Top Ten Tools To Monitor Cloud Spend

A huge number of businesses, large and small, are shifting their operations to the cloud. Cloud services are adapting the way we collaborate and share information. The cloud enables us to process larger workloads while at the same time gain more flexibility and agility. Meanwhile, our employees are empowered with more mobility and improved collaboration.

However, while the cloud offers undeniable benefits, one of the challenges is the monitoring of service usage. Bills can get out of control when services are left running when they aren’t needed or are scaled up without a true understanding of cost implications. It is vital to know how cloud environments are performing and to monitor that all-important cloud spend if the cloud is to add the business value that it promises.

What is Cloud Monitoring?

As many cloud computing platforms follow a pay-as-you-go model, it can be difficult to manage usage and costs. It’s surprisingly easy for costs to get out of control. Cloud monitoring uses tools to manage, monitor and evaluate cloud architecture, infrastructure and services. Cloud monitoring covers more than spend alone; it forms an important part of cloud management strategy, allowing users to monitor and optimise their cloud-based resources.

There are a wide variety of cloud monitoring services on the market, and it can be tricky to find the best one that will fit with your business operations. To make the right choice, you need to have an understanding of your needs, budget and the applications you use.

Many cloud providers will offer monitoring solutions as an additional feature to their standard services. While these solutions help you keep on track of your application’s performance at a basic level, it’s worth considering a more comprehensive monitoring tool to truly monitor your cloud environment and avoid any unnecessary overspend.

To help out, we’ve picked out ten of the most popular cloud monitoring tools that can help you optimise your cloud environment and keep costs to a minimum.

1. Cloudyn

Cloudyn is Azure’s Cost Management tool that enables public and hybrid cloud services to be managed and monitored. The tool reviews cloud resources and makes practical suggestions for optimisation. The management dashboard is a great feature, which gives visibility into resources with customised reports. One of the key reports is the ‘trend’ report which ensures businesses aren’t paying more than they should be. Full visibility and accountability are delivered, and the service supports Azure, Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Google Cloud.

2. HP Hybrid Cloud Management

HP Hybrid Cloud Management enables you to design, deliver and manage hybrid environments whatever cloud, container or infrastructure you use. The DevOps-driven model enables you to control spending, deliver cloud-agnostic services, and orchestrate IT processes. The service is easily deployable as a pre-integrated, containerised appliance and works with Azure and AWS services. With a centralised dashboard, you are able to control resources across teams and keep costs low. What’s more, end-to-end encryption, dedicated support and custom policies ensure security alongside flexibility.

3. New Relic

New Relic gives you a real-time view of how your cloud applications and servers are running. Useful insights into your stack can enable you to isolate and resolve issues quickly and efficiently. On top of this, the intelligent management behind the platform gives you the power to easily scale your operations, while managing your costs. New Relic uses an algorithm which includes optimisation factors for all apps. All your data is in one dashboard so you can quickly see what is happening and optimise resources.

4. Cloud Management Suite

Cloud Management Suite doesn’t require any downloads as it is accessible directly from your web browser. It offers predictive and advanced IT management and manages all of your devices without the need to connect to a network. All device users can be kept up to date with the latest Microsoft and third-party software updates. What’s more, its power management feature means users can schedule their resources and more accurately manage their costs. Two-factor authentication is used alongside signature control features to protect users from security breaches.

5. Turbonomic

Turbonomic claims to lower the cost of the public cloud by an estimated 30 per cent. The tool works by giving users the ability to self-manage their on-premises and public clouds. Supporting both Azure and AWS, Turbonomic allows businesses to manage application consumption and costs with detailed analytics in real-time. The most recent version has been simplified to deliver clean workflows and insights alongside automated resource allocation.

6. Cloudability

Cloudability focuses on monitoring and controlling cloud expenses by providing detailed reports on cloud usage. You can easily visualise who is spending what and where enabling you to solve issues before they escalate into costly problems. Its comparison feature allows you to compare spending across multiple cloud services to ensure you are getting the best value for money. With full support for public, private and hybrid cloud providers, it is a great tool to keep costs as low as possible.

7. Qstack

Qstack is a cloud management tool that enables users to manage multiple cloud and hybrid deployments. The single self-service dashboard is incredibly user-friendly and gives users a considerable amount of control over their data. The service is compatible with Azure and AWS and aims to reduce licensing costs by consolidating several cloud management platforms. Having recently been taken over by NetApp, there are plans to build the service to enable advanced analytics, DevOps and disaster recovery.

8. ParkMyCloud

ParkMyCloud is a cloud management tool that focuses purely on spend. The SaaS platform automatically identifies and eliminates public cloud resource waste. The service claims to reduce cloud computing costs by 65 per cent or more, and all in only 15 minutes. The tool works by scheduling on/off times, so customers are only charged for the compute power they actually use. Compatible with Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and more, ParkMyCLoud integrates cost control into DevOps processes, enabling spending to be reduced and cloud usage optimised.

9. CloudMonix

CloudMonix is an advanced cloud monitoring solution for applications and services on the Microsoft Azure platform. The software enables the visualisation of all systems and resources in one place. The user-friendly dashboard provides advanced analytics as well as an automated issue resolution features with optimises cloud costs. Having the ability to execute self-healing actions by auto-scaling resources is an invaluable aspect.

10. Datadog

Datadog is an infrastructure monitoring service that focuses on creating a single view of any stack and any app at any scale. The tool brings together data from services and databases and collects metrics from hundreds of company integrations. Simple dashboards provide accurate, real-time data and a user-friendly drag and drop system makes it easy to select the parameters you want to monitor. With full visibility of your applications, you’re able to easily troubleshoot and optimise their speed and functionality.

By employing a cloud management platform, you can ensure that you manage your cloud costs. By monitoring your cloud spend, you’ll get the most for your money as well as optimising your operations.

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