Cloud Tracker Pro

Gauging the Cost of Cloud

Enterprises adopting hybrid and multicloud environments are all too aware there’s a price to be paid for digital transformation. But that price isn’t always easy to navigate. Public cloud service providers such as AWS are notorious for their complex billing systems, and multiplying service providers multiplies the difficulties.

Enter an expanding troop of relatively small companies specializing in cloud cost optimization. For a price – typically a percentage of an enterprise’s overall cloud spend – these firms provide software to analyze cloud bills in detail, highlighting wasted resources and areas where adjustments would lead to savings – sometimes dramatic savings.

For instance, business information services firm Experian saved an average of $90,000 a month during the first few months of using VMware’s CloudHealth platform to analyze the costs associated with its use of AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Oracle Cloud services. Experian estimates it’s saved over $1 million annually by using CloudHealth.

In another example, Accruent, a workplace management software company, used a product called Cloud Cost Optimization from Flexera Inc. to unify the financial information about 85 separate cloud accounts across multiple locations. The result? Accruent was able to optimize the use of cloud instances for a savings of $200,000 per year.