Definition

There are five best practice areas for cost optimization in the cloud:

As with the other pillars within the Well-Architected Framework, there are tradeoffs to consider, for example, whether to optimize for speed-to-market or for cost. In some cases, it’s best to optimize for speed—going to market quickly, shipping new features, or simply meeting a deadline—rather than investing in up-front cost optimization. Design decisions are sometimes directed by haste rather than data, and the temptation always exists to overcompensate “just in case” rather than spend time benchmarking for the most cost-optimal deployment. This might lead to over-provisioned and under-optimized deployments. However, this is a reasonable choice when you need to “lift and shift” resources from your on-premises environment to the cloud and then optimize afterwards. Investing the right amount of effort in a cost optimization strategy up front allows you to realize the economic benefits of the cloud more readily by ensuring a consistent adherence to best practices and avoiding unnecessary over provisioning. The following sections provide techniques and best practices for both the initial and ongoing implementation of Cloud Financial Management and cost optimization of your workloads.