Cloud Cost Savings By Consolidating Onto Tools You Already Know
Organizations everywhere are feeling the pressure of growing cloud spend. Teams often adopt new SaaS platforms or cloud-native services quickly to meet a need, but over time this creates tool sprawl — multiple overlapping systems, each with its own contract, learning curve, and integration requirements. While the intent is usually to innovate faster, the outcome is often higher costs and greater complexity.
The smarter approach, as discussed in our recent podcast episode, is consolidation: getting more value out of the platforms and tools you already have before looking outward. By leaning into existing capabilities, businesses can unlock major cost savings while still meeting operational and strategic goals.
Also available on Apple Podcasts and as an audio or video podcast on Spotify.
The Cost of Tool Overlap
Many teams juggle multiple tools that perform similar functions, leading to unnecessary expenses and confusion. As Dwayne Hale, CTO at Arbory Digital, highlights, organizations often pay for several tools that accomplish several tools that have significant overlap in functionality, making workflows harder to manage and budgets harder to justify.
Too often, teams overlook the full capabilities of the tools they already use — particularly version control systems like GitLab, GitHub, and Bitbucket. These platforms don’t just handle source code; they come with powerful, built-in CI/CD features that are frequently underutilized.
Underutilization of Version Control Systems
Rather than fully leveraging GitHub Actions, Bitbucket Pipelines, or GitLab CI, many organizations purchase separate CI/CD platforms. This creates redundancy, drives up costs, and fragments developer workflows.
Revisiting what your version control systems already offers can eliminate the need for third-party solutions while simplifying processes and keeping teams aligned.
Auditing Tool Usage & Overlap
Before purchasing new solutions, we advise auditing existing tools by asking questions like:
- Do our current tools already support the functionality we’re looking for?
- What are our real CI/CD requirements (security audits, code quality checks, automation)?
- Where are we duplicating effort or cost?
A practical exercise to spot inefficiencies: invite someone unfamiliar with your setup to navigate the CI/CD pipeline.
If they struggle to determine which tool to use, that’s a clear signal of too much overlap. An outside perspective can reveal inefficiencies insiders may overlook, giving teams a starting point for consolidation before costs escalate.
The Hidden Costs of Multiple Tools
It’s easy to assume that tools like Jenkins are “free” because only the infrastructure requires investment, but hidden costs are significant:
- Maintaining custom pipelines
- Ensuring compatibility between multiple tools
- Developer time spent troubleshooting rather than coding
By contrast, integrated solutions like GitHub Actions or Bitbucket Pipelines minimize these overheads, allowing teams to focus on delivering value rather than managing tools.
Productivity and Training Costs
Introducing new tools also brings training and ramp-up costs, often causing temporary productivity losses.
Integrated tools, however, are generally more intuitive and allow developers to manage their own pipelines without relying heavily on DevOps specialists. This shift improves velocity and keeps projects moving efficiently.
Evaluating New Tools
Not every new tool is worth adopting. Teams should ask:
- Does this tool provide unique functionality that our current stack cannot deliver?
- Will it significantly improve efficiency, or just provide marginal gains?
- Are the training, adoption, and maintenance costs worth it?
Adoption should be strategic and value-driven, not simply chasing the latest feature.
Balancing Cost Savings with Innovation
Consolidation doesn’t mean sacrificing innovation. The key is balance: organizations should pursue tools that enhance productivity, scalability, or collaboration, while also considering long-term costs and sustainability.
This ensures that teams remain agile, efficient, and able to leverage new technologies when they provide genuine value.
Arbory Digital’s Role in Tool Consolidation
At Arbory Digital, we can help clients transition from complex, open-source CI/CD setups to streamlined solutions.
Benefits of these transitions include:
- Reduced overhead in managing multiple tools
- Less time spent on updates, maintenance, and troubleshooting
- Developers gain direct control over pipelines, increasing velocity
- Simplified processes foster better collaboration between DevOps and development teams
By consolidating tools and maximizing the value of existing platforms, organizations can save money while improving efficiency and productivity.
Conclusion
Tool sprawl drives unnecessary costs and creates inefficiencies, but the solution isn’t always a new tool. By auditing your existing stack, identifying overlaps, and leveraging the full capabilities of familiar platforms, organizations can simplify workflows, reduce hidden costs, and free up teams to focus on delivering real value.
Podcast Speakers
Dwayne Hale
CTO at Arbory Digital
Dwayne developed an early fascination with network administration and has over ten years of professional experience. After working within the AEM space for more than a decade, he became an architect at Arbory, and eventually the CTO. He believes Arbory Digital stands out for its transparency and the opportunity to explore various interests which keeps his work dynamic and engaging. When Dwayne isn’t working, you’ll likely find him fishing, gardening, or with his wife & 3 kids, and getting as far from screens as possible.
Chase Hollander
AEM Developer at Arbory Digital
Agile Certified Professional, developer, and consultant with experience in AEM
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