As both the State Of FinOps 2024 and the State Of Cloud Costs In 2024 indicate, reducing cloud waste remains a top priority for cloud-driven organizations. Cloud spenders care more than ever about cost efficiency — and CloudZero is working tirelessly to make cloud savings simpler.
To this end, we’re proud to announce that we’ve added a suite of automated Azure optimizations to our already robust library of automated Insights. CloudZero Insights combines automated, manual, and provider-generated savings opportunities to function as a single source of truth for cost optimization. From identifying unnecessary on-demand resources to flagging excessive storage and compute costs, Insights makes cloud cost optimization simple.
Let’s take a look at the most recently added Azure automated optimizations.
CloudZero’s Automated Azure Insights
This section covers basic summaries of CloudZero’s automated Azure insights, including the Azure resources they cover and the savings to expect. CloudZero check for each one once a day, and if the insight is marked “Ignored,” it will still get updated, but alerts will no longer be sent. For deep-dives into more granular details — how Azure reservations work, when to buy them, and how we calculate savings — click “Learn More” below each insight.
Premium Disk Storage Reservations
What It Is: This insight identifies when there is pay-as-you-go spend for Azure Premium Disk Storage that could be covered by a reservation for storage resources. Learn more about these reservations here.
How much you’ll save: This insight is created if using a reservation on pay-as-you-go Premium Disk Storage will save at least $500, based on a 5% savings rate. When pay-as-you-go spend results in savings less than $500, the insight will automatically be closed.
Redis Cache Reservations
What it is: This insight identifies when there is pay-as-you-go spend for Azure Cache for Redis that could be covered by a reservation for compute resources.
How much you’ll save: This insight is created if using a reservation on pay-as-you-go Redis Cache will save at least $500 based on a 25% savings rate. When pay-as-you-go spend results in savings less than $500, the insight will automatically be closed.
PostgreSQL Database Reservations
What it is: This insight identifies when there is pay-as-you-go spend for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server or Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server that could be covered by a reservation for compute resources.
How much you’ll save: This insight is created if using a Reservation on pay-as-you-go Databases for PostgreSQL will save at least $500 based on a 25% savings rate. When pay-as-you-go spend results in savings less than $500, the insight will automatically be closed.
Database for MySQL Reservations
What it is: This insight identifies when there is pay-as-you-go spend for Azure Database for MySQL Single Server and/or Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server that could be covered by a reservation for compute resources.
How much you’ll save: This insight is created if using a Reservation on pay-as-you-go spend for Azure Database for MySQL Single Server and/or Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server will save at least $500 based on a 25% savings rate. When pay-as-you-go spend results in savings less than $500, the insight will automatically be closed.
SQL Database Reservations
What it is: This insight identifies when there is pay-as-you-go spend for Azure SQL Database and/or SQL Managed Instance that could be covered by a reservation for compute resources.
How much you’ll save: This insight is created if using a Reservation on pay-as-you-go SQL Database will save at least $500 based on a 25% savings rate. When pay-as-you-go spend results in savings less than $500, the insight will automatically be closed.
Azure Insights In Action
The true power of CloudZero Insights is that they add a simple method for quick savings wins to the entire CloudZero workflow. Engineers can easily incorporate them into their day-to-day work, making substantial cloud saving a regular, low-effort event.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Agricultural chemical company: $600,000 per year
This customer was spending $200,000/month on Azure SQL. CloudZero noticed that all of this spending was on-demand — none came from SQL reservation contracts — and created an insight. The customer reviewed the insight, reduced their spending by 25%, to save $50,000 per month and $600,000 per year.
Supply chain management company: $180,000 per year
This customer was spending $308,000 per month on microsoft.compute VMs. CloudZero examined it, noticed that a high percentage of it came from old-generation VMs, and created an Insight. The customer saw the insight, transitioned the spending to less expensive, newer-generation VMs, and reduced their microsoft.compute spending by $15,000 per month, or $180,000 per year.
Fintech: $100,000 per year
This customer’s cloud spend triggered the Azure SQL Database Reservation insight. After investigating the insight and purchasing SQL Database Reservations, the customer cut their Azure costs by $100,000 per year.
More To Come
These represent just a fraction of CloudZero’s suite of Insights. CloudZero has automated Insights across AWS, GCP, and Azure, and we’re adding more all the time. Insights are easy to identify, assign, address, and track, and they power a positive feedback loop that rewards engineers for proactive cloud cost management. It’s part of what helped fintech platform Neon boost their engineering engagement by 700%.
CloudZero is the world’s most powerful platform for understanding what’s driving your cloud spending, who’s responsible for it, and how to maximize its efficiency. Schedule a demo to start finding savings wins today.
The Cloud Cost Playbook
The step-by-step guide to cost maturity
