Whether you’re a startup looking for simplicity or an enterprise needing high-performance scalability, this guide breaks down the key differences between DigitalOcean vs. AWS — pricing, features, use cases, and more. We’ll start with a quick overview of each provider. And, right away, you’ll notice their different focus areas, target customers, and what makes each platform unique.

Amazon Web Service offers cloud computing to organizations of all sizes. It provides low-cost cloud storage, nearly unlimited compute resources, and secure remote computing services. Still, many users find AWS confusing. Companies often struggle to understand AWS billing. Aligning cloud spend to actual operational activities for cost allocation is next to impossible. AWS also limits the amount of compute resources you can use based on your location.

Over the past few years, Kubernetes (K8s) has become the preferred method of orchestrating containers and microservices. Its self-healing, high scalability, and open-source nature make it appealing to a wide range of users. However, deploying, running, and scaling containerized applications and microservices with Kubernetes can be challenging. The Kubernetes community keeps growing, but there still aren’t that many experienced K8s engineers.

One of the cloud’s greatest advancements is its ability to scale resources like vCPU and memory based on demand. However, this auto-scaling can also lead to unexpected cost fluctuations — sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic — especially with new or unpredictable workloads. That’s why cloud forecasting is essential. It helps you stay ahead of unpredictable costs by aligning your spending with business goals. How? We’ll break down how cloud cost forecasting works.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to both be a conscious human being with an internet connection and to be unaware of AI. From Jamie Dimon’s bullish stance to Elon Musk’s dire predictions to the art world’s raging debate (and uncanny experiments) over whether it can ever be used ethically, AI has an iron grip on our collective imagination, and businesses are scrambling to outspend each other on the way to making it drive sustainable profit.

When Azure Savings Plans for Compute were introduced in late 2022, many assumed they were designed to replace Azure Reservations (Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances). But that’s not the case — and it still isn’t. Instead, Azure Savings Plans and Reservations can work hand in hand and complement your other Azure cost optimization strategies. That said, maximizing the benefits of each option isn’t always straightforward.

For DevOps teams, ideal cloud deployment tools mean automation, consistency, and operational reliability. For CTOs, they ensure faster time to market, scalability, and efficiency. And for CFOs, cost-effectiveness and healthy margins are the name of the game. This is our hand-picked list to help you choose the right cloud deployment tools for your organization’s specific needs.

Managing and knowing where your cloud spend goes is nearly impossible without the right cloud cost management tools. Cloud-native, distributed technologies like microservices, containers, and Kubernetes can make it even more difficult to have full visibility into resource usage — and the associated costs. This cost information is also often buried in rows and columns of text on cloud providers’ bills. In addition, a lot of cloud cost management tools are clunky and inexact.

A reliable notifications system can send highly scalable, multi-protocol messages — via email, SMS, or apps — all from one platform. For example, you can send timely cost anomaly alerts directly to your developers on Slack to alert them to potential overspending before it becomes a board meeting emergency. So, what does this have to do with Amazon SNS pricing? Let’s start at the beginning to better understand what you’re paying for when you get that AWS SNS bill.

The weather may be frightful in most parts of the U.S. right now, but these cloud cost updates are pretty delightful (if we do say so ourselves). Here’s the top cloud news that dropped in January 2025: Enjoy!

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers over 200 fully-featured services. AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Lambda, and the AWS Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) are some of the most critical services you should become familiar with. We’ve previously covered Amazon ECS vs. EKS vs. Fargate for managing and deploying containers. This guide will explain how Amazon EC2, Lambda, ECS, and S3 compare and when you’ll want to use each.

Datadog and New Relic didn’t become some of the best observability platforms today by accident. Unlike traditional monitoring tools, both are built from the ground up to be cloud-native. This design is crucial for tracking system health across hybrid cloud infrastructure, modern applications, and microservices/containerized architectures. Both platforms also offer more flexible pricing models than the traditional subscription-based pricing you’ll see elsewhere.

Amazon Aurora offers up to five times the throughput of standard MySQL and three times that of PostgreSQL. Its architecture combines the database engine with a cloud-native, SSD-based storage system built for high I/O operations to achieve this. That said, AWS Aurora pricing can be a real headscratcher for customers, with concerns about the cost structure, pricing components, and ways to cut expenses.

In the last few weeks, industry headlines once again brought the need for businesses to have complete cost visibility and proactive cost management strategies to the forefront of the constantly accelerating cloud and AI landscape. That’s why we’re excited to announce our latest product releases, designed to supercharge your cloud cost intelligence with deeper integrations into industry leaders like AWS and OpenAI.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced Savings Plans to offer customers a more flexible and discounted pricing model than Reserved Instances. Like Reserved Instances, AWS Savings Plans offer discounts for longer-term commitments. You can learn more about the differences between Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans here. In this post, we’ll quickly explain AWS Savings Plans, how they work, and what they can and cannot do for you.

Containers are a big deal today. They are software units that contain all the code, runtime, and dependencies required to run a distributed application. Thus, containers help engineers test and run apps without compatibility issues on any device and platform. Organizations can use containers to reduce engineering costs, speed up deployments, develop and test AI models, and automate more processes. You probably want those benefits as well.

Many companies migrate to the cloud and overlook costs in favor of innovation, speed, and flexibility. They assume that the cloud is inherently more cost-effective than on-premises infrastructure. However, the organizations soon realize that the same characteristics that make the cloud such an enticing and flexible resource can also lead to unexpectedly higher usage bills than expected. The challenge is to find the right balance between optimal system performance, engineering velocity, and cost.