Controlling Cloud Costs with Cloudability

Grazed from MSPNews. Author: Erin Harrison.

One paradox about cloud computing is that it is an economically viable strategy for organizations that are looking for an on-demand network access to a shared pool of computing resources to meet a variety of business needs. From a sales perspective, the cloud is often touted as an enabler of lowering operating expenses, however, cloud services are not free and bills can easily rack up if no one is paying attention.

In fact, unexpected spikes and overages can downright destroy your cloud budget. This is where cloud bill tracking systems such as startup Cloudability come in. The Portland, Ore.-based firm is able to help customers track spending across multiple cloud services and identify waste and potential cost savings…

Cloudability offers companies the means to automatically aggregate individual accounts into a company-wide bill, then segregate groups of users within that bill, a recent Information Week report explained.

In early July, Cloudability announced it raised an $8.7 million Series A round, led by Foundry. Today more than 3,000 people in 100 countries are using Cloudability, collectively spending over $100 million on cloud services and added more than 10,000 cloud accounts.

“If ever there was an advert for the power of the cloud, this is it. Three guys have an idea, and one year later that idea is being used across the planet,” Cloudability’s Founder and CEO Matt Elis said in a recent blog post.

Since the firm’s beta launch last November, Cloudability has had already had a significant impact on users’ lives, saving companies with $1,000-per-month budgets from $2,000-a-day spikes. On average, the company’s paying customers spend $20,000 monthly across 4.2 cloud accounts, according to Business Week.

As the report explained, cloud services vary in how customers are billed. “Some charge a flat monthly fee per employee, while others base the price on the amount of use. Tracking it all is complicated in the best of situations. The realities of the today’s business world add to the difficulty,” the report said.

Considering 86 percent of companies use more than one type of cloud service, according to Cloudability’s data, cloud billing tracking companies can save a lot of businesses from spending unnecessary money and have better insight into usage and costs.

“There are only two ways forward: employ traditional processes, or find a new way to manage your spending,” Elis said. “Choose the first path and you’ll be no worse off than when you had a data center.”