As a cloud computing customer, it is important to consider the costs associated with public cloud adoption. While public cloud services have been a popular choice for businesses, there have been some concerns about service restrictions and of course the rising costs of these services. With many organizations still grappling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a timely question to ask whether businesses are abandoning their cloud-first initiatives.
One of the biggest advantages of public cloud services is the cost savings that come from using a shared infrastructure. This eliminates the need for businesses to invest in expensive hardware, reducing the overall cost of ownership. However, as more and more organizations adopt public cloud services, the cost of these services is starting to rise now that customers are locked in. Additionally, the weakness of local currencies can affect the cost of these services too and for example, Microsoft is looking to increase the azure prices in the UK substantially.
Of course, there are many cost optimization strategies that can be used to reduce the cost of public cloud services but businesses need to keep a watchful eye at all times. From built-in features like auto-scaling, which allows businesses to scale their infrastructure up or down based on demand, thus reducing the number of resources they use when demand is low – to using third-party services like Spot by NetApp which constantly monitors and actively works to reduce costs in real-time etc.
Whether you are just starting to explore the benefits of public cloud services or you are looking for ways to optimize your existing cloud infrastructure, it goes without saying that a cloud computing consultant can help you make the most of your investment.
The availability of public cloud services is a critical factor for businesses, as it directly affects their ability to meet the needs of their customers. For example, if a cloud service provider experiences an outage, it can result in downtime for businesses that are using the service. This can lead to lost revenue, dissatisfied customers, and damage to a business’s reputation.
To mitigate the impact of service limitations, businesses need to have a well-defined disaster recovery plan in place. This plan should outline the steps that a business will take in the event of a service outage, including the use of alternative cloud services or on-premise infrastructure. Additionally, businesses should consider being cloud agnostic by engineering services to use multiple cloud service providers to reduce the risk of service outages and ensure the availability of their applications and data. For example, I had a customer which needed a bigger Cosmos DB instance in the Azure UK South region but Microsoft had capacity issues which had a detrimental effect on this customer. Do plan not just for outages and disaster recovery but also for how would your business cope with the hyper scaler not being able to provide additional capacity too!
Despite the challenges posed by service limitations, many businesses are still adopting public cloud services. This is because the benefits of public cloud services, such as scalability, cost savings, and security, far outweigh the risks posed by price increases and service availability. Additionally, cloud service providers are continually investing in their infrastructure and developing new technologies to improve the availability of their services.