4 strategies for keeping your business’ cloud costs under control

But cloud mania is not without its downsides – chief among them being cost. According to InformationWeek, the dawn of cloud computing can present a “day in a chocolate factory” situation for IT managers – it’s an exciting occasion to go shopping, but if you’re not careful, you’ll buy more than you can chew. Carlos Melendez, co-founder and COO of Wovenware, warned that as cloud technology gets more and more popular, a lot of companies find themselves spending more than they originally budgeted.

“While a full ‘repatriation’ of services away from the cloud won’t happen anytime soon and probably ever, some companies are opting to shift the development back to the traditional way,” Melendez noted. “They’re utilizing open source to create and maintain their own APIs and microservices, building their own solutions from scratch or outsourcing software management when IT resources are limited.”

But here’s the thing: To avoid overspending on cloud solutions, your business doesn’t necessarily have to abandon cloud altogether. On the contrary – there are plenty of ways to keep cloud costs under control while still enjoying all the benefits the technology has to offer. In particular, let’s take a look at these four:

• Auditing your IT needs. Rather than going wild and purchasing every cloud solution in sight, you may want to conduct a detailed audit of your IT needs ahead of time, so that you can begin the process with a specific wish list. Zones, for example, offers Cloud Assessments that are designed to do just that.
• Assigning ownership of cloud planning. Who in your organization will take charge and make strategic choices about what cloud investments you make and why? If you have someone in-house who’s tasked with this, it will be much easier to have clear accountability for your company’s decisions later.
• Entering smart contractual engagements. Typically, investing in cloud technology requires signing a contract and subscribing to a given cloud provider – be it for six months, or a year, or multiple years. One key strategy, therefore, is to be discerning about what contracts your organization signs, only making deals that will be favorable to the long-term health of your business.
• Investing in the right cloud platform. To really go about cloud adoption the right way, you need a cloud platform you can trust. You want a provider that will give you an honest assessment of your IT environment, correctly identify your strengths and weaknesses, and draw up a roadmap that will lead you forward the right way. If you have this part figured out, everything else gets easier.

And here’s the good news: All of that is what you get with Zones Cloud. At Zones, we are committed to helping you find your business’ unique cloud success metrics and doing everything we can to help you maximize them. Whether you’re looking to increase productivity, enforce accountability, or just elevate your business’ overall quality of work in the cloud, we can help you achieve all of that and more. From our team to yours: We want to see your business thrive in the cloud, and we don’t think you need to break the bank to do that. Connect with us today, and we’ll show you exactly what we mean.

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