If your company uses AWS, chances are you’ve considered developing a cloud optimization strategy. Since AWS resources can infinitely scale, many organizations find themselves in a conundrum where they’re not using these resources efficiently. However, a good cloud optimization strategy could potentially save an organization thousands, if not millions of dollars per year. Rather than be surprised by one more AWS bill, now is the time to think about your strategy.

If you’re anything like our customers, you’re running the majority of your business on the cloud. After headcount, it’s not uncommon that your cloud bill is one of your highest business expenses. So, it’s important to make sure you are getting maximum returns on that investment. Done right, cloud computing offers major financial and operational benefits for companies.

Cloud computing optimization is a growing priority, as engineering becomes more accountable for justifying growing AWS spend. Companies that are rapidly growing can be particularly vulnerable to large fluctuations in cloud spending, which often seem to strike without rhyme or reason. Getting a handle on cloud cost is a critical first step toward cloud computing optimization, and can result in more efficient and effective systems across the board.

Cloud infrastructure refers to both hardware and software components—ranging from servers to storage to networking and virtualization software—that are required to support cloud computing. Thus, cloud infrastructure optimization refers to optimizing these components for: efficiency, performance, and cost.

Cloud spend optimization is a challenging endeavor for most companies. The major reason for this is that most don’t have sufficient visibility into their live cloud costs, so they can’t tie day-to-day decision-making to those staggering AWS bills that arrive at the end of each month (way too late to make meaningful changes).

Cloud costs can come with significant sticker shock, especially since many businesses do not have an easy way to track or predict actual cost before the bill arrives. However, there are several architectural changes that businesses can make that will help rein in cloud spend. In some cases, optimal engineering decisions should be made up-front, while in other cases certain areas should be monitored over time to identify opportunities to retool architecture and optimize cloud costs.