[Column] Ruth Njihia: Cloud Economics Demystified – Navigating Budget Constraints with Google Cloud

In today’s economic climate, it’s tough for businesses in Kenya and across Africa to maintain operations while keeping costs under control. But don’t worry, there’s a solution that can help you optimize for shrinking budgets: cloud computing, and specifically Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Moving to the cloud can be a game-changer for businesses, allowing them to pay only for the resources they need, when they need them, and easily scale up or down as their needs change. Plus, with GCP, you get one of the most reliable and cost-effective cloud platforms available.

One of the coolest things about GCP is its Committed Use Discounts, which can save your costs by committing to use a specific amount of resources over a set period. It’s perfect for businesses that have predictable workloads and want to reduce their costs while still having access to the resources they need.

But that’s not all – GCP also offers Preemptible VMs, which are virtual machines available at a significantly reduced cost. The only catch is that they may be shut down at any time if GCP needs the resources for other purposes. This is a great option for non-critical workloads where uptime is not a critical concern.

In addition to these cost-saving features, GCP has a bunch of other tools and services that can help you optimize your resource usage and reduce costs. For example, auto-scaling, instance groups, and load balancing can help businesses automatically adjust their resource usage based on demand, reducing the need for manual intervention and avoiding over-provisioning.

And let’s not forget about serverless computing, which is a game-changer for businesses that want to run their applications without the need for provisioning and managing servers. With GCP, you can benefit from the scalability, efficiency, and security of cloud platforms without having to worry about infrastructure costs or complicated operations.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses also need reliable, scalable, and secure cloud solutions that can support distributed workforces. GCP can help businesses achieve this, providing the infrastructure and tools necessary to support remote work and collaboration.

Incentro Africa is a digital solutions provider that can help businesses in Kenya and Africa make the most of cloud computing and GCP. Their team of experts can help businesses assess their cloud readiness, design and implement cloud solutions, and optimize their resource usage to reduce costs. With their local presence, Incentro Africa understands the needs of businesses in Africa and can provide customized solutions tailored to each client’s needs.

So, if you’re looking to optimize for shrinking budgets, turn to cloud computing and GCP. And if you need help, Incentro Africa is here to support you every step of the way.

Ruth Njihia is a Solutions Architect at Incentro Africa.

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