Dell’s Todd Lieb Warns of Overlooked Cloud Costs

Cloud bills can exceed expectations when application traffic grows, workloads need more computing power than budgeted, or unused resources keep running, according to Todd Lieb, global vice president for Cloud Partnerships at Dell Technologies.

In an interview with Techtidningen at Dell Technologies Forum in Stockholm, Lieb highlighted network traffic between applications as an easily underestimated cost. He said that when ten cloud applications communicate with one another, network charges can rise sharply overnight. He advised IT leaders to understand what is driving costs before considering a change in operating environment.

Cloud users may initially budget for cheaper computing resources, then discover that an application needs a more expensive service to meet performance requirements. Lieb also said customers are weighing cloud costs more carefully than before. He added that resilience, availability and recovery deserve attention, particularly when organizations rely on AI systems and need to understand what happens if their cloud region becomes unavailable.

Changing platforms can add operational demands. Companies may keep part of their existing setup, move some applications to a public cloud and adopt another platform for others. Staff must learn new tools and continue operating the systems after migration. Lieb said moving a virtual machine is less difficult than changing staff skills. Applications that support the same business process may also need to move together or be coordinated across migration stages.

Before choosing a provider or signing a new contract, Lieb recommended that organizations define their desired IT environment three years ahead and assess whether each purchase supports that direction. He said the plan should also account for operating costs and the technology, services and support needed to reach it.