Gartner predicts that by 2025, over 90% of enterprises will adopt a multi-cloud infrastructure and platform strategy. This shift towards multi-cloud environments gives organizations increased flexibility, enabling them to select from various cloud providers based on services offered, pricing, ease of deployment, and integration with existing infrastructure and DevOps tools. However, this flexibility also makes it more complex to manage cloud costs across different platforms.

Building and maintaining a multi-cloud infrastructure involves hosting applications, provisioning servers, managing firewalls, controlling access, and storing data across multiple clouds. Without proper optimization, organizations risk incurring unnecessary costs from idle resources. Effective multi-cloud cost management is essential to avoid these pitfalls and ensure financial efficiency.

Understanding the importance of multi-cloud cost optimization highlights the need for the top 10 multi-cloud cost optimization tools in 2024. These tools help businesses navigate multi-cloud complexities, optimize spending, and achieve financial efficiency in cloud operations.

What is Multi-Cloud Cost Optimization?

The Challenges Faced by Multi-Cloud Environments

1.  Resource Management: Tracking and managing unused or underutilized resources can be challenging. Unnecessary deployments can inflate costs. Identifying who owns specific resources and whether they are still needed can be complex, especially when team members leave the company.
2. Cost Management: Managing costs across different cloud providers often requires navigating multiple dashboards, leading to inefficiency. Native billing tools make it difficult to accurately attribute costs to specific teams or projects, often requiring time-consuming manual processes. Determining which team (accounting, development, finance) manages and optimizes cloud costs can be unclear and inconsistent.
3. Security and Compliance: Ensuring consistent security and governance policies across multiple cloud providers can be complex, leading to potential vulnerabilities. Maintaining compliance with various regulatory standards across cloud environments adds complexity to security management.
4. Performance Optimization: Allocating the most suitable and cost-effective resources while meeting performance requirements is a continuous challenge.
5. Integration and Interoperability: Ensuring seamless integration and interoperability between cloud providers’ services can be problematic. Moving data and applications between cloud providers without disrupting services or incurring additional costs is a significant challenge.
6. Monitoring and Visibility: It is difficult to comprehensively view all cloud resources across different providers, leading to potential blind spots in monitoring and management. Gaining actionable insights and analytics from disparate cloud environments requires sophisticated tools and processes.

The Benefits of Multi-cloud Cost Optimization 

• It identifies and reduces underutilized resources, optimizes resource allocation, and offers insights to lower cloud costs. 
• Additionally, it ensures consistent governance policies, enhances security measures, and maintains regulatory compliance and data protection. 
• This combination of cost optimization and simplified governance helps organizations effectively manage their multi-cloud environments while minimizing expenses and maintaining high standards of security and compliance.

Top 10 Multi-Cloud Cost Optimization Tools in 2024

Multi-cloud cost optimization tools provide the necessary insights and capabilities to control cloud costs, ensuring that organizations can utilize the benefits of a multi-cloud strategy without the associated financial burdens. Here is the list of top 10 multi-cloud optimization tools: 

1. Apptio Cloudability

Apptio Cloudability is a cloud cost management platform that provides a single-pane-of-glass view for multi-cloud cost allocation and optimization. It features resource identification and tagging functionality, robust dashboards for budgets and forecasting, FinOps, and cloud cost visualizations. The platform also includes automated cost optimization capabilities, such as a rules-based business mapping engine and scheduled cleanups of detached block storage volumes.

Features

• Resource Identification and Tagging: Simplifies the tracking and management of cloud resources.
• Automated Cost Optimization: A rules-based business mapping engine categorizes cloud spending and performs scheduled cleanups of unused storage volumes.
• Cloudability Tools: Includes Cloudability Savings Automation, Cloudability TotalCost, and Cloudability Financial Planning for enhanced cost management.
  

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Comprehensive resource identification and cost allocation
• Efficient cloud cost chargeback and block storage management
• Detailed dashboards and visualizations for clear cloud cost visibility

Cons

• The tiered pricing model can become more expensive with higher cloud spend
• Forecasting is limited to service-level, not account-level, insights

Best For

Apptio Cloudability is ideal for organizations seeking a comprehensive solution for multi-cloud cost management. It is particularly beneficial for businesses that need detailed cost visibility, automated optimization, and efficient resource management across multiple cloud environments.

2. Flexera

Flexera offers a powerful cost optimization dashboard that provides a complete picture of all cloud costs. Its robust features include cost forecasting, resource management, and policy enforcement, enabling organizations to optimize expenses, streamline governance, and ensure compliance with industry regulations.

Features

• Cost Forecasting: Provides accurate predictions of future cloud expenses to aid in budgeting and financial planning.
• Resource Management: Helps identify and manage underutilized resources, optimizing resource allocation.
• Policy Enforcement: Ensures consistent governance policies and compliance with industry standards across all cloud environments.
  

Pros and Cons

Pros

• A comprehensive view of cloud costs
• Advanced cost forecasting capabilities
• Effective resource management tools

Cons

• It may require a learning curve for new users
• Potentially high cost for small businesses
• Integration complexities with some cloud providers

Best For

Flexera is ideal for businesses of all sizes looking to streamline their governance practices, optimize cloud expenses, and ensure compliance with industry regulations.

3. CloudAdmin

CloudAdmin is a SaaS-based platform designed to identify and reduce public cloud overspending for companies of all sizes. The tool offers a 3-minute sign-up process and a 14-day free trial. CloudAdmin provides real-time visibility into cloud resources and assists in optimizing both single—and multi-cloud environments.

Features

• Real-Time Visibility: Offers a clear view of cloud spending and resource usage.
• Intuitive User Interface: This interface lets decision-makers easily navigate company cloud spending, server data points, and budget-saving advice.
• Robust Notification System: Constantly monitors for better pricing options and sets up custom alerts to notify teams of unnecessary spending.
• Actionable Recommendations: Provides easy-to-understand advice for optimal cloud usage.
• Hourly Snapshots: Takes frequent snapshots of the environment to monitor changes and optimize performance.
• 24/7 Monitoring: Ensures constant vigilance for potential issues and saving opportunities.
  

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Custom notification and alert system
• Intuitive UI requiring no staff training
• A lightweight tool with easy setup and full onboarding support

Cons

• Limited to public cloud environments
• It may require fine-tuning custom alerts to avoid unnecessary notifications.

Best For

CloudAdmin is ideal for any company relying on public cloud services, regardless of industry. It is especially beneficial for businesses seeking a user-friendly and efficient tool to optimize cloud costs and enhance resource management.

4. CloudZero

CloudZero provides real-time cost intelligence and optimization recommendations, focusing on eliminating wasteful spending. This platform helps businesses identify cost drivers and proactively optimize cloud expenses. It allows you to allocate spending using various tags, metadata, and telemetry for more efficient tracking. Engineers receive updates on their projects’ costs, enabling better financial oversight.

Features

• Real-Time Cost Intelligence: Offers immediate insights into cloud spending.
• Optimization Recommendations: Provides actionable advice to eliminate wasteful spending.
• Detailed Spending Allocation: Utilizes tags, metadata, and telemetry for precise cost tracking.
• Engineer Updates: Keeps engineers informed about their project’s costs.
  

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Immediate cost insights for proactive management
• Detailed and efficient spending allocation
• Regular updates for engineers on project costs

Cons

• It may require an initial setup and configuration effort
• Continuous monitoring is needed to maximize the benefits

Best For

CloudZero is best for companies looking to enhance financial visibility across multiple cloud providers. It is beneficial for businesses that proactively optimize their cloud expenses with real-time insights and detailed tracking capabilities.

5.CloudSphere

CloudSphere enhances the visibility of your IT infrastructure, providing a complete picture of your cyber assets. Its robust visualization capabilities support various use cases, including efficient cloud migration, cost tracking, and cloud usage optimization. Additionally, CloudSphere helps teams identify security vulnerabilities and manage risks in real-time.

Features

• Improved Visibility: A comprehensive view of your IT infrastructure and cyber assets.
• Cloud Migration Support: Facilitates efficient cloud migration with detailed cost tracking and usage optimization.
• Real-Time Security Insights: Identifies security vulnerabilities and helps mitigate risks promptly.
  

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Provides real-time security insights
• Optimizes cloud usage and tracks costs

Cons

• Initial setup may require time and resources
• Continuous monitoring is needed for maximum benefit

Best For

CloudSphere is best for enterprises migrating to the cloud, offering valuable insights and optimization for a smooth transition.

6. Nutanix 

Nutanix offers comprehensive visibility into cloud consumption, providing detailed cloud consumption reports. It allows you to set budget alerts to avoid overspending and utilizes machine-learning technology to identify unusual spending patterns automatically. This tool supports Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS, making it versatile for various cloud environments.

Features

• Comprehensive Visibility: Offers detailed insights into cloud consumption.
• Cost Optimization Recommendations: Provides actionable recommendations to optimize cloud spending.
• Budget Alerts: Allows budget alerts to be set to prevent overspending.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Detailed cloud consumption reports
• Machine learning for identifying unusual spending patterns
• Supports multiple major cloud providers

Cons

• It may require initial setup and configuration
• Focused mainly on cost savings, it may lack other advanced features

Best For

Nutanix NCM Cost Governance is best for companies primarily focused on achieving cost savings in their cloud environments. It is beneficial for organizations that need detailed visibility into their cloud consumption and want to proactively manage their cloud spending with the help of advanced machine-learning technology.

7. OpenStack

OpenStack is an open-source platform for self-service infrastructure and resource management in a multi-cloud environment. It includes essential functionalities such as orchestration, networking, and storage management, offering users a flexible and scalable solution for deploying and managing cloud resources.

Features

• Orchestration: Automates the coordination and management of cloud resources.
• Networking Management: Provides tools for managing complex networking setups.
• Storage Management: Facilitates efficient storage allocation and management.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Highly flexible and customizable
• Scalable to accommodate growing infrastructure needs
• Open-source, allowing for community-driven improvements and support

Cons

• Requires technical expertise for setup and management
• It can be complex to integrate with existing systems
• Limited support compared to commercial solutions

Best For

OpenStack is ideal for companies looking for a versatile and scalable platform for cloud management. It is particularly suited for organizations with technical expertise seeking a customizable and open-source solution for their multi-cloud infrastructure.

8. IBM MultiCloud Manager

IBM MultiCloud Manager simplifies the management of multi-cloud environments. It offers workload placement capabilities, allowing organizations to distribute workloads efficiently across multiple cloud platforms based on specific requirements and performance considerations.

Features

• Unified Management: Provides a centralized platform to manage multi-cloud environments.
• Performance Optimization: Ensures workloads are placed based on performance considerations.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Simplifies the management of diverse cloud environments from a single interface.
• Easily scales to accommodate growing and changing workload demands.
• Offers seamless integration with various cloud services, enhancing flexibility and adaptability.

Cons

• It may require significant time and resources to configure initially.
• Best utilized within the IBM ecosystem, potentially limiting flexibility with other non-IBM tools.
• Users may experience a steep learning curve due to the comprehensive nature of the tool.

Best For

IBM MultiCloud Manager is best for organizations seeking a unified platform to manage multi-cloud environments effectively.. It is particularly beneficial for businesses that require robust workload placement capabilities and need to optimize performance across multiple cloud platforms.

9. Datadog Cloud Management

Datadog Cloud Management offers a unified platform to monitor the health of all your hosts, containers, and applications. It helps you understand trends, identify inefficiencies, and improve system performance.

Features

• Extensive Integrations: Supports over 750 vendor-backed integrations for cloud-based, hybrid, and on-premise services, serverless functions, databases, containers, and more.
• Unified Monitoring: Seamlessly navigates logs, infrastructure metrics, application traces, and security signals on one platform.
• Resource Optimization: Discover underutilized servers and reduce excess capacity based on historical data to save operational costs.
• Enhanced App Reliability: Diagnose root causes faster and correlates query metrics with database and infrastructure metrics.
• Efficient Alerting System: Set up alerts for anomalies and outliers and receive notifications only for critical issues.
• Easy Deployment: Using an intuitive user interface, start monitoring without needing professional services or extensive training.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Customizable and intuitive dashboards
• Real-time monitoring and issue detection
• Strong collaboration features

Cons

• Integration may require an initial setup effort.
• Continuous monitoring is needed for maximum benefits

Best For

Datadog Cloud Management is best for enterprises looking to enhance financial visibility across providers and improve team collaboration and efficiency. It is especially useful for businesses seeking a comprehensive monitoring solution that is easy to deploy and manage.

10. VMware CloudHealth

VMware CloudHealth platform allows enterprises to create custom policies for cloud operations, gain detailed insights into departmental cloud costs and resource usage, and analyze consumption trends.

Features

• Financial Visibility: Provides detailed insights into how each department drives cloud costs and uses resources.
• Operational Efficiency: Enables the creation of custom policies to streamline cloud operations and optimize resource usage.
• Enhanced Security and Compliance: Ensures that cloud operations meet security standards and regulatory requirements.
• Consumption Analysis: Analyze consumption trends to help organizations understand and optimize cloud usage.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Offers granular visibility into cloud spending by department, making it easier to identify cost-saving opportunities.
• Allows for tailored policies that can streamline operations and improve resource management.
• Simplifies the management of complex multi-cloud environments with an intuitive user interface.

Cons

• It may require considerable effort and time for initial setup and configuration.
• Continuous monitoring and adjustments may be needed to maintain optimal performance.
• The platform can be expensive, which might concern smaller organizations with limited budgets.

Best For

VMware CloudHealth is best for companies looking to improve their cloud management strategy. It is especially beneficial for organizations needing detailed financial insights, enhanced operational efficiency, and robust security and compliance in their cloud operations.

How to Choose the Right Multi-Cloud Cost Optimization Tool

Choosing the right cloud cost optimization tool can be challenging given the numerous options available. To make an informed decision, consider the following factors:

1. Understand how your team uses cloud resources, including the types of applications and workloads.
2. Determine the complexity of your cloud setup, whether it’s a simple single-cloud or a complex multi-cloud environment.
3. Pinpoint the main issues you wish to solve, such as cost overruns, lack of visibility, or inefficient resource allocation.
4. Assess how much integration will be needed with existing systems and workflows.
5. Choose between a comprehensive management platform or a simpler tool that provides essential cost visibility.
6. Ensure the tool offers features like spending forecasts, cost allocation, multi-cloud capabilities, and automatic recommendations.
7. Take advantage of trial periods to test the platform and the vendor’s support before committing long-term.

By carefully evaluating these factors, you can choose a multi-cloud cost optimization tool that meets your organization’s needs and enhances financial efficiency.

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