A team in your company decides to use the Cloud to host their next project. No problem, the provider tells you that you are going to save money using the power of the Cloud. All is well and a few months later, you get a totally disproportionate invoice compared to the budgeted amounts.
What happened to justify such an invoice? You are being told that following the first project’s success, two other departments have decided to take the plunge. Well, now let’s try to split this invoice in order to impute the right amounts to the right departments. Whew! The task proves to be difficult. In addition, how do you justify this use of a product or service that seems excessive? Again, it’s not easy because you don’t have any justifications and it’s impossible to find a cause because you only use one account for all the services.
This misadventure is common when you start using Cloud Computing and it’s usually at this point that companies implement governance processes allowing a better control of the use of services and their costs. But why not implement such processes as soon as you make your first steps toward the Cloud?
It should be noted that the arrival of Cloud Computing in a company brings changes not only at the level of IT teams’ but also for other departments. Therefore, it’s a good time to implement new governance policies allowing you to keep an eye on costs, but also allowing teams to become more agile.
But how to implement this much talked about governance?
First, you need to document the needs and set limits. After that, you need to define the policies to establish norms. Finally, you need to use the tools offered by the providers in order to apply these norms. It can be done via templates or by configuration.
For example, you would want developers to be able to create virtual machines in order to conduct their tests, but you also wish limit this to a certain type of machine that has an acceptable use cost for the project.
These norms are defined by the company through a committee and implemented by a Cloud Custodian team. It is therefore important to implement this governance soon in the process of Cloud Computing adoption by the company to avoid this “open bar” of expenses.
Demystifying the Cloud
Governance is only one of the aspects to consider when transitioning toward the Cloud. To learn more, we offer a one day training course named “Demystifying the Cloud” and targeted at IT teams managers.
It is also relevant for all managers involved in Cloud Computing projects. The topics covered in this training apply perfectly to the three big players in the Cloud industry: Amazon Web Service (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Our trainer
Guy Barrette is a developer/trainer awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in the Azure category. He passed the following certifications: Azure Fundamentals, Azure Developer Associate and Azure Architect Design.
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