So you’ve just finished your cloud migration. Some of it went well, some of it not so well, but you got there, or mostly there in a hybrid setup. But then three or so months pass and boom, a massive bill has been reported by one of the execs and everyone is looking around hoping it’s someone else’s problem.

Getting to the cloud can be empowering, it can open your company up to amazing functionality, great opportunities and ways to truly work smarter. But the key point to appreciate, especially in your cloud adoption infancy, is you pay for what you provision. The key word is provision, Cloud providers don’t care if you spun up that server, then Sarah asked you to run a report, and then you realised you needed to pick up the kids, and it was Friday so you were hoping to finish early…because 2 weeks later it’s been running 24/7 ticking along perfectly and there is a cost implication for that.

And like all new things that are adopted, there is a learning curve, there are ways you can do things better, and managing your Azure bill is definitely one of them. Some companies just get it right, they know what they are doing and the smash it out of the park. Kudos to them, but most companies have a primary business function, and managing the cloud bill is rarely that.

The good news is, Azure provide a lot of information these days to help, as they know a happy customer is one that’ll continue to use their product. But this can be a lot of information to digest, and then some of the savings opportunities are tied into 1 or 3 year commitments. Signing up to a 1 or 3 year commitment can be daunting, especially if the information to support such a decision isn’t to hand.

At Appcentric, we realise that this isn’t straight forward, but it is something we would like to help you with, especially if you plan on continuing to leverage Azure…you can alternatively rage quit the cloud, and if that is your preference, that’s your prerogative and you can click away from this blog now.

However, if you are like the majority, then we can provide tailored analysis on your environment and assist with the following:

• Reporting
  
  Solid reporting that leverages tagging and integrates with your business processes so that changes are identified early, ensuring the authoritative team can react quickly, limiting that bill shock experience at the end of the month
  
  
• Automation
  
  Introducing process and systems that don’t stop the business from functioning, instead ensure the work is brought to standard efficiently and effectively, while surfacing key information about previous usage to aid corrective action
  
  
• Strategy
  
  We can help with the plan on day one, fixing the fire, but also working on a roadmap of how this should be managed moving forward over the medium and long term
  
  
• Implementation
  
  We can assist your team with the implementation of this new process, or simply do this for you, letting you priories what is important as part of this process
  
  

With the correct measures and process in place, this should ensure that the Azure bill scales with your business success, not through mistakes and misconfiguration. Reach out to us at Sales@appcentric.com.au today if you want to know more.