Insights

With 94% of enterprises using Cloud services in one way or another, and an increase of 22% in Public Cloud services sales from 2021 to an estimated $480 billion in 2022, Cloud computing remains one of the most resilient sectors in the IT industry.

With an increased number of businesses migrating to the cloud, it’s important to optimise from the beginning to achieve the best results. Whether you have already migrated or are planning to, consider these opportunities to optimise in Azure and know how they compare to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Find Virtual machines with “Stopped” status

We should always check for Virtual Machines with a stopped status that have not been deallocated. For the VMs in this state, you will not be charged for any compute resources, however you still must pay for any OS, storage or networking costs attached to that VM. Something to always keep in mind!

AWS is also similar to Azure, meaning you still pay for storage and IP costs once a VM is stopped. These are treated as separate resources so won’t show as an instance cost but are still in the background.

Find the pricing differences across different locations

Different locations come with different prices for the services provided on Azure. It's important to consider various geographical regions when purchasing resources on your account. For example, North Europe tends to be around 5% cheaper than West Europe.

However, always consider other aspects such as security and compliance or traffic between regions when choosing your selected location. This is very similar to AWS, where the region selection also affects how much you spend.

Treat cost optimisation as an on-going process

Cost optimisation should be seen as an on-going process rather than a one-time activity. It's crucial to understand how the cost changed over time, the reasoning behind it and the next steps to take based on your findings. Azure provides free tooling which can recommend optimisations based on usage, such as Azure Advisor or Azure Cost Management. However, for a more exact view, you  could download the cost extracts in Excel/CSV formats from the Portal and analyse the numbers yourself by building a cost management model in tools like PowerBI or Excel.

AWS also provides the ability to analyse, budget or forecast your expenses with the help of AWS Cost Explorer service, which is also a free of charge. For a more comprehensive view of your data, you can also download extracts in a CSV format, for example.

Another way to save money in Azure is by using the Auto Shutdown feature, which allows you to configure the schedule of your VMs meaning they can be turned off automatically depending on the selected time period. your input. This solution can be useful when using Pay-as-you-go plans and wish to turn VMs off overnight or weekends, for example. AWS on the other hand provides a solution called "Instance Scheduler" which enables its users to configure custom start and stop periods for EC2 and RDS instances. Interestingly, AWS also provides a different approach using "Alarm Status", which will turn VMs off based on their utilisation (e.g., if the CPU utilisation is lower than <selected threshold> for the past <selected period>)

The optimization journey in Azure is multifaceted, involving constant vigilance, comparative analysis, and leveraging available tools to ensure that your Cloud resources align with cost-effective practices. As the Cloud landscape evolves, staying proactive in optimizing costs will be instrumental in realizing the full potential of your Cloud investment.