Six ways to control cloud spending Along with a study in a real company’s experience, Dialpad CIO Prashanti Aduma offers six best practices for controlling cloud spending. Her tips on how partners can advise their customers include: 1. Do your due diligence – Know the state of the cloud environment. Know what a company’s cost centers are and whether they can be turned into profit centers. Recognize whether the organization has the resources to migrate to the cloud and create a solid change management plan. 2. Perform annual audits – During annual audits, look for unused licenses and monitor the usage of cloud services. For example, if less than 25 percent of an organization is using an expensive SaaS tool, you’ve got an opportunity to get more use of the software or reduce the cloud spending through consolidation. 3. Plan ahead – Review current SaaS solutions to future-proof a tech stack. This is a good time to think about cloud security, cost allocations and where to reinvest dollars that are saved from consolidation. For example, if a business is paying for a video conference tool, a separate cloud phone system and contact center software, that could be consolidated into a single unified communications as a service platform. 4. Shop around – Don’t just go to the first vendor, vet at least two or three options to compare features and suitability for the organization. Along with customer reviews and references, look at intangibles as well, such as how easy is it to use the tools, and what the customer support is like. 5. Negotiate – Think bigger than price. Make everything negotiable. For example, perhaps you can strike a deal with the vendor to provide a few months of a free trial. What about discounts on implementation costs or extra training? 6. Try before you buy – Most cloud providers are happy to let you try before you buy. Whether you’re vetting a cloud cost management tool or software for one of your teams, always push for a free month or a proof of concept/demonstration environment to check whether the software is the right fit for an organization. Finally, Aduma stated that cloud cost management is “an extremely important ongoing project” for which every organization with cloud services should plan. “It’ll help you shine a light on whether there are unused and/or mismanaged resources hiding in your tech stack,” she recently posted, “and not only will these efforts save your organization money, but they’ll highlight potential different departments that may need to tighten up.” o BUYERS SIDE (Continued from page 28) 74 CHANNELV ISION | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2022 FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS - Subscriptions to ChannelVision magazine are free to executives working for telecommunications service providers. Simply go to channelvisionmagazine.com and click on the subscribe link. 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Ad Index Communication ACS Cloud Partners (acscp.com) 41 Aircall (www.aircall.io) 31, 71 AireSpring (www.airespring.com) 11 Alliance of Channel Women (www.allianceofchannelwomen.org.) 61 Apption (www.apption.io) 66 Astound Wholesale (www.astound.com/ business/wholesale) 7 Avant (goavant.com.net/SFS22) 27 Bicom Systems (www.bicomsystems.com) 9, 73 Blackfoot (www.blackfoot.com/carrier) 49 BullsEye Telecom (www.bullseyetelecom.com) 47 C3 Complete (www.c3cloud.com) 73 Calltower (www.calltower.com) 35 CDG (www.cdg.ws) 51 Channel Partners (channelpartnersconference.com) 70 Console Connect by PCCW Global (www.consoleconnect.com) 2 CVx (www.cvxexpo.com) 67 DynaLink (dynalink.com) 59 Easton Telecom Services (www.eastontelecom.com) 33 EnTelegent Solutions (www.entelegent.com) 37 Ericsson (wo-par tner@ericsson.com) 3 First Light (www.firstlight.net/channel-program) 21 FirstComm (www.firstcomm.com) 45 Fusion Connect (www.fusionconnect.com) 55 GoldSky Security (goldskysecurity.com) 69 Granite Telecommunications (www.granitenet.com) 23 IntelePeer (www.intelepeer.com/par tners) 29 Netcarrier (connect@netcarrier.com) 25 NHC (nhcgrp.com) Back cover North American Bancard (www.nynab.com) 65 NRS (www.sellnrs.com) 63 NUSO (www.nuso.cloud/par tners) 19 Powernet (agentsales@powernetco.com) 57 Profitec (www.profitecinc.com) 39 PTC ’23 (ptc.org/ptc23/register) 72 Quest (questsys.com/par tners.com) 15 SIMWOOD (team@simwood.com) 50 Snom (snomamerica.com) 53 SolEx (www.solexp.com) 43 Spectrum (par tners.spectrum.com) 13 Telesystem (www.telesystem.com) 5 Windstream Enterprise (www.windstreamenterprise.com) 17 Disclaimer: This index is provided as a free service to our advertisers. Every effort is made for accuracy, but we cannot be held liable for any errors or omissions.
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