Not all cloud cost management tools are equal. Whether you’re in the process of evaluating cloud cost management vendors or already have a tool in place, here are 19 questions you should ask to ensure you have all the capabilities needed to maximize performance and minimize cost of your hybrid cloud deployment across the following.

In a survey we conducted last year, we discovered that many enterprises overestimate their ability to optimize their hybrid cloud infrastructures. More than three-quarters of respondents gave themselves high marks for a range of capabilities. Here’s the exact breakdown of the number who rated their abilities a 4 or 5 out of 5: This sounds like great news, except there’s a problem. When we asked about how easy it is to get a global view of cloud costs, 42% said that it takes some effort.

Unless you are one of the 1% of enterprises that have zero workloads running in the publice cloud, you need a cloud cost optimization tool. Yes, you do. And if you have workloads running in multiple public clouds—which somewhere in the neighborhood of 85% of enterprises do—you really need a cloud cost optimization tool. If I’m preaching to the choir, feel free to skip to the end of this article where you’ll find a link to try Virtana Optimize for free.

The success of your enterprise’s digital transformation relies in no small part on your hybrid cloud infrastructure, which SearchCloud Computing defines as “a cloud computing environment that uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party, public cloud services with orchestration between these platforms.” Because this infrastructure is not a homogeneous environment, migration, management, and optimization can be an ongoing challenge.