Operational Models That Optimize Cloud Spend

The business environment over the last few years has had a significant impact on cloud adoption and spending. As companies accelerated their network builds to accommodate hybrid and remote workers, they quickly rolled out new cloud services and solutions. 

Gartner originally predicted that in 2023 worldwide public cloud spending will grow 20.7% to total $591.8 billion, up from $490.3 billion in 2022 and worldwide spending on IT would grow 5.1% in 2023. As recently as last month, Gartner slashed those IT estimates and is forecasting a little more than 2.4% growth in IT spending. Those are still significant increases but when talking to ONUG Board Member companies we are seeing these leaders become more hesitant to make big investments in IT. The priority has become focused on developing operational models that leverage their 2020-2022 spend. Every organization will look to optimize their cloud programs and leverage the most economical services. 

Some of the largest cloud consumers in the world are making cost containment a priority and are implementing new operational models to achieve this. 

The streaming giant, Netflix has optimized its cloud resources to reduce costs by hiring more junior staff, paring back its real-estate footprint and reducing the number of copies of data and content it stores. Netflix uses an AWS cloud management platform to monitor and control its cloud environment, and has implemented automated tools to optimize its cloud resources in real-time.

Airbnb uses a multi-cloud strategy to manage its cloud costs and has implemented an AWS  cloud cost optimization tool to monitor and control its cloud expenses. Airbnb also uses reserved instances and auto-scaling to optimize its cloud resources and reduce costs.

As we move into 2023 we will see more companies using operational measures to control these costs. 

Author's Bio

Joann Varello

ONUG