This article was contributed by Susan Melony who works as a freelance writer working for Imaginary Content Co.
With cloud computing being the raging innovation in the tech space, how businesses operate has completely changed in the modern age.
But have you ever found it difficult to manage your cloud resources? Do you struggle to find anything you need when you need it? If so, proper tag practices are just what you need—otherwise, you might just waste your precious time and resources, and nobody likes that.
Cloud tagging is essentially like adding labels to your essential cloud resources, like storage buckets or databases. When you practice cloud tagging, you can easily organize and manage your files. With Cloud tagging, you can add metadata such as the “Environment” or “Owner.” Each tag is a simple label that consists of a “key” and an optional “value,” which makes it easier to search for resources and track usage—you also get to track costs and even automate core tasks.
If you haven’t jumped on the tagging bandwagon just yet, it’s time to buckle up and discover how this simple trick can save you precious time and help keep your digital workflow in order.
Resource Tracking
Let’s face it—if you’ve been trying to navigate the cloud space, you have likely stumbled upon an amalgamation of files, folders, and instances that seem to multiply like bunnies. You could be a small business owner or even just a student with multiple projects. Regardless, finding a document or virtual machine in all that clutter can sometimes be as tricky as finding a needle in a haystack.
That is where comprehensive tags have become incredibly useful and help report cost, usage, and availability. Companies can then track improvements better and identify idle resources, which would have been much more difficult to find otherwise.
Cost Management
Do you know that feeling when you find a hidden quarter in your wallet? Cloud cost management is pretty much like that, but for your virtual expenses. When your resources are tagged properly, you know where your resources are being allocated. In doing so, companies can better track resource usage and the associated costs with particular tags.
Tagging also helps in cost management since it allows us to identify and remove underutilized or unnecessary resources. With these digital labels, you can see what you’re actually spending on and what’s just burning a hole in your wallet—the main benefit being that you get to best optimize your company’s spending.
Automation
This word has been used so much in recent times that it has become difficult to track its meaning. But in this field, automation has become essential, especially if you’re not exactly keen on wasting your time. Tags play a pivotal role in boosting automation. The added metadata brings forward a whole new level of automation, thanks to scripts and bots.
Automation and tags help to enforce policies and start or shut down instances based on how much they are needed. You also get to respond automatically to important events and create remediation efforts. There are all kinds of different automation tools that understand these tags, and they ping you when action is required and ensure you’re always in the loop.
Collaboration
Companies now have multiple cloud environments, and managing them can be difficult. Also, remote work and digital collaboration are the trend now, which makes cloud tagging even more necessary.
If you’re working with a team, tags can quickly become especially handy to have. Think about a project where everyone contributes their brilliance, like projecting sales data metrics or developing marketing strategies. With tags like “Sales,” or “Marketing,” you’re not just streamlining your work; you’re creating a shared language that everyone understands.
Achieve a Great Tagging Strategy
A company’s cloud infrastructure can be chaotic, but a tagging strategy is a game plan to make sense of this chaos—and it’s all about deciding how you’ll label your resources. For instance, you might tag files related to a certain project with the project’s name or its purpose.
Why should you do it? Well, think about how much time you save—but it goes well beyond just that. You can track spending on different projects, optimize resource usage, and automate tasks with tags. To help guide you, here are some ways you can perfect your tagging strategy:
- Establish goals and be consistent with your format
- Make use of automation in tagging
- Audit your tags
- Document your cloud tagging policies
Manage Your Cloud Infrastructure Better With Robust Cloud Tagging
When you use tags, you have more clarity in your cloud environment, and you also get to extract the most value out of your infrastructure.
Tagging your cloud resources is your ticket to a more organized workflow, helping to save you time, money, and any potential headaches along the way.
About the author
Susan Melony is a freelance writer working for Imaginary Content Co. with an academic background in Environmental Studies from Green Valley University.
Last Updated on August 29, 2023 5:33 pm CEST