As you transition to the cloud, you are likely to focus on performance and speed. However, those two things can get expensive if you do not take the proper procedures to implement them into your business. Adjustments will need to be made, and you will need to find a way to save money while still optimizing your cloud usage to the best of your ability. That is where rightsizing comes in.
What Is Rightsizing?
Rightsizing is critical to cloud optimization as it matches instance types and sizes to your workload performance and capacity requirements in a way that aligns with your cost requirements. It is an essential milestone that businesses must go through when they want to continue to optimize but not at the rate and price they are doing it currently. When you rightsize properly, you will find that it not only saves you money but also helps you understand your cloud needs and makes the cloud easier to manage. So, as you reach this point in your cloud journey, here are your next steps.
Your Steps Toward Proper Rightsizing
1. Monitor Your Usage and Patterns
Before you jump into rightsizing, you need to act accordingly. Take time to monitor your current usage and record any patterns that might occur. When you do this, you are able to see which resources are used more often than others, which are idle, and which fluctuate throughout certain times. All of this data is crucial to ensure you are utilizing what you need and scratching what you don’t, such as idle resources.
2. Decide Your Type of Scaling
There are two types of rightsizing: vertical and horizontal. Vertical scaling is when an instance is made larger or smaller to fit your business’s demands, while horizontal scaling is when instances are opened or closed on a singular or multiple scale. Your choice will depend on the needs of your resources. You can choose to use an auto-scaler, but keep in mind that these often use horizontal scaling, and you can’t simply let it run without checking in on it to ensure it is appropriately keeping up.
3. Try Out Your Changes
Before implementing anything for good, it can be wise to try out the changes before agreeing to them across all your resources. This can also be called a proof of concept. This stage can give you the opportunity to monitor the changes and see where you can improve or alter things before implementing them across the board. Making significant changes, such as rightsizing, can greatly alter your cloud usage and optimization, so it can be better safe than sorry to see if your chosen strategy is the right move.
4. Implement and Monitor Your Resources
Once you find a rightsizing strategy that works for you, it is time to implement it properly. As you do, it is important to keep monitoring its progress. What worked for you last year might not work for you this year, and you want to make sure you are not ignoring the necessary changes. Setting up your rightsizing strategy does not need to be something you do alone, either. Professionals such as FinOps Oversight can help develop a strategy with you and ensure it runs smoothly.
5. Continue to Adapt
Lastly, the work never ceases. Monitoring is one thing, but you must be ready to adapt and make changes when they are thrown at you. Growth within your business, market changes, new cloud technology, and demographic changes can all cause your rightsizing strategy to become outdated. It is not a one-and-done task. As changes happen, your rightsizing must adapt.
If you have further questions or wish to implement these best practices into your business, contact the team at FinOps Oversight.