Cloud computing is becoming the norm for enterprise-level applications, offering forward-looking businesses a wealth of benefits – reduced operational costs being one of them. However, cloud infrastructure expenditure can quickly spiral out of control, if managed incorrectly. By following a few, simple guidelines, companies can maximize the advantages of the cloud, including revenue, with limited, value-adding investments.

New, greenfield software as well as existing, brownfield, mission-critical applications from all over the world are moving in the same direction: the cloud. Enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services has been rising over the past years, exceeding USD 76 billion in the first quarter of 2024. This figure certainly highlights the growing interest in cloud infrastructure technology. However, when combined with statistics on cloud spend wastage, it sheds light on the importance of selecting optimal cloud environments and effective maintenance. In effect, managing cloud costs is considered the top challenge for companies implementing or using the technology, with wasted cloud spend estimated around 27%.  

Optimizing cloud expenditure is therefore key to benefiting from quicker returns on investment (ROI) on cloud computing, improving profitability as well as fully reaping the advantages offered by the technology when it comes to enterprise-level applications. When it comes to selecting and running a cloud platform for software applications, there are a number of aspects that companies should consider to minimize their costs while enhancing their solutions.

Monitoring cloud operations

Clearly defining system requirements and budgets is a top priority, and these two should align. When defining these elements, it’s important to involve different teams within the organization, such as engineering, product, procurement and finance teams, as they can contribute to the discussion with different perspectives.

To avoid going over-budget, companies should be favoring a platform that can offer real-time insights on expenditure through cost monitoring functionalities and alerts that can notify users of over-usage or spending anomalies. When operating applications where demand and the necessary resources can vary considerably, choosing a solution that can support scalability is extremely beneficial. By leveraging auto-scaling, load-balancing and on-demand functions to scale up capacity as needed rather than saving idle resources in anticipation of traffic spikes can yield considerable results. These precautions help to address peak demand without having to over-specify and incur unnecessary costs.

Opting for specialization

With an estimated 20% to 60% of developers' time typically spent on integrating and managing cloud infrastructures, ensuring application deployments and alterations can be implemented quickly can help to considerably slash costs. Therefore, it is advisable to look for a platform that leverages automation to offer an intuitive and seamless "click-to-deploy" experience.

In addition, selecting a vendor that offers specialized solutions for the specific Java frameworks used by the intended application while supporting multi-cloud deployment can help optimize expenses. For example, while Azure Spring Apps is ideal for SpringBoot-based applications, Payara Cloud is designed to support Jakarta EE-based environments. Selecting a provider with such capabilities can streamline deployment while offering highly specialized, personalized support, maximizing uptime and efficiency while limiting costs and resources associated with downtime.

Regular reviews

Finally, companies should consider performing regular checks to identify unutilized or idle resources. These could be temporary servers that were provisioned but not de-provisioned, storage associated with terminated instances and idle computing resources. Reviewing idle accounts, especially when it comes to production environments, can also help identify and resolve inefficiencies, reducing future costs.

By moving to the cloud, companies can futureproof their applications and deliver advanced solutions. When migrating, having tools and strategies in place to optimize expenses can play a key role in driving efficiency, profitability, performance and competitiveness. By selecting a suitable cloud-native platform that is designed to help limit and monitor cost, companies can successfully leverage the cloud to improve feature delivery, customer satisfaction and profitability.