November 2023 brought a lot of positive cloud cost news. While none of the major cloud providers introduced significant changes, we did see a few promising developments that indicate they understand prices are high, and are willing to take steps toward fixing the problem.
For instance:
- Microsoft developed new chips that may reduce costs thanks to increased efficiency
- AWS released a service to help users identify opportunities for cost optimization
- Google launched a new article series introducing FinOps for cloud users
- The re:Invent 2023 conference placed a strong emphasis on current and future cloud innovations
Stay tuned for the details of each of these developments.
Top Cloud Cost News From November 2023
1. Microsoft announced the release of two new chips that will hopefully result in lower costs
With so many companies focusing on delivering AI services to consumers, the cost of cloud subscriptions has been significantly impacted.
AI technology is resource-intensive, and that translates to more dollar signs on your monthly bill. In fact, prices for AI services can be up to ten times higher than the prices most SaaS companies are accustomed to paying for cloud services.
To try to offset some of these rising costs, Microsoft announced at the beginning of November that they will be using two newer, more advanced chips to power their subscription software services including AI.
The increased efficiency of these chips should not only help customers run large language and other AI models with greater speed, but it should also bring the cost of those services down for consumers.
Ideally, this means SaaS companies will have access to higher quality, speedier AI services from Microsoft for a lower price.
2. AWS Introduced a Cost Optimization Hub to help you better organize your AWS cost recommendations
AWS already offered some cost optimization recommendations such as opportunities for rightsizing your instances, switching off idle resources, and taking advantage of savings plans.
However, these recommendations were scattered between all your AWS Regions and Member Accounts, which made it all too easy to lose track of important suggestions and miss out on savings.
The new AWS Cost Optimization Hub should solve that problem. It organizes and consolidates the various optimization opportunities from each of your accounts into one central place. This should make it easier to identify high-priority actions you can take to avoid unnecessary spending.
While this is a step in the right direction for SaaS companies that don’t employ any other cost optimization methods, it’s a far cry from what can be achieved with a comprehensive cost optimization platform such as CloudZero, which consolidates, organizes, and standardizes all your cost data from every provider and third-party service you use.
3. Google published the first article in a new series on FinOps practices
As cost-conscious as a SaaS company may be, they won’t get far into the optimization side of things without diving into FinOps. We at CloudZero focus heavily on FinOps as we coach clients toward building more cost-efficient solutions in the cloud, so we are pleased to see that Google recognizes the same value in this approach.
The first article in Google’s FinOps series focuses on introducing the concept to new users and defining the core building blocks and roles within the FinOps framework. Future articles promise to explore more in-depth topics including how you can use FinOps to optimize your cloud spending.
In the meantime, if you’d like to do some advance reading on the subject, these articles will give you a solid foundation to start from:
4. AWS re:Invent 2023 gave attendees a glimpse into the future of the cloud and AI
Re:Invent 2023 took place in Las Vegas from November 27th through December 1st. Like past years, the seminar featured exciting expos, expert speakers, and plenty of opportunities to network with SaaS business leaders and folks from AWS.
Some of the highlights from this year’s seminar include keynote speeches on current and upcoming cloud innovations, the engineering behind your favorite AWS services, and how SaaS companies can integrate generative AI into workflows in new and creative ways.
If you missed seeing the conference in person but want to catch up on the details, you can view the recorded presentations here. Or, check out our key takeaways from the event here.
Take Control Of Your Cloud Costs Once And For All With CloudZero
It’s great when cloud providers make moves toward keeping prices manageable and transparent. But in an ideal world, you should never take their word for it.
Instead, track your costs in enough granular detail that you can tell exactly how, when, and why your costs change from month to month. You’ll not only get rid of unpleasant surprises on your cloud bill, but you’ll also gain insight into how you can reduce unnecessary costs and avoid the price bloat all SaaS companies inevitably encounter.
with our team to see how you can start saving money right away.
The Cloud Cost Playbook
The step-by-step guide to cost maturity
