Find the latest news & updates on AWS

About bNoteable

bNoteable helps you showcase your hard work on a path to reach your goals by leveraging your band, orchestra, or vocal experience to its fullest potential to college admissions boards.
This begins early by setting a course that allows you to turn those hours of fun and friendship into leadership experience, hours of practice and performances into scholarship potential, and years of music classes into overall higher SATs and GPA scores, and academic achievement.

Executive Summary

Continuing the development of a musician networking platform which involved implementing new features, enhancing the existing ones, and fixing bugs/errors/issues in the platform by improving its efficiency and productivity along with making the platform responsive.

Problem Statement

Our client wanted us to design and create a social platform where each and every user is able to connect and interact with one another easily. He came to us after a bad experience with some other company and was expecting to continue the development by improving website performance as well as efficiency.
The platform had various bugs which needed to be fixed and some major features were to be added like payment service, OTP service, adding more security along with improving existing features. Performance of platform was being affected as there were some major issues like:
1. Deployment architecture- Everything was deployed on a single EC2 instance due to which there was a high amount of downtime. The performance was impacted more when the user base was increased.
2. The videos on his platform were taking a lot of time to load.

Our Solutions

1) We followed MVC architecture for developing REST API using express as middleware and mongoose for managing data in MongoDB. Authenticated API with jwt by using JSON web token package.
2) Added payment service in the platform by integrating stripe payment gateway with help of stripe package, created OTPs for security/validation which was communicated via SMS with help of Twilio.
3) To improve the performance, we deployed the backend on a separate ec2 instance with Nginx as reverse proxy and pm2 as process manager which comes with a built-in load balancer and helps to keep the application alive forever.
4) Installed Nginx on the server, and changed the Nginx.conf file configurations as per the requirement and it worked as a load balancing solution. Also replaced the lets encrypt SSL certificates with ACM(AWS Certificate Manager) to make certificate renewal, provision, and management process better as well as easy.
5) For adding new features to the platform, the frontend involved creating several components, services, directives, pipes, and modules in Angular.
6) To reduce the load time we implemented Lazy loading with help of Lazy load routes. The reason behind increased load time for videos was the use of video tag over secured protocol, to solve this we used iframe for rendering videos which proved to be much faster.
7) Changed the existing deployment architecture and moved the front-end to S3 so that load on the server can be reduced. We moved the front-end to S3 with CloudFront as CDN for speeding up the distribution of web content and improving performance.

Technologies

Angular 10, Node, Express, MongoDB, AWS S3, EC2, CloudFront

Success Metrics

1. Provided all the deliverables within the expected deadlines, improved performance as down time reduced and videos were no longer buffering for a long time.
2. Met all the expectations of the client and with positive feedback. All his meetings with directors and students were successful due to which he wanted us to implement some more new features on his platform.
3. Continuous reporting of progress to the client.

‍

About bNoteable

bNoteable helps you showcase your hard work on a path to reach your goals by leveraging your band, orchestra, or vocal experience to its fullest potential to college admissions boards.
This begins early by setting a course that allows you to turn those hours of fun and friendship into leadership experience, hours of practice and performances into scholarship potential, and years of music classes into overall higher SATs and GPA scores, and academic achievement.

Executive Summary

Continuing the development of a musician networking platform which involved implementing new features, enhancing the existing ones, and fixing bugs/errors/issues in the platform by improving its efficiency and productivity along with making the platform responsive.

Problem Statement

Our client wanted us to design and create a social platform where each and every user is able to connect and interact with one another easily. He came to us after a bad experience with some other company and was expecting to continue the development by improving website performance as well as efficiency.
The platform had various bugs which needed to be fixed and some major features were to be added like payment service, OTP service, adding more security along with improving existing features. Performance of platform was being affected as there were some major issues like:
1. Deployment architecture- Everything was deployed on a single EC2 instance due to which there was a high amount of downtime. The performance was impacted more when the user base was increased.
2. The videos on his platform were taking a lot of time to load.

Our Solutions

1) We followed MVC architecture for developing REST API using express as middleware and mongoose for managing data in MongoDB. Authenticated API with jwt by using JSON web token package.
2) Added payment service in the platform by integrating stripe payment gateway with help of stripe package, created OTPs for security/validation which was communicated via SMS with help of Twilio.
3) To improve the performance, we deployed the backend on a separate ec2 instance with Nginx as reverse proxy and pm2 as process manager which comes with a built-in load balancer and helps to keep the application alive forever.
4) Installed Nginx on the server, and changed the Nginx.conf file configurations as per the requirement and it worked as a load balancing solution. Also replaced the lets encrypt SSL certificates with ACM(AWS Certificate Manager) to make certificate renewal, provision, and management process better as well as easy.
5) For adding new features to the platform, the frontend involved creating several components, services, directives, pipes, and modules in Angular.
6) To reduce the load time we implemented Lazy loading with help of Lazy load routes. The reason behind increased load time for videos was the use of video tag over secured protocol, to solve this we used iframe for rendering videos which proved to be much faster.
7) Changed the existing deployment architecture and moved the front-end to S3 so that load on the server can be reduced. We moved the front-end to S3 with CloudFront as CDN for speeding up the distribution of web content and improving performance.

Technologies

Angular 10, Node, Express, MongoDB, AWS S3, EC2, CloudFront

Success Metrics

1. Provided all the deliverables within the expected deadlines, improved performance as down time reduced and videos were no longer buffering for a long time.
2. Met all the expectations of the client and with positive feedback. All his meetings with directors and students were successful due to which he wanted us to implement some more new features on his platform.
3. Continuous reporting of progress to the client.

‚Äç

In 2024, the healthcare sector faced an unprecedented surge in data breaches. Over 720 incidents were reported, compromising approximately 186 million user records, including sensitive personal, medical, and financial information. Notably, a ransomware attack on Change Healthcare exposed data of around 100 million individuals, marking it as the largest healthcare data breach in U.S. history.​

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establishes stringent standards for protecting sensitive patient information. However, achieving and maintaining HIPAA compliance can be complex, especially for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that may lack extensive IT resources.​

With AWS and other cloud services, SMBs can build and deploy applications that ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of protected health information (PHI). AWS's secure and scalable infrastructure provides the foundation necessary for maintaining compliance while supporting business growth and innovation.

What is HIPAA?

HIPAA is a regulation for businesses handling Protected Health Information (PHI), such as healthcare providers and SMBs in the healthcare industry. 

PHI includes sensitive data like medical records and billing information. Failing to comply with HIPAA can result in heavy penalties and damage to the healthcare business's reputation. For SMBs, building HIPAA-compliant software can seem daunting, but understanding the basics is essential to safeguard PHI while growing your business.

How AWS supports HIPAA compliance for SMBs

By offering a secure, scalable infrastructure and HIPAA-eligible services, AWS helps businesses protect sensitive data without compromising growth. From shared responsibility to built-in security tools, AWS provides the building blocks SMBs need to confidently meet HIPAA standards. Here's how it works:

1. The Shared Responsibility Model 

AWS simplifies HIPAA compliance with a shared responsibility model. AWS secures its infrastructure, including data centers and cloud services, while SMBs are responsible for ensuring their application, managing access controls, and using AWS services correctly. This model helps SMBs allocate resources efficiently and focus on securing critical parts of their applications.

2. HIPAA-Eligible AWS Services

AWS offers several services that SMBs can use to build HIPAA-compliant applications. These services are designed to protect sensitive data, ensuring compliance with HIPAA's strict security and privacy standards:

• Amazon EC2: Virtual servers that allow you to run applications and handle PHI securely.
• Amazon S3: Cloud storage that scales as needed to store healthcare data securely.
• AWS Lambda: Serverless computing to reduce the operational burden and secure PHI without managing servers.
• Amazon RDS: Managed database service that secures structured data and helps ensure compliance.

These services can help SMBs create a HIPAA-compliant infrastructure without needing extensive technical expertise. AWS makes it easier to adopt these services and stay compliant as your business grows.

3. Signing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with AWS

You must sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to confirm your use of AWS for HIPAA-compliant applications. This agreement outlines the shared responsibilities for PHI security between your organization and AWS. To sign a BAA with AWS, you'll need to use the AWS Artifact service within the AWS Management Console. To sign a BAA:

1. Review AWS's HIPAA Compliance Resources: Familiarize yourself with the HIPAA compliance documentation available from AWS.
2. Identify HIPAA-Eligible Services: Ensure the AWS services you plan to use are compliant with HIPAA.
3. Sign the BAA: Access AWS Artifact and sign the BAA. This agreement confirms AWS's role in managing infrastructure compliance.
4. Configure Your AWS Environment: Follow AWS's guidelines to configure your services in line with HIPAA's requirements.

Platforms like Cloudtech can guide you through the BAA process and help configure your AWS environment to ensure full HIPAA compliance from day one.

4. Why choose AWS for HIPAA compliance?

AWS offers several advantages for SMBs that need to maintain HIPAA compliance:

• Built-in Security Tools: AWS provides tools like IAM, encryption, and logging to help you secure PHI and meet HIPAA standards.
• Scalability: AWS's infrastructure grows with your business, allowing you to scale without overspending.
• Comprehensive Security Framework: AWS's security measures protect your data at every layer, but it's important to properly configure your services to meet HIPAA's specific technical and administrative safeguards.

AWS provides the tools, security, and scalability that can support your HIPAA-compliant applications while helping your business grow.

HIPAA-compliant security best practices for SMBs using AWS

When building applications on AWS, it's essential to ensure they are HIPAA-compliant. For SMBs, this is not only about meeting legal requirements but also about safeguarding sensitive health data. AWS provides a range of tools and services to make this process easier and more secure.

1. Data encryption: AWS offers tools like Key Management Service (KMS) and CloudHSM (Hardware Security Module) to help encrypt data both at rest and in transit. This ensures that even if unauthorized access occurs, the data remains secure. By using these encryption tools, businesses can protect Protected Health Information (PHI) during transmission and storage.
   
2. Access control: Protecting access to sensitive data is a key component of HIPAA compliance. With AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), SMBs can control who has access to their data and the actions they can perform. Adding Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) further strengthens security by requiring a second layer of verification for access.
   
3. Network security: Protecting business data flow is crucial. By creating a dedicated Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), businesses can isolate their infrastructure from public networks, providing a secure environment for PHI. They can also implement security groups as virtual firewalls, control traffic, and set up VPN connections for secure access to AWS resources.
   
4. Continuous monitoring and auditing: Continuous monitoring and auditing are essential for maintaining compliance. AWS tools like CloudTrail, CloudWatch, and GuardDuty help you track user activity and detect security gaps in real time. Additionally, AWS Config ensures that any configuration changes are tracked, keeping your infrastructure aligned with HIPAA regulations.
   
5. Data transmission security: Ensure all communication between your application and users is secure with SSL certificates. This helps encrypt data in transit and prevents unauthorized access during transmission, further securing PHI.

By applying these security measures, you can confidently architect HIPAA-compliant applications on AWS. With data encryption, access control, network security, continuous monitoring, and secure data transmission, your infrastructure will be fully protected and compliant with HIPAA standards.

How to secure AWS resources for HIPAA compliance 

When using AWS to store and manage sensitive data, it's crucial to implement security best practices that protect against unauthorized access and ensure compliance with HIPAA standards. AWS provides a variety of tools, but it's your responsibility to configure them correctly to safeguard your data and secure access.

1. Prevent public access: Always ensure that your AWS S3 buckets are private. Public access should only be granted when absolutely necessary, and even then, it should be restricted to specific users or services.
2. Enable server-side encryption: Enable server-side encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS) on your S3 buckets to encrypt data at rest. This ensures sensitive information remains protected, even if storage is compromised.
3. Use access logging: Turn on access logging to monitor who accesses your data. This allows you to track activity and respond to any unusual access or security threats promptly.
4. Follow the principle of least privilege with IAM: Secure access to your AWS environment by only granting users the permissions they absolutely need. This minimizes the risk of unauthorized access and potential data breaches.
5. Regularly review and audit IAM policies: Conduct regular audits of your IAM roles and policies to ensure they align with your security requirements. Remove unnecessary permissions and use IAM roles to limit access to only what is needed for specific services.

By implementing these best practices, you can effectively secure your data storage and access management, ensuring that your AWS environment remains both secure and fully compliant with HIPAA standards.

Staff training and compliance management

Staff training on HIPAA regulations is essential to ensure the team is equipped to protect sensitive patient data and maintain compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Staff training on HIPAA regulations and secure data handling is critical to maintaining compliance and safeguarding sensitive information. SMBs need to ensure that their team understands the key principles of HIPAA and the importance of protecting Protected Health Information (PHI).

Key Training Areas:

• Data security best practices: Educate employees on how to store and transmit patient data securely.
• HIPAA requirements: Train staff on the rules of patient confidentiality and how they apply to your operations.
• Incident handling: Ensure your team knows how to identify and respond to potential breaches or data theft.

By providing consistent and comprehensive training, you reduce the risk of compliance violations and create a culture of security within your organization. Incorporating AWS HIPAA compliance features into your infrastructure can help ensure that your technical environment meets the highest security standards.

How to manage compliance reports with AWS artifacts for HIPAA and industry standards 

For SMBs, handling sensitive data and managing compliance reports is essential to prove adherence to industry regulations and avoid potential penalties. Using AWS Artifact can streamline this process, making it easier to access, organize, and maintain compliance documentation, such as HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 reports.

1. Access compliance documentation: SMBs can quickly retrieve compliance reports for certifications like HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 through AWS Artifact. Simply log into the AWS Management Console, navigate to Artifact, and search for the needed report. This centralized access reduces the hassle of gathering reports from multiple sources.
   
2. Download and review reports: After locating the relevant report, download it for review. Understanding the content, especially AWS's compliance controls, helps verify alignment with AWS’s compliance posture and highlights any areas for operational adjustments.
   
3. Organize reports for audits: Use AWS Artifact to organize compliance reports in a structured manner. Creating dedicated folders for different certifications ensures easy retrieval during audits, saving time and demonstrating proactive compliance management.
   
4. Set up alerts for updates: AWS updates compliance documentation regularly. SMBs can set alerts in AWS Artifact to stay informed of updates, ensuring they always use the latest reports and avoid outdated documentation during audits or reviews.
   
5. Share reports with stakeholders: AWS Artifact allows businesses to securely share compliance reports with stakeholders or auditors by generating shareable links or downloading PDFs. This simplifies collaboration while maintaining document integrity and confidentiality.
   
6. Track compliance progress: SMBs can track their compliance status over time with AWS Artifact. It provides visibility into past reports, allowing businesses to track trends, identify changes, and adjust processes to stay in line with evolving compliance requirements.
   
7. Audit preparation: AWS Artifact acts as a single source for all compliance documents, streamlining audit preparation. With everything organized in one place, SMBs can ensure auditors have immediate access to the necessary reports, simplifying the audit process.

Using AWS Artifact reduces manual tracking, ensures you have the latest reports, and simplifies the audit process for your business. This tool is a time-saver for SMBs striving to meet regulatory standards and protect their operations.

Challenges in HIPAA compliance on AWS

While AWS provides the tools needed to maintain HIPAA compliance, there are challenges that SMBs must address. Identifying and addressing these challenges early will help you avoid compliance pitfalls.

1. Third-party integrations: Ensure third-party services interacting with PHI are HIPAA-compliant. Their security practices can impact your data protection efforts, so thorough vetting is essential.
   
2. Managing patient access requests: Set up secure, efficient processes to handle patient requests for access to their health information. Delays or inefficiencies can lead to non-compliance.
   
3. Data security concerns: AWS provides encryption tools, but correct configuration is your responsibility. Misconfiguration of encryption or access control can expose PHI, risking compliance violations.
   
4. User access and role management: Set up precise IAM roles to control who accesses PHI. Regularly audit and update these roles to ensure unauthorized access does not occur.
   
5. Data retention and disposal: Establish clear policies for retaining and securely disposing of PHI. Failing to delete data properly can expose sensitive information and violate HIPAA.
   
6. Continuous monitoring and auditing: Use AWS tools like CloudTrail and GuardDuty for ongoing monitoring to detect security issues. Without continuous tracking, it’s difficult to ensure compliance.
   
7. Compliance documentation and reporting: Keep detailed records of your HIPAA compliance efforts. Use AWS Artifact for access to compliance reports, but also maintain internal documentation for audits.

By proactively addressing these challenges, SMBs can minimize risks and ensure that their business remains in compliance with HIPAA regulations.

Developing and testing incident response plans

Developing a well-defined incident response plan is essential to handling potential security incidents and maintaining AWS HIPAA compliance. Having a clear, tested response plan in place ensures that your team is prepared for data breaches or other security incidents.

Key steps in incident response:

• Plan development: Create a step-by-step guide for responding to incidents, including roles and responsibilities for each team member.
• Testing & drills: Regularly test your incident response plan with simulated scenarios to ensure your team can react swiftly and effectively.
• Ongoing updates: Continuously improve your plan based on new threats, changes in regulations, or feedback from incident drills.

AWS offers several tools to help with incident management, but the effectiveness of your response plan depends on how well it's integrated with your specific business processes. Regular training and updates will help your team respond quickly and effectively to any compliance or security incidents.

Conclusion

Achieving and maintaining AWS HIPAA compliance can be challenging for small and medium-sized businesses. Complex regulations, data protection needs, and compliance requirements can strain resources and expose your business to risks and penalties. Addressing these concerns is essential to keeping your operations secure and efficient.

Cloudtech specializes in helping SMBs navigate AWS HIPAA compliance with tailored, secure cloud solutions. Their expertise ensures that your business stays compliant while reducing operational costs and staying ahead of regulatory changes. By partnering with Cloudtech, you can focus on growth while having peace of mind that your data is protected.

Start your journey toward seamless AWS HIPAA compliance with Cloudtech today and secure a compliant future for your business!

FAQs

1. What are the penalties for failing to comply with HIPAA in healthcare?

Non-compliance with HIPAA can lead to significant penalties for SMBs, ranging from monetary fines to potential legal consequences. Depending on the severity of the violation, fines can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation, with an annual maximum penalty of $1.5 million. For SMBs handling Protected Health Information (PHI), ensuring compliance is critical to avoiding these penalties and maintaining trust.

2. How does AWS ensure that my healthcare data is protected from external threats?

AWS offers a variety of advanced security features, including encryption at rest and in transit, access controls, and real-time monitoring tools like CloudTrail and GuardDuty. AWS’s global infrastructure is designed to mitigate security risks and external threats, providing SMBs with a secure environment to protect sensitive healthcare data. Implementing these features within your AWS environment helps ensure compliance and protection against external cyber threats.

3. Can AWS help my business scale while maintaining HIPAA compliance?

Yes, AWS's cloud services offer scalable infrastructure that grows with your business. Whether you're expanding your data storage or processing capabilities, AWS allows you to scale up or down without compromising on security or HIPAA compliance. This flexibility helps SMBs manage costs effectively while ensuring that their data protection and compliance standards remain intact as their operations grow.

4. How do I verify that AWS is HIPAA-compliant for my healthcare business?

To verify that AWS is HIPAA-compliant, you can review AWS's compliance documentation through AWS Artifact. This resource provides access to relevant HIPAA compliance reports, such as the Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and security controls. By signing the BAA and utilizing HIPAA-eligible AWS services, your business can ensure that AWS is properly supporting your compliance efforts.

Cloud computing is revolutionizing small businesses, but the question is, are you fully prepared for the costs? Nearly half of SMBs will rely on platforms like AWS for critical workloads in 2025. 

However, without a clear cost strategy, what starts as a flexible solution can quickly strain your budget. Proper planning ensures that cloud adoption aligns with your business goals and doesn’t result in unexpected costs down the line.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the different cloud pricing models, compare cloud hosting with traditional hosting, and offer insights on how to align cloud computing with your business.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing delivers essential IT resources, such as servers, storage, databases, and software, over the Internet on demand. For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it offers a cost-effective, scalable, and flexible alternative to traditional on-premises infrastructure. 

With a pay-as-you-go model, SMBs can reduce upfront costs, scale resources as needed, and enable remote work by allowing secure access to data and applications from anywhere, making it an ideal solution for modern business needs.

Why do SMBs opt for cloud computing? 

Cloud computing offers several key advantages for small businesses: 

•  Enhanced security: Cloud providers offer security measures, including encryption and threat detection, ensuring data protection.

•  Business continuity: Automated backups and disaster recovery options help businesses recover quickly with minimal downtime.

•  Access to advanced tools: Cloud computing provides access to cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning, enhancing operations and customer experiences.

By tapping into these benefits, small businesses can streamline operations, stay competitive, and future-proof their IT infrastructure as they grow and adapt to evolving market demands. 

Common types of cloud services and hosting models

Whether it's cloud infrastructure, development platforms, or ready-to-use software, each model offers specific capabilities and cost structures to support various business goals.

1. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

Provides virtualized resources like virtual machines, storage, and networking, offering flexibility and scalability. Services like AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and Microsoft Azure Blob Storage are common examples of IaaS.

2. PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Delivers tools for app development, allowing developers to focus on building applications without managing infrastructure. AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a popular PaaS offering that handles deployment, load balancing, and scaling while you focus on code.

3. SaaS (Software as a Service)

Provides software applications over the internet, eliminating the need for installation and maintenance. Examples include Google Workspace, Slack, and Salesforce, which handle updates and security automatically.

These service models often run on cloud hosting infrastructure, which differs significantly from traditional web hosting in terms of scalability, reliability, and cost. Choosing the right hosting environment is just as important as selecting the right service model. 

Cloud hosting vs. web hosting: what’s the difference?

When choosing how to host your website or application, each option comes with its own set of trade-offs, especially around flexibility, cost, and maintenance.

•  Cloud hosting gives you flexibility and control: It runs your website or app on multiple virtual servers, so you can scale resources up or down based on demand and only pay for what you use. No physical hardware or maintenance is needed.

•  Traditional web hosting is limited and fixed: It runs on a single physical server with fixed resources. You pay a set price whether you use it fully or not, and you’re often responsible for server maintenance and upgrades.

If your traffic is growing or you want more flexibility without the hassle of managing hardware, cloud hosting lets you scale as needed, so you’re only paying for what you use.

Common cloud computing pricing models 2025

Cloud providers offer different pricing structures. It's important to choose the one that aligns with your needs and helps manage expenses effectively.

1. Subscription-based pricing

This model involves fixed monthly or annual payments, providing predictable costs that simplify budgeting. It's commonly used for Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings. 

For example, let’s consider a 1-Year Reserved Instance (No Upfront Payment)

•  Instance type: m5.large

•  Term: 1 year

•  Payment option: No upfront

•  Hourly rate (2025): ~$0.067/hour

•  Monthly cost estimate: ~$48.91/month (730 hours × $0.067)

Note: AWS pricing is subject to change and can vary by region. For the most accurate and personalized estimates, consider using the AWS Pricing Calculator or talk to Cloudtech for personalized cost estimates

2. Pay-as-You-Go pricing

In this flexible model, businesses pay only for the resources they consume, making it ideal for those with fluctuating demands. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) offers On-Demand Instances, where costs are incurred based on usage without long-term commitments. 

For instance, as of April 2025, the On-Demand pricing for a Linux-based m5.large instance in the US East (N. Virginia) region is $0.096 per hour and $70.08 monthly. 

3. Tiered pricing based on usage

This structure provides different pricing tiers corresponding to varying levels of resource consumption. Each tier includes a set amount of resources, allowing businesses to select a plan that best fits their needs. 

For example, AWS offers various instance types, which vary by CPU, memory, storage, and network performance with specific configurations and pricing. This enables businesses to choose instances that align with their performance requirements and budget. 

A startup with light traffic can begin with a t3.micro instance at just $7.59/month (730 hours × $0.0104), and scale up as their needs grow.

Estimate your cloud costs here! 

AWS Pricing Calculator 

 Azure Pricing Calculator 

GCP Calculator 

Cloud migration costs for small and medium businesses

Migrating to the cloud offers SMBs enhanced flexibility and potential cost savings. However, understanding the associated expenses is crucial for effective planning and maximising return on investment (ROI). Here's a breakdown of the typical costs involved:​ 

1. Initial cloud migration costs

The initial phase of cloud migration involves several key expenses:​

•  Assessment and planning: Evaluating your current IT infrastructure and devising a migration strategy can cost between $5,000 and $25,000, depending on the complexity and size of your operations.​

•  Data migration: Transferring data to the cloud may incur costs ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, influenced by the volume of data and the migration tools employed.​

•  Application refactoring: Modifying applications to function optimally in the cloud can be a significant expense, ranging from $20,000 to $100,000, varying widely based on application complexity.

2. Cloud migration services costs

Cloud migration can be handled in two ways: using managed service providers (MSPs) or relying on in-house teams.

•  Managed Service Providers (MSPs): Engaging MSPs for end-to-end migration services can cost from $10,000 to over $100,000, depending on the scope. While this represents a substantial investment, MSPs offer expertise that can mitigate risks and expedite the migration process.

•  In-house teams: Utilizing internal resources may reduce direct expenses but requires significant time and expertise, potentially leading to longer timelines and unforeseen challenges.

3. Ongoing post-migration costs

Once your workloads are live in the cloud, it's important to account for ongoing operational expenses that can impact your monthly IT budget. These typically include:

•  Subscription fees: Cloud service providers typically charge monthly fees based on resource consumption. For example, AWS's On-Demand instances are billed per hour, with costs varying by instance type and region.​

•  Data transfer costs: Moving data in and out of the cloud can incur additional fees.​

•  Additional services: Costs for services like enhanced security measures, backup solutions, and increased storage capacity can add to monthly expenses.​

Understanding these cost components enables SMBs to budget effectively and make informed decisions, ensuring that cloud migration aligns with their financial and operational objectives.

Note: The actual cost of cloud computing can vary based on several factors, like the region you deploy in, whether you choose reserved or on-demand instances, storage tier, and usage volume. The pricing shown here is meant to give you a realistic starting point, not an exact quote. Cloudtech can help you with a personalized estimate. 

Best practices for reducing cloud computing costs

Cloud costs can quickly add up if not actively managed. For small businesses, adopting the right strategies can lead to significant savings without compromising performance. Here are some practical ways to keep your cloud spend under control:

•  Rightsizing: Ensure that the cloud resources you are using are aligned with your actual usage. Avoid paying for unused capacity. For example, if you're running a t3.large instance for a light web app that could comfortably run on a t3.small, downsizing could cut your compute costs by over 70%.

•  Auto-scaling: Set up auto-scaling to adjust your cloud resources based on demand automatically. This allows you to pay only for what you need, especially during periods of low activity.

•  Cheaper storage options: Explore more affordable storage options for less-critical data. For example, AWS offers storage classes like S3 Glacier and S3 Glacier Deep Archive, which are significantly cheaper than standard S3 storage.

As you look into ways to optimize your cloud costs, you need to evaluate the pricing structures offered by major cloud providers. 

Sample cloud pricing for SMBs

Major cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud offer flexible pricing models designed to help SMBs optimize costs. Here's an overview of their key options:

Pay-as-you-go: All three providers offer this model, meaning you only pay for the resources you use, which is ideal for businesses with fluctuating demand.

•  Reserved instances: Available on AWS and Azure, these plans allow you to save by committing to 1 or 3-year terms for predictable workloads, such as web apps or e-commerce sites.

•  Savings plans and committed use: AWS and Google Cloud offer savings by committing to a specific usage level over time. AWS's Compute Savings Plans can save up to 72%, while Google Cloud offers sustained use discounts and committed use contracts for long-term savings.

•  Hybrid benefits: Azure offers a unique option that allows businesses to apply existing Windows and SQL Server licenses, reducing costs.

These pricing models allow SMBs to scale their infrastructure efficiently without significant upfront investments, making it easier to manage resources and control costs as you grow.

Conclusion

Understanding the cost of cloud computing for small businesses is essential for SMBs to ensure they are getting the most value from their cloud investment. Modernizing your infrastructure and optimizing your applications can maximize performance and scalability while maintaining cost efficiency. With the right strategy, cloud computing can support your current needs and scale your business without unnecessary costs or inefficiencies.

Cloudtech helps small and medium businesses unlock cost-effective cloud solutions built for growth, performance, and security. From data modernization to application optimization, our experts ensure you get maximum ROI from your cloud investment. 

Explore Cloudtech's services today to optimize your cloud environment and drive efficiency for your SMB with cost-effective solutions!

FAQs

1. How can I estimate my cloud computing costs before migrating?

You can estimate your cloud computing costs using pricing calculators offered by major cloud providers. These tools let you input your expected usage (like storage, compute hours, and data transfer) to get a rough monthly estimate.

2. What are the hidden costs of cloud computing for small businesses?

Watch for costs like data transfer, overages, additional storage, and scalability during peak times. Regularly monitor usage to avoid unexpected expenses.

3. How do I choose the best cloud service model for my business?

IaaS offers full control over infrastructure, PaaS simplifies app development, and SaaS provides ready-to-use software. The right choice depends on what works best for your business goals. 

4. Is it cheaper to handle cloud migration internally or hire a managed service provider?

If your team has the expertise, internal migration may save costs. However, Cloudtech offers comprehensive services to assist with cloud migration, reduce errors, and speed up the process, potentially saving money in the long term.

About

A non-profit healthcare insurance provider that encountered difficulties in managing the high volume of data on their on-premises system, which impeded their capacity to analyze that data efficiently to make informed business decisions. To address these issues, they chose to migrate their data to Amazon Redshift.

‍

Business Challenge

As their business grew, the insurance provider faced several challenges with their legacy system. Most importantly, their on-prem data warehouse, Oracle Exadata, required significant time and resources to administer, especially for large datasets. Additionally, the financial costs associated with building, maintaining, and growing self-managed, on premises data warehouses are very high.

In order to manage costs, keep ETL complexity low, and deliver acceptable performance, the customer had to constantly trade-off what data to load into the data warehouse and what data to archive in storage. 

‍

Technical Challenge

The customer’s data pipeline followed a collect, store, process/analyze, and consume model, leveraging multiple AWS services. Their data lake was created in an Amazon S3 bucket, and the data lake's stored data can be queried using dbt, utilizing AWS Glue Data Catalog Databases and Crawlers.We recommended Amazon Redshift and Redshift Spectrum to build their data warehouse. After mapping the data with Redshift Spectrum, Amazon Redshift processes the data to Redshift tables. Data is then visualized and consumed by users through Amazon QuickSight.

‍

AWS Services Adopted for this Solution

• Amazon S3, for data lakes
• AWS Glue, as a data datalog
• Amazon Redshift, as a data warehouse
• Amazon Quicksight, for data visualization

‍

‍

Data Processing Solution for Healthcare Organization

Amazon Redshift's scalability and flexibility make it easy to manage expanding data volumes effortlessly. With Redshift, customers can reduce their total cost of ownership (TCO) associated with database environments. Redshift also provides a centralized and secure data storage solution, that also automatically patches and backs up the data warehouse, storing backups for a user-defined retention period. This replication and continuous backups enhance availability and improve data durability, and can automatically recover from component and node failures.

Amazon Redshift’s parallel processing and compression capabilities accelerate command execution, enabling it to operate on billions of rows simultaneously. Redshift Spectrum integrates seamlessly with other AWS services (such as Glue), making it easy to build end-to-end data pipelines. This ensures that data is always up-to-date, accurate, and secure.

‍

“Before moving to Amazon Redshift, our engineering team was spending too much time managing our on-prem data warehouse. Now, we are saving so much time on data management, and our data analysis has improved significantly.”

‍- CIO, Healthcare Insurance Provider

‍

Data Processing Results

With Amazon Redshift and additional AWS services, the customer gained a centralized and secure data storage solution, and a streamlined data analysis process. The scalability and flexibility of Redshift empowered the customer to handle expanding data volumes seamlessly.

‍

Get started with Healthcare Data Processing

Take the first steps to improve your healthcare data processing to see increases in data security, analysis, and scalability. Contact Cloudtech today.

‍

About

This financial services organization provides financial planning, advice, and educational resources that investors need in a timely manner - including retirement planning, wealth preservation, brokerage services, and more. The organization services customers worldwide to help them realize their financial goals.

‍

Business Challenge

The data ingestion process of a well-known financial services organization was not designed to scale to handle peak and projected future volume levels. Failures in that process could directly impact their ability to provide accurate and timely analysis, reporting, and investment advice.

Were that to happen, the ensuing reduction in assets under management and future opportunity loss would easily total tens of millions of dollars. Additionally, the data came from multiple sources in multiple formats and the whole system was governed by FINRA compliance regulations, including data encryption. 

‍

Technical Challenge

The organization needed an event-driven data processing solution that securely ingests, prepares, analyzes, and scales during peak and projected volume levels. This solution needed to handle data from multiple data sources in multiple formats, be cost-effective, and meet their FINRA compliance regulations. This solution would also allow the organization to have access to timely analysis and reporting with a comprehensive visualization of the data.

‍

AWS Services Adopted for this Solution

• Amazon EventBridge, for data requests
• AWS Lambda, for file validation
• AWS Glue, for ETL
• Amazon Athena, for queries
• Amazon QuickSight, for data visualization
• Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon SNS for monitoring and alerts

‍

‍

Event-Driven Architecture Solution for Financial Services Firm

Cloudtech implemented an event-driven solution anchored by Amazon EventBridge, AWS Lambda, and AWS Glue. During non-working hours, Amazon EventBridge triggers Lambda to request new data and store it in Amazon S3. AWS Lambda also performs file validation before moving on to a AWS Glue Crawler and then AWS Glue Job for ETL to an AWS Glue Catalog, where the data is queried using Amazon Athena and visualized using Amazon QuickSight. Monitoring and alerting are handled throughout the process flow using Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon SNS. The result not only enhances scalability and accuracy, but also enables cost savings.

‍

“Cloudtech's event-driven architecture solution is the backbone of our timely and accurate investment advice that our clients rely on.” 
- VP of Engineering, Financial Services

‍

Event-Driven Architecture Results

Cloudtech provided the organization with an event-driven data processing solution which was secure, scalable, and handled multiple data sources and data formats. In addition, the solution provided timely analysis, reporting and a comprehensive view which allowed the organization to provide accurate investment advice to their clients. In turn, this solution helped the organization avoid the potential future opportunity losses which could have cost them tens of millions of dollars.

‍

Increase Your Data Security

Learn how you can realize the benefits of an event-driven architecture for your financial services data, to improve security, analysis, and customer experience. Contact Cloudtech today.

‍