Analyst firm Forrester recently released The Forrester WaveTM Cloud Cost Monitoring and Optimization report, Q2, 2018.
The report identified 9 most significant cloud cost monitoring and optimization providers, evaluating each of them against 25-criteria, grouped into three high-level bucket lists- current offering, strategy and market presence. Following comprehensive evaluation that comprised past research, user needs assessment, vendor and expert interviews, the nine most significant vendors were found to be Apptio, Cloudability, CloudCheckr, CloudHealth Technologies, Densify, Microsoft, RightScale, Teevity, and Turbonomic.
The report is a go-to guide for infrastructure and operations professionals (I&O) in making the right choice for managing their cloud business costs.
The Forrester Waveᵀᴹ Cloud Cost Monitoring and Optimization report provides answers to two of the most asked questions by I&O professionals:
- What are some tools for cloud cost optimization?
- What is the best way or tool to reduce cloud cost and improve ROI?
Top ten key takeaways from the The Forrester Waveᵀᴹ Cloud Cost Monitoring and Optimization Report, for Q2, 2018:
1. Cloud cost complexity mandates I&O professionals’ dependability on cloud monitoring tools and other cloud cost management practices.
Low cost and reduced spend on infrastructure is the primary reason why organizations turn to the cloud. But many have not been able to achieve this goal as success does not merely come by moving infra to the cloud but more on the cloud management maturity and governance practices. This makes I&O professionals look for cloud monitoring and optimization tools for improved visibility, consistency and scalability of the management practices.
2. Cloud cost monitoring and optimization market continues to thrive.
Cloud costs often include multi-platform management tools, ex. hybrid cloud management (HCM) tools. But, a standalone market that is dedicated to cloud cost monitoring and optimization is still thriving.
This is due to three primary reasons – a) starting cost of CCMO (Cloud cost monitoring and optimization) tools is comparatively less than HCM tools, b) CCMO customers are able to get ROI (Return on Investment) faster, c) CCMO customers get more detailed and in-depth analysis for managing cloud costs.
3. Automated remediation, cloud insights and savings tracker are important differentiators.
Per the report, there is an increase in the services and cost models of vendors and enterprise cloud portfolios, that will eventually develop the market for cloud cost optimization tools. Here, granular cost breakdowns, detailing capabilities, savings tracker and automated remediation will be the primary differentiators in cloud cost monitoring and optimization market.
4. CloudHealth Technologies leads among the leaders – aims to be categorized as a multi-cloud management and governance platform for IT.
CloudHealth Technologies is placed the first among the leaders’ squad in The Forrester Waveᵀᴹ Cloud Cost Monitoring and Optimization report. Apart from cloud cost management, the company aims to be categorized as a multi-cloud management and a governance platform for IT. As its unique offering, CloudHealth customers can buy AWS Reserved Instances directly via its interface and it also supports Google Cloud Platform (in beta phase). It further aims to bring support across all cloud platforms for increased user experience.
5. RightScale gets placed among leaders – thanks to its hybrid cloud management tool – Optima.
RightScale picked out the cost management and governance feature of its HCM tool and named it Optima, which can now be purchased as a standalone solution. Optima’s governance features can automate a wide range of cloud life-cycle management activities and infrastructure asset scheduling. It further supports robust cost scenario analysis and forecasting capabilities.
6. Turbonomic gets positioned among leaders with its hybrid cloud workload automation tool, focusing on optimizing cost per performance.
Turbonomic’s hybrid cloud workload automation tool easily integrates with a variety of application performance monitoring, hypervisors and management tools apart from cloud platforms. Users can automate both cloud management activities and administrative tasks. The tool, however, lacks granularity of bill management and cost reporting as compared to other financial management tools available.
7. Densify secures its place amongst leaders through it rebranded SaaS solution for cost optimization in cloud computing.
Densify began as a software-defined infrastructure management tool known as Cirba. However, it soon rebranded its platform as a SaaS solution, refocusing on cloud optimization tool. Densify solution comes with a dedicated cloud expert advisor for each account.
8. Apptio’s solution gets positioned as IT financial management solution, while CloudCheckr’s security management with cost management differentiates it.
The Forrester Waveᵀᴹ Cloud Cost Monitoring and Optimization Report identified Apptio’s cloud cost solution an ideal IT financial management solution. Forrester analysts ranked Apptio among strong performers in the matrix followed by CloudCheckr cost optimization offering. Apptio’s offering lacks asset life-cycle management and automation functionalities that are highly required by IT managers. CloudCheckr was a non-participating vendor. Their solution offers security as an added feature along with cost management for customized alerts, monitoring and other capabilities.
9. Microsoft’s Azure Cost Management offers a competitive option.
Microsoft was placed in the strong performers’ category. It acquired Cloudyn in 2017 and later named it to Azure Cost Management. The solution offers comprehensive budget management, pricing capabilities and cost allocation. The tool is available for free to Azure customers with support for AWS and Google Cloud Platform.
10. Cloudability stands as a strong contender amongst the list followed by Teevity.
Cloudability and Teevity were identified as contenders in the report. Cloudability was an early entrant in the cloud cost monitoring market and was designed to solve cloud cost challenges across billing and reserved instances. Cloudability has been regularly updating its solution since launch.
Teevity’s solution focuses on cloud cost analytics. Direct accessibility to code provides users with more flexibility, allowing them to create custom code optimization, making it a strong contender in the overall cloud monitoring and optimization market.
The Forrester Waveᵀᴹ Cloud Cost Monitoring and Optimization report can be accessed here.
