Unlocking Efficiency: Practical Strategies for Azure Cost Optimization

?The key ask of Azure cloud cost optimization is to efficiently manage and reduce expenses while maximizing the value derived from cloud services. This involves:

1. Identifying Cost Drivers: Analyze usage patterns, resource allocation, and service dependencies to understand what factors contribute most to costs.
2. Implementing Right-Sizing: Optimize resource allocation by matching instance types and sizes to actual workload requirements, avoiding over-provisioning.
3. Leveraging Discounts: Take advantage of Azure Reserved Instances, spot instances, and other cost-saving programs to reduce compute costs.
4. Monitoring and Reporting: Continuously monitor usage, set up alerts for unexpected spikes, and generate detailed cost reports to track spending and identify areas for optimization.
5. Automating Workflows: Use automation tools and scripts to streamline provisioning, scaling, and decommissioning processes, reducing manual overhead and potential errors.
6. Implementing Tagging and Governance: Apply resource tagging and governance policies to categorize spending by project, department, or environment, enabling better cost allocation and accountability.
7. Exploring Cost-Cutting Features: Explore cost-cutting features such as Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor recommendations, and budget alerts to proactively manage expenses.
8. Continuous Optimization: Regularly review and refine cost optimization strategies to adapt to changing workload demands, technology advancements, and pricing models.

Some recommended options to optimize the cost?

1.???? Shut down unused resources.

Identify idle virtual machines (VMs), ExpressRoute circuits, and other resources with Azure Advisor. Get recommendations on which resources to shut down and see how much you would save.

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Useful Links

• Reduce service costs using Azure Advisor - Azure Advisor | Microsoft Learn

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2.???? Right-size underused resources

Find underutilized resources with Azure Advisor—and get recommendations on how to reduce your spending by reconfiguring or consolidating them.

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Useful Links

• Reduce service costs using Azure Advisor - Azure Advisor | Microsoft Learn

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3.???? Add an Azure savings plan for compute for dynamic workloads

Save up to 65 percent off pay-as-you-go pricing when you commit to spend a fixed hourly amount on a compute services for one or three years.

Useful Links

• Azure Savings Plan Savings - youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlrxD0HtieHjd-zn7u09YoGJY18ZrN1HqIntroduction to Azure savings plan for compute (youtube.com)Understanding your Azure savings plan recommendations (youtube.com)How Azure savings plan is applied to a customer’s compute environment (youtube.com)Azure Savings Plan for Compute | Microsoft Azure

?4.???? Reserve instances for consistent workloads

Get a discount of up to 72 percent over pay-as-you-go pricing on Azure services when you prepay for a one- or three-year term with reservation pricing. Get a discount of up to 72 percent over pay-as-you-go pricing on Azure services when you prepay for a one- or three-year term with reservation pricing.

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Useful Links

• Reservations | Microsoft Azure
• Advisor Clinic: Lower costs with Azure Virtual Machine reservations (youtube.com)
• Model virtual machine costs with the Azure Cost Estimator Power BI Template (youtube.com)

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5.???? Take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit

AWS is up to five times more expensive than Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server. Save when you migrate your on-premises workloads to Azure.

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Useful Links

• Azure Hybrid Benefit—hybrid cloud | Microsoft Azure
• Reduce costs and increase SQL license utilization using Azure Hybrid Benefit (youtube.com)
• Managing and Optimizing Your Azure Hybrid Benefit Usage (With Tools!) - Microsoft Community Hub

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6.???? Configure autoscaling

Save by dynamically allocating and de-allocating resources to match your performance needs.

Useful Links

• Autoscaling guidance - Best practices for cloud applications | Microsoft Learn

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7.???? Choose the right Azure compute service

Azure offers many ways to host your code. Operate more cost efficiently by selecting the right compute service for your application.

Useful Links

• Choose an Azure compute service - Azure Architecture Center | Microsoft Learn
• Armchair Architects: Exploring the relationship between Cost and Architecture (youtube.com)

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8.???? Set up budgets and allocate costs to teams and projects

Create and manage budgets for the Azure services you use or subscribe to—and monitor your organization’s cloud spending—with Microsoft Cost Management.

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Useful Links

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• Tutorial - Create and manage budgets - Microsoft Cost Management | Microsoft Learn
• The Cloud Clinic: Use tagging and cost management tools to keep your org accountable (youtube.com)

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Understand and forecast your costs

• Monitor and analyze your Azure bill with?Microsoft Cost Management. Set budgets and allocate spending to your teams and projects.
• Estimate the costs for your next Azure projects using the?Azure pricing calculator?and the?Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator.
• Successfully build your?cloud business case?with key financial and technical guidance from Azure.

Useful Links

• FinOps toolkit - Kick start your FinOps efforts (microsoft.github.io)
• Azure Savings Dashboard - Microsoft Community Hub
• Azure Cost Management Dashboard - Microsoft Community Hub

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Cost optimize your workloads

• Follow your?Azure Advisor best practice recommendations?for cost savings.
• Review your workload architecture for cost optimization using the?Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Review?assessment and the?Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework design documentation, well-architected cost optimization implementation - Customer Offerings: Well-Architected Cost Optimization Implementation - Microsoft Community Hub
• Save with Azure offers and licensing terms such as the?Azure Hybrid Benefit, paying in advance for predictable workloads with?reservations,?Azure Spot Virtual Machines,?Azure savings plan for compute, and?Azure dev/test pricing.

Control your costs

• Mitigate cloud spending risks by implementing cost management governance best practices at your company using the?Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure.
• Implement cost controls and guardrails for your environment with?Azure Policy.

** for more refer - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

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