Reducing Azure Costs

As part of my study for the Microsoft 70-533 exam, I’ve been interested in finding out how to minimize my costs in Azure. This is particularly important as I’m spinning up a large number of virtual machines and web applications as part of my study for the exam. I’ve gathered the following list of tips on how to reduce your Azure costs.

General

• Each Azure service is priced differently. Use of the Azure Pricing Calculator to estimate the cost for a specific resource and to identify all the resources/services used to host an application.
• While is is obvious that different services will have different costs, not everyone is aware that the same service will vary in cost between the different Azure locations. The https://azureprice.net/ site lists the regional pricing for Azure VMs.
• You’re charged for the resources services you use, so shut down non-production resources when they're not required (like outside working hours). This can be done using either a scheduled script or by using one of the various cloud management applications.
• Use pre-paid subscriptions to get a discount (even on pay as you go subscriptions) - Microsoft offers discounts of 2.5-5% based on 6 or 12 months pre-payment.
• If available on your subscription, make use of a spending limit on your Azure account/subscription.
• Also set up automated email alerts to email you once your account spends more than a set amount.
• Audit your Azure usage so you know what you are paying for and not using in Azure
• View your Azure Subscription in the portal
• Use the free service https://azure-costs.com/ to identify your costs
• Consider using the Azure Cost Management service offered by Cloudyn, a Microsoft subsidiary.
• Delete unused resources
• Use auto-scaling to reduce costs during off hours. These deployment types all support auto-scaling:
• Cloud Service
• App Services
• VM Scale Sets (Including Batch, Service Fabric, Container Service)
• Scaling could also mean shutting your app down completely. App Services have a feature called AlwaysOn that controls if the app should shut down due to no activity. You could also schedule shutting down your dev/QA servers with something like DevTest Labs. There are also third party services like Park My Cloud.

Virtual Machines

• Need to shut down and deallocate VMs to stop Azure continuing to reserve the VM's compute resources
  • Use Azure Portal or PowerShell to do this
  • Can also configure the auto shutdown option on the VM
• Resize over-provisioned VMs
  • Note, the VM will have to be rebooted, so need to avoid when the VM is under peak load
• Use Azure PaaS features; don’t roll your own on VMs unless you have to.
• Make use of Dynamic Scaling with VM Scale Sets
• Use Azure Marketplace VM Images to prevent additional licensing costs (such as for the Windows OS)
• Use Azure DevTest Labs to automate the start-up and shutdown of VMs, and also implement quotas and policies for VM management
• Use Reserved Instances to get discounts on the price of VMs - need to reserve for 1 or 3 years
• Make use of existing Microsoft licences in Azure using the Azure Hybrid Benefit
• Make use of Azure Site Recovery to back up your VMs
  • Only pay for replication software and the cost of storage

Azure SQL

• Blob storage offers a cost effective solution to store graphics data. Blob storage of type Table and Queue of 2 GB costs $0.14/month and type block blob costs just $0.05/month. A SQL Database of similar capacity will cost $4.98/month. Hence, use blob storage to store images, videos and text files instead of storing in SQL Database. To reduce the cost and increase the performance, put the large items in the blob storage and store the blob record key in SQL database.
• If you want to develop, test, or build a proof of concept, then use the freely licensed SQL Server Developer edition. A SQL Server Developer edition VM only incurs charges for the cost of the VM, because there are no associated SQL Server licensing costs.
• If you want to run a lightweight workload in production (<4 cores, <1 GB memory, <10 GB/database), use the freely licensed SQL Server Express edition. A SQL Server Express edition VM also only incurs charges for the cost of the VM.
• Use the appropriate edition of SQL Server for other tasks.
• Use the Pay Per Usage (per second cost of the VM including the SQL Server licence) or the Bring Your Own Licence (BYOL) option as appropriate.
• Paying the SQL Server licensing per usage is recommended for:
  • Temporary or periodic workloads. For example, an app that needs to support an event for a couple of months every year, or business analysis on Mondays.
  • Workloads with unknown lifetime or scale. For example, an app that may not be required in a few months, or which may require more, or less compute power, depending on demand.
• Bringing your own SQL licensing through License Mobility is recommended for:
  • Continuous workloads. For example, an app that needs to support business operations 24x7.
  • Workloads with known lifetime and scale. For example, an app that is required for the whole year and which demand has been forecasted.
• If you have a lot of databases, consider using SQL Elastic pools.
• Optimize your SQL Database performance

App Services

• Migrate Apps to Azure App Service, instead of 'Lift and Shift' to a dedicated VM. This is a cheaper option and avoids having to manage a VM.
• Avoid paying for staging slots on Cloud Services:
  • Delete staging slots as quickly as possible, as these are charged at the same rate as a Production slot
  • Cloud Services cost you money even if the servers are stopped. You have to delete them!
• Combine web apps with Azure App Service Plans to reduce server count.
• Stop using Cloud Service Web Roles unless you have to. Use App Services instead - these are also faster to deploy to.
• Move Worker Roles to Azure Service Fabric or Container Service. This allows you to combine apps and reduce server count and cost.

Miscellaneous

• Delete the unused VPN gateway and application gateway as they will be charged whether they run inside virtual network or connect to other virtual networks in Azure. Your account will be charged based on the time gateway is provisioned and available.
• Use Azure Storage for SMB File Shares, instead of a dedicated VM. Again, this is a cheaper option and avoids having to manage a VM.
• Improve the performance of your application to reduce the amount of cloud resources it uses. Make use of logging and performance monitoring tools/profilers to identify ways of improving your app.
• Consider using a CDN like CloudFlare for additional caching.
• Consider the Azure cold storage option for reduced costs
• Consider using Azure Automation to automatically build and tear down services/resources when required.

References

• https://8kmiles.com/blog/7-tips-to-save-costs-in-azure-cloud-management/
• https://buildazure.com/2017/04/08/top-10-tricks-to-save-money-with-azure-virtual-machines/
• https://www.swc.com/blog/cloud/five-ways-save-money-on-azure-vms
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sql/virtual-machines-windows-sql-server-pricing-guidance
• https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2018/may/04/microsoft-azure-pricing-101-tips-and-tricks/