How QuoStar can help with your Azure cost optimisation

Organisations are turning to the public cloud in their droves, and to Microsoft Azure in particular.

One study reveals that 89% of businesses are embracing multi-cloud, with nearly half (45%) running “significant” workloads on Azure. When projects work as intended, they can accelerate time to market, unlock IT and cost efficiencies, and drive greater business agility.

But it’s not a given. If not properly managed, costs can soon spiral out of control on Azure. That’s where outsourced options like QuoStar’s Azure Managed Service come in.

Key takeaways:

• Cloud costs can easily spiral out of control
• There are a number of cost optimisation strategies you can take
• QuoStar’s subject matter expertise unlocks the benefits of Azure without breaking the bank

Some nasty surprises

Today’s businesses have plenty of reasons to be concerned about spiralling cloud costs. Like their larger peers, mid-market companies have been battered financially over recent years – first by the pandemic and then by persistently high interest rates and inflation. The resulting high cost of borrowing and depressed consumer sentiment has been a drag on profits for some time. As of October, just 16% of UK companies in this bracket expect their turnover to increase next month.

For many, cloud offers the prospect of becoming more agile and cost-efficient. Yet it can also hold some rather nasty and unexpected surprises in store. IT managers must carefully consider the number and size of provisioned resources and how much these are used, as well as where they’re provisioned geographically. All of these factors can impact costs, as can:

• Data transfers and storage across Azure regions
• Underused or redundant resources
• ‘Stopped’ Azure VMs which are incorrectly managed

It’s also true that Azure provides a wide range of pricing options and services. That’s great in terms of choice, but it also makes overspending more likely if IT leaders don’t keep a close eye on what they’re purchasing.

Azure cost optimisation strategies

In the face of potentially spiralling costs, organisations could look to:

• Right-size resources (VMs, databases)
• Leverage Azure reservations and savings plans · Optimise Azure Log Analytics costs
• Utilise spot node pools for Kubernetes · Migrate to cost-effective alternatives (e.g., Elasticsearch to Loki)
• Implement garbage collection and cleanups for unused resources
• Set lifecycle policies for storage
• Implement autoscaling
• Set up monitoring (cost alerts) and budgets
• Use reservations whenever possible
• Right-size Kubernetes nodes
• Optimise logging and diagnostics
• Optimise storage usage

Time for QuoStar

QuoStar’s Azure Managed Service helps clients to overcome Azure cost challenges by identifying unnecessary costs, optimising usage and recommending cost-saving measures. We’re also able to forecast Azure expenses going forward, enabling mid-market clients to plan their budgets more effectively and ensure they aren’t landed with unexpected costs.

Two initiatives stand out:

• We partner with a third-party cloud monitoring software which integrates natively into QuoStar systems. It offers a significant cost saving over the Azure-native tooling that many MSPs use. And while the latter can vary considerably, QuoStar’s costs are fixed, providing much-needed predictability.
• Our team of experts generates a monthly report detailing recommendations designed to target cost savings, performance improvements and suggested best practices to optimise Azure infrastructure.

We understand that no two clients are the same. We also understand that cost control is a critical factor in the success or otherwise of Azure migration projects. By working hard to minimise costs and optimise your cloud performance, we can help to unleash the benefits of Azure for your business.