- Establish precise objectives and success criteria.
- Engage all parties involved as soon as possible.
- Create a roadmap for a phased migration.
- Recognize expenses and make constant improvements
- Take aggressive measures to address governance, security, and compliance.
- Fill in skill gaps with instruction or professional assistance
Monday, 14 July 2025
Lessons Learned from a Failed Cloud Migration Project
Thursday, 3 July 2025
Yes, Cloud Cost Optimization Is Real and It’s Saving Big Bucks
It all started with a short message in the team chat: “Hey… why is our cloud bill twice as high this month?” Raj, a DevOps engineer at a fast-moving startup, didn’t have an answer right away. His team had been working hard, building new features, adding more servers to handle traffic, and testing things non-stop.
Everything was running smoothly… except the cost. Some servers were running all the time, even when they weren’t needed. Old storage wasn’t cleaned up. And no one had checked the billing dashboard in weeks. Raj’s story isn’t unique. A lot of teams get so busy building and scaling that they don’t look at costs until it’s too late. That’s why cloud cost optimization isn’t just a nice idea. It is something every team needs to take seriously.
Cloud cost optimization helps you:
Why Should You Even Care About Cloud Cost Optimization?
Because saving money is awesome
But let’s be real, it’s not just about cutting your cloud bill. It’s about making sure every rupee, dollar, or euro you spend is actually doing something useful.
Imagine paying rent for rooms you never walk into. Or ordering 10 pizzas when you only needed 2. That’s what happens in the cloud when you're not watching costs.
1) Eliminate Idle Resources – Shut down servers, databases, or instances that aren’t being used. Unused resources = wasted money.
For example, a team had a staging EC2 instance running all day and night, even though they only used it during work hours. By using Instance Scheduler to turn it off at night and on weekends, they saved over 60% on monthly costs.
2) Right-Size Your Infrastructure – Use tools like AWS Compute Optimizer and Trusted Advisor to make sure your instances, databases, and storage are not over- or under-provisioned.
For example, a retail company was running several EC2 instances with more CPU and memory than their applications required. By using AWS Compute Optimizer, they identified oversized instances and switched to smaller ones without any performance issues. This simple change helped them save 30% on monthly compute costs.
3) Scale Smart with AWS Auto Scaling – Automatically add or remove resources based on real-time demand so you’re only using what you actually need.
For example, a media streaming company used AWS Auto Scaling to handle traffic spikes during live events. It automatically added EC2 instances when demand increased and removed them when traffic dropped, helping them maintain performance and reduce unnecessary costs.
4) Automate Scheduling – Use Instance Scheduler to turn off non-critical environments (like dev/test) during nights or weekends to cut unnecessary costs.
For example, a software company used AWS Instance Scheduler to automatically stop dev and test EC2 instances after office hours. This simple automation helped them save up to 40% on monthly cloud costs.
5) Use Savings Plans or Reserved Instances – Commit to using certain resources over time and get up to 72% cost savings compared to On-Demand pricing.
For example, a fintech company committed to using Amazon RDS for their databases by purchasing Savings Plans. Since their database usage was steady, they saved over 60% compared to On-Demand pricing.
6) Leverage Spot Instances – Run flexible, fault-tolerant workloads on EC2 Spot Instances and save up to 90% on compute costs.
For example, a gaming company used EC2 Spot Instances to run game analytics jobs that didn’t need to run at a fixed time. Since the workloads were flexible, they saved up to 80% on compute costs compared to using On-Demand instances.
7) Enable Cost Visibility and Alerts – Set up AWS Cost Explorer, Budgets, and billing alerts to monitor spending and avoid billing surprises.
For example, a SaaS company set up AWS Budgets and billing alerts to track monthly cloud spending. When costs started to exceed their limit, they got notified early and fixed the issue, which helped them avoid a surprise bill at the end of the month.
8) Clean Up Orphaned Resources – Regularly audit and remove unused EBS volumes, snapshots, Elastic IPs, or old load balancers.
For example, a tech startup audited their AWS account and found unused EBS volumes, old snapshots, and idle Elastic IPs from past projects. By cleaning them up, they reduced their storage costs by over 25%.
9) Allocate Budget to High-Impact Services – Focus spend on services that directly improve performance, security, or customer experience, and don’t waste it on background noise.
For example, an e-commerce company shifted their budget from idle test environments to Amazon CloudFront and WAF, improving website speed and security. This led to a better user experience and higher customer satisfaction.
Clean Up That Cloud Closet
You know how your phone is full of random screenshots and photos from 2014 that you never look at? Well, your cloud might be just like that, full of stuff you don’t need anymore but still paying for.
Just because it’s in the cloud doesn’t mean it’s free. Unused resources quietly pile up over time and eat into your budget. Time to do a little digital spring cleaning!
Here’s your easy cloud clean-up to-do list:
1) Delete old EBS volumes and snapshots – Got unattached volumes or old snapshots? Clear them out to free up storage and cut costs.
For example, a healthcare startup found several unattached EBS volumes and old snapshots from previous testing environments. After deleting them, they reduced their monthly storage bill by over 20% without affecting any active workloads.
2) Remove unused Elastic IPs – Not linked to any instance? AWS still charges you. Release them if they’re just sitting idle.
For example, a marketing agency discovered multiple Elastic IPs that were not attached to any running EC2 instances. By releasing them, they stopped unnecessary charges and saved on their monthly AWS bill.
3) Shut down idle EC2 and RDS instances – If no one's using them, stop or terminate them. Running empty servers = burning cash.
For example, a logistics company found several EC2 and RDS instances used for an old project that were still running but no longer needed. By shutting them down, they cut their monthly cloud costs by over 30% without any impact on active systems.
4) Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering – Let AWS automatically move your rarely used files to cheaper storage. It’s like auto-cleaning your closet but for your data.
For example, an edtech company had thousands of old student records stored in S3 Standard. By enabling S3 Intelligent-Tiering, AWS automatically moved rarely accessed files to lower-cost storage, helping them save up to 40% on S3 storage costs without doing anything manually.
Doing just these few things can clean up your cloud, save money, and make your setup easier to manage.
Less clutter, lower costs, and no surprises feel good, right?
Cloud Cost Management and Optimization
Cloud cost management helps you track and control spending with tools like budgets, tags, and usage reports, just like a smart dashboard for your cloud finances.
Cloud optimization goes further by balancing cost, performance, and efficiency using tools like Graviton for better price-performance, Lambda and Fargate for auto-scaling, and CloudFront to cut latency and data costs.
In short, it’s not just about saving money; it’s about building a cloud setup that’s faster, smarter, and cost-efficient. For example, a SaaS startup in the HR tech industry used AWS Budgets to set monthly cost limits and tags to track spending by team. They noticed the dev team’s cloud usage was unusually high. By analyzing data in Cost Explorer, they migrated some workloads to AWS Fargate and enabled S3 Intelligent-Tiering for storing old logs. This reduced their cloud costs by over 30%, while giving them better visibility and control across teams.
Your Quick-Start Checklist
Here’s a handy checklist to kick off your cloud cost optimization journey:
1) Use AWS Cost Explorer to find spend patterns
2) Right-size resources with AWS Compute Optimizer
3) Set up Auto Scaling and Instance Scheduler
4) Use Savings Plans or RIs for consistent workloads
5) Clean up unused resources regularly
6) Leverage Spot Instances for flexible tasks
7) Enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering
8) Monitor with Budgets and Billing Dashboard
Final Thoughts
So, what did we learn from Raj’s story, real-life examples, and all these tips?
Cloud cost optimization doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right tools and mindset, you can turn that scary AWS bill into something predictable and maybe even satisfying.
So next time your CFO walks by, you can confidently say, “Yes, we’re in control of our cloud spend!” And mean it.
Need help getting started? Whether it’s cost management or performance tuning, make sure your cloud is doing its best work for the best price.
Contact us today at sales@cloud.in or call +91-020-66080123 for a free consultation.
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
You Don’t Need to Build AI to Win With It
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The Real-World Power of GenAI—Without Engineers, Labs, or Complexity
In boardrooms, webinars, and even coffee chats—Generative AI is the word on everyone’s lips. But behind the noise lies a quiet edge that most businesses are missing:
You don’t need to build your own AI models to get extraordinary value. You just need to know where it makes the biggest impact—and how to switch it on.
While some are still budgeting for multi-million-dollar AI initiatives, smart businesses are already getting the benefits—without code, without research teams, and without changing what they do best.
Let’s Start With a Story
A mid-sized hospital in South India didn’t hire AI engineers. They didn’t retrain doctors or rebuild their infrastructure. What they did do was simple: they deployed a GenAI-powered alert system that:
- Flags abnormal vital signs in real-time
- Sends automated alerts to clinicians’ mobile dashboards
- Summarizes patient history on the fly to assist faster decisions
The result? 3x faster emergency response—without ever managing servers or writing AI code.
AI Without Engineering: What That Really Means
GenAI is no longer a developer’s game. With platforms like Amazon Bedrock, SageMaker JumpStart, and AWS Lambda, you can plug intelligence into your workflows—without building the intelligence yourself.
Here’s where businesses are doing it today:
Use Case #1: Instant Summary & Extraction
Sector: Healthcare, Legal, Insurance, HR
Pain Point: Teams spend hours reading, highlighting, or extracting info from reports.
GenAI Outcome: Automatically summarize discharge notes, contracts, or case histories in seconds.
Impact: Reduced admin load by 60%, improved compliance, and faster service delivery.
Use Case #2: AI-Powered Feedback Loops in EdTech
Sector: Education & Training
Pain Point: Instructors can’t scale individual feedback across 10,000 students.
GenAI Outcome: Evaluate open-ended responses, flag learning gaps, and auto-suggest learning resources.
Impact: Boosted engagement by 3x while reducing grading time by over 80%.
Use Case #3: Real-Time Risk Detection in FinTech
Sector: Finance
Pain Point: Legacy systems react to fraud after it happens.
GenAI Outcome: Serverless AI flags anomalies during the transaction—not hours later.
Impact: 15% increase in fraud prevention accuracy, better regulatory posture.
What You Gain — In Simple Business Terms
- Better CX Without More Staff: AI improves the speed and tone of service interactions
- Scalable Innovation: Start with one workload, expand across departments Plug-In
- Simplicity: Built to integrate with the tools and systems you already use
- Built-in Security & Compliance: Especially important for healthcare and finance
- Where staff are doing repetitive, time-consuming work
- Where delays lead to missed revenue or missed care
- Where accuracy matters but context gets lost
We’ve helped teams like yours uncover those high-impact use cases hiding in plain sight.
Sometimes it’s a 3-minute alert, a faster report, or just one less thing your team has to do manually.
Contact us today at sales@cloud.in or call +91-020-66080123 for a free consultation.
The blog is written by Kuldeep Sorge (Senior Executive - Cloud Sales at Cloud.in)
Monday, 23 June 2025
Is Your Business Missing Out? Tapping into AWS Promotional Credits
In today's competitive landscape, every business, from fledgling startups to established enterprises, is looking for ways to optimize costs and accelerate innovation. While the agility and scalability of cloud computing are undeniable, the perceived cost can sometimes be a barrier. But what if we told you there's a significant financial advantage many businesses are overlooking?
We're talking about AWS Promotional Credits. These aren't just handouts; they're strategic investments from Amazon Web Services designed to empower businesses to build, experiment, and scale on their robust cloud platform without the heavy upfront financial burden.
If your business isn't actively exploring and leveraging these credits, you're potentially leaving valuable resources on the table.
The Hidden Value: Why AWS Credits Matter
Many businesses operate under the assumption that cloud usage means a direct bill for every service. While that's fundamentally true, AWS promotional credits can significantly offset these costs, especially in critical phases of your business journey. Here's why they're so crucial:
- Reduced Upfront Costs: For startups, this is a game-changer. Imagine building out your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or conducting crucial proof-of-concept (PoC) testing without immediate, substantial cloud infrastructure expenses. AWS credits provide that runway, allowing you to focus on product development and market validation.
- Fueling Innovation and Experimentation: Ever wanted to try out a new AWS service like Machine Learning (ML) or Generative AI, but held back due to cost concerns? Credits open up a world of experimentation. You can spin up resources, test new architectures, and explore cutting-edge technologies without impacting your operational budget. This encourages innovation and helps your team stay ahead of the curve.
- Accelerating Growth and Scale: As your business grows, so does your cloud footprint. AWS credits can help you scale your infrastructure smoothly, whether it's handling increased user traffic, processing larger datasets, or expanding into new regions. This financial buffer allows for more aggressive growth strategies.
- Extending Your Runway: For self-funded startups or those in early funding rounds, every penny counts. Promotional credits effectively extend your financial runway, giving you more time to achieve milestones, secure further funding, or reach profitability.
Are You Missing Out? Common Scenarios
It's astonishing how many businesses, both new and established, aren't fully aware of the AWS promotional credit opportunities available to them. Here are some common scenarios where businesses might be missing out:
- The "We're Too Small" Myth: Many small businesses and early-stage startups incorrectly assume that AWS credits are only for large enterprises or heavily funded ventures. The reality is, programs like AWS Activate are specifically designed for startups, offering substantial credit packages based on your funding stage.
- Unaware of Program Eligibility: Businesses might simply not know where to look or if they qualify. AWS has a range of programs for different types of customers – startups, nonprofits, public sector entities. Each has its own eligibility criteria.
- "We're Already Using AWS, So We Don't Qualify for New Credits": This is another misconception. While the initial AWS Free Tier is for new accounts, various promotional credit programs are ongoing and can be applied to existing accounts based on specific use cases, partnerships, or program participation.
- Not Actively Seeking Out Opportunities: Sometimes, it's as simple as not being proactive. Attending AWS events, engaging with AWS account representatives, and staying informed about new initiatives can reveal hidden credit opportunities.
- Underestimating the Value: Even seemingly small credit amounts can add up. $1,000 or $5,000 in credits can make a significant difference for a startup testing a new feature or a small business migrating a critical workload.
How to Start Tapping In
Ready to stop missing out? Here's how your business can begin to explore and leverage AWS promotional credits:
- Explore AWS Activate: If you're a startup, this is your first stop. AWS Activate offers different tiers of credits along with technical support, training.
- Engage with AWS Partner: Your AWS Partner can be an invaluable resource. They can assess your business needs and guide you toward relevant funding programs.
- Monitor AWS Announcements and Events: AWS frequently announces new programs, grants, and promotional offers. Stay updated by subscribing to their newsletters, attending webinars, and participating in events like AWS Summits and re:Invent.
Don't Leave Money on the Table!
In the dynamic world of cloud computing, every advantage counts. AWS promotional credits are more than just a discount; they're a strategic tool that can significantly impact your business's ability to innovate, grow, and achieve its goals.
Take the time to understand what's available to you. Investigate the programs, engage with the AWS Partners like Cloud.in, and start tapping into the resources that can truly accelerate your cloud journey.
Has your business leveraged AWS promotional credits?
Contact us today at sales@cloud.in/ +91 20-6608 0123 to check the funding benefits available for your business. Your business (and your bottom line) will thank you for it!
The blog is written by Suvarna Jadhav (Strategic Partnership & Alliances Manager at Cloud.in)
Thursday, 12 June 2025
Cross-Account Access Demystified: IAM Roles, External IDs, and AssumeRole Done Right
- Several failed AssumeRole tries
- Unexpected IP addresses making AssumeRole calls
- Unusually lengthy sessions
- Use the least privilege principle at all times.
- For third-party integrations, use external IDs.
- Put in place appropriate auditing and monitoring
- Review and update trust relationships on a regular basis.
- Think about how your cross-account architecture will affect operations.
Friday, 30 May 2025
Meet Amazon Q and Make Every Workday a Breeze
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- Code suggestions in real-time – Get code completions and full functions as you type.
- Ask questions about your code – “What does this function do?” or “How can I optimize this?” Just ask!
- Write tests, fix bugs – Q can scan your code, spot vulnerabilities, and suggest fixes instantly.
- Automate tasks – Let Q handle boilerplate stuff like writing docs, refactoring, or bootstrapping new projects.
- Modernize applications – Migrate from .NET to Linux? Refactor Java? Move from VMware? Q can guide you through all of it.
- Work inside AWS – Use Q directly in the AWS Console, Slack, or Teams to manage your infrastructure, cut costs, and solve issues.
Wednesday, 28 May 2025
From Stream to Storage: How Kinesis Firehose Simplifies Real-Time Data Delivery
Real-time data is essential to contemporary cloud-native applications; it is not a luxury. Transferring data from source to storage and, eventually, to insight can be extremely difficult, regardless of whether you're working with application logs, clickstream analytics, or IoT data.
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose excels in this situation. Ingestion, transformation, and delivery of streaming data to storage destinations such as Amazon S3, Redshift, OpenSearch Service, and even third-party tools like Splunk are all handled by this fully managed, serverless service.
This blog post will discuss how Kinesis Firehose can be used to power real-time analytics at scale and how it functions as a zero-maintenance conduit from stream to storage.
The Real-Time Data Delivery Challenge:
It requires an extensive amount of engineering work to ingest streaming data using traditional methods. For buffering, batching, error handling, and retry logic, teams must create and manage unique solutions. They must apply compression and format conversions, control scaling according to throughput fluctuations, and guarantee dependable delivery to several locations. Time-to-value is frequently delayed by this complexity, which also takes engineering resources away from the main business logic.
What is Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose?
A delivery service designed for streaming data is Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose. Firehose automatically scales, buffers, transforms, and delivers your data with no infrastructure management required, in contrast to Kinesis Data Streams, which you manage and scale yourself.
Important attributes:
- Fully-managed No infrastructure or shard management is required.
- Automatic scaling: Modifies throughput dynamically.
- Near real-time: Usually provides information in 60–90 seconds.
- Integrated AWS Lambda data transformation.
- Supports batch delivery, encryption (KMS), and compression (GZIP, Snappy).
Lessons Learned from a Failed Cloud Migration Project
For the majority of enterprises, cloud migration is now a matter of when rather than if. The promise of cost-effectiveness, scalability, and...
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