Public cloud spending is skyrocketing,  rising 20% from $561 billion in 2023 to $675.4 billion in 2024, according to Gartner. And while enterprises are modernizing applications and rapidly embracing generative AI tools, the cost of doing so is putting serious pressure on IT budgets.

Unfortunately, much of this ballooning spend isn’t because businesses are getting dramatically more value, it’s because cloud costs are increasing faster than usage and many organizations are wasting money on under-utilized resources. You’re not alone if your cloud bill seems to climb every month; most companies today face the same challenge of runaway cloud costs.

The good news? There are actionable ways to rein in those expenses and optimize your cloud investment. In this article, HOSTNOC will highlight seven proven ways to keep your cloud costs under control.

7 Ways To Keep Cloud Costs Under Control

Here are seven ways you can adopt to keep cloud costs under control.

1. Purchase Resources According To Your Needs

Most businesses embrace cloud to make the most of a market opportunity or to fulfill a specific business need. That is why they choose a cloud provider and plan accordingly. As a result, they end up acquiring more resources than they need, which leads to higher cloud bills.

Start off by assessing your resource requirements and then choose a cloud plan. This way, you will only buy a cloud plan that can fulfill your exact resource requirements without breaking your bank. There is no point in acquiring more resources when you are not going to use them. They will not only be wasted but will make your cloud costs go up.

1. Leverage Reserved Instances

Most popular cloud service providers offer reserved instance service. You can take advantage of Amazon EC2 reserved instance and avail 72% discount as compared to on demand pricing. It provides a discounted hourly rate as well as allowing customers to make resource reservations on EC2 instances. Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud also have their own version of reserve instance.

By taking advantage of reserved instances, you can easily shave off 10%-40% of your cloud expenses. Jacob Kalvo, co-founder and CEO of Live Proxies, “By committing to one-year or three-year reserved instances, we could bring down our cloud spending by up to 40 percent.This is a solution that involves some sort of up-front commitment, but pays off in the long term with considerable savings. For example, our data scraping operations, running continuously, were perfect candidates for reserved instances. This results in much more predictable and manageable cloud budgets.”

1. Monitor and Optimize Cloud Usage

There is a famous adage in business that goes something like this, “If you can not measure it, you can not optimize it.” The same rule applies to your cloud. Make sure you have the right tools that let you analyze and monitor your cloud usage and find areas that need improvements.

Once you are aware of your cloud usage patterns, you can easily optimize it to suit your business needs. This allows you to minimize waste and eliminate underutilized resources to keep cloud costs under control. Cloud usage monitoring should not be a one time activity. In fact, it should be a continuous process. By closely monitoring your cloud usage you will find cloud resources that are being over or underutilized. You can then optimize it for more efficient cloud operations.

1. Use Resource Tagging

Tracking cloud usage can be tough especially if you have complex cloud infrastructure. You can get over this issue by using resource tagging. Cloud resource tagging is the process of assigning labels and descriptions to each cloud resource. This makes it easy for you to identify what each cloud resource is used for.

It not only improves visibility but can also make accountability easier. Moreover, it can also help you allocate the right budget and keep your cloud costs under control. If there is a sudden spike or dip in usage, you can easily detect why it occurs. Additionally, it prevents your business from consuming more resources than you need.

1. Take a Closer Look at Bills

Regularly reviewing cloud billing documents is essential to keep cloud costs under control. Many businesses overlook this step, leading to higher expenses than expected. According to Martin Gasparian of Maison Law, understanding the breakdown of these bills can help identify and eliminate unnecessary services included in cloud packages. By focusing only on essential cloud services, organizations can avoid paying for redundant features and keep their cloud costs under control.

Gasparian suggests that companies request detailed billing information from their cloud providers. This analysis enables businesses to cut costs by removing non-priority services and streamlining their cloud usage. By taking the time to examine billing details, companies can prevent overspending and ensure they only pay for what is truly needed.

1. Make Cloud Cost Control a Part of Your Organization Culture

Fostering a company culture that prioritizes cloud cost control is crucial for keeping expenses in check. Stefan Chekanov of Brosix emphasizes the importance of making employees, especially business leaders, aware of the financial impact of their cloud usage. Simply having cost-management tools isn’t enough; it’s essential to promote transparency and encourage discussions about keeping cloud costs under control.

Chekanov suggests that cloud engineers who understand the financial consequences of their decisions are more likely to use resources efficiently. By cultivating a cloud-conscious team, organizations can ensure that everyone is mindful of the costs associated with their actions, leading to more sustainable and controlled cloud spending. This will help your business in keeping cloud costs under control.

1. Harness The Power of Storage Autoscaling

Autoscaling in cloud services allows organizations to adjust resources based on demand and keep cloud costs under control. Michael Sawyer from Ultimate Kilimanjaro highlights that his company uses autoscaling to align storage supply with current data needs, avoiding the cost of excess storage. This approach helps them stay within budget while ensuring departments have the necessary resources.

Ultimate Kilimanjaro also allocates storage budgets to departments, similar to other budget allocations, to monitor and control technology spending. Regular audits and shutting down unused resources during off-hours can further reduce costs. Implementing autoscaling not only cuts expenses but can also enhance performance, as seen in various companies that have optimized their cloud usage through this method.

How do you keep cloud costs under control? Share your feedback with us in the comments section below.