This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Community Hub.
This article centralizes Azure FinOps (Financial Operations) information and tools to enabling a better understanding and optimization of cloud costs.
The main purposes of this guide is to help customers do more with less by:
- Identifying cost-saving opportunities
- Optimizing cloud efficiency
- Gaining a better understanding and control of cloud costs
Contribution to this guide
The community is encouraged to contribute to this guide!
For any content suggestion please visit this GitHub Repository.
Table Of Contents
- What is FinOps?
- Overview
- Tools
- Ways to Optimize
- Assessment
- Learning
- Content
- General
- Calculators
- Cost Management
- Advisor
- Azure Reservations
- Savings Plans
- Azure Hybrid Benefit
- Virtual Machines
- App Service
- AKS
- Azure Stack HCI
- Storage
- Azure Monitor
- Azure Sentinel
- Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
- Data
- Azure Synapse
- Azure SQL Database
- SQL Managed Instance
- Azure Database for MySQL
- Azure Database for PostgeSQL
- Azure Cosmos DB
- Stream Analytics
What is FinOps?
FinOps (Financial Operations) is a discipline that focuses on optimizing and managing the financial aspects of cloud computing.
This includes activities such as:
- Analyzing and reducing cloud expense
- Maximizing cost-efficiency
- Improving the overall return on investment (ROI) of cloud services
FinOps professionals use a variety of tools and techniques to achieve these goals, including:
- Cost optimization strategies
- Cost allocation and reporting tools
- Real-time monitoring and alerting systems
They also work closely with other teams, such as engineering and operations, to ensure that cloud resources are used effectively and efficiently.
FinOps aims to help organizations get the most value out of their cloud investments by optimizing their cloud expenditure and maximizing the efficiency of their cloud usage. This can help organizations to reduce costs, improve the performance of their applications and services, and increase their overall competitiveness.
Overview
Why I created the guide?
As a cloud engineer, I work with different types of customers, including enterprises, startups, ISVs (independent software vendors), and digital native companies. In today's economic climate, cost, efficiency, and optimization are the top priorities of all customers.
Optimizing and reducing cloud costs can be challenging due to the dispersed nature of relevant information.
To address this issue, I have written this 'Azure FinOps Guide', a comprehensive resource that combines all Azure FinOps information to make customers' life easier.
Who is the audience for this guide?
The audience for this guide includes organizations that use Azure cloud services and are interested in optimizing, monitoring, and reducing their cloud costs. This may include:
- Financial decision-makers within businesses of all sizes
- Cloud engineers
- IT professionals
- ISVs (independent software vendors) that provide cloud-related services to their clients and want to optimize their cost-efficiency
How to use this guide?
Use the table of contents below to locate a specific tool, topic, or services you are interested in, such as cost optimization techniques or strategies for improving cloud efficiency.
Examples
- Want to see ways to optimize your cloud expense:
- Navigate to the "How to Optimize?" section.
- Choose a specific topic from the list to learn more.
- If you are interested in optimizing and saving on your storage costs:
- Navigate to the "Content" section.
- Select the "Storage" sub-section to find relevant topics.
- Choose a specific topic from the list to learn more.
Tools
The table below contains a collection of native tools that are related to FinOps on Azure:
| Tool Name | Description |
| Azure Pricing Calculator | Allows you to mix and match different combinations of Azure services to see an estimate of the costs. |
| Azure Cost Management | A suite of tools that help organizations to monitor, allocate, and optimize the cost of their Microsoft Cloud workloads. |
| Azure Advisor | Analyses configurations and usage telemetry and offers personalized, actionable recommendations to help optimize resources for reliability, security, operational excellence, performance, and cost. |
| TCO Calculator |
TCO = Total Cost of Ownership Estimate the cost savings you can realize by migrating your workloads to Azure. |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit Savings Calculator |
Estimates the price, savings, and eligible instances you can use in Azure based on your current Software Assurance licenses. (Windows VMs, SQL Server VMs, SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Database) |
Ways to Optimize
This table contains a list of techniques to optimize and reduce your cloud environment's total cost of ownership.
| Topic | Description |
| Cut out waste | A Workbook to identify resources that are no longer being used. |
| Azure Advisor | Analyses configurations and usage telemetry and offers personalized, actionable recommendations to help optimize resources for reliability, security, operational excellence, performance, and cost. |
| Spot VMs | Buy unused compute capacity at significant cost savings. |
| Saving Plans | Committing an hourly spend for Azure compute resources for a one-year or three-year plan. |
| Azure Reservations | Help you save money by committing to one-year or three-year plans for multiple products. |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit | Reduce the costs of running your workloads in the cloud using your on-premises Software Assurance-enabled Windows Server and SQL Server licenses on Azure. (Licensing benefit) |
| On-Demand Capacity Reservation | Enables you to reserve Compute capacity in an Azure region or an Availability Zone for any duration of time without any commitment. |
| Azure Reserved Capacity | Save on Azure database services by pre-committing to fully-managed services. |
| Software Plans | Reservation discount for deployed VMs with SUSE and RedHat software. |
| Dev/Test pricing | Significantly reduce the costs of ongoing dev/test workloads with discounted rates on Azure services. |
Assessment
You can run a free self-cost management assessment on your environment to examine your efficiency.
For more information, see Azure Well-Architected Review | Assessments
Learning
Here is a list of learning path references related to FinOps on Azure:
Learning Path
 |
Control Azure spending and manage bills with Microsoft Cost Management + Billing Learn how to monitor and control your Azure spending and optimize the use of Azure resources. |
Learning Path Modules:
|
|
Module Name |
Description |
 |
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework – Cost Optimization |
Learn how to use the cost optimization pillar of the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework to design a cloud-based architecture that is efficient, eliminates waste, and gives you full visibility into where your money is spent on cloud resources. |
 |
Learn about the factors that influence cost and tools you can use to help estimate and manage your cloud spending. |
|
 |
Introduction to analyzing costs and creating budgets with Microsoft Cost Management |
Learn how to use cost analysis to understand how your costs accrue each month. Use this understanding to create an Azure budget to monitor and alert you on your costs. |
 |
Save money by taking advantage of Azure reservations. Analyze and decide what to purchase and then learn how to purchase. Understand the benefits provided through compute purchases and optimize against any underuse. Perform basic reporting on your reservations. |
|
 |
Use Power BI to understand where your money is being spent in Azure so you can help your organization to optimize its costs. Identify key cost drivers, trends, and anomalies in your subscriptions and resource groups over time. Understand and manage hybrid benefits usage within your organization. Understand and optimize your reserved instance coverage to maximize your savings. Create custom dashboards to address your organization's more complex scenarios and analysis needs. |
|
 |
Configure and manage costs as a Microsoft partner by using Microsoft Cost Management |
Reconcile your bill and analyze costs across your customers and resources using Microsoft Cost Management as a partner. Determine which of your resources receive discounted pricing. Manage costs through budgets to stay within defined spending limits. Enable your customers to use Microsoft Cost Management with pay-as-you-go rates. |
Content
This content summary brings together a wealth of information and resources on the discipline of FinOps in the cloud.
It covers a wide range of topics, domains, products, and resources collected from different channels like:
- Microsoft Tech Community (Blog Posts)
- Microsoft Azure (Official Docs)
- Microsoft Learn
- Microsoft Ignite
- Azure Friday
- YouTube
- GitHub
Whether you are new to FinOps or are an experienced professional, this summary is an invaluable resource for staying up-to-date with the latest developments and trends in the field.
General
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Managing, reporting, and reducing your costs in Azure |
Scott Hanselman Barry Luijbregts |
Dec 2022 | Azure Friday |
| Azure Cost Optimization Deep Dive | John Savill | May 2022 | YouTube |
| Factors That Affect Costs | John Savill | Jan 2022 | YouTube |
| Factors to Reduce Cost | John Savill | Jan 2022 | YouTube |
| Azure Orphaned Resources | Dolev Shor | Jun 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Azure Orphaned Resources Workbook | Dolev Shor | Jun 2022 | GitHub |
Calculators
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Master the Azure Pricing Calculator | John Savill | Jun 2021 | YouTube |
| Functionality and Usage of Pricing and TCO Calculators | John Savill | Jan 2022 | YouTube |
Cost Management
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Describe cost management in Azure | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| Azure Cost Management Overview | Michael Flanakin | Aug 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Azure Cost Management for ISVs | Halaa Menasy | Mar 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Azure Unblogged – Azure Cost Management | Sarah Lean | Mar 2021 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Functionality and Usage of Azure Cost Management | John Savill | Jan 2022 | YouTube |
| Create visuals and reports with the Azure Cost Management connector in Power BI Desktop | Microsoft | Aug 2022 | Microsoft Learn | Docs |
Advisor
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Intro to Azure Advisor | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| Get Started with Azure Advisor | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| Functionality and Usage of Azure Advisor | John Savill | Jan 2022 | YouTube |
| Thomas Maurer | Apr 2021 | YouTube |
Azure Reservations
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Azure Reservations (Reserved Instances) Deep Dive | John Savill | Dec 2021 | YouTube |
| Reserved Instance and Capacity Reservations | John Savill | May 2022 | YouTube |
List of services that supported reservations:
Savings Plans
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Purchase Azure savings plan for compute | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| Understanding Azure Savings Plan for Compute | John Savill | Oct 2022 | YouTube |
Azure Hybrid Benefit
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server | Microsoft | Nov 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for Linux Server | Microsoft | Aug 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Virtual Machines | Microsoft | Aug 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure SQL & Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft | Aug 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | Microsoft | Jul 2022 |
Microsoft Learn | Docs |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure Stack HCI | Microsoft | Jul 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
Virtual Machines
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Microsoft Azure Spot Virtual Machines overview | Rajeesh Ramachandran | Mar 2021 | YouTube |
| Azure Spot VM Deep Dive | John Savill | Nov 2021 | YouTube |
| Understanding Windows Server IaaS Virtual Machine cost management | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| Start/Stop VMs | Microsoft | Nov 2022 | Microsoft Learn | Docs |
| Part 2: Infra Cost Optimisation In The Cloud – Practical Design Steps For Architects and Developers | Shane Baldacchino | Aug 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
** Azure Reservations for Virtual Machines.
** Azure Savings Plans for Virtual Machines.
** Azure Hybrid Benefit for Virtual Machines (Windows VM, Linux VM, SQL VM)
App Service
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Azure App Service announces more ways to save on compute costs | Mayunk Jain | Nov 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| A lowered cost and more performant WordPress on Azure AppService | Radhika Bollineni | Oct 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
AKS
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Optimize compute costs on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | Training | |
| How to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster | Paolo Salvatori | Jan 2023 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) – Cost Optimization Techniques | Chee Keong Tan | Oct 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| AKS Container Insights logging level and associated costs | Orestis Meikopoulos | Nov 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | Microsoft | Jul 2022 |
Microsoft Learn | Docs |
Azure Stack HCI
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure Stack HCI | Microsoft | Jul 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
Storage
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Optimizing your storage costs with Azure Blob Storage |
Scott Hanselman Klaas Langhout |
Apr 2021 | Azure Friday |
| Optimize your cost with Azure Blob Storage | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn |
|
| Optimize performance and costs by using Azure Disk Storage | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| Optimize storage performance and costs using Blog storage tiers | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| Plan and manage costs for Azure Blob Storage | Microsoft | Dec 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Optimize costs by automatically managing the data lifecycle | Microsoft | Dec 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Optimize costs for Blob storage with reserved capacity | Microsoft | Jul 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Estimate the cost of archiving data | Microsoft | Dec 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Part 2: Infra Cost Optimisation In The Cloud – Practical Design Steps For Architects and Developers | Shane Baldacchino | Aug 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
Azure Monitor
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Cost optimization and Azure Monitor | Microsoft | Dec 2022 | Microsoft Azure |
| Set a table's log data plan to Basic or Analytics | Microsoft | Jan 2023 | Microsoft Azure |
| Calculating Chargeback to Split Monitoring Costs Across Projects | Bruno Gabrielli | Nov 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
Azure Sentinel
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Ingestion Cost Spike Detection Playbook | Innocent Wafula | Aug 2021 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Ingestion Cost Alert Playbook | Innocent Wafula | Dec 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Cost Management in Azure Sentinel |
Javier Soriano Jeremy Tan Innocent Wafula |
Jun 2021 | YouTube |
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Optimize Azure Virtual Desktop | Microsoft | Microsoft Learn | |
| New ways to optimize flexibility, improve security, and reduce costs with Azure Virtual Desktop | Kam VedBrat | Oct 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
|
New ways to optimize flexibility, improve security, and reduce costs with Azure Virtual Desktop |
Oct 2022 | Microsoft Ignite |
Data
Azure Synapse
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Synapse Serverless SQL Pool - Performance and cost optimization with partitioning | Luca Ferrari | Nov 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Cost management for serverless SQL pool in Azure Synapse Analytics | Microsoft | Apr 2022 | Microsoft Learn | Docs |
| Configure cost control for serverless SQL pool in Synapse Studio | Microsoft | Apr 2022 | Microsoft Learn | Docs |
Azure SQL Database
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Plan and manage costs for Azure SQL Database | Microsoft | Sep 2022 | Microsoft Learn | Docs |
| Azure SQL Database and cost optimization | Microsoft | Jun 2022 | Microsoft Learn | Docs |
** Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure SQL Database.
SQL Managed Instance
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Optimize cost of SQL Managed Instances with new stop-start capability | Uros Milanovic | Nov 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
| Optimize your Azure SQL Managed Instance cost with Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework | Bartłomiej Graczyk | Mar 2021 | Microsoft Tech Community |
** Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Managed Instance.
Azure Database for MySQL
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Azure Database for MySQL and cost optimization | Microsoft | Dec 2022 |
Microsoft Learn | Docs |
| How to auto-scale an Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL instance with Azure run books and Python | Julio Calderón | Mar 2019 | Microsoft Tech Community |
Azure Database for PostgreSQL
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Azure Database for PostgreSQL and cost optimization | Microsoft | Dec 2022 |
Microsoft Learn | Docs |
| How to auto-scale an Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL instance with Azure run books and Python | Julio Calderón | Mar 2019 | Microsoft Tech Community |
Azure Cosmos DB
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Plan and manage costs for Azure Cosmos DB | Microsoft | Oct 2022 |
Microsoft Learn | Docs |
Stream Analytics
| Topic | Author | Published | Channel |
| Optimize your Stream Analytics Job and Reduce Costs with Autoscale | Anasheh Boisvert | May 2022 | Microsoft Tech Community |
I would appreciate it if you could tell me what you think of this Azure FinOps Guide.
Your thoughts and suggestions will help me improve it, so please don't hesitate to leave your feedback below.