Azure Cost Saving Tips

TIPS 


Before we start the talking about saving money or cost optimization we should first know to the depth where actually money is going. You need to first figure out daily , monthly or may be resource and resource group basis cost and do some analysis to find out what is needed and where all you need the deep analysis to save cost. Once you have your resources handy you can utilize one of the below tips to save money and put it back in the business to expand or move more resources on Azure.

Lets get started with the Tips to get the best output of the money we are spending on the cloud.


1 # Power-Off VMs - 

This is applicable for the VMs that we dont need to run 24*7. We all have different environments like DEV , QA , TEST  or Prod . We may need prod VMs running 24*7 but not all the VMs inside Lab, Test or Dev environment So, you can save alot of money by Powering-off the VM or you can also utilize the Auto-shutdown the VM when your Dev team or QA team leaving the office, you can also place runbooks in place to power-off and on om schedule.

Essence of the story dont leave the VM running if you dont need it.


2 # VM Right Sizing 

You pay as per the compute power or VM size. People usually with the On-prem mind set of keeping it high but in cloud you don’t need to moreover you need to select the correct size as per the requirement for.e.g B2ms , D2s_v3 & DS2V_v2 Choose wisely and get the maximum output of he resources. As you can see the below highlighted VMs there isnt much difference in the power but in the cost and IOPS there is so select wisely.

3 # Region 

Region matters when you spin resources means you may have different prices for the same resource in the different region and we have Azure calculator to check that rather going through portal , Now you may or may not have the region restriction but as I said earlier we may have multiple environment so for dev, qa or test you can build in such a region where you need to pay less – Let me tell you this you may find minute difference like .108$/h or .099$/hour but remember its for single machine and for one hour , you may have multiple machine and running 24*7 and trust me it would make a huge difference in the bill ultimately.

4 # Reservation

Just like Azure reserve instances we have other services like Database, storage etc where you reserve the capacity for one or 3 year and save upto 70% , you can upfront or monthly as per your convinced and discount will be applied accordingly.

5 # Azure Hybrid Benefits 

If you have software assurance along with your licensing then you can utilize it on Azure and get the benefit. You can apply during the creation or after the creation of the VM from configuration under settings. Remember this is one the best tip to save money for the people who are migrating with existing licences and you need to apply it , it wouldnt apply automatically & you can save upto 40% with hybrid benefit.

6 # Azure Spot Instance

You can say this is in the moment pricing and mostly a lot lesser then usual pricing. Azure allows you to take advantage of our unused capacity at a significant cost savings only caveat is At any point in time when Azure needs the capacity back, Azure infrastructure will evict spot VMs. Therefore, spot VM are great for workloads that can handle interruptions like batch processing jobs, dev/test env, large compute workloads and more.

7 # Azure Advisor 

Azure Advisor is an inbuilt tool of Azure which provides recommendation for Cost, security, performance , HA and Operational excellence. Since we are talking about cost so Azure Advisor provides alot of recommendation to save money like :

• 1.      Optimize virtual machine spend by resizing or shutting down underutilized instances
• 2.      Reduce costs by eliminating unprovisioned ExpressRoute circuits
• 3.      Reduce costs by deleting or reconfiguring idle virtual network gateways
• 4.      Buy reserved virtual machine instances to save money over pay-as-you-go costs
• 5.      Delete unassociated public IP addresses to save money
• 6.      Delete Azure Data Factory pipelines that are failing
• 7.      Use Standard Snapshots for Managed Disks
• 8.      Utilize Lifecycle Management

8 # Delete VM along with resources

This is specifically for the test and dev environment where we spin VM and keep it there either running or off , if we dont need VM frequently - delete it or take snapshot of VM if you need configuration and delete it along with all the resources and whenever you need it may next week , next month just use snapshot to spin up same config VM. Whenever you delete VM , dont forget to delete the resources like PublcIP and disk which also cost you.


9 # Dev Test Lab

Azure DevTest Labs enables developers on teams to efficiently self-manage virtual machines (VMs) and PaaS resources without waiting for approvals.

DevTest Labs creates labs consisting of pre-configured bases or Azure Resource Manager templates. These have all the necessary tools and software that you can use to create environments. You can create environments in a few minutes, as opposed to hours or days.

10 # Free Services

Azure provides Free services for the Free Account for 12 months utilize that and keep learning.