September 6, 2022
Why cloud computing is not as expensive as you think.
When people think of Cloud computing with Microsoft Azure – dropping on-premises databases and servers and running their business’ computing through a cloud service provider – they might be convinced of several misconceptions that will make them stick to the old way of doing business.
Some might think that Azure, Microsoft’s Cloud service, only works for large enterprises, or that Cloud computing is as expensive or even more expensive than traditional computing. Microsoft’s certified Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) in the Caribbean and Ecuador), Inova Solutions, wants customers to be confident when they choose to make their way to the Cloud, that is why we have summed up (and busted) three myths about Azure cost. Here they are:
1. Running in the Cloud versus on-premise is more expensive
The cost of doing business is different for each company, but you can easily figure this out for your own business by using Azure’s Total Cost of Ownership Calculator. Enter information about your current on-premises workloads, such as servers, databases, storage, and networking. Then, you review the suggested industry average cost for related operational costs such as electricity to power your on-premise datacenter. In the end, Azure will present you with a report with your total on-premises cost breakdown and your forecasted cost breakdown for cloud computing with Azure. You can compare your cost and see where you would save on expenses when you run your workloads on the cloud instead of on-premises. You do not need a subscription to use this calculator.
Additionally, if you just want to configure and estimate the cost for any workload you want to deploy in Azure, you can use the Azure Pricing Calculator.
Let’s be honest: not every workload is right for the cloud. But Azure provides you with tools to explore where you can save on costs, and create value, by leveraging cloud services.
2. Once your team has access to your Azure account, they have full access and control over all resources, potentially driving up cost
Meet the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and Azure Role-based Access Control (RBAC). ARM does exactly what the name says it does – the platform enables you to manage (create, update, and delete) resources in your Azure account. There are different features, like templates, locks, and tags that can help you organize and secure your resources after deployment as well. Azure’s role-based access control lets you control who in your organization can perform actions on resources by defining roles and adding users or groups (for example a team in your organization) to the roles. Additionally, all user actions are logged so you can look them up afterwards if needed.
Combined, these two features help you keep your Azure subscriptions secure and under control.
3. You do not have an overview of your costs in Azure
You do not only get an overview of your Azure cost, but you also receive advice on how to lower your expenses. Azure Advisor is a free service that can evaluate your deployments and recommend cost savings, personalized for your account.
You can even dig deeper into your cost by utilizing the Azure Cost Management + Billing service, which is free as well. It helps you monitor and control your Azure spending and optimize resource use. The service also allows you to set up budgets and alerts, so you set budget limits and get an alert when the limit has been reached.
Another tool you can use to keep an overview of your Azure costs is tags. These help you organize billing data by identifying the cost owner. For example, if you run resources for different teams, you can use tags to categorize cost by department. When you can filter your Cost management + Billing reports by tag groups to identify who generates the biggest Azure costs, you can make targeted adjustments.
Being able to predict what you are going to spend using Azure, controlling who has access to modify your subscriptions and having a customized overview of your cloud expenses, is a great benefit of cloud computing with Azure. But the reason many businesses lean towards cloud computing with Azure nowadays is because of six fundamental facts:
1. Thanks to service level agreements (SLA, a promise on the percentage of time a cloud service is available), you can guarantee continuous user experience, even when things go wrong.
2. Computing capacity in the Cloud can quickly be scaled up or down to adjust to your needs. Scaling can happen in two ways while: computing capacity can be increased by adding RAM or CPUs to a virtual machine (vertically), or by adding instances of a resource, such as adding more virtual machines to your configuration (horizontally).
3. You can set up your applications in the cloud elastically, meaning that they are configured scale automatically and will always have the resources they need.
4. How long will it normally take you to buy a new server? With cloud computing comes agility, meaning that cloud-based resources – such as virtual machines – can be deployed and configured almost instantly.
5. If you tend to customers in a specific region, Azure’s geo-distribution allows your applications and data to be deployed to regional datacenters around the globe, so your customers always have the best performance.
6. By choosing to take advantage of cloud-based backup services, data replication and geo-distribution, businesses can deploy their applications confidently knowing they can count on Azure for disaster recovery and business continuity.
Do you have more questions about costs in Azure? Book a discovery call with the Cloud experts at Inova Solutions!
About Inova Solutions
Inova Solutions is the Microsoft trusted provider of Cloud Solutions in the Caribbean and Ecuador. We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner with extensive knowledge in software licensing. Our mission is: “Empowering organizations of all sizes to create business advantages by adopting digital transformation”. Inova Solutions’ unique formula is to assist organizations so they can lead the way through the smart use of technology, be able to continue to serve their customers and employees in the best way possible and ensure business continuity.
Source: Microsoft
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