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Cloud Myths: Cloud is Cheaper (Pill 1 of 5 / Cloud Pills)

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Cloud Myths: Cloud is Cheaper (Pill 1 of 5 / Cloud Pills)

The idea that moving to the cloud reduces the costs is a common misconception. The cloud infrastructure provides flexibility, scalability, and better CAPEX, but it does not guarantee lower costs without proper optimisation and management of the cloud services and infrastructure.

Idle and unused resources, overprovisioning, oversize databases, and unnecessary data transfer can increase running costs. The regional pricing mode, multi-cloud complexity, and cost variety add extra complexity to the cost function.

Cloud adoption without a cost governance strategy can result in unexpected expenses. Improper usage, combined with a pay-as-you-go model, can result in a nightmare for business stakeholders who cannot track and manage the monthly costs.

Cloud-native services such as AI services, managed databases, and analytics platforms are powerful, provide out-of-the-shelve capabilities, and increase business agility and innovation. However, they also come with higher operational costs that are not always properly tracked and mapped to the business.

Strong monitoring capabilities, resource optimisation, and proper policies provide a strong governance layer for cost management. All these practices are part of FinOps, which is supported by cloud vendors through different services and features.



Is the cloud cheaper? The cloud is a platform that requires rigorous planning and discipline to achieve full value and potential cost savings.

You can find below 5 examples of features of Microsoft Azure to achieve this:

1. Azure Cost Management & Azure Advisor for cost tracking, analysis and cost-saving recommendations

2. Azure Reserved Instances & Azure Spot VMs to reduce workload costs

3. Azure Resource Manager & Azure Policies for tagging policies

4. Azure DevTest Labs to gain and manage the cost of non-production environments

5. Azure Blob Storage Tiers, Storage Reserve Capacity & Lifecycle Management Policies for storage cost optimisation and storage tier patterns

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