It’s always important to be cost-conscious with your business, but there are certain tools to help you make the most of your budget – like Microsoft Azure. As an open-source, cloud computing platform and infrastructure, you can build, deploy, and manage applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed data centres.
Azure is a fully managed service that has more than 200 solutions and supports any major operating system, programming language and tool. This gives users the peace of mind to focus on their business needs without having to worry about IT infrastructure. Most importantly, though, Microsoft Azure can reduce overheads by providing cheaper cloud services. The cost reductions don’t stop there, however.
There are plenty of management tools offered on Microsoft Azure to help you control your budget and keep those costs down – we have the Azure Cost Management Tool and the Azure Pricing Calculator among others. These tools allow a better insight into your bill, set budgets, and work out distribution of funds to teams. But here are some other things you could be doing to save time, money, and effort.
Choose the Azure compute service that fits
Not all Azure compute services are created equal. Some offer only basic compute power, while others offer the latest and greatest in technology. The right Azure service will depend on what your organization needs.
Azure compute services are the backbone of any Azure website and application. They allow the developers to allocate computing resources such as CPU, memory, and storage.
They are a fundamental part of any Azure design. Developers need to select the right compute service for their app or website so they can scale it when needed. The two major types of compute services in Azure are IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service).
IaaS is a service that allows developers to create virtual machines with either Windows or Linux operating systems. These VMs can be created with various choices for CPU, memory, and storage size.
PaaS is a service that lets developers create apps without worrying about what infrastructure might be running underneath them. Developers can use the platform as the starting point for their business logic and have peace of mind that if they need to scale, they can do so with minimal effort.
Reserve instances for consistent workloads
Instances are the virtual servers that run your applications in Azure. One of the most important things you can do as an Azure customer is to be aware of your usage patterns. For example, if you know that your application is only going to be running at full capacity on Mondays and Fridays, then it would make sense to reserve instances for those days. By doing so, you will not have to pay for unused instances on other days. This is because reservations in Azure are just like hotel rooms: they only cost money when someone stays there!
Azure Reserved Instances can reduce your VM costs by up to 75%. The cost of each instance is higher than on-demand instances, but you’ll have a consistent workload with lower variability in costs. If you need to scale up or down your Azure subscriptions on-demand, you risk higher price tags and spikes in prices. With Reserved Instances, the price is fixed so you know what your cost will be for the entire period that you reserve it for.
Configure autoscaling
Autoscaling is a great way to save money when you’re hosting your website. With autoscaling, your server can be automatically scaled up or down depending on how much traffic your site is getting. When a server’s workload exceeds its capacity, it will automatically trigger an additional server to start, and then shut down when the server becomes idle.
The benefits of auto-scaling are that it’s able to meet the changing needs of work in real time. It can also save costs by reducing excess capacity. Autoscaling is especially useful for applications with high variability and unpredictability in their workloads or those that need to be available 100% of the time. Therefore, for ensuring elasticity and robustness, configure autoscaling with the Azure App Service.
Utilise the Azure Cost Management feature
With the Azure Cost Management feature, enterprises can streamline their cloud-related expenses and avoid overspending. The feature helps in identifying the cost of Azure resources and offers suggestions on how to reduce the same.
The Azure Cost Management feature is an integral part of Azure’s management functionality. It helps enterprises in the following ways:
- Planning: With integrated costs, enterprises can plan their budgets better. They can identify overspending risks and make decisions accordingly
- Optimizing: Enterprises can optimize their resources with this feature by using cost-saving suggestions provided by it
- Monitoring: Enterprises can monitor costs through this feature and periodically review them to understand trends that may affect their business
Resize or shutdown underutilised resources
Many companies don’t use their resources to their fullest potential. They are either using too many resources or too few.
When a company is not utilizing all their resources to the best of their ability, it can be due to lack of understanding on how to use them efficiently. There is also the option that they do not have enough resources for the task at hand. In this situation, it is better to resize or shutdown the resources.
To take control and save some money, you must find services on Azure that fall into these categories and either remove them or start using them more often. The Azure Advisor can help you save up on wasted resources. It will scan idle VMs and other resources for you, monitoring their use and providing suggestions on resizing or shutting down under-utilised resources which can give you an idea of how much money could be saved.
Get more with the Azure Hybrid Benefit
The Azure Hybrid Benefit provides you with access to Microsoft’s powerful cloud computing technologies without the upfront costs. With this benefit, you can quickly deploy and manage your applications and data in Azure.
The Azure Hybrid Benefit is an ideal solution for people who want to get started with Microsoft’s cloud computing products but don’t want the initial cost. As a new monthly subscription service available to all Azure customers, the Azure Hybrid Benefit allows you to build and manage your Azure resources through a single, unified pane of glass. This service offers an easy and simple way for customers to access both Azure IaaS and PaaS services.
This benefit does not come with any additional fees, but there are some limitations on what can be deployed through the Azure Portal. More specifically, you cannot deploy virtual machines running Linux or Windows Server OS, nor can you use it for high availability configuration for VMs that contain SQL Server.
With the Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can enjoy all the benefits of Microsoft Azure while still owning and managing your server infrastructure. You just pay for what you use. And with the help of intelligent workload management, you will never need to worry about over-provisioning resources again.
Get the most from Azure
There is no better way to reap the benefits of Microsoft Azure than by leveraging it for your business needs. Azure offers a variety of services that are customisable to suit your business and offer a ton of flexibility as well as a range of solutions with flexible price plans that provide you with exactly what you need. Microsoft Azure cloud services are the most popular among businesses because they provide low-cost, reliable, and scalable solutions.
If you’d like to know more about how Azure can work for your business, call the experts at INTELLIWORX to see how it can help you save money.
