Managing cloud costs efficiently is crucial for any organization using Azure. One of the most effective tools for cost optimization is Azure Advisor. It identifies underutilized resources and offers actionable recommendations to help reduce costs, particularly by optimizing virtual machines (VMs) and virtual machine scale sets (VMSS).
This article explores how Azure Advisor helps you take control of your spending and enhance performance while ensuring resource utilization remains optimized.
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How Azure advisor identifies savings opportunities
Azure Advisor provides detailed insights into resource utilization, particularly for VMs and VMSS, making it easier to reduce costs. It assesses the CPU, memory, and network usage of these resources and offers two key types of recommendations: resizing or shutting down underutilized instances. The system leverages machine learning to determine optimal actions based on actual usage patterns, ensuring minimal disruption to performance.
- Shutdown Recommendations: Azure Advisor analyzes the previous seven days of CPU and network utilization, identifying resources that haven’t been used. It recommends shutting down instances when CPU usage is below 3% and network utilization is less than 2%, offering immediate savings.
- Resize Recommendations: When resources are not fully utilized, Azure Advisor recommends resizing VMs or VMSS to more appropriate SKUs. This ensures that workloads are hosted on the best-suited instances, often at a lower cost without compromising performance.
Key benefits of Azure advisor’s recommendations
Azure Advisor offers numerous benefits, helping businesses optimize their Azure environments for both cost and performance:
- 1. Cost Reduction: By identifying idle or underutilized resources, Advisor helps businesses reduce unnecessary expenses without impacting productivity.
- 2. Performance Optimization: Recommendations ensure that resources are right-sized, balancing the load effectively and preventing over-provisioning.
- 3. Customized Settings: Users can adjust the time period for usage analysis, allowing them to receive more accurate recommendations based on their specific workloads.
- 4. Increased Efficiency: The ability to automate recommendations, such as shutdowns or resizing, ensures quicker implementation of cost-saving actions.
- 5. Flexibility and Control: Users have control over which recommendations to follow, making it easy to filter out irrelevant suggestions.
How to implement Azure advisor recommendations
Using Azure Advisor to optimize resources is simple. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
- 1. Access Advisor: Sign in to the Azure portal and select Advisor from the dashboard.
- 2. Navigate to Cost Tab: Go to the “Cost” tab to view recommendations related to underutilized VMs or VMSS.
- 3. Review Recommendations: Based on the data, you will receive either shutdown or resize recommendations.
- 4. Apply Changes: You can directly implement the recommendations or modify the analysis time frame and criteria to suit your business needs.
Take the next step with AVASOFT
By utilizing Azure Advisor, you gain critical insights to optimize your cloud environment. But managing these recommendations and ensuring your Azure environment operates at peak efficiency can be complex. AVASOFT’s expertise in cloud solutions can help streamline this process, ensuring optimal performance and significant cost savings.
Let AVASOFT guide your business in implementing cost-effective Azure strategies that optimize performance and reduce cloud spending. Reach out to AVASOFT and discover how we can transform your cloud infrastructure and bring lasting value to your operations.
