Companies are typically attracted to cloud computing for its potential business and operational advantages. The cloud offers organizations many benefits compared to operating and maintaining on-premises data centers. One of the most significant benefits of the cloud is access to cutting-edge technology, including automation solutions.
Leveraging cloud automation can be instrumental in reducing costs and improving operational efficiency. Multiple aspects of an organization’s IT environment can be optimized with cloud automation. Following are some specific ways cloud automation can drive efficiency and reduce costs for your business.
Automated Resource Scaling
One of the reasons organizations move to the cloud is the ability to scale resources such as network bandwidth or compute capacity to address fluctuating or evolving business requirements. It can be virtually impossible to scale resources effectively with manual methods. Manual scaling attempts may result in wasteful over-provisioning or under-provisioning that negatively impacts the business.
Automating resource scaling can result in significant cost savings and enhanced operational efficiency. The major cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft offer automated scaling solutions. These solutions monitor resource usage and dynamically adjust allocation to address changing operational requirements.
Automated resource scaling reduces costs and increases efficiency in several ways. Cost benefits include:
- Eliminating expensive over-provisioning of unnecessary resources;
- Reducing power consumption and storage costs accrued by idle systems by only running resources necessary to fulfill business needs.
Automated scaling boosts operational efficiency by:
- Ensuring availability during demand spikes to maintain a consistent user experience;
- Distributing workloads across resources for enhanced applications and system performance.
Automated Cloud Storage Management
The cloud provides companies with virtually limitless storage capacity. Failure to manage cloud storage efficiently can lead to cost overruns and negatively affect users and business operations. Organizations may end up spending more than necessary to store their data. Mismanaged storage can lead to inefficient use of a company’s valuable data resources.
CSPs typically offer their customers multiple storage tiers to address varying business requirements. For instance, companies can store business-critical data or information requiring high availability on high-speed storage devices easily accessible by applications and users.
Highly accessible storage tiers are more expensive than options utilized for infrequently used data. More cost-effective storage solutions are available to retain legacy information necessary for compliance with regulatory standards.
Automating cloud storage management can dramatically reduce costs and improve operations in the following ways.
- Data can automatically be moved between tiers based on defined policies to minimize the use of expensive storage options.
- Companies can implement automated rules to delete expired data from the environment to free up storage space and reduce costs.
- Efficiency is supported by ensuring data is stored in the appropriate tier to facilitate business operations.
Automated Backup and Disaster Recovery
Comprehensive data backups and disaster recovery readiness are essential to protect modern businesses. Companies may also need to demonstrate verified backups and disaster recovery plans to meet compliance standards. The cloud offers companies a wide array of automated backup and disaster recovery solutions and services.
Automated backups
Organizations adopting an automated cloud backup solution can expect to enjoy benefits including:
- Cost-efficient backups and data protection without the expense of implementing and maintaining an on-premises backup infrastructure;
- Streamlined backup storage leveraging retention policies to delete outdated copies and minimize storage costs;
- Compliance with regulatory data protection standards;
- Consistent backups by minimizing manual intervention and reducing potential human errors or oversights.
Automated disaster recovery
The advantages available to organizations implementing automated disaster recovery include:
- The ability to recover mission-critical systems in various geographic regions for enhanced resilience;
- Cost reductions by eliminating the need to maintain a dedicated recovery site;
- Meeting compliance standards for data availability;
- Minimizing downtime by automatically triggering recovery procedures when necessary.
Automated Resource Shutdown
Companies can implement automated cloud services to optimize resource usage throughout their environments. Cloud resources like storage volumes and virtual machines may become idle due to workflow variations. Organizations can develop policies that allow automation to identify and shut down unused resources.
Benefits of automating the shutdown of unused resources include:
- Controlling costs by eliminating charges for idle and unused cloud resources;
- Pausing non-production environments during off hours for significant cost savings.
Automated Cost Monitoring
Companies can lose track of cloud spending and risk exceeding budgetary expectations. The major CSPs offer automated cost-monitoring tools that generate alerts or perform actions based on defined thresholds. The advantages of automated cost monitoring include:
- Efficient budgeting by alerting when resource thresholds are exceeded so companies can take proactive measures;
- Identifying specific elements of the cloud infrastructure that may need to be optimized to control costs.
Automated Patch Management
Cloud automation can schedule critical maintenance tasks such as patching and updating systems or applications. Automating these processes offers multiple benefits that include:
- Ensuring security vulnerabilities are addressed promptly by installing vendor updates and patches;
- Reducing manual patching efforts so teams can concentrate on value-added activities;
- Minimizing downtime by efficiently installing patches to align with business operations.
Automated Load Balancing
Cloud automation can ensure optimal resource allocation to balance workloads across the infrastructure efficiently. Automated load balancing can also scale resources up or down when necessary. Benefits of automated load balancing include:
- Enhanced operational performance by effectively handling traffic spikes;
- Ensuring service availability by allocating resources as needed;
- Cost savings by de-allocating unnecessary resources.
VAST’s Solutions to Leverage Cloud Automation
At VAST, we understand the benefits companies can obtain through cloud automation and offer our customers tools and services that leverage these advantages.
The features of our Cloud Backup-as-a-Service (CBaaS) offering include:
- A fully managed cloud-based backup solution;
- Fixed pricing for predictable budgeting;
- Immutable backups for regulatory compliance.
We offer Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) that leverages the capabilities of AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery for enhanced operational resilience. Benefits of this service include:
- Cost savings by only paying for a recovery site when it is needed;
- Fast application recovery to a designated time or the most current state.
Our VAST View Tool provides an effective cloud management platform that companies can use to automate and optimize cloud processes to reduce costs and promote efficient operations.
Contact us today and let us help your business implement effective cloud automation.
