According to Gartner, investment in public cloud resources will continue to grow, reaching over $825 billion worldwide in 2025. As more organizations take advantage of the public cloud, they need to manage costs and maximize the efficiency of their environments. Maintaining an efficient cloud presence has become increasingly challenging, with many companies opting for hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures to address business objectives and requirements.
Inadequate management of these complex environments can result in cost overruns and inefficient resource utilization, affecting an organization’s ability to compete effectively. It can be difficult for a company to understand where it can reduce resource utilization without negatively impacting its operational capabilities. Fortunately, AWS customers have an available resource that can mitigate the challenges of optimizing cloud resources and Microsoft licensing.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers its customers a free Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA) tool designed to address the challenges of managing Microsoft licenses and cloud resources on AWS. The solution can also be used with the AWS Migration Evaluation (ME) to develop a business case for migrating on-premises workloads to AWS. The ME can project future AWS costs to help determine the best migration path.
What is the AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA)?
An AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA) offers new and existing customers an effective method to assess and optimize their on-premises and cloud environments. The data gathered during the assessment can provide insights into reducing required instances and enhancing resource efficiency. Eliminating unnecessary Microsoft licenses can make a big difference in the cost of maintaining an AWS environment.
OLA provides comprehensive information that can be instrumental in making effective decisions regarding a migration plan and licensing strategy for moving workloads to AWS. It can also be used to assess existing AWS workloads to help improve resource utilization and efficiency. The assessment can focus on optimizing current AWS cloud workloads or evaluating on-premises workloads to determine if they are good candidates for cloud migration.
Amazon recommends that customers take OLA as the first step in optimizing cloud costs. They also suggest that companies work with a member of the AWS Partner Network, such as VAST IT Services, to complete an OLA. Expert AWS partners can help your business navigate the complexities of the AWS ecosystem.
The advantages for customers of performing an AWS OLA include:
- Providing an understanding of your existing deployments, application performance, and contracts;
- Obtaining data necessary to right-size your cloud resources;
- Developing a roadmap for migrating applications to the AWS cloud;
- Reducing costs by optimizing existing investments and only paying for the resources used by your organization.
How the AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment Works
The OLA employs the following multi-step process when conducting an assessment.
Optimization and Microsoft licensing assessment
The first step is to assess the consumption, cost, and provisioning of on-premises and AWS Windows workloads. This information is crucial in identifying infrastructure components that may benefit from optimization. Two options are available when assessing Microsoft workloads on AWS.
- The lite version of the OLA is used when all your workloads are running on VMware. This kind of assessment takes 1-5 days to complete. This method pulls point-in-time data from the VMware vCenter to determine sizing recommendations and pricing options.
- The full version of an assessment is used for mixed environments, including different cloud providers and physical servers. Operating system agents are deployed to collect usage for 14 to 30 days. The assessment process takes 30 to 45 days and involves four subsequent phases. The assessment allows AWS to make informed sizing decisions based on current application usage. AWS then works with its Partner Network to deliver a final total cost of ownership assessment with multiple architectural and pricing options to the customer.
Scope workloads
AWS works with your organization to determine the assessment’s scope. Assessments are typically based on environment type and include the workload’s location. In-scope workloads may already be running on AWS, with other cloud providers, or consist of on-premises applications being considered for cloud migration.
Collect data
Utilization data for specific workloads is collected by Migration Evaluation or other third-party tools using various methods, including agents on physical and virtual servers or agentless discovery where appropriate. Data is collected over several weeks and captures CPU and RAM utilization, storage and network throughput, and IOPS. Information is ideally collected at peak usage times to provide helpful information for right-sizing cloud resources.
Analyze data
AWS analyzes the data and provides customs with a summary of findings with recommendations for cloud migration and on-premises usage. Results of this analysis may include:
- Optimizing Amazon resources by avoiding over-provisioning and ensuring the right-sizing of cloud instances;
- Saving on operational costs by deploying managed databases;
- Minimize third-party licensing costs by replacing outdated hardware and modernizing to cloud-native solutions.
Plan next steps
AWS uses the collected and analyzed performance data to estimate workload sizing and cost. A quantitative analysis can help decide whether migration to AWS or an on-premises technology refresh is the best plan forward. A TCO analysis summary can help build a business case for migration and modernizing your workloads.
Amazon states that the average customer can reduce cloud costs by 20-30 percent with an OLA. Right-sizing workloads and consolidating SQL Server instances can yield major financial gains.
Leverage VAST’s Experience to Streamline the AWS OLA Process
VAST’s extensive experience and standing as an Amazon partner give us the expertise needed to use the OLA process effectively to help your company get the most from its AWS environment. At no cost to you, we will begin the process, work with AWS to assess your environment and deliver results that allow you to make informed decisions regarding your IT environment.
AWS partners with VAST and pays us to do the work, so it’s complimentary for your organization. We manage the complete process from the initial call with AWS to the final delivery of your TCO summary. Our technicians are well-versed in the intricacies of the AWS portfolio of offerings. Enjoy the benefits of a professional optimization and Microsoft licensing assessment performed by a highly qualified technical team.
Call us today and get started on an AWS OLA to optimize the cost and efficiency of your investment in AWS cloud services.
