What if I told you that a portion of your cloud bill is made up of hidden costs you didn’t even know existed? 

From idle resources quietly draining your budget to unforeseen data transfer fees, these invisible expenses contribute to $17 billion wasted annually on cloud inefficiencies, plus cloud overspend of 20% or more by some organizations. 

So, how much of your cloud spending is slipping through the cracks?

Cloud computing: promises and pitfalls

Cloud computing has revolutionized how businesses innovate and scale. Companies increasingly deploy cloud resources based on real-time needs. This “pay as you go” model promises flexibility, agility, and potential cost savings.

However, this usage-based approach has also introduced new challenges, particularly when it comes to managing costs. Any engineer with a credit card can spin up their own cloud environment, racking up expenses. Many organizations discover, often too late, that their cloud expenses are riddled with hidden charges. Two of these, which we’ll discuss below, are data egress charges and snapshot storage fees.

Data egress charges

When companies transfer data out of a cloud provider’s environment or across regions within the same cloud provider, they can incur data egress charges. These can be one of the most misunderstood and unpredictable costs in cloud computing. Here’s a deeper dive into where these costs come from and how to manage them effectively:

  • Cross-region transfers. Moving data between regions within the same provider often incurs charges, which can vary depending on the region. 
  • Inter-cloud transfers. If you are operating in a multi-cloud environment, transferring data between providers can result in significant fees. 
  • External transfers. Downloading data from the cloud to on-premises systems or external users can mount quickly, especially for large datasets or frequent requests.

These egress costs can add up due to:

  • High data volumes. As organizations scale, the amount of data transferred out of the cloud grows exponentially. 
  • Lack of awareness. Many teams underestimate how often data is moved or how much they are being charged for it.
  • Application behavior. Applications that frequently pull data from storage to process or share can unknowingly inflate egress fees.

3 strategies to manage data egress charges

Fortunately, there are several ways to control these data egress charges:

  1. Architect for data locality. Minimize the need for data transfers, by designing applications to keep processing and storage within the same region. For multi-cloud setups, it makes sense to evaluate which cloud handles specific workloads, limiting inter-provider transfers.
  2. Use caching. Implement caching solutions such as Amazon CloudFront, Azure Content Delivery Network, etc. By serving frequently accessed data locally, you can reduce the need for egress.
  3. Leverage Ternary. Our multi-cloud FinOps platform can help you track and analyze your data transfer costs and usage patterns.

Snapshot storage fees

Snapshot storage fees are another potentially hidden cost for organizations. Snapshots are invaluable for data backup and disaster recovery. But improper management can lead to large and ever-increasing bills. Let’s look at how.

  • Retention policies. Companies often retain snapshots indefinitely, without clear policies for archival. This approach accumulates data unnecessarily.
  • Redundancy. Organizations may keep multiple snapshots of the same data across environments, duplicating stored content.
  • Misclassification. Companies too often store snapshots on premium tiers by default. These can cost significantly more than standard storage tiers.

4 ways to manage snapshot storage fees

Once you’re aware of snapshot storage fees, management becomes easier. For example, you can:

  1. Set clear retention policies. It makes sense to implement automated lifecycle management rules, deleting older snapshots after a defined period. Regularly review snapshots to remove those you no longer need. 
  2. Resolve duplicate snapshots. Use tools (e.g., AWS Data Lifecycle Manager, Azure Backup, Google Cloud operations suite) that identify and consolidate duplicate snapshots to avoid unnecessary storage.
  3. Use lower-cost storage for long-term retention. Move snapshots you don’t need for immediate recovery to lower-cost archive tiers, like Amazon S3 Glacier or Azure Blob Storage. 
  4. Audit snapshot usage with Ternary. Our platform helps you identify areas where snapshots are being stored for indefinite periods of time. Such storage may exceed your internal requirements.

Here’s how Ternary can help you manage snapshot costs:

A Ternary sample graph showing snapshot storage fees over time for AWS Relational Database Service (RDS).

Data egress charges and snapshot storage fees are just two of the hidden costs that can creep into your cloud bill, scuttling the promise of cost savings. In future blogs, we’ll take a look at other hidden costs. These include unused and idle resources, third-party tools and integrations, multi-cloud or hybrid cloud complexities, inefficient cloud governance, and over-reliance on committed instances.

A roadmap for controlling hidden costs

As with many challenges, controlling overlooked expenses starts with awareness. Ask yourself: How are you tracking your cloud spend today? Are you doing it more often than during monthly invoicing?

The truth is, the dynamic nature of cloud costs means that it’s crucial to track your spending dynamically, as well. Waiting until the end of the month, you may end up holding the bag for costs you weren’t even aware of.

Fortunately, Ternary can help you perform that dynamic tracking easily. Our multi-cloud FinOps platform can help you:

  • Adopt FinOps best practices. Our FinOps-native platform provides visibility across your entire cloud estate and fosters accountability for spend. It also assesses KPIs as measurements of success.
  • Track hidden costs. With our Case Management functionality, you can create a case and assign it to a team member. Using our Jira integration, you can take this one step further, creating a case in a development team’s existing Jira project.
  • Tag and manage resources. Our platform provides sophisticated and accurate cost allocation, a practice too many companies overlook. We also provide custom labels to retroactively assign metadata to group spend, enabling showback/chargeback and policy enforcement.
  • Empower collaboration. Our comprehensive data can kickstart conversations about governance across teams.

Ready to learn more?

We hope you’ve found this blog useful in identifying hidden costs and ways to combat them. Want to learn more about how Ternary can help you uncover overlooked expenses and optimize your cloud investment? Book a demo today.