Cost-Saving Strategies

Maximise your Azure savings with these proven strategies and best practices.

Optimize Your Azure Costs

Combine with Reserved Instances

By committing to one or three-year terms, you can secure discounted rates that significantly reduce your overall costs compared to pay-as-you-go pricing.

  • Stack Azure Hybrid Benefit with Reserved Instance pricing
  • Save up to 80% compared to pay-as-you-go pricing
  • Commit to 1 or 3-year terms for maximum savings
  • Perfect for stable, predictable workloads

Azure Savings Plans

Azure Savings Plans allow you to commit to a fixed hourly spend on eligible compute services, automatically applying discounts across a broad range of resources without locking you into specific configurations.

  • Flexibility: Change workload configurations without lock-in
  • Automated Discounts: Savings applied automatically based on your committed spend
  • Ideal for Dynamic Workloads: Adapt to evolving resource needs while ensuring savings
  • Broad Eligibility: Applies to multiple compute services such as VMs, Containers, and more
  • Combine with Other Benefits: Pair with Azure Hybrid Benefit for additional cost reductions

Right-size Your VMs

Optimise your virtual machine resources by selecting sizes that best match your workload requirements, eliminating unnecessary expenditure.

  • Monitor VM utilisation patterns
  • Choose appropriate VM sizes based on workload
  • Consider B-series VMs for burstable workloads
  • Use Azure Monitor for sizing recommendations

License Management

Effectively manage your software licences and ensure compliance to optimise costs and avoid unnecessary charges.

  • Track and manage your Windows Server licences effectively
  • Maintain active Software Assurance coverage
  • Consider dual use rights for development/testing
  • Regular licence compliance audits

Additional Cost Optimization Tips

  • Implement auto-shutdown for non-production VMs
  • Use Azure Cost Management for budget tracking
  • Set up cost alerts and notifications
  • Regular review of unused resources
  • Consider Azure Spot instances for interruptible workloads