Article Why Cost Optimization Should be a Top Priority for MSPs

Par Insight UK / 18 Aug 2021 / Sujets: Nuage

Cost optimization is more urgent than ever. The global pandemic has dramatically accelerated our way of working to much more remotely and therefore in the cloud. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are in the driver’s seat to facilitate this process for their customers. Market demand for flexible, affordable cloud solutions is strong. Unfortunately, so is the competition, and prices are under pressure.

How do you keep costs under control and where can you optimize so that your business makes a healthy transition? Time for MSPs to make cost optimization a top priority. For example, by taking a closer look at costs for cloud management, software licensing and data storage, where quick wins are easily achieved.

Multi- and hybrid-cloud cost optimization

MSPs are making the transition from the on-premise data centre to the cloud. This is not done all at once, but in phases, with carefully selected workloads and services in a hybrid environment. More environments and more services means more complexity in monitoring and optimizing your estate. Adequate tooling as offered by VMware, for example, helps gain valuable insights into hidden costs and recommendations on how to improve. Think about inactive storage, idle infrastructure components, price discounts, rightsizing, scaling and more.

Optimize software licensing

Software licences can be quite a minefield. Already with the first services migrated to the cloud, you get new, subscription-based licences alongside your existing ones. Even as a Managed Service Provider, it is not easy to oversee the entire landscape of cloud licences and technology. A hybrid environment requires new ways to optimize licensing agreements and infrastructure to balance cost, performance and compliance considerations. An experienced specialist in software licensing, workloads and platforms can prove invaluable in helping you optimize licensing agreements for your unique situation and benefit your business.

Improve expenses for legacy storage and backup

Back-up is another area where MSPs can optimize costs. Legacy backup and storage solutions in MSP data centres are often more expensive and complex than in the cloud. Costs for hardware and software are obvious, but there are also more hidden costs such as for licensing, maintenance, management or the expense of staff training, especially with a complex solution. Costs can be significantly reduced and further optimized by transferring data storage to the cloud. A multi-vendor platform like Veeam facilitates this, while also ensuring that your data is properly protected. For example, by intelligently dealing with storage tiers, data transfer, caching and more.

Need help?

These are only three areas in which Managed Service Providers can optimize cloud costs in a (hybrid) cloud environment. We at Insight have been working with MSPs like you across Europe for many years, providing valuable time, knowledge and support in many (hybrid) cloud scenarios. We can help you monitor and optimize your cloud cost, map it against your existing budget, and suggest on improvements that will lower your total cost

Contact one of our cloud specialists to find out how we can support you in optimizing your cloud costs in line with your business goals, whether you are designing your first workloads in the cloud or work entirely cloud-based.

Well-Architected Framework (WAF)

This article is part of a series of articles based on Microsoft’s WAF (Well-Architected Framework), where you find much more helpful guidance. WAF improves the quality of workloads operating in the cloud by focusing on a set of common architecture principles, including cost optimization, operational excellence, performance efficiency, reliability and security.

New ways forward

As a multi-vendor software licensing, workload and platform specialist, we can guide you through all stages of your strategic cloud journey with a series of workshops, assessments, services and best practices. From the first exploration of cloud or hybrid opportunities and benefits to support and optimization after migration. No matter where you are in your journey, we help you to find new ways forward and accelerate your business.