Cloud Waste Can Be Costly

You may not have heard the term "Cloud Waste" even though you likely feel its impact on your bottom line.

This growing problem for small businesses and nonprofits manifests itself in un-used SaaS licenses and duplicate apps performing the same basic functions, among other things.

In the excitement of scaling up more quickly, increasing efficiency, and reducing IT costs, Cloud Waste creeps in unnoticed and cuts into all of those gains.

For SMBs and Nonprofits that can't afford to throw money at problems, this can significantly dilute the benefits of moving operations to the Cloud.

In a 2021 Flexera study of Cloud adoption, respondents reported exceeding their Cloud budgets by 24 percent.

Those same respondents estimated that their organizations wasted 30 percent of their Cloud expenditures, while Flexera itself estimates that figure at 35 percent based on its work with its clients.

Concerns over wasted Cloud spending have not abated since that study, with Flexera's 2023 State of the Cloud Report showing that 80 percent of responding SMBs rate "Managing cloud spend" as their top Cloud challenge.

Whether the waste stems from under-utilization, not taking advantage of SaaS vendor discounts, or the worst -- a SaaS app that doesn't fit your business -- you should analyze your Cloud expenses if you haven't already.

You can read more about how to handle Cloud Waste on my blog post about The Dangers of ShadowIT.