Microsoft Azure subscription costs optimisation

Here are some strategies to reduce Microsoft Azure cloud subscription costs:

1. Right-Size Virtual Machines

Ensure you are using the appropriate VM size for your workloads. Regularly monitor usage and scale up or down as needed to avoid over-provisioning resources. Azure's Advisor tool can provide recommendations on right-sizing VMs.

2. Utilize Azure Reserved Instances

Pre-pay for 1 or 3 year VM reservations to save up to 72% compared to pay-as-you-go prices. Reserved Instances are ideal for steady-state workloads with predictable usage.

3. Leverage Azure Hybrid Benefit

Use your existing on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to save up to 40% on Azure VMs.

4. Optimize Storage Tiers

Use the appropriate storage tier (Premium, Standard, Archive) based on performance needs and access frequency. Move infrequently accessed data to cool or archive tiers to reduce costs.

5. Implement Azure Advisor Recommendations

Azure Advisor is a free tool that analyzes your resource configurations and usage to provide personalized recommendations on cost optimization, reliability, security and performance.

6. Use Azure Cost Management

This free tool provides visibility into costs, identifies cost anomalies, sets budgets and forecasts future spending. Use it to track usage and costs across subscriptions.

7. Automate Shutdown of Dev/Test VMs

Automatically shut down non-production VMs outside of business hours to save on compute costs. Azure Automation can help with this.

8. Leverage Azure Spot Virtual Machines

Spot VMs allow you to take advantage of unused Azure capacity at up to a 90% discount. They are ideal for fault-tolerant workloads that can handle interruptions.

9. Consolidate Multiple Azure Services

Combine related Azure services like Azure SQL Database, Azure App Service and Azure CDN into a single resource group to get a single consolidated bill.

10. Continuously Monitor and Optimize

Regularly review usage, costs and recommendations from Azure Advisor and Cost Management. Continuously optimize your environment to keep costs in check as your usage evolves.

By implementing these strategies, you can significantly reduce your Microsoft Azure subscription costs while still taking advantage of the cloud's scalability and flexibility. Ongoing monitoring and optimization is key to maintaining cost efficiency.

Citations:

[1] https://tsh.io/blog/how-to-reduce-cloud-costs/

[2] https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/feature/5-ways-to-reduce-cloud-costs

[3] https://lakefs.io/blog/reduce-cloud-data-storage-costs/

[4] https://www.pluralsight.com/resources/blog/cloud/cloud-cost-management

[5] https://controlplane.com/community-blog/post/10-tips-for-reducing-cloud-costs