The cloud is a great resource for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) such as yours. It provides a number of advantages, including scalability, flexibility, and cost savings. However, some business owners may not be aware of certain hidden cloud services costs. These costs don’t seem much at first, but they can eventually snowball. Prevent this by implementing these five ways to help you save money on cloud services.
No standalones
Cloud services come in various forms, including standalone platforms with rates that increase over time. If you’re looking to save on costs, it’s best to choose a cloud service provider that offers a suite of products that all work together. This option is often less expensive than investing in several standalone products. Another benefit of working with a cloud provider is that you’ll have a single point of contact to quickly and effectively resolve any issues that you may experience.
Partner with experienced cloud providers
Make sure to hire a trusted and experienced integration consultant to help facilitate a smooth transition. This is essential as integration mishaps can cause serious downtime and also cost a lot of money.
Define and prioritize backups
Unnecessary or inefficient backups waste cloud storage space. Review your cloud storage data by asking yourself the following questions:
- How many versions of this data do I need to store long term? The more versions I store, the more it will cost me.
- What regulatory demands do I need to meet? Some data may need to be accessible for up to three years, while other data can be deleted after 30 days.
- How quickly do I need to access my backups? If it can wait for a day or two, I can archive data to a less expensive service or offline at the provider’s data center.
Regulate users
It’s common practice for cloud service providers to charge per user. If you neglect to regularly manage the list of users, you may end up paying for people who are no longer part of your organization. It’s ideal to schedule a regular audit of users and implement processes that remove them when they leave the company to ensure your cloud user list is always up to date.
Monitor proactively
Ask your cloud provider whether they can proactively monitor your account and notify you of potential issues before these escalate into major problems. This is especially important if you have a pay-as-you-go license that charges based on resource or storage consumption.
Utilizing the right technology resources is vital to your business’s success, and so is knowing how to prevent such resources from racking up an overwhelming monthly bill. Give us a call if you wish to enjoy all the benefits of cloud computing without going over your budget. We’ll be happy to help.
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