Azure tips that fly under the radar

Using Azure can be an exciting journey, but it's easy to miss out on some hidden tricks that can truly elevate your experience. Here are five tips that might just change the way you navigate the Azure universe!

1. Use official naming conventions and abbreviations when naming resources, commit to them instead of letting people invent their own.
   • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/ready/azure-best-practices/resource-naming
   • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/ready/azure-best-practices/resource-abbreviations
2. Effectively avoid unexpected Azure costs and optimize spending, ensuring that your cloud budget remains within control and aligned with your business objectives.
   • Set Budget Alerts.
   • delete unattached disks and snapshots (cause: failing to delete a disk after removing a VM leads to ongoing storage costs).
   • Be mindful of Log Analtycs. While the service itself may not be inherently costly, it's essential to consider the types of applications (micro-services) feeding into Log Analytics and the magnitude of data they generate.
3. Resources to improve your knowledge/experience in Azure:
   • https://azurediagrams.com/
   • https://msportals.io/
   • https://azure-periodic-table.onwardplatforms.com/
   • https://m365maps.com/matrix.htm
   • https://idpowertoys.com/assets/mindmaps/azureadv1.pdf
   • https://www.azadvertizer.net/
4. You can set your default tenant for login. This is more important if you have multiple tenants and are constantly getting logged into the wrong one when you sign in from a new VM or location
   • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-portal/set-preferences
5. To prepare for Azure exams, I recommend not only using the Microsoft learning path but also combining it with hands-on YouTube tutorials , and most importantly, test yourself with the Microsoft practice assessment.