Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is essential to your cloud strategy, but are you getting the best return on investment? Keeping operations efficient and innovation on track means having a sharp focus on your tech budget, ensuring every IT dollar is working for you. Over 80% of enterprises are struggling to keep cloud costs in check, and public cloud bills exceed budgets by an average 15%. Are your IaaS dollars fueling growth, or quietly slipping through the cracks?
If you’re looking to plug the leaks, optimize your resources, and cut out waste, here are three ways to take control and start seeing measurable savings ASAP.
1. Get Smart with Hybrid Cloud: Balance Public & Private Investments
Public cloud is great, but not for everything. A hybrid model ensures cost alignment by using public cloud for elastic workloads and bringing predictable workloads in-house where expenses can be better controlled. A hybrid cloud strategy has 44% lower total costs compared to strictly public cloud, taking up 59% less staff time and costing 57% less overall.
The challenge? Without necessary cloud oversight and financial management, hybrid can feel like a heavy lift. FinOps solves for this, but only half of companies have a dedicated FinOps team for activating and sustaining this framework. Tangoe fills this gap with an all-in-one, AI-powered FinOps platform that tracks, analyzes, and optimizes across all cloud deployments. Advanced analytics and real-time monitoring expose waste, proactive alerts keep spending within set limits, and GenAI churns out instant insights about your cloud financials with the ability to implement recommended cost-savings measures automatically. These capabilities transform potential savings (up to 40% using Tangoe) into tangible gains that can fuel a more cost-efficient hybrid deployment.
Even if you start small, reinvesting funds to shift one high-cost workload at a time, you’ll set the foundation for a smarter cloud approach.
2. Optimize IaaS Usage: Stop Overpaying for Idle Resources
When was the last time you audited your IaaS spend? As workloads grow, so do overprovisioned resources that quietly add zeros to cloud bills. Nearly 60% of companies cite overprovisioning – over-allocating cloud resources “just in case” – as a primary reason for wasted spend.
Whether it’s autoscaling gone unchecked, redundant backups consuming unnecessary storage, or workloads sitting in premium tiers they don’t need, you won’t know what’s draining your IaaS budget unless you’re actively tracking, optimizing, and rightsizing your infrastructure.
To rein in costs and maximize efficiency, you need a centralized view of cloud spending across all stakeholders managing cloud resources. No manually tracking cloud expenses across multiple providers and trying to piece data together to get the full picture. Real-time transparency and automated cost governance create a proactive approach to IaaS cost optimization so you’re not stuck discovering waste after the bill arrives.
Waste Isn’t Just an IaaS Problem – Optimize Your Entire Cloud Estate
Redundant SaaS subscriptions, underutilized UCaaS licenses, and overlooked private cloud expenses also add up, creating inefficiencies across the entire cloud ecosystem. Tangoe extends the same level of cost visibility and automation beyond IaaS, helping eliminate SaaS bloat, optimize UCaaS usage, and clarify private cloud expenses – driving savings across your entire cloud ecosystem.
3. Shop IaaS with Confidence and Prepare for Contract Renewals
Now’s a great time to shop the market, but you need a clear understanding of your infrastructure needs, the complexities of pricing models, and hidden costs that lead to budget creep (ex: Microsoft’s AI-driven upgrades that increased certain plan prices by 30%). Tangoe’s step-by-step guide helps navigate these challenges and compare the top providers effectively.
But locking in a great deal goes beyond the initial purchase. When it’s time to renew IaaS contracts, you need the right insights and leverage to secure the best value for your investment. Here’s how to take control:
- Audit your actual cloud usage before negotiations. Knowing which services you rely on, and which you don’t need, gives you leverage you can’t do without.
- Use real-time pricing benchmarks, not outdated rate sheets. Prices fluctuate based on region, workload type, and promotions, making static comparisons baseless.
- Stay ahead of hidden pricing shifts. Providers can quietly adjust egress fees, storage tiers, and reserved instance pricing, turning great deals into potential budget drains.
Need more muscle at the bargaining table? See how Tangoe’s expert negotiation artists land the best deals with competitive prices, favorable terms, and optimized rates.
When it Comes to Cloud Expense Management, Data is King
In a cloud market that’s constantly evolving, staying passive means paying more and working harder than necessary. The key isn’t just negotiating better contracts, shifting to hybrid, or cutting workloads – it’s about having the right visibility and insights to make smart, money-saving moves: shifting the right resources over, cutting what makes the most sense, and leveraging data to lock in the best deals.
Want more? Discover smart strategies to optimize costs across your entire technology ecosystem with Tangoe’s 2025 IT Expense Management Trends and Savings Recommendations report.