Domain 4 of 6 · Chapter 2 of 2

Business Processes

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Included in this chapter:

  • Cost optimization is a process, not an event
  • CapEx, OpEx, and who controls spend
  • The cost levers: commit, scale, rightsize
  • Governance: budgets alert, quotas prevent
  • Business continuity: RTO and RPO drive the cost
  • The people side: stakeholders, change, skills, success
  • Exam-pattern recognition

Cost levers and governance controls: what each one does

MechanismWhat it doesCommitmentStops or caps spend?
Sustained-use discount (SUD)Automatic discount as a Compute Engine resource runs longer in a monthNoneNo, it lowers the rate
Committed-use discount (CUD)Lower rate for a 1- or 3-year usage commitment on steady load1 or 3 yearsNo, it lowers the rate
Active Assist recommendersSurface idle/oversized resources and CUD opportunities to act onNoneNo, you act on the advice
Cloud Billing budgetAlerts at threshold percentages of a budget amountNoneNo, notification only
Resource quotaHard limit that blocks a request exceeding itNoneYes, it prevents consumption

Decision tree

What is the cost goal?Control spendLower spendgovernreduceQuotaBlocks request, hard capCloud Billing budgetAlerts only, no capguarantee a ceilingjust alertCUD1 or 3-year commitAutoscaleSUDs auto-applySpot VMsInterruption-tolerantsteady baselinevariable peaktolerates lossAlways: act on Active Assist recommendersrightsize oversized, delete idle
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • Treat cost optimization as a continuous loop, not a one-time cleanup
  • Cost-optimal means the cheapest option that still meets the requirement
  • The cloud shifts hardware CapEx to consumption-based OpEx
  • Sustained-use discounts apply automatically, with no commitment
  • Buy committed-use discounts for predictable, steady-state load
  • Use Active Assist recommenders to rightsize and remove waste
  • Run interruption-tolerant batch on Spot VMs to cut cost
  • A Cloud Billing budget only notifies; it never caps spend
  • Use a resource quota when you must guarantee a consumption ceiling
  • Watch the verb: notify points to a budget, prevent points to a quota
  • Make spend attributable with consistent labels before analyzing it
  • Export billing to BigQuery for analysis beyond the built-in reports
  • Set RTO and RPO as business decisions before choosing a DR design
  • Influence stakeholders with evidence, not authority
  • Treat a skills-readiness gap as an architectural constraint
  • Change management governs how change reaches production safely
  • Use the Cloud Adoption Framework as a shared maturity vocabulary
  • Match the Customer Care tier to the business response requirement

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Also tested in

References

  1. Well-Architected Framework: cost optimization pillar Well-Architected
  2. Google Cloud Well-Architected Framework Well-Architected
  3. PaaS vs IaaS vs SaaS
  4. Sustained use discounts
  5. Recommenders (Active Assist)
  6. Create, edit, or delete budgets and budget alerts
  7. Quotas: overview
  8. View your cost and usage reports
  9. Disaster recovery planning guide Well-Architected
  10. Google Cloud Adoption Framework
  11. Premium Support (Customer Care)