Budgeting your IT department might make you feel like a circus performer. You have to balance so many resources on a razor’s edge. It can be stressful, and there’s a serious risk of hurting the company’s bottom line if you get it wrong. One way a lot of companies try to get ahead of this balancing act is by investing in the cloud.

If you outsource IT, it becomes someone else’s problem, but that isn’t always the most cost-effective route. If you want the power to accurately discern when and where you should turn to the cloud, you need cloud expense management. It’s a system that helps you put everything in perspective and compare costs. It’s the key to getting cloud costs under control, and it can help you by performing four important tasks.