How are managed cloud services priced?

Common models are a flat monthly fee based on environment size, a percentage of cloud spend, or a per-resource fee. Ask which tasks are included and which are billed separately.

Will we lose control of our cloud accounts?

You should not. A good provider works in accounts you own, with access you can review and revoke, and documents every change, ideally as infrastructure as code.

Can a managed cloud provider reduce our cloud bill?

Often, yes. Right-sizing, removing idle resources, scheduling non-production systems and using commitment discounts usually reduce spend without affecting performance.

What Are Managed Cloud Services? AWS and Azure Guide

What managed cloud services include, how a managed AWS or Azure provider works with your team, typical pricing models, and the questions to ask before you sign.

Moving to AWS or Azure was supposed to reduce the work of running infrastructure. In practice, someone still has to monitor it, patch it, secure it, back it up and keep the bill under control. Managed cloud services hand that work to a specialist team. Here is what they include and how to choose a provider.

What are managed cloud services?

Managed cloud services are an outsourced team that operates your cloud environment day to day. Depending on scope, that covers monitoring and alerting, patching, backups and recovery testing, security configuration, cost optimization and handling change requests. You keep ownership of the accounts and the decisions. The provider does the operational work.

What is usually included?

24/7 monitoring of servers, databases, containers and managed services.
Patching and updates on an agreed schedule.
Backups, retention policies and regular restore tests.
Security baselines, identity reviews and logging.
Cost reviews: right-sizing, idle resources and commitment discounts.
Change requests and small projects, often as infrastructure as code.
Monthly reporting on uptime, incidents and spend.

How managed cloud pricing works

The common models are a flat monthly fee based on environment size, a percentage of your cloud bill, or a per-resource fee. Flat fees are the most predictable. Percentage-of-spend models can work against you, because the provider earns more when your bill goes up. Whatever the model, get the included tasks in writing.

Signs you need a managed cloud provider

Your developers spend their time on infrastructure instead of product work.
Nobody owns patching, backups or security reviews.
Cloud costs keep rising and nobody can explain why.
You are planning a migration and lack in-house cloud experience.
You need 24/7 coverage but do not have an on-call rotation.

Questions to ask before you sign

Do you work in our accounts, or move us into yours?
Which clouds and services do you support in depth?
What are your response times for critical incidents?
Do you manage changes as infrastructure as code?
How do you report on cost, and what savings have you found for similar clients?
What happens to documentation and access if we end the contract?

Cloud spend is often the quickest win. Our engineers share their low-risk approach in five ways we cut cloud spend. For a security review of your setup, see the cloud security checklist. To discuss ongoing operations, see our cloud infrastructure management service.

Hand off the day-to-day running of AWS or Azure

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