Octobits Blog – As cloud computing transforms the way businesses operate, Microsoft Azure cost optimisation becomes a top priority.
As one of the leading cloud service providers, Microsoft Azure offers several tools and strategies to help users optimize their costs.
That’s why we’re going to review some insights and actionable guidance to help you get the most out of your Azure investment.
Overview of Azure Pricing Models
Azure has a range of pricing options to suit different needs and usage patterns. Pay-as-you-go charges are based on actual usage, so you can be flexible without making any upfront commitments.
This model is great for variable workloads, but it can get pricey if you don’t keep an eye on it.
So, if you run 10 VMs continuously for a month at $0.004 per hour, it’d cost about $28.80.
Then there are reserved instances, which let your company save up to 72% by committing to one or three years of use. This is great for predictable and steady workloads.
The great thing is that this model saves you a lot of money over time compared to pay-as-you-go pricing.
Spot VMs are great for workloads that can handle interruptions, like batch processing or development and testing environments.
Savings Plans for Compute are pretty flexible, similar to Reserved Instances, but cover a wider range of compute services.
This plan helps you save money in all the right places and offers more flexible savings than traditional reserved instances.
For reference on pricing model management above, you can read “Your Microsoft Azure Cost Management: Power You Didn’t Know You Had.”
How to Reduce Costs in Azure
The first thing you might want to try is right-sizing your resources. This step is about regularly checking and adjusting the size of your VMs and other resources based on how you’re actually using them.
Tools like Azure Advisor can help you optimize your VM spend by suggesting ways to resize or shut down underutilized instances.
For instance, resizing a VM or using auto-shutdown during off-peak hours can help you avoid unnecessary expenses.
If you’ve got non-critical workloads that can handle the odd hiccup, using Spot VMs can save you a pretty penny.
These VMs use Azure’s excess capacity and offer lower prices, which is great for batch processing and development environments.
If you set your VMs to auto-shutdown during off-peak hours, you’ll save a lot on costs.
Yes, you can save money by scheduling your VMs to shut down when they’re not in use.
To cut storage costs, you can move to a lower-tier storage account if you need more space and manage your unattached disks and snapshots efficiently.
For instance, moving data to a cooler storage tier or deleting old snapshots can help bring down storage costs.
Optimizing storage costs means moving to lower-tier storage accounts if it makes sense based on how you access the data, and managing disks and snapshots in an efficient way.
For instance, moving data to less expensive storage tiers or deleting old snapshots can help cut down on storage costs.
Monitoring and optimizing network costs is all about keeping an eye on how much data is being transferred and making sure you’re not paying too much for it.
If you can optimize the use of data transfer and reduce unnecessary network traffic, you can manage expenses more effectively.
Factors Influencing Azure Costs
There are a few things that affect the cost of Azure, and understanding these can help you make better decisions.
How your workloads are distributed across different types of services can have a big impact on your costs.
How steady or spiky your workloads are will affect which pricing model you choose.
For instance, if you have a steady workload, you might want to consider Reserved Instances, which can save you a lot of money compared to pay-as-you-go pricing.
Geographical location is also a big factor. Costs can vary a lot depending on which data center region you’re in. This is because of the different infrastructure and energy costs in different places.
For instance, running a virtual machine in a U.S. East data center might cost less than in a European data center because of different pricing structures in different regions.
Service configurations, including features like high availability, redundancy, and premium support options, can also drive up costs.
If you’re running a mission-critical app, you’ll need high availability and redundancy, but it’ll cost you.
Similarly, going for premium support can bump up the overall cost, but it’s a must for companies that need to get support issues fixed fast.
Compliance and security requirements are another big factor in the cost equation.
Industries like healthcare and finance, which have to stick to strict compliance with regulations like HIPAA or GDPR, might need extra services or configurations, which would affect the overall costs.
These requirements often require extra security measures and regular audits, which increases the cost.
And please be aware of how you use your resources. So, it’s always a good idea to regularly evaluate how you’re using your resources and make adjustments when needed to prevent unnecessary spending.
Making sure you’re using the right amount of compute capacity and storage, and keeping your network traffic under control can make a big difference to your Azure costs.
For a second reference, you can read “Microsoft Azure Monthly Cost Making You Sweat? Let’s Find Solutions Now.”
Tools for Azure Cost Management
Microsoft has a range of tools to help you manage and optimize Azure costs effectively.
The cost optimization workbook, which you can find in the article “Assess cost optimization opportunities using a new workbook template in Azure Advisor” by the Azure Advisor team, is a great place to start when it comes to managing your Azure costs.
It gives you insights and recommendations that are in line with the Well-Architected Framework Cost Optimization pillar.
This includes things like identifying idle resources and managing improperly deallocated VMs.
Then there’s Azure Cost Management and Billing, which gives you a clear picture of your cloud spending. You can set budgets, allocate costs, and plan for future expenses.
Azure Advisor gives you personalized recommendations to help you optimize your resources and reduce costs.
The Azure Pricing Calculator helps you figure out how much new solutions will cost and compare different configurations to find the most cost-effective option.
Tools like Octobits can be a great addition to your cost management strategy.
Octobits helps you manage SaaS licenses, so you don’t waste money by monitoring usage patterns and automating license provisioning.
This means you only pay for what you use, which saves you a lot of money and makes your business more efficient.
In Closing
Managing costs in the Azure cloud environment isn’t something you can just do once and forget about. It is really a process of constant change.
You can save a lot of money by learning Azure’s pricing structures, making smart choices about how you use resources, and using SaaS management platforms like Octobits.
And to keep costs stay down and efficiency stay up, you need to make Microsoft Azure cost optimization a regular part of their process.
