Skip to main content

4 Strategies to Optimize Cloud Investments and Maximize Value

Mayank Bhargava
VP Consulting Services and Cloud Modernization Practice Leader
CGI

As companies scale their cloud strategies, IT and finance leaders are looking to maximize both operation efficiency and return on investment. On their digital transformation journey, companies are migrating more workloads to the cloud, which can incur higher costs during the process due to the higher volume of cloud resources needed. However, it is also an opportunity to create more agile, resilient systems that will lower costs in the long term while increasing its business value.

Additionally, many organizations are increasing the number of advanced cloud-based services. This includes the addition of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, and similar technologies that demand more resources and have higher associated costs.

Still, when managed effectively, cloud and even multi-cloud strategies can offer significant savings compared to on-premise. However, organizations must be mindful of the challenges that can arise when embracing cloud and multi-cloud strategies, as unexpected costs can balloon quickly.

Organizations can employ several strategies to mitigate rising cloud costs. Implementing a robust cloud governance framework that includes ongoing cost optimization practices is key. Here are four critical components of a cloud governance framework that can help keep cloud costs under control.

1. Right-sizing resources

The first step is to right-size resources by matching the type and size of instances to the needs of the workload. In this process, tech leaders will examine the performance of the company's cloud instances, as well as analyze its cloud usage patterns and needs. By accumulating this data, the organization can determine if unused or underutilized services can be eliminated.

In addition to pure cost cutting, the right-sizing process enables businesses to fully understand their cloud environment and usage. This is especially true with regular analysis, allowing the organization to evolve with shifting priorities.

2. Utilize automation and real-time insights

Traditional methods of deploying cloud workloads require manual processes. This exhausts an IT team's time and creates opportunities for errors. Introducing automation increases the speed, security, and cost-efficiency of various tasks, including autoscaling. This occurs when a tool monitors and adjusts cloud usage to automatically remove or increase compute resources as needed.

Additionally, organizations can take a proactive approach by using cloud management services with real-time insights into usage, costs, and performance. These tools analyze vast amounts of data from cloud operations to provide insights into performance, cost trends, and resource utilization. Predictive analytics can forecast future cloud needs, enabling proactive capacity planning and budgeting. Detailed reporting features allow organizations to track key metrics and KPIs, providing a clear understanding of their cloud environment's health and performance in real-time.

3. Move to a serverless architecture

Moving to a serverless architecture also reduces costs by eliminating the need to manage and pay for always-on servers. In a serverless environment, you only pay for the exact compute resources used during the execution of your code. This approach is particularly beneficial for applications with variable workloads, as it automatically scales based on demand, ensuring that you only incur costs for what you use.

4. Create a cloud cost-aware culture

Finally, the role of culture cannot be underestimated. It is crucial to foster a culture of cloud cost awareness. From the top down, teams should be encouraged to continuously monitor and analyze their own cloud usage patterns. This way, those most familiar with a project's needs and processes can determine what can be streamlined with minimal ripple effects.

Companies that ingrain this into their organization may also consider creating a Cloud Cost Optimization Officer role if they don't already have one. This individual would lead efforts related to analyzing and strategizing cloud usage. Because they would have an overarching view of all cloud usage throughout the company, they would be able to spot opportunities for optimization that others may not have visibility into.

Looking ahead

These are all strategies IT leaders can and should implement today. It is also vital to keep an eye on the future to avoid falling behind. Cloud costs will continue to rise, particularly as cloud adoption deepens and businesses leverage more advanced and specialist cloud services. That doesn't necessarily mean that the cloud will become less cost-effective.

As cloud technologies become more widespread and mature, more cost-management tools and strategies will emerge, offering even more opportunities for organizations to optimize their spending more effectively. For example, artificial intelligence can play a crucial role in analyzing, forecasting, and scaling cloud usage. This can enable greater fine-tuning in automation and, ultimately, lowered costs.

Lastly, the pricing structures offered by various providers will continue to shift based on customers' priorities. There is already a trend toward increasingly granular pricing models. As providers cater to their clients' industry-specific needs and sustainability goals, new and increasingly competitive pricing models may emerge for enterprises to take advantage of and further reduce their cloud spend.

Mayank Bhargava is VP Consulting Services and Cloud Modernization Practice Leader at CGI

Hot Topics

The Latest

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...

4 Strategies to Optimize Cloud Investments and Maximize Value

Mayank Bhargava
VP Consulting Services and Cloud Modernization Practice Leader
CGI

As companies scale their cloud strategies, IT and finance leaders are looking to maximize both operation efficiency and return on investment. On their digital transformation journey, companies are migrating more workloads to the cloud, which can incur higher costs during the process due to the higher volume of cloud resources needed. However, it is also an opportunity to create more agile, resilient systems that will lower costs in the long term while increasing its business value.

Additionally, many organizations are increasing the number of advanced cloud-based services. This includes the addition of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, and similar technologies that demand more resources and have higher associated costs.

Still, when managed effectively, cloud and even multi-cloud strategies can offer significant savings compared to on-premise. However, organizations must be mindful of the challenges that can arise when embracing cloud and multi-cloud strategies, as unexpected costs can balloon quickly.

Organizations can employ several strategies to mitigate rising cloud costs. Implementing a robust cloud governance framework that includes ongoing cost optimization practices is key. Here are four critical components of a cloud governance framework that can help keep cloud costs under control.

1. Right-sizing resources

The first step is to right-size resources by matching the type and size of instances to the needs of the workload. In this process, tech leaders will examine the performance of the company's cloud instances, as well as analyze its cloud usage patterns and needs. By accumulating this data, the organization can determine if unused or underutilized services can be eliminated.

In addition to pure cost cutting, the right-sizing process enables businesses to fully understand their cloud environment and usage. This is especially true with regular analysis, allowing the organization to evolve with shifting priorities.

2. Utilize automation and real-time insights

Traditional methods of deploying cloud workloads require manual processes. This exhausts an IT team's time and creates opportunities for errors. Introducing automation increases the speed, security, and cost-efficiency of various tasks, including autoscaling. This occurs when a tool monitors and adjusts cloud usage to automatically remove or increase compute resources as needed.

Additionally, organizations can take a proactive approach by using cloud management services with real-time insights into usage, costs, and performance. These tools analyze vast amounts of data from cloud operations to provide insights into performance, cost trends, and resource utilization. Predictive analytics can forecast future cloud needs, enabling proactive capacity planning and budgeting. Detailed reporting features allow organizations to track key metrics and KPIs, providing a clear understanding of their cloud environment's health and performance in real-time.

3. Move to a serverless architecture

Moving to a serverless architecture also reduces costs by eliminating the need to manage and pay for always-on servers. In a serverless environment, you only pay for the exact compute resources used during the execution of your code. This approach is particularly beneficial for applications with variable workloads, as it automatically scales based on demand, ensuring that you only incur costs for what you use.

4. Create a cloud cost-aware culture

Finally, the role of culture cannot be underestimated. It is crucial to foster a culture of cloud cost awareness. From the top down, teams should be encouraged to continuously monitor and analyze their own cloud usage patterns. This way, those most familiar with a project's needs and processes can determine what can be streamlined with minimal ripple effects.

Companies that ingrain this into their organization may also consider creating a Cloud Cost Optimization Officer role if they don't already have one. This individual would lead efforts related to analyzing and strategizing cloud usage. Because they would have an overarching view of all cloud usage throughout the company, they would be able to spot opportunities for optimization that others may not have visibility into.

Looking ahead

These are all strategies IT leaders can and should implement today. It is also vital to keep an eye on the future to avoid falling behind. Cloud costs will continue to rise, particularly as cloud adoption deepens and businesses leverage more advanced and specialist cloud services. That doesn't necessarily mean that the cloud will become less cost-effective.

As cloud technologies become more widespread and mature, more cost-management tools and strategies will emerge, offering even more opportunities for organizations to optimize their spending more effectively. For example, artificial intelligence can play a crucial role in analyzing, forecasting, and scaling cloud usage. This can enable greater fine-tuning in automation and, ultimately, lowered costs.

Lastly, the pricing structures offered by various providers will continue to shift based on customers' priorities. There is already a trend toward increasingly granular pricing models. As providers cater to their clients' industry-specific needs and sustainability goals, new and increasingly competitive pricing models may emerge for enterprises to take advantage of and further reduce their cloud spend.

Mayank Bhargava is VP Consulting Services and Cloud Modernization Practice Leader at CGI

Hot Topics

The Latest

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...