Managing Azure costs can feel overwhelming, especially for small and medium businesses watching every dollar. The good news? There are several quick wins that can significantly reduce your monthly bill without impacting performance.
1. Right-Size Your Virtual Machines
One of the most common issues we see is over-provisioned VMs. Many businesses spin up larger instances "just in case" and never revisit the decision.
Action Steps:
- -Review Azure Advisor recommendations for VM sizing
- -Check CPU and memory utilization over the past 30 days
- -Consider B-series VMs for workloads with variable usage
- -Downsize VMs running below 40% average utilization
Most businesses can save 20-40% just by right-sizing their VMs.
2. Use Reserved Instances for Predictable Workloads
If you have VMs running 24/7, you're leaving money on the table by paying on-demand prices.
The Math:
- -1-year reserved instances: Save up to 40%
- -3-year reserved instances: Save up to 60%
For a typical small business running 3-4 production VMs, this can mean $500-1000+ in annual savings.
3. Implement Auto-Shutdown for Dev/Test Environments
Development and test environments don't need to run nights and weekends. A simple auto-shutdown policy can cut these costs by 65% or more.
Quick Setup:
- -Navigate to your VM in Azure Portal
- -Select "Auto-shutdown" under Operations
- -Set shutdown time (e.g., 7 PM)
- -Optionally configure auto-start for business hours
4. Review and Delete Unused Resources
Azure makes it easy to create resources but doesn't remind you to clean them up. Common culprits include:
- -Unattached managed disks
- -Old snapshots
- -Unused public IP addresses
- -Empty resource groups
- -Orphaned network interfaces
Use Azure Cost Management to identify resources with zero or minimal usage.
5. Optimize Storage Tiers
Not all data needs premium storage. Azure offers multiple storage tiers:
- -**Hot:** Frequently accessed data
- -**Cool:** Infrequently accessed (30+ days)
- -**Archive:** Rarely accessed (180+ days)
Moving older backups and logs to cool or archive storage can reduce storage costs by 50-90%.
Next Steps
These five optimizations typically save our clients 25-40% on their monthly Azure bill. The key is making cost review a regular practice, not a one-time event.
Need help optimizing your Azure environment? Contact us for a free assessment of your current setup and personalized recommendations.