Cloud costs continue to climb, and Azure is no exception. According to Flexera’s 2024 State of the Cloud Report, 28% of cloud spend is estimated to be wasted. For IT leaders balancing growth and cost control, that’s a big target for savings.

The truth is that most Azure environments leak money, not because of one-time errors but because of day-to-day inefficiencies. Our Definitive Guide to Azure Cost Optimization explains how to fix that.

Here’s a snapshot of where to start:

7 Azure Cost Optimization Best Practices

1. Get Visibility

You can’t reduce what you can’t see. Use Azure Cost Management to break down spend by subscription and resource group and enforce consistent tagging. Only 33% of enterprises can allocate more than 75% of cloud spend to teams (Flexera 2024).

2. Eliminate Waste

Idle VMs, orphaned disks, old backups – they add up fast. Azure Advisor can help surface these quick wins, which often recoup thousands per month.

3. Right-size Continuously

Stop paying for oversized VMs and services. Microsoft research shows that rightsizing can cut VM costs by up to 50%.

4. Leverage Pricing Models

Tap into Azure Hybrid Benefit, Reserved Instances, Spot VMs, and Savings Plans to significantly cut compute costs – up to 90% in some cases.

5. Automate Cleanup and Policies

Use Azure Policy and Automation to enforce cost controls and turn off non-prod resources during off-hours.

6. Build a FinOps Culture

Organizations with mature FinOps practices save 12–18% more annually (FinOps Foundation, 2024). That means shared accountability across finance, IT, and engineering.

7. Don’t Do It Alone

Working with a Microsoft partner like Quisitive can help you automate, monitor, and continuously improve your Azure spend. IDC research shows CSP-managed customers save 20–40% on average.

Download the full guide: The Definitive Guide to Azure Cost Optimization

Practical strategies. Credible stats. Real savings. See how you can start saving today.

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