3 predictions on FinOps for 2023
Do you want to know what is ahead for FinOps in 2023? This is Kostner’s take on what is ahead in the world of those managing costs of a major cloud platform like Azure, AWS and GCP. Prefer video over text – scroll to the bottom of this page to
Chargeback – Shortcuts to action for the FinOps Practitioner
Have your company decided to start looking into showback/chargeback for your public cloud costs? And have you been given the responsibility to set it up? This article gives you the 3 elements of showback/chargeback as well as the process of implementing it.
Chargeback of public cloud in a strategic context – how you plan as a decisionmaker
If you are considering showback / chargeback for your cloud costs, this blogpost will give you the necessary perspective on it. We will offer you a strategic context of chargeback, highlight the central decisions you need to make, and offer some thoughts on
The FinOps journey – the why and how of FinOps
Have you started hearing the word FinOps often? Or trying to wrap your head around how to manage your growing cloud costs? Without adding another time-consuming task to your team or removing the flexibility and agility of cloud in your organization? This
Why it is crucial with a FinOps team and the necessary roles when you implement it
The implementation of a FinOps team will ensure that all FinOps efforts are aligned within your organization and drive your FinOps agenda from awareness to action. If your company is using public cloud, you are probably well aware that there is a lot to
Case: Herlev Municipality’s Journey Towards the Cloud
As Head of IT and Digitalization in Herlev Kommune, Kim Ladegaard moved all on-premises servers to the cloud. To assure a smooth start they used Kostner who specializes in cloud cost management. When Kim Ladegaard, Head of IT and Digitalization at Herlev
Three Ways to Get the Most Azure for Your Money – and How to Get it Done!
A frequent reason for cost surprises is not taking full advantage of all the options for savings available in Azure. Here is how to change
Microsoft 365: Sådan imødegår du de annoncerede prisstigninger og holder dine omkostninger nede
Microsoft har annonceret prisstigninger i 2022 på de fleste 365-produkter i størrelsesordenen 10-15% – men mange virksomheder kan eliminere effekten gennem tættere omkostningsstyring. Microsoft har annonceret prisstigninger på 10-15% på de fleste
No excuse for not using Azure Hybrid Benefit
Azure Hybrid Benefits (AHB) is the second most important way to reduce your costs in Azure (reservations being the most important one). A main challenge when using Azure Hybrid Benefits (AHB) has been to ensure compliance and a time-effective way to manage
One important thing to remember in your next Microsoft EA renegotiations
With Microsoft moving from being a classical perpetual software provider to an “as-a-service” provider with Microsoft 365 subscriptions and Azure as the pivot of their growth strategies you need to adapt to a drastically new reality when negotiating your
Three simple steps to manage your Microsoft 365 costs
Microsoft 365 prices are increasing with 10-15% in 2022. Whether you are preparing next year’s budget, planning the annual true-up for your EA, or even facing a renegotiation of your EA, then you are faced with the challenge of how to maintain your current
4 actionable tips for creating your cloud budget
At Kostner, we have done countless cloud cost management workshops, and it is beyond doubt that those companies who understand and embrace the differences between managing a cloud budget and an on-prem budget are most successful. We have taken all that
The 4 things you want to know as a CIO about cloud costs
Managing Azure and AWS costs do not have a strategic or even tactical flavour to it. At first glance! In this blogpost we will take a closer look at what you should include in a cloud cost dashboard if you as a CIO (or someone reporting on cloud costs to
Three indicators of a cost-efficient cloud
If you are like most leaders, you and your team are busy delivering the digitalization strategy. For you, Cloud Cost management is a necessity but not a priority. So, how do you avoid suddenly having to defend the total spending on your cloud projects? This
Cloud Cost Reporting for the Management Team
Working with the leadership team on cloud cost management is not trivial. Read more about the core elements of cloud cost dashboards, common pitfalls, and tools to consider. And most importantly, about your role and how you set yourself up for
AWS Savings – FAQs from Google
When I googled "AWS savings" yesterday researching for our free webinar, I got a list of questions many people are asking. In this blog, I will give you my view on the answers so you can stay in control of your cloud costs – without forgetting the strategic
How to take control of your Cloud Costs
Cloud costs easily end up as a blame game in discussions about a budget overrun. In this article we will outline a simple yet powerful foundation for taking control of your cloud costs. Whether you are from IT, Finance, or Procurement this will serve as a
FinOps: Take Control of Your Costs
FinOps, or Cloud Financial Management, is the discipline of managing costs when you buy IT as a service rather than as large hardware and software investments. This post outlines the simple foundational equation for managing costs, and the three steps to cost
FinOps: Keep your costs in control with Cloud Financial Management
FinOps, or Financial Operations is the practice of managing and optimizing cloud costs for your financial
Who should be responsible for the Quarterly Tune-Up
A quarterly cloud cost tune-up is the way to balance the demand for speed and agility with cost efficiency. Delay or cancel the tune-up and you leave money on the table. But who should be responsible and how to get it done is not so straight
Who Broke Moore’s Law? And how?
Moore’s law of halving of cost per performance unit every couple of years is grinding to a halt – not because we no longer improve on technology, but because the gains from Moore’s law are no longer passed on to you as a consumer of technology
Quarterly Task: Checking for Updated Services
Cloud services change on a daily basis. Learn the key concepts to use in your quarterly tune-up to ensure you keep your costs down.
Three Ways to make your Tune-Up Easier
You can get help for your quarterly cloud cost Tune-Up from tools, your service provider, or from consultants. Get tips on when to use what - and what to look out
Crucial Elements in Cloud Cost Tune-Up
The Quarterly Cloud Cost Tune-Up is about taking a snapshot of your current environment and finding the optimal price configuration against the service and price catalog of your cloud
Cloud is Dynamic – so should your Cost Management be
Your cloud environment is dynamic, with new workloads and services being migrated or developed every week and the existing services expanding. This calls for a dynamic approach to cloud cost management – a quarterly cloud cost
Who should be in charge of managing Cloud Costs?
Cloud Cost Management is a job in and of itself. It simply takes more time to keep up with ways to save, and analyzing those ways and how it applies to your environment, than someone can set aside on top of other
The best way to save on Cloud is the one you GET DONE
We’re different because everything we do is about ensuring you Get. Savings. Done. In one week. In just a few hours in fact. Our independence allows us to focus on just that one thing – making sure you get savings done.
Help: My Azure Monetary Commit is too Large!
Here are three ways to save even if your commitment is larger than you need. #1: Your Azure Monetary Commit may be “True Down Eligible” #2: Buy Reservations for future use #3: Continue
"Consume less" is a good piece of advice but it is not exactly actionable. We suggest four simple steps to consume less in a way where you will immediately see an impact on your
Until now in AWS for storage, it’s either been too big or too small (or too fast or too slow), with fast(ish) EBS and slow S3 being your choices. Now, there is a “just right” option with UltraWarm storage tier for Elasticsearch.
How long should I wait before buying reservations?
The short and in most cases straight forward answer is: start reserving now! In this blog post we will give you some of the reasons why this is the case.
Try a new Azure reservation? [Get our 3 best tips]
In this blog we will share with you the three categories of reservations where our customers could be saving the most money
With all user-based software, you should do three things: Make sure you only license the users you need to. See if you can use a smaller license package. Consider other
3 Ways to Reduce your Cloud Costs
Cloud can be a cost savings center, but organizations need governance and transparency to truly wrangle cloud consumption and rein in unchecked
Public Cloud Revenue will reach 250+ billion dollars by 2020
Current trends are a gold mine for cloud providers, but what exactly does that mean for you? While cloud providers continue to make record profits every year, their customers are struggling to manage their costs and waste billions of
Imagine if the CIO and CFO Shared a Bed?
A lot of the cloud cost management budget issue can be found in the disconnect between IT and finance departments which will ultimately hurt the business.
IT Roles Are Changing – Are You Ready For The Future?
Much of this change and creation of new roles is down to the emergence of cloud. The trend is something all enterprises will be challenged with in the coming
No Reason to Overpay for Cloud. Do Something About It
Monthly bills keep getting higher and spending on cloud services is not going to slow down any time soon. That is why ‘Cloud Cost Optimization’ is once again the top priority for most
Cloud Shift Driving the Rise in Global IT Spend
Businesses are moving to cloud, shifting away from traditional systems and this trend is already having an impact on IT budgets and markets in the coming years.
The Emergence of Cloud Cost Management
Cloud services do have their advantages, costs have reached higher levels than ever
AI one of the top trends in 2019
KOSTNER uses AI to create optimization and cost management in IT infrastructure, providing unique insight while cutting
Top Challenges Facing CIO’s Today
Having spent the last couple of years optimizing IT infrastructure with firms in all shapes and sizes, we have compiled the biggest challenges facing the industry today for specific roles.
Building a business on the backbone of AI
Artificial intelligence helps us with everyday tasks like getting from A to B and clearing unwanted spam emails from our mailbox. AI can assist us in many ways and make decisions beyond human capability.
IT spending in EMEA is projected to rise in 2019
AI technology can find solutions for you, ensuring your IT infrastructure is run optimally with cost optimizing solutions. No matter where you run IT, there is money to be saved in the way you do
Municipalities could save 380 million optimizing their IT
While consultancies can pitch big savings, AI can show you actual solutions to optimize costs by analyzing every possible scenario for an IT
How AI can keep costs low as IT spending rises worldwide
The easiest way to increase profitability is to reduce costs. Cost optimization is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve with IT operation costs soaring like never
AI can provide clarity for your IT future
With so many different solutions available, the decision of where and how to run IT goes deeper than deciding between cloud, outsourcing or running IT in-house.
Treasure worth millions found in data center
Rumors of hidden treasure had been circulating in the industry for years. The treasure was discovered thanks new innovative AI
Making good cost optimization decisions within IT
At Kostner, we believe it’s important to understand what you need. Have a look at this video with Mikkel Naesager to find out how we work with this question at Kostner Interested to learn more? Subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn Did you
Monthly webinar – learn more about cloud costs and benefits
More and more companies are switching to cloud storage, is your company following the trend? Did you know cloud storage prices are stagnant and not declining like other storage alternatives? Learn more about cloud costs and benefits in our co-founder Mikkel
FL Smidth saved 12 million DKK on a software check
FLSmidth’s director of IT and IT security Mads Madsbjerg Hansen invested half a million kr. and now stands to save 12 million kr. on software.
Who makes the decisions around here?
When we think about decision making in enterprises, we tend to think that decisions driving millions of dollars of costs are made at a high level by executives weighing long-term effectiveness and cost efficiency.
Kostner Group: ready for international expansion
Helle and Mikkel Næsager founded Kostner, a company who use artificial intelligence and big data to analyse their clients’ it-infrastructure. With the company turning profits they have set their sights on expanding their business to the international
How to convince your boss new hardware is a good idea
This video talks about how to convince your boss that new hardware is a good idea. Watch Mikkel Naesager answer this question and learn what we do at Kostner. Interested to learn more? Subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn Did you like this blog?
On Premises vs Cloud – What is true and what is false
Listen to Kostners own evangelist Mikkel Naesager talking at VMWorld Barcelona, revealing what is true and what is false. At Kostner we use facts and data, NOT hype and speculation. Interested to learn more? Subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn
New Servers = Lower Software Costs = Better Bottom Line
With all the hardware manufacturers launching new server lines with Intel’s latest CPUs, they are all forgetting the best reason of all to buy new HW. Today the cost of hardware is no longer the most significant portion of the costs of running a server
3 licensing questions you should ask your SQL Server DBAs
We want to share a few insights into some of the things that drive unnecessary Software License Use. Sometimes all that is missing, is a