as projects to assist in the creation and management of cloud computing systems. Furthermore, its efforts involve essential cloud computing functionalities. As a result, it monitors and manages functions such as computing, networking, storing, identifying, and imaging.
#2. OpenQRM
OpenQRM is a cloud computing and management solution that is free and open source. As a result, it is capable of managing disparate data-centric contexts. Furthermore, it provides a completely automated workflow engine for all bare metal and virtual machine deployments. As a result, it also manages and monitors numerous data centers and cloud capacity.
#3. OpenNebula
OpenNebula is a powerful and adaptable open-source cloud management solution. Furthermore, it provides a complete platform for creating private clouds and managing data center virtualization. It also oversees a data center and its virtual infrastructure. As a result, it contributes to the development of commercial, public, and hybrid infrastructure as a service.
#4. CloudStack by Apache
One of the top open-source cloud management tools is Apache CloudStack. It is also an IaaS platform that provides solutions for both private and public clouds. Most importantly, it is a true cloud management tool. As a result, it provides Cloud management services, storage, and resource allocations.
#5. Cloudify
Cloudify is one of the best open-source model-driven cloud management tools. As a result, it is effective for coordinating, automating, and abstracting multi-cloud settings. Furthermore, it provides automation for aspects like deployment, configuration, and restoration. As a result, these functionalities operate well with cloud-based applications and network services.
AWS Cost Management Tools
The AWS Cost Management tools console includes options for budgeting and predicting costs, as well as strategies for optimizing your pricing to decrease your overall AWS bill. The AWS Cost Management console tools are tightly together with the Billing console. You may manage your costs holistically by combining the two. AWS Billing console resources are to manage existing payments, while AWS Cost Management console tools resources are to optimize future expenditures. The following are their tools:
#1. Budgets for AWS
AWS Budgets allow you to create a “cost cap” based on resource categories, tags and accounts so that when your costs exceed your budget, you’ll receive an alert to intervene before you go over.
#2. Cloudability of Apptio
Apptio Cloudability optimizes cloud resources and converts invoices and tags into insights to enable real-time consumption transparency and responsibility.
#3. Spot.io
Spot.io automates cloud infrastructure to provide always-on, always-scalable, and always-cost-effective infrastructure for your workloads. It also allows you to continuously optimize your infrastructure, maximize utilization, and take advantage of the most cost-effective computing resources available.
#4. EKS From Amazon
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service or tools management(Amazon EKS) allows you to start, run, and scale Kubernetes applications on-premises or in the AWS cloud cost.
#5. Granulate
Granulate improve infrastructure performance and costs by applying AI-driven continual OS-level modifications. These solutions have more complicated use processes and necessitate a more complex allocation of computing resources. However, they offer a more customized and manageable framework for maximizing the computing resources you utilize.
The Benefits of Cloud Cost Management
Here are the benefits of cloud management tools below;
- Cost savings: This is the most obvious advantage of cloud cost control. Businesses that take a proactive approach to cloud cost planning might avoid overspending on unused resources and take advantage of bulk or advance payment reductions.
- Predictability: A company that effectively estimates its cloud computing demands can not surprise by the sudden cost hike.
- Efficient usage: Examining spending helps businesses reduce waste and make the most of the resources they do pay for through tactics such as automatic scaling and load balancing.
Does the Cloud Offer Cost Management?
Cloud cost management (also known as cloud cost optimization) is the organizational planning that enables a company to understand and manage the expenses and requirements connected with cloud technology. This includes developing cost-effective approaches to maximize cloud utilization and efficiency. The pricing can vary depending on the cloud cost management solutions.
What Are Cost Management Tools?
Cost control is a tool that the organization’s management use to regulate and control the functioning of a manufacturing concern by limiting costs to a certain level. It entails a series of activities that begin with the preparation of a budget, and end with implementing the necessary actions that are necessary to rectify discrepancies if any.
What Is Cloud Cost Optimization?
Finding ways to operate applications on the cloud, execute work or deliver value to the business at the lowest possible cost, and use cloud providers as cost-effectively as possible is what cloud cost optimization is all about.
What Are Cloud Costing Models?
Cloud cost models are dynamic in nature since supply and demand are constantly changing. The value-depending cost model is because of demand; the cost-depending cloud model is because of supply, and the market-depending cloud model is because of the equilibrium of supply and demand.
Who Can Use Azure Cost Management?
You must have validated customer acceptance of the Microsoft Client Agreement (on behalf of the customer) and converted the customer to the Azure Plan before you can enable Cost Management in the Azure interface. Cost Management only displays the costs for subscriptions when the plan changes to the Azure plan.
What Are Cost Management Techniques?
Cost management entails various cost accounting methods with the purpose of enhancing business cost efficiency by lowering expenses or, at the very least, putting measures in place to limit cost growth.
How to Manage Cloud Costs?
Understanding unit economics and why it is important during cloud spend management is necessary to manage cloud expenditures. Unit economics simply means calculating the change per unit. As we move on to the section discussing why it would matter, let’s walk through the situation using the example below.
There is not necessarily cause for concern when it comes to the rising expenses of cloud infrastructure. For instance, it is usual for a company’s cloud bill to rise as it gains more customers each month. Naturally, it is excellent news, and nobody would wish to fundamentally undermine it. What if, however, we said that the reason your costs are increasing is not due to the additions but rather the increase in cost per customer? There is no doubt that should be taken into account. Unit economics can be useful in this situation. Your company must monitor unit cost, COGS, and cost per customer as part of the cloud cost control strategy. Additionally, cloud cost optimization tools can be extremely helpful for assessing these aspects.
Conclusion
These cloud cost management tools help in monitoring and increasing the value of your cloud investment. CCM helps you understand the benefits of CCM. This article teaches about “cloud cost management tools.”
CLOUD COST MANAGEMENT TOOLS FAQs
Which factors are considered for managing cloud computing costs?
- Users.
- Storage.
- Networking.
- Support.
- Management.
Who is responsible for cloud cost control?
Basically, the cloud regulation team is in charge of operational cost management strategies, such as patching and maintenance.
How are clouds managed?
Managed cloud services offer partial or full cloud administration for public settings, as well as Hybrid IT. Each managed cloud service provider (MCSP) provides a unique value, focusing on specific features. MCSP tasks can also include migration, security, configuration, and optimization.
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