Mission, a provider of managed services for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, this week announced it will make its cloud optimization expertise available free of charge for any IT organization that acquires AWS licenses through it.
Alex Beal, director of product for Mission, said as cloud sprawl continues to be an issue, many internal IT teams simply don’t have the expertise required to rein in those costs. However, rather than charge extra for the expertise Mission will now make its tools and consultants available for free under the auspices of the Mission Cloud Foundation service to any organization that employs Mission to acquire AWS licenses, he said, noting every Cloud Foundation customer will get access to a designated Mission Cloud Analyst who will provide regular account reviews and guidance on implementing best practices.
Mission can provide the free service because it acquires licenses from AWS at a lower cost. Effectively, AWS is paying for the services being provided by Mission, said Beal.
As more workloads move into the public cloud, IT teams are struggling to navigate a complex mix of service levels from AWS that range from spot pricing options to reserved instances that can be licensed for specific periods of time at a deep discount. However, determining which workloads lend themselves best to various AWS pricing options can be challenging to determine, especially for developers who spin up virtual machines without consulting with internal IT teams. Collectively, organizations are wasting millions of dollars each year because of suboptimal usage of public cloud resources. Beal estimated that the average IT organization is wasting about $5,000 a year on cloud infrastructure resources that could be better allocated to other IT initiatives.
Beal said Mission will work with those internal IT teams to identify unused resources and rightsizing candidates, set up budget alerts and recommend better options for specific types of workloads using a combination of monitoring tools from third parties such as CloudHealth and one developed by Mission. Those monitoring tools are also employed to enforce budget constraints and run security checks.
Mission Cloud Foundation also includes tools to reallocate charges, reference purchase order numbers and set up automated custom reports.
Most IT organizations could develop much of this expertise on their own. However, Beal said most IT teams also have better things to do with their time that add more value to their organization. Instead of acquiring licenses direct from AWS, Mission is making a case for an alternative approach that provides a level of service and support that AWS generally only provides to Global 2000 customers.
Other managed services providers (MSPs) may or may not also provide tools and expertise free of charge. Savvy IT teams, however, may soon force the issue. After all, while public cloud represents the most widely employed form of IT infrastructure as code, from a cost perspective it’s also clear public clouds can also quite easily become too much of a good thing.
— Mike Vizard
