Navigating the cloud computing landscape often involves a delicate balancing act between leveraging available resources and managing costs. Amazon Web Services (AWS), a leader in cloud services, offers an enticing proposition through its Free Tier, especially with services like Amazon EC2 and RDS. These offerings present a unique opportunity for IT professionals to push the boundaries of cloud computing, but they also pose the challenges of staying within budgetary constraints.

Containers and microservices are revolutionizing how distributed applications are built, run, and optimized. They enable apps to be highly scalable. You can also isolate some areas for updates and patches without shutting down the entire application or service. Yet, managing containers and microservices at scale can be tricky. That’s where a container management platform like Kubernetes comes in – or, as you’ll see below, where the top Kubernetes alternatives shine.

As a modern software engineer or CTO, you’re responsible for building, delivering, and maintaining high-quality software solutions at scale. Yet, software programs have grown increasingly complex over time, requiring meticulous work. The competition threatens to take your subscribers every billing cycle if you don’t constantly innovate, too. Customers want more, bigger, and better upgrades and updates.

You’re a responsible SaaS company leader, so you understand the importance of tracking your cloud costs in detail. Perhaps you’ve even begun working with us at CloudZero, and you’re starting to see data and insights hit your dashboard. If so, you may have noticed — because this happens to all of us in the SaaS world at some point — that some customers cost your business far more than others. Suppose you’re also tracking your revenue per customer.

Cost optimization within cloud services is not just about cutting services; it’s about investing resources wisely to achieve greater efficiency and growth. Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to be a leader in providing solutions that help businesses manage and optimize their cloud spending. This guide aims to guide you through the complex world of AWS cost management, highlighting key indicators and tools essential for keeping your cloud expenses in check.

This is part one of seven in our Frugal Architect blog series. In case you weren’t as giddy as CloudZero was at re:Invent this year, we wanted to recount the seven laws outlined by Werner Vogels, Amazon’s CTO, which he’s bundled into a framework called “The Frugal Architect”. What is “The Frugal Architect”? A constitution of sorts for how engineers can build high-functioning, cost-efficient cloud software.

Cloud computing provides significant benefits over on-premises computing, including the ability to expand operations without purchasing new hardware. But there’s more. With cloud computing, you can adjust compute resources to meet changing demands. For example, you can buy extra online storage for your chatbot system as you receive increasing customer inquiries over time. You’d pay for as much online storage as you use.

You may have outgrown Amazon CloudWatch. Perhaps you want something more robust than CloudWatch, which provides full-stack observability. Below, we’ll share a list of the proven, top CloudWath alternatives that can meet all your needs in one place.

Amazon Kubernetes Service (EKS) has rapidly become the de facto solution for organizations seeking to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications using Kubernetes. EKS simplifies the complexities associated with Kubernetes, allowing teams to focus on developing and deploying applications more efficiently. However, as organizations scale their Kubernetes environments, managing and optimizing costs can quickly become a significant concern.

Naturally, our own platform forms the backbone of our cloud cost savings strategy. And before releasing any new feature, we try it out ourselves to see how well it helps us manage our own SaaS costs. If it works well for us, that means there’s already one satisfied user in the world — and there will likely be more!