{"id":3549,"date":"2022-08-25T11:16:46","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T05:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cloudnowtech.com\/blog\/?p=3549"},"modified":"2022-08-25T11:16:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T05:46:46","slug":"a-guide-to-cloud-cost-optimization-with-terraform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cloudnowtech.com\/blog\/a-guide-to-cloud-cost-optimization-with-terraform\/","title":{"rendered":"A guide to Cloud Cost Optimization with Terraform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf someone asks me what cloud computing is, I try not to get bogged down with definitions. I tell them that, simply put, cloud computing is a better way to run your business.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0&#8211; Marc Benioff, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Salesforce<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s just about it in a nutshell. Cloud computing is a better way to run your business. But while you gain easy scalability and increased productivity from cloud computing, one of the biggest challenges is cost. And this is where cloud optimization comes in.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is cloud optimization?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cloud optimization is the process of eliminating cloud resource waste by right-sizing resources spent on specific cloud features. In a DevOps environment, cloud optimization is defined as the most efficient way to allocate cloud resources. Cloud optimization boosts cloud utilization, and can saves you a considerable amount of money in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With tools that leverage automation in cloud optimization, you can save more, with less time investment. Among the most popular Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools today is Hashicorp Terraform. Its human-readable configuration files allow you to define cloud and on-prem resources. Terraform can manage low-level components like compute, storage, and networking resources, as well as high-level components like DNS entries and SaaS features that can be reused and shared.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How does Terraform do it?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terraform creates and manages resources on cloud platforms through application programming interfaces. There are three stages:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Write:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This is where resources are defined across multiple cloud providers and services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Plan:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Here, Terraform creates an execution plan describing the infrastructure it will create, update, or destroy based on the configuration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Apply:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Terraform performs the proposed operations.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who uses Terraform?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terraform manages external resources (such as public cloud infrastructure, private cloud infrastructure, software as a service, and platform as a service) with &#8220;providers&#8221;. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, GitHub, and DataDog are some examples. According to available data, more than 8,716 companies use Hashicorp Terraform and this number continues to grow.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why should you consider using it as well?<\/span><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With IaC tools like Terraform, you can save more money on cloud computing by optimizing your resource allocation and costs, automatically.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terraform manages infrastructure on different cloud platforms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infrastructure code can be written quickly as Terraform has a human-readable configuration language. It is also simple to use when it comes to executing the code.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terraform also allows you to track resource changes throughout your deployments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terraform can be scaled in an organized manner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terraform allows you to automatically delete an entire development environment along with its associated resources, which can result in cost reductions. Some users for instance unintentionally keep AWS resources active, generating high expenses due to services not being properly disabled.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terraform is also flexible, using a plugin-based model to support providers and provisioners.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cloud optimization is key to getting the most out of your tech assets, but the complexity of the cloud can make selecting the right services and managing app requirements difficult. Allow us to help. CloudNow offers a range of Terraform cloud and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudnowtech.com\/devops-services.html\">DevOps Services<\/a> for businesses spanning different sizes, industries, and geographies. So if you need help on cloud cost optimization, do get in touch with our specialists at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudnowtech.com\/contact-us.html\">CloudNow<\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIf someone asks me what cloud computing is, I try not to get bogged down with definitions. I tell them that, simply put, cloud computing is a better way to run your business.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[279,28],"tags":[92,353,127,352],"class_list":["post-3549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud","category-cloud-computing","tag-cloud-computing","tag-cloud-optimization","tag-devops","tag-terraform"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A guide to Cloud Cost Optimization with Terraform - Discover Better Value Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In cloud optimization, tools that leverage automation can boost cloud utilization and save you a considerable amount of money and time. 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