The Azure FinOps Guide
Published Jan 09 2023 07:44 AM 111K Views
Microsoft

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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
  • Books
  • Content
    • General
    • Calculators
    • Cost Management
    • Advisor
    • Azure Reservations
    • Savings Plans
    • Azure Hybrid Benefit
    • Virtual Machines
    • Virtual Machine Scale Sets
    • App Service
    • AKS
    • Azure Stack HCI
    • Storage
    • Azure Monitor
    • Microsoft Sentinel
    • Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
    • Azure Logic Apps
    • Azure Functions
    • Networking
      • Azure Front Door
      • Azure Application Gateway
    • Data
      • Azure Synapse
      • Azure SQL Database
      • Azure SQL Managed Instance
      • Azure Database for MySQL
      • Azure Database for PostgeSQL
      • Azure Cosmos DB
      • Azure Stream Analytics
      • Azure Databricks
    • Azure AI Services
      • Azure OpenAI Service
    • FOCUS

 

 

 

 

What is FinOps?

FinOps is an evolving cloud financial management discipline and cultural practice that enables organizations to get maximum business value by helping engineering, finance, IT, and business teams to collaborate to take advantage of the variable cost model of the cloud.

 

FinOps = Finance + DevOps

FinOps is a portmanteau of "Finance" and "DevOps", stressing the communications and collaboration between business and engineering teams.

 

The Culture

At its core, FinOps is a cultural practice. It’s the way for teams to manage their cloud costs, where everyone takes ownership of their cloud usage supported by a central best-practices group.

 

Cross-functional

Cross-functional teams in Engineering, Finance, Product, etc. work together to enable faster product delivery, while at the same time gaining more financial control and predictability.

 

The Framework

The FinOps Framework, a set of best practices, standards, and guidance by the FinOps Foundation and its open-source community, is based on the following six principles which act as the north star objectives of the FinOps guidance.

 

The Principles

  • Teams need to collaborate
  • Decisions are driven by the business value of cloud
  • Everyone takes ownership of their cloud usage
  • FinOps reports should be accessible and timely
  • A centralized team drives FinOps
  • Take advantage of the variable cost model of the cloud

 

FinOps 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

 

What was the motivation for creating 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)

FinOps toolkit

Starter kits, scripts, and advanced solutions to accelerate your FinOps journey in the Microsoft Cloud.

 

 

 

 

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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Save money with Azure Reserved Instances

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.

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Optimize Azure costs with data analysis in PowerBI

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.

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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.

Module-image.png

Purchase Azure savings plan for compute

Purchase Azure savings plan for compute.

 

 

 

 

Books

List of books references related to FinOps on Azure:

 

Book Name Description Author Published Channel
FinOps with Azure Bringing FinOps to life through organizational and cultural alignment Microsoft May 2022 Microsoft E-books
The Road to Azure Cost Governance Techniques to tame your monthly Azure bill with a continuous optimization journey for your apps Paola E. Annis
Giuliano Caglio
Nov 2022 Microsoft E-books
FinOps Handbook for Microsoft Azure Empowering teams to optimize their Azure Cloud spend with FinOps best practices Maulik Soni May 2023 O'Reilly

 

 

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
FinOps Blog

Microsoft

  Microsoft Tech Community
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
Communicating a cost savings initiative the right way and what NOT to do John Savill Dec 2023 YouTube
Azure Orphaned Resources Dolev Shor Jun 2022 Microsoft Tech Community
Azure Orphaned Resources Workbook Dolev Shor Jun 2022 GitHub
Azure FinOps Workbook Sam Bell Jan 2023 GitHub
Azure Optimization Engine Hélder Pinto Feb 2021 GitHub
Cost allocation is imperative for cloud resource optimization Antonio Ortoll Apr 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
Identify your savings potential in Azure Gregor Wohlfarter Aug 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
FinOps and Azure! Understanding what FinOps is and why we care John Savill May 2024 YouTube
Interconnected guidance for an optimized cloud journey Antonio Ortoll Jul 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
Combine FinOps best practices and Microsoft tools to streamline and optimize your workloads Antonio Ortoll Jul 2024 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

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
Azure Cost Management Power BI Report Chris Bowman Feb 2023 GitHub
Project Bose: Calculate Azure Cost of an Enterprise by cost centers, divisions, projects Pranab Paul Feb 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
CLI tool to perform cost analysis on your Azure subscription Michiel van Oudheusden Apr 2023 GitHub
Take control of your cloud spend with Microsoft Cost Management Antonio Ortoll Jan 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
Leverage anomaly management processes with Microsoft Cost Management Antonio Ortoll Feb 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
Use budget management and forecasting to bring your FinOps practice into the era of AI Antonio Ortoll Jun 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
Improve visibility into workload-related spend using Copilot in Microsoft Cost Management Antonio Ortoll Nov 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
How to budget your Azure cloud spend with Microsoft Cost Management Gregor Wohlfarter Jul 2024 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

Advisor

Topic Author Published Channel
Intro to Azure Advisor Microsoft   Microsoft Learn
Get Started with Azure Advisor Microsoft   Microsoft Learn
Azure Advisor Cost recommendations Microsoft Oct 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Functionality and Usage of Azure Advisor John Savill Jan 2022 YouTube

Optimize your Azure environment with Azure Advisor

Thomas Maurer Apr 2021 YouTube

Optimize your Cloud investment with new Azure Advisor Workbooks

Antonio Ortoll Oct 2023 Microsoft Tech Community

3 reasons to optimize your workloads with Azure Advisor

Antonio Ortoll Nov 2022 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

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
Understanding Azure Reservations vs Savings Plans Brandon Wilson Dec 2022 Microsoft Tech Community
Azure Savings Dashboard Saira Shaik May 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Azure Savings Dashboard Tool Saira Shaik May 2023 GitHub
Reservation utilization alerts Microsoft May 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Get Azure Reservations and Savings Plans Insights with the Azure Optimization Engine Helder Pinto Apr 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
How to optimize your Azure compute spend with savings plan and reserved instances Kyle Ikeda Mar 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
How to choose the right reserved instance in Azure Gregor Wohlfarter
Helder Pinto
May 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
What's the difference between Azure savings plans for compute and Azure reservations? Gregor Wohlfarter
Obinna Nwokolo
Jul 2024 Microsoft Tech Community

 

List of services that supported reservations:

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Service Name Author Published Channel
App Service Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Azure
App Service - JBoss EA Integrated Support Microsoft Nov 2022 Microsoft Azure
Azure Backup Microsoft Feb 2022 Microsoft Azure
Azure Cache for Redis Microsoft Aug 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Data Factory Microsoft Jul 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Database for MariaDB Microsoft Sep 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Database for MySQL Microsoft Dec 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Database for PostgreSQL Microsoft Jan 2024 Microsoft Azure
Azure Blob storage Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Files Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure VMware Solution Microsoft Dec 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure SQL Edge Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Databricks Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Data Explorer Microsoft Mar 2022 Microsoft Azure
Azure Dedicated Host Microsoft Jun 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Managed Disks Microsoft Jan 2023 Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Fabric Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Azure
SAP HANA Large Instances Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Azure
Software plans Microsoft Jun 2022 Microsoft Azure
SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance Microsoft Sep 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Synapse Analytics (data warehousing only) Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Synapse Analytics - Pre-Purchase Plan Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Azure
Virtual machines Microsoft Jan 2023 Microsoft Azure
Virtual machine software Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Red Hat OpenShift Microsoft   Microsoft Azure
Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance Microsoft Aug 2022 Microsoft Azure

 

 

Azure Savings Plan

Topic Author Published Channel
Purchase Azure savings plan for compute Microsoft   Microsoft Learn
Understanding Azure Savings Plan for Compute  John Savill Oct 2022 YouTube
Understanding Azure Reservations vs Savings Plans Brandon Wilson Dec 2022 Microsoft Tech Community
View savings plan utilization  Microsoft Nov 2022 Microsoft Learn
View savings plan cost and usage Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Learn
View savings plan transactions Microsoft Nov 2022 Microsoft Learn
Charge back savings plan costs Microsoft Feb 2023 Microsoft Learn
Calculate EA Cost savings Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Learn
Azure Savings Dashboard Saira Shaik May 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Azure Savings Dashboard Tool Saira Shaik May 2023 GitHub
Get Azure Reservations and Savings Plans Insights with the Azure Optimization Engine Helder Pinto Apr 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
How to optimize your Azure compute spend with savings plan and reserved instances Kyle Ikeda Mar 2024 Microsoft Tech Community
What's the difference between Azure savings plans for compute and Azure reservations? Gregor Wohlfarter
Obinna Nwokolo
Jul 2024 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

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
Managing and Optimizing Your Azure Hybrid Benefit Usage Arthur Clares Mar 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Azure Hybrid Benefit Workbook Arthur Clares Apr 2023 GitHub
Tracking Azure Hybrid Benefit using Azure Workbooks Ryan Lowell Apr 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Azure Hybrid Benefit Tracking Dashboard Ryan Lowell Apr 2023 GitHub

 

 

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)

 

Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Topic Author Published Channel
Spot Priority Mix for high availability and cost savings  Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

App Service

Topic Author Published Channel
Plan and manage costs for Azure App Service Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Estimate your cost savings by migrating to App Service Environment v3 Jordan Selig | Microsoft Mar 2023 Azure App Service | Team Blog
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
Save up to 54% vs. on-premises and up to 35% vs. AWS by migrating your ASP.NET applications to Azure Mayunk Jain Sep 2022 Microsoft Tech Community
Celebrating 10 years of Azure App Services free tier Nir Mashkowski Sep 2022 Microsoft Tech Community
New Azure App Service plans fuel greater choice and savings Naga Surendran | Microsoft Apr 2023 Microsoft Azure Blog
Forrester study finds 228 percent ROI when modernizing applications on Azure PaaS Ashmi Chokshi | Microsoft Dec 2022 Microsoft Azure Blog

 

 

AKS

Topic Author Published Channel
Optimize compute costs on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Microsoft   Microsoft Learn | Training
Optimize costs in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Microsoft Apr 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Cost management for Kubernetes Microsoft Jan 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Cost governance with Kubecost Microsoft Jun 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
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

Leverage OpenCost on Azure Kubernetes Service to understand and monitor your infrastructure spend Kaysie Yu Apr 2023

Microsoft Tech Community

Container insights - Cluster Optimization Workbook Microsoft May 2023

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Understand monitoring costs for Container insights Microsoft May 2023

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
Storage Accounts and cost optimization Microsoft Jan 2022 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Calculate the size of a blob container with PowerShell Microsoft Apr 2022 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Calculate the total billing size of a blob container Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
BlobInsight: Your Deep Dive into Smart Blob Lifecycle Management Yoav Dobrin Sep 2023 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

Azure Monitor

Topic Author Published Channel
Cost optimization and Azure Monitor Microsoft Dec 2022 Microsoft Azure
Analyze usage in Log Analytics workspace Microsoft Mar 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Monitor Logs cost calculations and options Microsoft Jun 2023 Microsoft Azure
Azure Monitor cost and usage Microsoft Apr 2023 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
How to Allocate Azure Monitor Logs Ingestion Costs by Resource Tag Helder Pinto May 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Azure Monitor cost optimization using Azure Advisor Oren Salzberg Sep 2023 Microsoft Tech Community

 

Microsoft Sentinel

Topic Author Published Channel
Manage and monitor costs for Microsoft Sentinel Microsoft Jul 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Reduce costs for Microsoft Sentinel Microsoft Jul 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
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
Introducing Microsoft Sentinel Optimization Workbook

Jeremy Tan

Aug 2023 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

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

Kam VedBrat

Kate Werner

Oct 2022 Microsoft Ignite

 

 

Azure Logic Apps

Topic Author Published Channel
Plan and manage costs for Azure Logic Apps Microsoft Sep 2022  Microsoft Learn | Docs
Usage metering, billing, and pricing for Azure Logic Apps Microsoft Apr 2023  Microsoft Learn | Docs
Estimate storage costs for Standard logic app workflows in single-tenant Azure Logic Apps Microsoft  Aug 2022 Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

Azure Functions

Topic Author Published Channel
Estimating Consumption plan costs Microsoft Feb 2023  Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

Networking

 

Azure Front Door

Topic Author Published Channel
Understand Azure Front Door billing Microsoft Feb 2023  Microsoft Learn | Docs
Compare pricing between Azure Front Door tiers Microsoft Jun 2023  Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

Azure Application Gateway

Topic Author Published Channel
Understanding Pricing for Azure Application Gateway and Web Application Firewall Microsoft Jan 2023  Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

Data

 

Azure Synapse

Topic Author Published Channel
Plan and manage costs for Azure Synapse Analytics Microsoft Feb 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
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
Synapse Serverless SQL Pool - Performance and cost optimization with partitioning Luca Ferrari Nov 2022 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

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.

 

 

Azure 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
Prepay for Azure Database for MySQL compute resources with reserved instances Microsoft Sep 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 MySQL and cost optimization Microsoft Dec 2022 Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Topic Author Published Channel
How to optimize costs in Azure Database for Postgres Flexible Server Microsoft Apr 2023

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 and cost optimization Microsoft  May 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

Azure Cosmos DB

Topic Author Published Channel
Plan and manage costs for Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Oct 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Limit the total throughput provisioned on your Azure Cosmos DB account Microsoft Apr 2023

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Optimize cost with reserved capacity in Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Mar 2024

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Improve performance and optimize costs when upgrading to Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB 4.0+ Microsoft Jun 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Optimize development and testing cost in Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Oct 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Feb 2023

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Pricing model in Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Jan 2024

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) with Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Nov 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Understand your Azure Cosmos DB bill Microsoft Oct 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Optimize provisioned throughput cost in Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Oct 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Optimize storage cost in Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Oct 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Optimize multi-region cost in Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Feb 2024

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Optimize your Azure Cosmos DB application using rate limiting Microsoft Oct 2022

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Optimize request cost in Azure Cosmos DB Microsoft Apr 2023

Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

Azure Stream Analytics

Topic Author Published Channel
Optimize your Stream Analytics Job and Reduce Costs with Autoscale Anasheh Boisvert May 2022 Microsoft Tech Community

 

 

Azure Databricks

Topic Author Published Channel
Cost optimization for the data lakehouse Microsoft May 2023

Microsoft Learn | Docs

Best practices for cost optimization Microsoft Jun 2023

Microsoft Learn | Docs

 

 

 

Azure AI Services

 

Azure OpenAI Service

Topic Author Published Channel
Plan and manage costs for Azure AI Studio Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Commitment tier pricing for Azure AI Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Plan to manage costs for Azure OpenAI Service Microsoft Aug 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Azure Budgets and Azure OpenAI Cost Management Shishir Garde Aug 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Calculating Chargebacks for Business Units/Projects Utilizing a Shared Azure OpenAI Instance Shikha Sinha Aug 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Strategies for Optimizing High-Volume Token Usage with Azure OpenAI James Croft Dec 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Optimizing Azure OpenAI: A Guide to Limits, Quotas, and Best Practices Olga Molocenco-Ciureanu Mar 2024 Microsoft Tech Community

 

FOCUS

The FinOps and Usage Specification (FOCUS™) is an open-source specification that defines clear requirements for cloud vendors to produce consistent cost and usage datasets.

It is founded to normalizes cost and usage datasets across cloud vendors and reduces complexity for FinOps Practitioners.

For more details read here.

 

Topic Author Published Channel
FOCUS™ Datasets from Microsoft (Azure) Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
FOCUS cost and usage details file schema Microsoft Nov 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
FOCUS: A new specification for cloud cost transparency Michael Flanakin Aug 2023 Microsoft Learn | Docs
Democratizing FinOps: Transform your practice with FOCUS and Microsoft Fabric Michael Flanakin Aug 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
FOCUS: An open specification for cloud cost transparency Michael Flanakin Aug 2023 Microsoft Tech Community
Moving from FOCUS 1.0 preview to FOCUS 1.0 Michael Flanakin Dec 2023 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.

 

 

 

 

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