Microsoft Azure is part of the 3 main components of the cloud computing family consisting of IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). Azure is both IaaS and PaaS, and like all cloud computing services Azure's overall business benefits are to help any organization, "achieve their desired business outcomes". Let's take quick look at one of the business benefits of Azure - Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Total Cost of Ownership
Total Cost of Ownership refers to the total investment, both direct and indirect costs of implementing a new solution for your organization. Before implementing Azure, you probably went through a TCO Cost Savings exercise and you maybe even used an Azure Cost Savings Calculator. This process probably looked like this:
- Define your on-premises workloads (servers, databases and storage)
- Define your networking costs
- Make assumptions going forward
- Calculate your potential cost savings
In doing so, your cost savings could very well have looked like the chart to the right.
TCO Post Implementation
Now that Azure has been successfully implemented, you have the responsibility of ensuring you truly achieve these cost savings going forward avoiding any "heart attack" monthly bill. Here are 3 areas to focus on:
Continuously Monitor Your Spending
Azure offers some great tools to track resource usage in one single view so you are able to make quick, informed decisions that can dramatically affect your Azure costs. You can also estimate and review costs before implementing more resources, but your team must be fully trained on these tools and processes to make this a success.
Ensure Organizational Accountability
Azure TCO management is not solely in the hands of the IT staff. Policies, procedures, cost allocation and organizational charge-backs should also be considered. Remember, cloud, including Azure, is all about helping your organization achieve your desired business outcomes.
Ongoing Cloud Optimization
As with any of the members of the cloud services family, optimization of all cloud resources to help manage TCO is imperative. Implementing industry best practices on the selection and use of cloud services can have a dramatic effect on your Azure TCO.
We created a simple 1-page Azure Business Benefits Guide and Assessment. Use this guide to assess your business benefits with Microsoft Azure. After, schedule a time to review your results in a free recommendations call.
In the next blog of our 5 part series The Business Benefits of Azure we'll discuss How to Ensure your Azure Solution is Secure. Subscribe to our blog to be notified of the next published post.