Cloud database? Avoid an exponentially scaling invoice

In our previous blog post, we looked at cost aspects of different database solutions, among other things. Traditional on-premises solutions require initial investments in hardware, licenses and personnel for maintenance and management. Cloud-based solutions therefore initially seem advantageous with their pay-as-you-go model. But make no mistake! With cloud solutions, you can face unexpected cost overruns due to inefficient usage or poorly designed data models. In this blog, we will tell you what you can do to avoid that.

Edco Wallet

Co-Founder & eigenaar

Telefoonnummer E-mailadres

In practice

It may seem ideal, the pay-as-you-go model of the Cloud, but even then the costs can get significantly out of hand. We recently saw another telling example of this, where the implications of Cloud costs were not properly considered when choosing a database solution.

An organization decided to move their on-premises database platform, based on open source, to a Cloud database platform, also based on open source (Azure Database for PostgreSQL in this case). The operational cost of this data platform for the organization increased from 120k per year to 30k per month.

That’s a tripling! Fortunately, someone in this organization thought: Better to be half right than half wrong. We were called in and reviewed the entire setup and redesigned the data platform. Thus, we helped this organization out of this undesirable situation in time.

The hidden danger of Cloud costs

While the pay-as-you-go model of Cloud-based database solutions seems attractive because of its flexibility and scalability, it is important to recognize that this scalability is a double-edged sword. Sure, it allows organizations to quickly scale up as needed, but it also comes with a risk: uncontrolled cost increases.

Each additional query, each inefficient query and each unnecessary index can result in additional costs that increase exponentially as database usage grows. So it is essential to carefully weigh costs against expected benefits and operational overhead. What initially seems like a cost-effective solution can quickly turn into a financial nightmare if you are not wary of overuse of resources.

Efficiency as the key to cost savings

One of the most effective ways to avoid unexpected expenses is to optimize your data model so that it consumes minimal resources. This includes identifying and eliminating redundant data, optimizing queries and indexes for maximum efficiency, and implementing caching and other optimization techniques to improve performance and reduce costs.

Proactive management and monitoring

Proactive management and monitoring is necessary to keep costs under control. By regularly evaluating costs and performance of your database solution, you can timely identify and address potential cost overruns before they get out of hand. This may include scaling down or choosing a different pricing structure to optimize costs without sacrificing performance.

Conscious investments for optimal returns

In short, when choosing database solutions, it is important to focus not only on initial costs, but also on long-term costs and operational overhead. By making conscious investments in efficient data models, proactive management and monitoring, you can avoid unexpected expenses and take full advantage of the benefits of both on-premises and Cloud-based database solutions.

Want to know more?

Do you want to get started with data, without worrying about the quality and integrity of that data, the accuracy and timeliness of the decisions you base on it, financial consequences or the reputation of your organization? We would love to help you keep your data (base) under control. Feel free to contact us. We’d love to get to know you.