One of the biggest attractions of cloud computing is that you pay only for what you use. That’s a huge benefit if you spin down idle or under-utilized servers. But what most customers don’t know is there’s a different set of challenges that stops them from being agile in three areas:
- Spend: Costs keeps rising and are problematic to forecast or manage.
- Optimization: Sustaining peak efficiency is difficult with ever-evolving business drivers.
- Automation: Day-to-day administration is a significant effort and demands new skills and tools.
IT consultants, agents and MSPs who can address these three problems can differentiate their services. Here’s the scoop on these cloud realities
Spend:
This challenge is compounded when companies can’t easily analyze their cloud costs or determine the financial efficiency of running a given service. Several factors contribute to the problem. First, it’s common for enterprises to lack clarity about exactly which services they need. Paying for unneeded options and foregoing ones that would benefit them can erode the benefits of the cloud. Second, many cloud-service bills are vague, so you as a partner simply don’t get the data you need to understand what’s driving the spikes and dips in costs. It also makes it nearly impossible to accurately allocate the cost of cloud assets to associated departments to manage charge backs.How OPSIO can help?
- Find out what cloud analytics are available to help you determine exactly where the money is going. Analytics will also help you understand customer usage patterns, and how patterns change over time, which will help you control costs.
- Cloud-services invoices can often be vague and confusing. We ensure that if (or when) there’s a spike in cost, the invoice gives your customer the data they need, in a manner that’s easy to read and comprehend so they can understand exactly where that expense is coming from.
- As a partner OPSIO will conduct reviews quarterly or even monthly to assess usage and spend, and help you get the most value from your cloud budget.
