There is no doubt that anyone running a business will want to keep a firm control on costs to maximise their profits and return on investment for the company. When speaking to our customers, reducing costs is one of the major drivers in deciding to migrate to a cloud solution.
It might be really trendy to jump on the bandwagon right away and start saying “we’re moving the business to the cloud” but some up front calculation work is required to make sure that not only is cloud migration right for you but also if you are starting that process, what is the best solution for you and at the lowest cost. This is done through a process called right-sizing.
“By right sizing before a migration, you can significantly reduce your infrastructure costs. If you skip right sizing to save time, your migration speed might be faster, but you will end up with higher cloud infrastructure spend for a potentially long time.” Source: AWS Whitepaper – Right Sizing Provisioning Instances to Match Workloads
If cost is a major driver in the decision to migrate to the cloud then making sure you get the right-sizing done properly up front is key to a successful cloud migration. Right-sizing calculates your workload performance and capacity requirements to ensure lowest possible costs. One reason put forward for this not being done accurately at the start is a mindset among IT professionals who are used to planning for peak demand. However, in a cloud infrastructure, capacity is based on average demand instead of peak. AWS claim that doing right-sizing properly can save up to 70% on monthly billing. Isn’t that an incentive to do this right?
Working on the right-sizing at the start of the cloud migration project provides vital information to make an informed comparison on whether migrating is the right option for your business when compared to an on-premise solution. There are a host of known costs attached to operating on-premise servers such as the equipment itself, electricity, parts, upgrades and renewals but there is also the risk of unplanned costs at any time. The planned, known costs of on-premise can be compared to the results of the right-sizing exercise to ensure that cloud migration is right for you and also if you do decide to move to the cloud – what then is the best solution available to optimise performance and cost for your business.
Right-sizing is important at the start of a cloud migration project but it is equally important to make sure this becomes an ongoing process in your business once you have moved to the cloud. Requirements can change over time so it’s important to repeat the right-sizing process to ensure you are continually optimising both capacity and cost. AWS recommend right-sizing monthly and provide tools for clients to do this effectively. The analysis and calculations this provides ensures you can forecast costs for the year based on agreements with the cloud service provider.
No matter what the reasons are for you considering a move to the cloud, one thing is clear – planning and making informed decisions is important and never more apparent than when cost is the driving factor. If you are planning to migrate to the cloud to reduce your operating costs then right-sizing is the key to making this a success.
You can learn more about right-sizing in the AWS Whitepaper – Right Sizing: Provisioning Instances to Match Workloads or contact us to discuss how we can support your cloud migration journey.
