As a Cloud Solution Architect, I often find myself justifying cloud costs during stakeholder meetings. They usually have concerns about three main areas: unpredictability of costs, visibility into spending, and return on investment (ROI). I'm looking for advice on how to effectively address these points and present our cloud spending in a way that makes sense to them. Any tips on managing these discussions would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
As a solutions architect, it’s crucial to follow the Well Architected Framework, especially regarding cost optimization. Before rolling out any solution, provide estimated costs based on usage patterns. It won’t be perfectly accurate, but you can give a range, outlining what the costs could look like—low, average, and high. This way, the client is aware of potential expenses before deployment. For unpredictability, aim for a design that uses resources with predictable pricing. For visibility, consider creating dashboards or using tools that give insights into costs. ROI can be straightforward; compare the total cost of ownership for on-prem vs Azure over five years to show potential savings.
I usually draft an outline of costs for my customers upfront and refine that during the detailed architecture planning phase. It's important for transparency, so they know what to expect regarding expenses. I also encourage clients to invest in FinOps or similar practices for better resource management and cost efficiency.
Honestly, for many companies, the additional costs of the cloud can be tough to justify. I typically suggest focusing on managed services like AKS and using spot instances wherever possible to help decrease costs. The cloud really shines in scenarios with unpredictable or variable usage and when serving multiple regions to reduce latency. But not everyone gets it, and that’s just the current state of things.
I feel you! Cloud billing can be a headache. What works for me is addressing the three points you mentioned. For unpredictability, set clear budgets and use monitoring tools to manage resources. For visibility, customize reports to show how spending correlates with business outcomes—not just raw numbers. And for ROI, always compare what cloud solutions save in operational costs against on-prem expenses. This shifts the focus from ‘Why is this expensive?’ to a clearer value conversation.
Instead of trying to 'justify' costs, approach this as a trade-off discussion. Present various hosting models and their pros and cons. Talk about performance metrics and maintenance costs. Highlight the scalability, availability, and observability benefits of the cloud and figure out if those strengths align with the organization's needs.
What tools do you use to track data usage effectively? I find that monitoring can get pretty messy and manual sometimes. Any suggestions?