Cloud computing has brought a new pay structure to the market in recent years, “pay-as-you-go”. No longer does an organization always have to make a capital investment therefore displacing funds from other investments the organization must make. But, as Bernard Golden writes for CIO, it is important to realize that with pay-as-you-go the meter is always running and utilization continues to play an important factor in getting the most from your cloud service.
Mr. Golden provides five critical items to keep in mind in order to realize the benefits of the cloud computing pay structure:
- Design: think of your cloud service as a “just-in-time computing resource.”
- Operations: Ideally, Mr. Golden says, financial tracking needs to be married to an operational tracking in which developers and system administrators are monitoring resources to evaluate use, use levels and potential design optimizations to reduce cost while maintaining operational efficiency and required performance levels.
- Finance: Work for a collective ‘bill’ or in other words centralize organizational spend on cloud services.
- Procurement: Just as in any other contract, don’t be afraid to negotiate price and compare against other market leaders.
- Management: Set up a group that examines ongoing financial performance to ensure maximum cost/benefit outcomes. The group should include finance and IT members to capture both the dollar impact and the technical impacts.
Cloud computing has created a new mode of operation and with it has made cost tracking and application utilization monitoring critical IT skills.
