How do we invest correctly in the cloud when cost optimisation is just as important as innovation?
When the macroeconomy pressures the company's budgets, it is crucial to find a balance between keeping IT costs under control while driving innovation forward.Create a picture of your costs, implement tagging and team budgets, optimise major cost drivers, utilise scalability, automate T&U environments, secure innovation with policies, measure business impact, monitor in real time, and have a tested exit plan in place. Here we tell you more.
Cost optimisation in the cloud: invest wisely and drive innovation
Recently, Swedish companies have tightened their IT investments. Almost half choose to only prioritise the most critical systems. Reallocation of budget to cloud and security as well as increased investments in key areas are also high priorities for companies. At the same time, expenses for more uncertain or innovation-driven initiatives are being reduced.
This reflects a reality where every krona must provide clear business value and where cost optimisation has become at least as important as maintaining the power of innovation.
Business-aligned management and cost tracking create space for innovation
In this context, it becomes crucial to work in a structured way with both cloud investments and cost control. The goal is an investment budget where costs are allocated smartly and innovation is given room without driving unnecessary spend. By combining business-aligned management, automated cost tracking and clear flexibility in how you consume IT, you ensure that your cloud investments always contribute to long-term competitiveness, even when prioritisation space decreases.
Nine steps for cost optimisation and innovation in your cloud solution
- Create a picture of your costs.
Map out where cloud costs arise. Is it in the infrastructure, SaaS subscription, AI load, or data transfer? - Implement tagging and budget frameworks per team.
Tagging makes it possible to track every penny to the right product or project. Set team budgets and automate alerts to avoid unexpected cost increases. - Optimise major cost drivers.
When you have an overview, you can prioritise efforts to reduce unnecessary storage and data transfer through smart caching and the right storage tier. Also carefully evaluate premium or AI services. Do they drive business value? - Utilise flexibility to avoid lock-ins.
Identify systems and applications to be replaced or moved. Use the cloud’s scalability and pay-as-you-go to meet current needs, instead of investing in a future that may never happen. - Make test and development environments a cost advantage.
Create full-scale T&D environments in the cloud when needed, but ensure they are automatically paused or shut down when the project is complete, so that test resources do not remain silently incurring costs. - Encourage innovation in a secure way
Create a balance between control and freedom, without stifling creativity, through automated security and cost policies. This way, product owners have the mandate to guide architectural choices within a set framework. - Measure the business impact of innovation, not just IT cost.
Track lead times, release frequency, and customer response and link these values to cloud costs to prioritise investments that provide long-term competitiveness. - Implement continuous monitoring.
Implement tools that provide real-time data on resource usage and costs. Follow up quarterly with a review of costs and innovation outcomes to adjust the strategy accordingly. - Plan for exit and flexibility.
Have a clear plan to move data and services if needed without compromising either control or capacity. Test your plans to ensure they work when it really matters.
