Following on its recent promise to deliver more “granular” cloud cost management tools, Google Cloud on Wednesday released some updates to its contracts, pricing tiers and capabilities.

“As the saying goes, ’It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future,’” wrote Kelly Ducourty, vice president of go-to-market strategy and operations, and Joe Matz, vice president of business planning and pricing, in a Feb. 15 blog. “Some organizations find it challenging to predict what cloud resources they’ll need in months or years ahead. Every organization is on its own unique cloud journey.”

Organizations need cloud cost management resources now more than ever, too. After two years of COVID-19-fueled overprovisioning, many finance and technology professionals are discovering how much they’ve overspent. As inflation remains high and the economy shows ongoing volatility, organizations are cutting back on hiring and other overhead (and, of course, shedding workers wherever they can — which Google itself also is doing). As channel partners’ customers have fewer people to manage their IT environments, cloud cost management has morphed into a domain desperate for the tackling.

Google Cloud Cost Management

Google Cloud sees the same need. In January, Kevin Ichhpurani, corporate vice president of global ecosystem and channels, told Channel Futures that the company would soon implement more of these cost management capabilities. He said Google Cloud doesn’t view these controls “in a negative light. We’re proactively working with the ecosystem, and always have been, to build FinOps practices for our customers.”

Overall, if customers show return on their Google Cloud investments, “that’s what leads to them continuing to invest,” said Ichhpurani.

With that in mind, Google Cloud now offers several new and different ways to ensure cloud cost management. See the slideshow above to learn what the company is doing for end users eager to rein in cloud expenses.