Cloud Computing is becoming a very interesting platform for Startups and small development teams who usually do not have much capital to invest in infrastructure and management. Cloud Computing is usually considered a cheap, quick and easy way to spin up (and down) resources such as websites or virtual machines. However, you may still be spending a lot more than necessary should you not try to make your system “Cloud efficient”.
There has been many articles on the Internet on saving money on the Cloud. As Cloud resources are usually billed by usage, trying to optimize your app can save you a lot of money. If you are using Microsoft Azure, I recommend reading some blog posts from Scott Hanselman on the “Penny pinching” topic:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PinchingPenniesWhenScalingInTheCloud.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PennyPinchingVideoMovingAnAzureWebsiteBetweenDataCenters.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PennyPinchingVideoMovingMyWebsitesImagesToTheAzureCDNAndUsingACustomDomain.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PennyPinchingInTheCloudHowToRunATwoDayVirtualConferenceFor10.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PennyPinchingInTheCloudEnablingNewRelicPerformanceMonitoringOnWindowsAzureWebsites.aspx
In this blog post I will also share some of my experience with saving money on Microsoft Azure through out my team’s projects. And please let me know in the comments if you have even better ways to save money on the Cloud!