Best Practices for Multi-Cloud Cost Optimisation

Did you know that UK firms waste about 30% of their cloud money from bad cost managing? With 92% of groups using around 5.3 clouds, it's hard to keep cost under check and it's very important too. Here's how you can cut back on spending but still keep your multi-cloud setup working well:

• Check costs with one tool: Mix AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud costs for a clear picture. Tools like CloudZero have saved companies a lot of money.
• Tag properly: Clear tags (like team, project, cost center) help you put costs in the right spots and stop waste.
• Set cost alerts in real time: Get alerts at 50%, 75%, and 90% of your budget to stop spending too much.
• Make resource use better: Often check and change tools to fit real use, and turn off what you don't use.
• Cut costs on moving data: Use private networks and CDNs to lower what you spend on data moves by up to 60%.
• Go with FinOps rules: Bring together finance, IT, and business teams to get better at handling costs.

Quick Tip: Up to 35% of cloud costs are from tools no one is using. Turning off tools when not needed can cut costs by up to 40%.

Quick Look at Ways to Save Money

These steps will help you control costs in multi-cloud setups, keep good speed, and let you grow.

Cloud Cost Optimization in 2024 : 10 Best Practices to Reduce Your Cloud Bill

Making Cost Clear and Under Control

Knowing where your cloud money goes is key, as 89% of big companies use many clouds [4]. Without clear view, handling the different bills from providers is hard and often leads to money waste - 30% of cloud cash gets lost due to bad tracking [2].

Using One Tool for All Monitoring

One tool to check multi-cloud spending makes things easier by bringing together info from services like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud in one spot. You won't need to switch between many screens anymore, giving you a full view of where your money goes.

The top tools don’t just show total costs - they give details, showing who spends, what on, and why. For example, CloudZero helped Drift cut £3.2 million from its AWS costs and helped Ninjacat cut their cloud bills by 40% [3]. When picking a tool, check it works with all your clouds, fits well with your systems, and has auto features. These should cover cleaning up, scaling, tagging rules, budgeting, guessing future costs, spotting odd spending, and splitting costs right [4].

Using these tools with smart tag plans can help you better understand and act on your cloud spending.

Splitting Costs With Tags

Tagging is like putting a label on every item in a storage place - it shows clearly who owns what and why it's there. Tags help you know which team, project, or department is responsible for certain cloud things and their costs.

But tagging can be hard. In a 2023 study, 46% of groups said tagging right and completely was their greatest cost split challenge [7]. Without good tagging, it’s hard to track cost sources, leading to expenses that go unchecked.

Good tagging systems need key markers like Owner/Team, Project/Application, Environment, and Cost Centre [2]. But having tags isn’t enough - they need to be used right. Set up processes to check tags before adding new things [5]. For example, a big company controlled overspending in its marketing team by requiring tags like Cost Centre, Project, and Environment. They also used code to put these tags in place automatically, letting them see full costs for campaigns and environments. This also led to automatic closing of unused test areas, saving money [6].

Checking tags often is key to keep them right. By often looking for missing or wrong tags and making rules to split costs fairly, you can avoid wasting money. Without good tagging and splitting practices, groups can lose up to 30% of their cloud budget [2].

Adopting a granular approach to cloud cost allocation, such as by tagging resources and tracking at the workload or department level, is no longer optional. It's crucial for organisations wanting to achieve real financial transparency and governance in their cloud spending. – Dr Radhika Keshavan, Director of Cloud Strategy at SquareOps [7]

Good tags help you handle money well, like setting up live cost alerts.

Using Live Cost Alerts

Live cost alerts act as your money-saving early warning - they tell you if costs may soon blow up [8]. Since 31% of firms spend over £20 million yearly on public cloud use [1], small extra costs can make big, unplanned bills.

It's smart to have alerts at different points, like 50%, 75%, and 90% of your budget [8]. Say your month's budget is £5,000, an alert at 80% (£4,000) gives you time to check and fix things before they get worse.

But, alerts only help if acted on. Make sure teams know who deals with them so they can act when needed [8]. Making these alerts automatic can work better. You can shut off stuff you don't need or cut down use when it’s slow [8].

By moving from just reacting to being ahead on money issues, live alerts keep you in control. This way fits FinOps rules, pushing joint care for cloud money among groups.

For firms using Hokstad Consulting's cloud cost skills, mixing these steps with smart tips and fit plans for your setup helps even more.

Handling Your Tools and Time Well

Once you know what things cost, the next job is to use your tools right. Good tool handling cuts waste and saves a lot of money. Too big or little-used tools often cause extra costs in cloud spending.

Making Tools Fit Right

Making tools fit means changing your computer services so they match what you really need - like picking the right size of clothes. Why get a big tool when a smaller one works fine?

Begin by checking how you use tools often. Look at your CPU, memory, storage, and network setups, and see how they match real use. Tools that help adjust size can check your data and suggest the best types for your needs. They might say to use a smaller type for making apps but keep strong options for running big databases.

It's also good to think about different prices from cloud providers in various places. This can save a lot of money. Check every month to keep your tools in line with real needs, stopping costs from getting too high.

Turning Off Tools When Not Making Products

A big part of cloud costs - up to 35% - comes from tools left on when not needed, like in development, testing, and staging. These don't have to run all the time, so they are great for saving money.

Turning off these tools when not in use can drop costs by up to 40%. Tools like Azure Automation and Terraform make this easy. For example, a financial tech company using Azure cut costs by 30-50% by turning off tools for testing when not needed.

Besides saving money, turning tools off can make things more secure by lowering the number of running tools when not needed. Start with one area, see how it goes, and then do more. Using tags helps keep track of what to turn off and when.

Going for Spot and Reserved Slots

For even more savings, think about using Spot and Reserved Slots. Spot Slots can be up to 90% cheaper than regular prices, but they might stop with just a two-minute warning. Reserved Slots can save up to 75% if you agree to use a set amount over time.

The right choice depends on your job. Spot Slots are good for jobs okay with stops, like grouping data or analyzing it. They are not stopped often - less than 5% - so they're dependable for flexible jobs. Reserved Slots are better for steady jobs that need sure space.

Since EC2 takes up about 60% of AWS spending, smart use of Spot and Reserved Slots matters a lot. Convertible Reserved Slots, for instance, can save up to 66% compared to regular rates and let you change features if your needs shift.

To make the best use of Spot Instances, you should be open to using different instance types and Areas, and make sure your tasks can handle stops. With Reserved Instances, look at past use data to fit your long-term needs and check how much you use them often to stop wasting money. Do a check on your account every two weeks or each month. This can show you new ways to make things work better and keep your costs low.

Cutting Down on Data Moving and Exit Costs

Working on the main ways to control cloud costs, cutting data moving costs is key to better cost control across many clouds. When moving data, either between clouds or to users, big exit fees often come into play. By paying close attention to these fees, companies can reduce cloud costs by up to 30%. For instance, moving 2PB of data might cost more than £70,000 every month. These figures show how important it is to use clever ways to direct and place data.

Using Private Network Links

Private network links help greatly cut data moving costs, often by more than 60%. Unlike public net moves - which come with exit fees - private links make direct paths between networks. By making peering deals with cloud providers, businesses get from dedicated connections at cheaper rates. Virtual cloud routers also help by moving data well without using the public internet. For moving a lot of data, services like AWS Direct Connect or Azure ExpressRoute offer big savings right away.

When organisations learn this, they frequently consider re-architecting their applications to reduce the amount of data travelling between network segments, either using techniques such as compression and deduplication or by adding a caching layer to reduce the bits travelling across the wire. – Kevin Bogusch, Senior Competitive Intelligence Analyst, Oracle [9]

CDN Delivery Set-Up

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are a key shift for cutting down what you pay to send data. They store data on close-by servers so it travels less. This way reduces the data sent by up to 40%. Things like images, videos, documents, and website pieces are shared over a global network of CDN servers. This makes sure users get them from the closest spot instead of the main cloud storage.

To do the best job, setting it up right is crucial. This means picking the right Time-to-Live (TTL) values for different content, using good cache keys, and keeping dynamic and static items separate. Adding compression at the server level to shrink file sizes at the CDN can also boost performance and save money.

In February 2025, Tata Communications cut a global media firm's data sending costs by more than 25% with its IZO™ Multi Cloud Connect service. They connected cloud services directly and chose the best data paths to save money and boost how things run.

Multi-Cloud Data Sending

While CDNs cut the data sent from original servers, smart routing makes sure data stays near where it is needed. This balances speed and cost, especially when data moves between clouds or across areas, making costs jump. Using private links for data and keeping it in the same area as its apps cuts needless transfers.

For apps used in many places, spreading resources across areas lets users link to the nearest data center. This brings down delay and dodges the higher costs of sending data over great distances. Always watching data paths with cloud tools can point out chances to get better, like picking between network links or physical transfer tools like AWS Snowball or Azure Data Box.

Knowing price differences between providers is key too. Sending data through the cheapest options helps every part of your multi-cloud setup manage costs better. These steps fit with FinOps rules, helping to keep cloud spending down well.

Using FinOps Ideas for Long-Term Money Saving

FinOps joins finance, tech, and work teams to make the best use of cloud space and cut waste. It's thought that up to 32% of cloud cash is lost due to things not used and bad money splitting [10]. By using FinOps rules, groups can often cut their cloud bills by 20–40%, while making all teams more aware of costs [12].

Building on past ways to see costs, FinOps gives a set way to handle bills in places with many clouds. A big problem comes when money teams can't get tech cloud ideas, while tech teams don't get the money impacts. This mix-up often leads to too much spent, more so when dealing with many cloud firms.

Setting Up Showback and Chargeback Ways

Showback and chargeback ways are main tools for making teams answer for money. These ways show cloud costs to the teams that cause them. Showback works on being open without making teams pay straight, while chargeback goes further by making teams pay for how much they use. Many groups start with showback to raise knowing before moving to the stricter chargeback plan.

Right money splitting needs clear tagging. Making sure tags are used when setting up things helps put costs to the right plans, teams, or areas. For example, tags can be for plan codes, team names, or money places. Often checks are key to fix untagged things, which can twist cost facts.

When moving to chargeback, check if teams are ready. See how well they get showback facts and if they think about the money impacts. The cost plans should show true use and mix well with money systems to help right billing and matching.

Cross-Team Cloud Money Plans

Breaking down walls between money, tech, and work groups is key for good planning. Often meetings together, helped by joined boards and live alerts, link tech moves with money aims and stop spending too much.

Teaching times can also boost working together. For instance, money teams can learn about cloud build and how to grow, while tech teams can learn about money times and money facts. This shared knowing leads to better choices and more true plans. Sadly, two-thirds of places say it's hard to track unit costs right [13], showing we need stronger work across teams.

FinOps is an operational framework and cultural practice which maximises the business value of cloud, enables timely data-driven decision making, and creates financial accountability through collaboration between engineering, finance, and business teams. – FinOps Foundation [14]

Cut Cloud Costs with Hokstad Consulting

For firms that want expert help, Hokstad Consulting gives special cost cut help. They use a FinOps way to drop cloud costs by 30–50%. Main moves are to set up good tags, use showback and chargeback ways, and push teams to work together.

Hokstad Consulting joins hands with money and tech teams to make set cost share ways that work for all cloud firms. They help set up one spot to watch costs, see spend patterns, and choose smart about funds and resources.

Their No Savings, No Fee deal means they win only if the client saves. Hokstad Consulting knows public, private, and mix clouds, helping them handle the tricky parts of using many clouds. They keep helping with rules, train teams, and keep an eye on costs to find new ways to save money.

Making a Multi-Cloud Setup Work Well

Making a good multi-cloud setup can help save money and make things run smoother. Choosing the right design lets work move easily and helps keep costs down. The key is to use tools and ways that work well with many cloud systems, and not to depend too much on just one provider's special services. With this plan, companies can make their work go faster and handle costs better.

Multi cloud cost optimization involves allocating the most suitable and cost-effective cloud resources to individual workloads or applications. – Headstorm [15]

The task is to find a good mix of being able to change and keeping costs low. This means we choose tools that work with most systems, make systems that can grow, and make sure apps can move easy. The main aim? To use the best from each cloud service while keeping the option to change if something better comes along.

Using Containers for Easy Moves

Containers let you move tasks between cloud services without changing code, which helps use resources better and saves money. Docker owns an impressive 82.5% of the market and leads in container tech [16]. Kubernetes, which manages the containers, has over 92% market rule, making sure it works well with almost all cloud services [16].

One top way containers save money is by using what you have to the max. They are more useful than the old virtual setups and cut down on wasted computer power. Features that scale automatically also help by making sure firms only pay for what they use.

Going Serverless

Serverless tech lets you cut costs by not having to look after servers. In this set-up, firms only spend money when their code works, which is perfect for apps that aren't always on. By the start of 2024, more than 67% of big firms in the US have taken up serverless ways in their cloud game plan.

This method is great for jobs driven by events, like when files are sent, forms are filled, or scheduled jobs need to run. You only pay when there's real work being done, so there's no waste on servers that aren't doing anything.

Serverless tasks can move easily because they don't hold state and act on events. This means a business can use the same tasks on many cloud spaces. Tools like the Serverless Framework or Terraform help to set up these tasks with just small tweaks. By making tasks small and to the point, firms can make the most of being able to move and save money. This way fits right in with services that don't care which cloud they're on, making things run smoother.

Picking Cloud-Wide Services

Choosing tools and services that work on many clouds helps avoid being stuck with one vendor and keeps costs flexible. Cloud-wide solutions let teams weigh features and prices between providers, making sure they land the best deal for each job.

A business is cloud-agnostic when the company IT systems are not locked into a single cloud vendor or do not rely on one cloud provider's proprietary services. – Richard Bailey, Lead IT Consultant at Atlantic.Net [18]

Open-source tools are key in these plans. For instance, PostgreSQL gives the same good work no matter who you use it with, while RabbitMQ lets you send messages without tying you to one seller. These tools help make it easy to move jobs when there are better prices or features.

Tools like Terraform and Pulumi, known as Infrastructure-as-Code, make handling resources simpler by letting teams use the same scripts over different clouds. Teams don't need to learn each seller’s own tools; they can just change config files to switch sellers, which saves both time and work.

We need to stop looking at the world as black and white, as Azure or AWS…and understand that at this point, there might be a better offering on Azure and if that's the case, let's build the bridges, let's build the network, and let's build a blueprint for that to happen. – Johnny Halife, CTO of SOUTHWORKS [17]

Making a plan for easy data moving is key. By using open rules for keeping data and making sure it works well with all providers, groups can dodge big costs of moving data later. Even though not sticking to one cloud might not use all the special features of a provider, the freedom to move jobs and talk for better deals often makes up for these downs. Mixing these building plans with known FinOps ways makes sure costs stay low for a long time across many clouds.

Main Points for Multi-Cloud Cost Management

Handling multi-cloud costs well needs focus on four linked parts: seeing costs, managing resources, handling data, and money duty. These all help keep spending down but still let things run well. Seeing costs gives a clear view of what you're spending, managing resources cuts waste from not used space, handling data stops surprise costs, and money duty makes teams care for their cloud money.

The facts show much. From Flexera's 2023 report, firms waste about 28% of their cloud cash [20]. Also, 31% of them spend more than £20 million a year on cloud techs [1]. Even more, 89% of those asked use lots of cloud ways [19], making costs hard to track.

Watching all clouds and steady naming help see costs better across all cloud ways. These ways grow the main rules for cost track and make it easy to spot not smart spends.

Tools like money alerts, auto-adjusting, and set turn-offs keep from too much spend by tackling problems early. In fact, many in the FinOps Foundation's 2025 report put fixing workloads and less waste as key tasks [1].

The money good of these plans is clear. Studies by McKinsey Digital show firms can cut cloud costs by 15–25% while still working well [20]. Real stories prove it: Contoso cut its multi-cloud costs by 37% in half a year with FinOps ways [11], and Datum Corp cut costs by 20% by not using space [11].

Data move costs also hit with sudden big spends. By making better nets and using CDNs, firms can drop these sneaky costs.

Yet, tech isn't all you need. Making a cost-smart feel is key. When coders get the money bit of their choices and ops teams have tools to watch and tune costs all the time, cost control is just part of the day and not just an urgent fix.

Lastly, steady checks and team talks make sure cloud spends match the firm's aims. This way helps firms keep their style and speed that multi-cloud plans offer while keeping costs in check.

FAQs