Cloud Cost Management
Cloud cost management ensures maximum value from cloud spending. Without active management, costs can spiral from unused resources and over-provisioning.
Pricing Models
On-demand: pay per hour/second, most flexible. Reserved: 1-3 year commitment, 30-70% discount. Spot/preemptible: bid on unused capacity, up to 90% discount (can be interrupted). Savings plans: commit to usage amount. Free tier for learning.
Optimization Strategies
Right-sizing: match instance to workload. Auto-scaling: scale based on demand. Scheduling: stop non-production outside hours. Storage tiering: move infrequent data to cheaper classes.
Cost Monitoring
AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, GCP Billing. Set budgets and alerts. Tag resources for cost allocation by team/project/environment.
FinOps
Financial Operations brings accountability to cloud spending. Principles: teams own costs, decisions driven by business value, centralised best practices. Lifecycle: inform, optimise, operate.
TCO Analysis
Compare on-premises vs cloud: hardware, licenses, power, cooling, personnel, maintenance, opportunity cost.
Cost Architecture
Use managed services, leverage serverless for variable workloads, implement caching, compress data, architect multi-region only when needed.
Summary
Cloud cost management combines pricing knowledge, optimisation strategies, monitoring, and FinOps for maximum business value.