Tech Solution and So Much More
We already know that heavy adopters of the cloud can expect to see a wide range of benefits – innovation, data monetization, increased operational efficiency, and more. In fact, our research shows that more than 50% of “digital champions” – what we call the 7% of organizations that are successful with digital transformation – believe the cloud has helped disrupt their business model for the better.
In addition, organizations can achieve cost savings by moving to the cloud. For example, it can result in lower infrastructure and storage costs, as well as eliminated compliance and legal fees.
Where Exactly Are the Cost Savings?
If you’re looking to enhance the availability, accessibility, and scalability of application workload, cloud computing is a great choice. Now that you have decided to switch to cloud computing to boost speed and efficiency, the million-dollar question is: Where are the savings?
Let’s uncover them.
No Investments in Setup
On-premises infrastructure requires major investments in running and setting up your own servers. Most of the time, there will be instances of unanticipated expenditures associated with the system’s management and maintenance. With cloud computing, the cloud service provider will take care of all your infrastructure needs at a fixed cost, so there are no upfront investments for you. Plus, your hosting provider will cover the maintenance costs.
Economies of Scale
With cloud computing you will pay only for the hardware you use, resulting in optimal hardware utilization. In the cloud-based model, the cloud provider’s server infrastructure is shared between your workload and the computing needs of other clients, in-turn resulting in higher efficiency for the cloud provider and cost savings for you, the consumer.
Energy Savings
Once on the cloud you will save enormous amounts in energy consumption as the servers are not housed in your space. The power consumption associated with a 24/7, in-house IT Infrastructure is considerable. Based on the past rate of energy usage, the 2016 US data center energy usage report predicted that total electricity consumption of servers would grow from approximately 28 billion KWh/y in 2006 to 38 billion KWh/y in 2020.
By its nature, cloud computing calculates optimum server utilization capacities, leading to efficient power usage and resulting in comparatively lower bills from your cloud provider for the systems used.
Talent and Other Costs
Managing data centers and in-house IT servers requires a specialized skill set, and as such, the talent costs are high. However, with cloud computing you can reduce these costs since you don’t need to maintain a large in-house team for your IT needs. You also don’t need to worry about project continuity if an employee quits, or other employee-related costs like benefits, accommodations or rent allowances, and rent and supplies for extra office space.
Without the need to focus on managing in-house IT servers, you can have your IT department work on other important, value-add tasks that are business focused.
Eliminating Redundancies
Today, you can’t rely on one single hardware configuration to manage your varied technology or business needs. You need to have backup for disaster recovery in case of emergencies, like system crashes, failures, natural disasters, or global pandemics. And purchasing additional hardware can add to your overall bills, not to mention the regular maintenance, whether you use them or not.
With cloud computing, you can easily remove all these redundancies. Cloud service providers leverage multiple data centers and will help you ensure resiliency by replicating your data as per your recovery time objectives.
Greater Workforce Efficiency and Productivity
When you move your business to the cloud environment, your employees can access your network and applications from virtually any device, anywhere, 24/7. This gives a huge boost to productivity and increases efficiency, ultimately adding to your bottom line.
Money-Saving Strategies
Here are some tips through which you can optimize your cost savings during and after cloud migration:
Visualize your current and future cloud architecture, so you can anticipate gaps in your infrastructure and streamline your migration to the cloud with a clear cloud migration roadmap and strategy.
Map your cloud processes and roles in advance, so you can easily spot usage spikes and identify opportunities to improve operations for greater efficiency.
Pay for what you use: Only buy instances and cloud services that you use to help streamline operations.
Update your cloud architecture diagrams before migration, so you can better visualize your processes and gain insights into which parts of your infrastructure are underutilized or wasting money.
