With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses migrated their in-house IT Infrastructure to Cloud, with enterprises progressively adopting multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies to host their resources and leverage on the unparalleled flexibility and scalability provided by cloud platforms.

The adoption of Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Services by companies continues to skyrocket as cloud computing usage grows at a phenomenal rate. Insights from Microsoft’s Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call for Fiscal Year 2021 and related studies reveal –

In 2021, Microsoft Azure sales surged by 50% year on year, contributing to a 26% hike in Server products and cloud services revenue.

Commercial cloud gross margins rose to 71 per cent in the most recent quarter, up from 67 per cent the previous year.

Azure cost optimisation remains a paramount concern, particularly for enterprises that have recently switched to Azure because the cloud infrastructure can be created on-demand, typically outside of the control of a traditional IT department. Managing its associated costs differs from maximising the cost of an on-premises server. Azure Cloud Services boost agility, but without a sound cost-cutting strategy, the return on investment (ROI) can quickly dwindle. As a result, people must concentrate on optimising spending, lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO), and getting the most out of Azure.

Here are a few Azure cost optimisation best practices to help you along the way.

1. Locate Unutilised Resources.

A cloud services bill will include costs for all bought resources, even if some are not currently used. For example, the administrator may not delete storage for jobs that have already been terminated. In such a case, the expenses associated with underutilised storage can be quickly decreased. As a result, IT Consultancy in the company must constantly monitor their cloud infrastructure to determine which resources are still in use and may be rapidly decommissioned.

2. Legalise the VMs.

Azure provides numerous storage capacity and VM computing power options. It is a flexible infrastructure platform; organisations can analyse infrastructure utilisation and make appropriate adjustments based on day-to-day needs. As a result, a sure-fire way to reduce Azure expenses is to a) monitor use and b) ensure the VM is rightsized or shut down following current demands.

3. Think about B-Series Virtual Machines.

When it comes to VM cost optimisation, enterprises could examine the B-series virtual machines, often known as burstable VMs. Microsoft built these VMs for applications that require low CPU consumption but will experience periodic increases in usage. Depending on your operating system, the B-series VMs have the potential to save between 15 and 55 per cent on costs.

4. Combine Idle Resources.

Idle resources are those that have a CPU usage level of 1-5 per cent. When billed at 100%, it becomes an example of a needless expenditure that, with good management, can be eradicated. Organisations can reduce Azure costs by merging such instances into fewer groups and employing on-demand scalability.

5. Select the Appropriate Payment Method.

Azure accepts a variety of payment methods.

Pay-as-you-go-

The most flexible and the most expensive option, allowing you to build infrastructure per your requirement.

Azure Reserved Instances-

Reserved instances are appropriate for long-term workloads and need an initial commitment of 1-3 years, but they can yield cost savings of up to 70%.

Spot instances-

Spot instances assist Azure in utilising its unused physical compute resources, resulting in a cost savings of up to 90%. Spot instances are appropriate for non-time-bound workloads because they can be halted at any moment.

6. Transition to Containers and Serverless

In addition to virtual machines, Azure provides containers as a computing option. Containers reduce expenses by integrating several jobs on fewer servers. Other advantages include a smaller digital footprint, faster operation, built-in monitoring & auto-scaling.

Optimising your Azure usage costs is key to reducing your Azure expenditures. Following these best practices can help organisations meet their computing requirements and achieve their business objectives while keeping expenses under control.

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