Want to cut your cloud costs? These startups have the tools to help

Most businesses using cloud-based services are spending a lot of money on cloud resources and capacity. Keeping a check of such expenses is a key priority for any CIO or IT manager. Here are six prominent tools that can help IT teams review their cloud infrastructure costs and reduce these additional expenses.

1. ParkMyCloud

ParkMyCloud is a self-service SaaS company. It offers a cloud service that helps businesses automatically identify and eliminate useless cloud spend. Around 1,000 enterprises worldwide, including Sysco, Workfront, Hitachi ID Systems, Sage Software, and National Geographic, use the ParkMyCloud to cut their cloud costs by millions of dollars annually.

ParkMyCloud’s SaaS platform helps businesses easily govern, manage and optimize their spending across multiple public clouds. This SaaS platform uses machine learning to find idle and oversized resources and makes data-driven changes or recommendations to schedule and resize them. The platform offers data-driven recommendations based on actual resource utilization history to save more money with no operational impact. It can manage AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and AliCloud resources on various resource types, regions, accounts via a single and easy-to-use interface.

ParkMyCloud offers four price models. The free version is good for individuals or coffee-table startups. The standard version, which offers SmartParking, starts from $3 per instance and is good for a team of up 10. The pro version includes right-sizing and costs $4/instance. The enterprise version provides unlimited access to all enterprise capabilities and can be opted for via in-person communication.

Cloud costs
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2. Nutanix Beam

Nutanix, a U.S.-based firm, is a provider of multicloud infrastructure management software.

It offers software-defined storage, cloud monitoring, desktop-as-a-service, and cloud services. In 2018, Nutanix acquired Minjar Botmetric service, the developer of a cloud infrastructure management service named Botmetric, which is now rebranded as Xi Beam.

Xi Beam is a multicloud governance service that provides deep visibility into the cloud expenses with granular metering of all resources. It also provides rich analytics on cloud consumption patterns. It can identify underused resources and deliver helpful recommendations to right-size infrastructure services for best cloud consumption or usage. It also offers one-click fixes for cost optimization and security compliance. In addition, it offers unified visibility into public and private cloud spending for better cost governance and multicloud management. Businesses can also use it for automated task scheduling and making intelligent purchases of Reserved Instances based on past usage records.

The service offers a 14-day free trial. Besides a free limited feature version, it offers paid subscription models as Standard ($99/month), Professional ($299/month), and Premium ($999/month).

3. Cloudability

Cloudability is a developer of a cloud cost management platform. It is a financial management tool used for monitoring and analyzing cloud computing costs. IT and finance professionals can use this for tracking their public cloud spend to plan budgets for cloud services. In 2019, Bellevue, Wash.-based software giant Apptio acquired Cloudability.

The platform can work well with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud and Microsoft Azure. It has specific features for Amazon Web Services — Cost Analytics and Usage Analytics — which help users identify EC2 cloud resources that can be shirked or disabled. It also has an AWS Reserved Instance Planner tool to guide users to the Reserved Instance buying process.

It offers two pricing plans: Pro and Enterprise, along with a free trial. The monthly fees are based on the number of cloud costs that users monitor. The Enterprise plan comes with extra features and a higher level of support.

Freepik / Business photo created by Natanaelginting

4. Zesty.co

Zesty.co is a real-time cloud management platform. It offers a Web Content Management system to create, maintain, deploy, and optimize enterprise web properties. It works as a content marketing solution provider for mid-market and enterprise brands. It was founded by Randy Apuzzo and Andy Fleming in 2012 and headquartered in San Diego, Apuzzo.

The platform is built on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure and requires no additional hardware or software resources. It allows for collaborative website building and easy management of multiple web properties from a single portal. It provides features such as automatic right-sizing of EBS Volumes, automatic decommission of unused cloud resources, risk-free management of Reserved Instances & Savings Plans, and scaling of confidently during peaks with discounted Spot Instances.

This SaaS platform is offered in three pricing models: Free, Standard, and Enterprise. All three models come with different features. The Standard model offers an extra Commitment Manager, while the Enterprise models offer Zesty Disk and Resource cleaner features.

5. Cloud Analyzer

Cloud Analyzer is a cloud cost management portal. It employs advanced analytics for better visibility and provides insights into the usage of all resources across multiple clouds. This platform is developed by Spot.io that was founded in 2014. Later in 2020, Spot.io was acquired by NetApp, an Israeli startup that specializes in cloud cost controls.

The Cloud Analyzer platform compares real-time usage data with historical patterns to identify trends and possible anomalies and misconfigurations, which may be impacting cloud costs. It uses advanced analytics to provide visibility and insights into cloud costs, shows possible ways to optimize those costs, and lets the users implement these recommended optimizations in just a few clicks. Using this platform, a business can map its cloud infrastructure and see comprehensive insights into costs and usage across all its cloud accounts. Businesses can also see their cloud efficiency, identify the best opportunities to reduce cloud costs, or even track results over time.

It is being offered in three pricing models: free trial, pay-as-you-go, and subscription-based. All three models have different features according to the price model. The pay-as-you-go model offers a 24/7 service, while the subscription-based model offers unlimited scalability with all features.

6. Flexera

Flexera is a U.S.-based computer software company located in Itasca, Illinois. It offers Flexera One, a SaaS-based IT management solution developed for organizations that have highly complex hybrid environments. This platform can be used to monitor cloud usage, costs, and discounting structures for public and private cloud accounts. In February 2020, Flexera had acquired the software usage analytics firm Revulytics. In December 2020, the private equity firm Thoma Bravo acquired Flexera for a second time by paying $2.85 billion. This long chain of multiple acquisitions over time is available here.

Using this platform, an organization can easily visualize their estate across the clouds and make data-driven IT decisions regarding cost optimization. It also provides full visibility into complex hybrid ecosystems helping them in right-sizing resource usage across all platforms, reallocate expenses, and reduce risk. It allows businesses to discover possible optimization opportunities. It also offers smart recommendations for cost optimization actions.

Cloud costs and high availability: A balancing act

Cloud computing costs are among one of the high budget items for several businesses. It is difficult to predict the final cost of server rental before the cloud architecture service is used. Using these services will help businesses right-size their cloud infrastructure and minimize their costs significantly. Of course, it’s not just about minimizing costs — it is also about ensuring high availability of services. It is a balancing walk to ensure you have all the cloud resources you need when you need them, and you don’t break the bank in the process.

Featured image: Shutterstock

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2 thoughts on “Want to cut your cloud costs? These startups have the tools to help”

  1. Thanks for the information. I work in the field of design, and cloud services are beneficial in working on projects. At the moment, I have a lot of 2D art stored on the cloud that we have developed for various companies. The design of 2D Art is and working on it on any device is an indicator of the convenience of a cloud service.

  2. You helped me so much as a writer’s conference newbie with the same advice you just wrote. And when I was a college journalism major, our prof told us the same for newspaper writing. Thanks!

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