Episode 51: Size of Cloud Bill: Not About Number of Customers, but Number of Engineers You've Hired

Years ago, if you wanted to launch an Internet company or Web application, you had to own necessary hardware. Now, the economics have changed drastically with the ease of Cloud computing. It’s still a new industry that people are trying to figure out, especially when it comes to cost and optimization.

Today, we’re talking to Dann Berg, a Cloud ops analyst at Datadog. He helps others understand and lower the cost of Cloud operations. Dann is a detective who is dedicated to figuring out why a company’s Cloud bill is so high.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Companies struggle with field of Cloud economics; can be overwhelming because there’s so much to learn about products and implementation
• Companies use the Cloud to grow quickly, which makes their Cloud costs grow quickly and more than expected
• Only access to full list of every resource being used is the Cloud bill; there’s no comprehensive inventory service available
• Companies need to offer visibility to Cloud bill; not everyone has access to understand how their actions impact the bill
• Cost of Cloud bill is dependant on different factors, including new features, new users, and cost of goods sold (COGS)
• Scale and manage bill by using a platform app or hiring a consultant/team
• Understand pricing of AWS and learn best practices for cost controls early on
• Don’t leave money on the table by focusing on engineering time - not best use of resources; focus on the smallest things that have the biggest impact
• Cost is important, but don’t slow down those developing in the Cloud; open lines of communication to create culture to understand cost, value what’s measured

Links:

• Dann Berg on Twitter
• Datadog
• re:Invent
• AWS
• Cost Explorer
• CloudHealth
• CloudCheckr
• Cloudability
• Lambda
• EC2
• GCP
• Azure
• CHAOSSEARCH