If you missed our recent learning session where Mike Austin shared insights on managing Microsoft EA renewals, you can still watch it here on demand. In this article, we provide highlights from this session to help you implement proven strategies for managing Microsoft contract renewals, reducing costs, and ensuring compliance.
Navigating Microsoft’s Complex Licensing and Cost Management
Microsoft’s licensing structures are inherently complex, encompassing numerous programs, license types, and bundles. A lack of transparency in pricing models compounds this complexity. For example, distinguishing between the Enterprise Agreement (EA) and the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program is not always straightforward, which can hinder informed decision-making. Adding to this, Microsoft’s recent strategy to transition smaller organizations into the CSP program introduces additional challenges. This shift aligns with Microsoft’s efforts to manage rising costs and renewals, illustrated by the upcoming 10% price increase for Windows Server in 2025.
To navigate these challenges, organizations must adopt a proactive and strategic approach to managing Microsoft renewals. Key steps include initiating renewal discussions at least 12 months in advance and maintaining active oversight of agreements throughout the contract lifecycle.
Mapping actual usage data is vital to uncover savings opportunities. For instance, analyzing Microsoft 365 E5 licenses often reveals that many users do not require the full suite of features. By downgrading to more suitable license types, organizations can realize significant cost savings. One of our clients, a large utility company, achieved an annual savings of $1.2 million by transitioning non-essential users to lower-tier licenses.
Alternatives to Microsoft’s Upsell Tactics
Organizations should critically evaluate Microsoft’s upsell strategies and explore cost-effective alternatives. This may include transitioning from E5 to E3 licenses or reverting from Microsoft 365 to Office 365, depending on specific requirements. Conducting a detailed evaluation of your security stack and considering competitive products can also yield substantial savings.
Developing a negotiation roadmap at least nine months before renewal is crucial. This roadmap should identify potential cost levers, such as Azure credits, support discounts, or license downgrades. For example, negotiating Azure agreements with tiered spending commitments can unlock incremental discounts, leading to meaningful cost reductions.
Adapting to Microsoft’s Reseller Model Changes
Microsoft’s recent changes to its reseller model have shifted more responsibilities to customers. By transitioning their top 20% of customers to a direct model and reducing Licensing Solution Providers (LSPs) fees, organizations now face tasks traditionally managed by LSPs, such as reporting and purchasing. Understanding the differences between LSPs and CSPs and the services they offer is critical to making informed decisions and ensuring all necessary support structures are in place.
Aligning with Microsoft’s Strategic Priorities
To optimize costs, organizations should align their strategies with Microsoft’s current product priorities. Products like Copilot, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365 E5/E3 are strategic focus areas for Microsoft, often accompanied by discounts and incentives. Conversely, securing discounts on products like Windows and SQL Servers is increasingly difficult unless the deals are substantial. Aligning your organizational needs with Microsoft’s goals can improve your negotiation position.
Moving Beyond Unit Price Negotiations
Relying solely on unit price negotiations is no longer effective. As Microsoft reduces discounting flexibility and raises prices, alternative cost-saving measures must be prioritized. Key strategies include optimizing license assignments, implementing archival practices, and eliminating unused licenses. For instance, regularly auditing licenses can prevent costs associated with blocked accounts or inactive users.
Communication and Planning: Keys to Success
Open and early communication with Microsoft is critical. Engaging in frequent discussions about your organizational needs ensures better alignment with Microsoft’s strategic goals and minimizes surprises. Building strong business cases and conducting pilots for new solutions, like Power Apps, can secure internal buy-in and ensure smooth implementation.
Proper planning and monitoring are essential to avoid pitfalls, such as poor adoption. One client struggled to transition from Zoom to Teams due to inadequate training and user engagement, leading to missed opportunities for savings and efficiency.
The Path to Optimized Renewals
To effectively manage Microsoft renewals, organizations need a comprehensive, proactive strategy that includes:
Understanding Microsoft’s licensing structures.
Initiating renewal discussions early (12+ months in advance).
Mapping actual usage data to uncover savings.
Exploring alternatives to Microsoft’s upsell tactics.
Building a robust negotiation roadmap.
Leveraging tools like SLIM 360 (MetrixData 360’s Microsoft license and cost optimization platform) can further optimize license usage by identifying opportunities for reclamation and cost savings. By implementing these strategies, your organization can reduce costs, ensure compliance, and confidently navigate the complexities of software asset management.
As cloud adoption continues to surge, businesses face increasing pressure to effectively manage and optimize their cloud expenses. Enter FinOps is a cultural and financial management practice bridging the gap between finance, operations, and technology. This approach enables organizations to maximize cloud investments by fostering collaboration, enhancing visibility, and driving cost-efficient practices. In this blog post, we will explore the critical role of FinOps in cloud cost management and how it can transform your organization’s approach to cloud financial operations.
Understanding FinOps
FinOps, short for Financial Operations, is a set of practices and principles designed to bring financial accountability to the cloud computing variable spend model. It aims to align the objectives of finance, DevOps, and business teams, ensuring that cloud resources are used efficiently and effectively to meet organizational goals.
Critical components of FinOps include:
Collaboration: Promoting a culture where finance, operations, and technology teams work together to manage cloud costs.
Visibility: Providing detailed insights into cloud spending to help teams make informed decisions.
Optimization: Continuously identifying and implementing cost-saving opportunities without compromising performance.
Challenges Addressed by FinOps
FinOps addresses several challenges that organizations face in cloud cost management:
Lack of Cost Visibility: Many organizations struggle to understand their cloud expenses clearly. FinOps provides detailed visibility into where money is spent, allowing teams to identify and address inefficiencies.
Budget Overruns: Cloud costs can quickly exceed budgets without proper financial management. FinOps helps forecast and control spending, reducing the risk of budget overruns.
Resource Waste: Inefficient use of cloud resources can lead to significant waste. FinOps practices help identify and eliminate unused or underutilized resources.
The Core Principles of FinOps
FinOps is built on three core principles that guide organizations in managing their cloud costs effectively:
1. Teams Need to Collaborate:
Encourage cross-functional teams to work together to manage cloud spending.
Foster a culture of shared responsibility and accountability for cloud costs.
2. Decentralized Control with Centralized Visibility:
Allow individual teams to make informed decisions about their cloud usage.
Provide a centralized platform for tracking and analyzing cloud costs, ensuring transparency across the organization.
3. Everyone Takes Ownership of Their Cloud Usage:
Empower teams to take responsibility for their cloud spending.
Implement chargeback or showback models to allocate costs to the respective teams, promoting accountability.
Implementing FinOps in Your Organization
To successfully implement FinOps, organizations need to follow a structured approach:
1. Establish a FinOps Team:
Form a dedicated team comprising members from finance, operations, and technology departments.
Assign roles and responsibilities to ensure effective collaboration and communication.
2. Adopt FinOps Tools and Technologies:
Leverage cloud cost management tools to gain detailed insights into cloud spending.
Use automation tools to enforce cost-saving policies and optimize resource usage.
3. Develop a FinOps Framework:
Create a framework that outlines the processes, policies, and best practices for managing cloud costs.
Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your FinOps initiatives.
4. Promote Continuous Improvement:
Encourage a culture of continuous improvement by regularly reviewing and optimizing cloud usage.
Conduct training sessions and workshops to update teams on the latest FinOps practices and tools.
Benefits of FinOps
Implementing FinOps in Your Organization
Cost Savings: Organizations can achieve significant cost savings by optimizing cloud usage and eliminating waste.
Improved Financial Accountability: FinOps fosters a culture of accountability, ensuring that teams take ownership of their cloud spending.
Enhanced Decision-Making: With detailed visibility into cloud costs, teams can make more informed decisions about cloud usage.
Operational Efficiency: FinOps helps streamline cloud financial operations by promoting collaboration and automation.
FinOps is a transformative approach to cloud cost management that empowers organizations to maximize the value of their cloud investments. FinOps enables businesses to manage their cloud expenses effectively and achieve their financial objectives by fostering collaboration, enhancing visibility, and driving cost-efficient practices.
At MetrixData 360, we understand the importance of effective cloud cost management. Our solution Lucidity is designed to help organizations implement FinOps practices and optimize their cloud spending. Contact us today to learn how we can support your FinOps journey and drive financial success in your cloud operations.
When it comes to managing software assets in 2025, the game has completely changed. The software asset management tools (SAM tools) available now are more
When organizations invest in ServiceNow SAM Pro or similar SAM tools, the expectation is clear: streamlined processes, better compliance, and cost savings. Yet, far too
Pain Points: The company needed assistance realigning its on-premises licenses into Azure and optimizing its licenses as it transitioned to a new agreement. Negotiating the best price was also a challenge.
Positive Feedback about MetrixData 360: The company appreciated the negotiation points provided by MetrixData 360, helping them request better pricing from Microsoft. The ongoing support and insights were valuable.
Service Provided: MetrixData 360 provided the services “SLIM360 for O365 & Azure.”
Specific SKU/Service Involved: The company’s licenses included O365, Azure, and on-premises CIS Server licenses.
Findings: By creating a cost model, MetrixData 360 identified substantial savings that could be achieved through realignment and optimization.
Savings Achieved: The company saved around $400,000 from its current agreement, with potential annual savings of $965,000 on O365 and $118,000 on Azure.
Areas of Savings: The areas of savings were related to O365, Azure, and on-premises CIS Server licenses.
Savings Breakdown: A significant portion of savings was achieved through the cost model’s insights.
Costs Avoided: The company avoided costs of about $1.4 million.
Duration: The engagement lasted 3 months and was a one-time engagement focused on the transition and optimization process.
Best Future Fit Service: For this client, the best future-fit service would be either “SAM Compass” or “O365/Azure” services.
The manager explains the company’s cost graph on the laptop computer for employees to listen to and share the analysis.
Azure zombie resources are cloud resources that are no longer in use but remain active and consuming resources, resulting in unnecessary charges. Zombie resources can occur when cloud resources are not adequately decommissioned or deleted or when resources are left running but are no longer needed.
These resources can be a significant problem for organizations using Azure, as they can result in unexpected and potentially significant Azure bills. To avoid this issue, it is vital to regularly review and clean up your use of Azure to ensure that all resources are appropriately decommissioned or deleted when they are no longer needed. Several factors can contribute to the development of Azure zombie resources.
For example, zombie resources can occur when:
Resources need to be correctly decommissioned: When resources are no longer needed, it is vital to decommission them properly by deleting or deallocating them. Without this step, the resources will continue to consume and generate charges.
Resources are left running when not in use: Some resources, such as virtual machines, can be left running when not in use, resulting in ongoing charges. To avoid this issue, stopping or deallocating resources when they are not needed is essential.
Resources are not adequately managed: Resource management is critical to avoiding the development of Azure zombie resources. This includes regularly reviewing resource usage and taking steps to decommission or delete resources that are no longer needed.
There are many tools and strategies that organizations can use to identify and remove Azure zombie resources, including:
Using Azure Resource Manager policies: Azure Resource Manager policies can enforce resource management standards and automatically decommission or delete resources that are no longer needed. For example, you can use policies to specify that resources must be deleted after a certain period of inactivity or to delete those terminated automatically.
Using Azure Cost Management tools: Azure Cost Management tools, such as Azure Advisor, can help organizations identify resources that are consuming significant resources or generating high costs and suggest ways to optimize their usage. For example, Azure Advisors can identify underutilized or overutilized resources and recommend actions to maximize their use.
Review resource usage: Reviewing resource usage can help organizations identify resources that are no longer needed and take steps to decommission or delete them. This can be done manually or automated using tools like Azure Resource Manager policies.
Azure is a powerful and feature-rich cloud platform that offers a wide range of services and tools to help organizations build, deploy, and manage applications and
Data The Cloud Storage Information Concept
Workloads. However, the cost of using Azure can be a significant concern for organizations, particularly as the scale and complexity of their Azure environment grow.
Optimizing Azure costs requires a strategic approach considering the organization’s needs and requirements. To help organizations optimize their Azure costs, we recommend the following strategies:
Understand your workloads: One of the critical steps in optimizing Azure costs is to understand the specific workloads and resources consumed in your environment. This includes identifying which services and resources are used, how they are used, and how much they cost.
Right-size your resources: Ensuring your resources are appropriately sized for your workloads is critical to optimizing Azure costs. This can involve scaling resources up or down as needed to meet the demands of your workload or selecting cost-effective resource sizes that meet your performance requirements.
Utilize Azure Cost Management tools: Azure provides various tools and services to help organizations optimize costs, including Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor, and the Azure Pricing Calculator. These tools can help you identify optimization opportunities, track your costs over time, and plan for future growth.
Use resource tagging: Resource tagging is a powerful tool for optimizing Azure costs. It allows you to assign metadata to your resources and track their usage and costs more granularly. This can help you identify and optimize underutilized or overutilized resources and allocate costs more effectively.
Optimize resource deployment: The way that you deploy resources in Azure can have a significant impact on your costs. To optimize your costs, consider using resource groups to manage and deploy resources more efficiently and leverage deployment automation tools like Azure Resource Manager templates to streamline resource deployment.
By following these strategies, organizations can optimize their Azure costs and get the most value from their investment in the cloud.
Azure cost management best practices:
Effective Azure cost management requires a strategic approach considering the organization’s needs and requirements. To help optimize Azure costs, we recommend the following best practices:
Understand your workloads: One of the critical steps in optimizing Azure costs is to understand the specific workloads and resources consumed in your environment. This includes identifying which services and resources are used, how they are used, and how much they cost.
Right-size your resources: Ensuring your resources are appropriately sized for your workloads is critical to optimizing Azure costs. This can involve scaling resources up or down as needed to meet the demands of your workload or selecting cost-effective resource sizes that meet your performance requirements.
Use resource tagging: Resource tagging is a powerful tool for optimizing Azure costs. It allows you to assign metadata to your resources and track their usage and costs more granularly. This can help you identify and optimize underutilized or overutilized resources and allocate costs more effectively.
Optimize resource deployment: How you deploy resources in Azure can significantly impact your costs. To optimize your costs, consider using resource groups to manage and deploy resources more efficiently and leverage deployment automation tools like Azure Resource Manager templates to streamline resource deployment.
Leverage Azure Cost Management tools: Azure provides tools and services to help organizations optimize costs, including Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor, and the Azure Pricing Calculator. These tools can help you identify optimization opportunities, track your costs over time, and plan for future growth.
Azure cost management tools:
Azure provides a range of tools and services to help organizations optimize their costs, including:
Azure Cost Management: Azure Cost Management is a comprehensive platform that provides visibility into your Azure costs, usage, and trend data. With Azure Cost Management, you can track your costs in real-time, optimize your resource usage, and optimize your Azure spending.
Azure Advisor: Azure Advisor is a free service that provides recommendations to help you optimize your Azure resources. Advisor analyzes your resource utilization and workload patterns and provides recommendations to help you optimize your costs, improve performance, and increase security.
Azure Pricing Calculator: The Azure Pricing Calculator is a tool that allows you to estimate the cost of running your workloads on Azure. You can use the calculator to estimate costs based on specific services, regions, and resource sizes and compare the cost of running your workloads on Azure to other cloud platforms.
Azure cost management strategies:
Effective Azure cost management requires a strategic approach considering the organization’s needs and requirements. To help organizations optimize their Azure costs, we recommend the following strategies:
Adopt a cost-conscious mindset: To optimize your Azure costs, adopting a cost-conscious mindset and approach to resource management is essential. This involves being aware of the cost of your resources and actively seeking ways to optimize those costs.
Develop a cost management plan: A cost management plan is a roadmap for optimizing your Azure costs over time. Your plan should outline your cost management goals, the strategies and tactics you will use to achieve those goals, and the metrics you will use to track your progress.
Utilize Azure Cost Management tools: Azure provides tools and services to help organizations optimize costs, including Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor, and the Azure Pricing Calculator. These tools can help you identify optimization opportunities, track your costs over time, and plan for future growth.
Use resource tagging: Resource tagging is a powerful tool for optimizing Azure costs. It allows you to assign metadata to your resources and track their usage and costs more granularly. This can help you identify and optimize underutilized or overutilized resources and allocate costs more effectively.
Optimize resource deployment: How you deploy resources in Azure can significantly impact your costs. To optimize your costs, consider using resource groups to manage and deploy resources more efficiently and leverage deployment automation tools like Azure Resource Manager templates to streamline resource deployment.
Azure cost management tips:
In addition to the strategies and best practices mentioned above, there are several additional tips that organizations can follow to optimize their Azure costs:
Monitor your costs regularly: Monitoring your Azure costs can help you identify optimization opportunities and make changes to reduce your costs. Azure provides a range of tools and services, such as Azure Cost Management and Azure Advisor, that can help you to track your costs and identify areas for improvement.
Consider using reserved instances: Reserved instances can help you to save on Azure compute costs by allowing you to reserve capacity for your workloads at a discounted rate. When you purchase a reserved instance, you commit to using a specific computing capacity for a certain period in exchange for a discounted rate.
Use Azure Hybrid Benefit: Azure Hybrid Benefit is a licensing benefit that allows organizations with Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to use their existing licenses to save on Azure compute costs. By leveraging Azure Hybrid Benefit, organizations can reduce their Azure compute costs by up to 55%.
Utilize Azure Cost Management policies: Azure Cost Management policies allow you to set rules and alerts to help you optimize your Azure costs. You can use policies to define budget thresholds, set alerts for when costs exceed a certain threshold and enforce resource tagging standards.
Use Azure Cost Management APIs: The Azure Cost Management APIs allow you to access your Azure cost and usage data programmatically, enabling you to build custom cost management solutions or integrate your Azure cost data with other tools and systems.
Azure cost management tools – documents that can help:
Azure provides a range of documentation and resources to help organizations optimize their Azure costs, including:
Azure Cost Management: The Azure Cost Management tool and its documentation provide detailed information on how to use the Azure Cost Management platform, including how to track your costs, optimize your resource usage, and manage your Azure spending.
Azure Advisor: The Azure Advisor documentation provides information on using the Azure Advisor service to optimize your resources and reduce costs. The documentation includes information on how to use Advisor to identify optimization opportunities, get recommendations, and track the progress of your optimization efforts.
Azure pricing: The Azure pricing tool provides detailed information on the cost of Azure services, including pricing details for specific regions, resource sizes, and services. The documentation also includes Azure pricing plans, discounts, and billing options.
Azure cost management pricing:
The cost of using Azure varies depending on the specific services and resources consumed. Azure offers a range of pricing plans and options to suit the needs of different organizations, including:
Pay-as-you-go pricing: With pay-as-you-go pricing, you pay for the specific Azure services and resources you consume based on the published rates. This pricing model is ideal for organizations with variable or unpredictable workloads or wanting the flexibility to scale their resources up or down as needed.
Commitment-based pricing: Commitment-based pricing allows you to purchase Azure services at a discounted rate in exchange for a commitment to use a certain number of resources over a specified period. This pricing model is ideal for organizations that have predictable or stable workloads and can commit to using a certain number of resources over a more extended period.
Azure Hybrid Benefit: Azure Hybrid Benefit is a licensing benefit that allows organizations with Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to use their existing licenses to save on Azure compute costs. By leveraging Azure Hybrid Benefit, organizations can reduce their Azure compute costs by up to 55%.
Azure cost management resources:
In addition to the documentation and tools mentioned above, there is a range of additional resources available to help organizations optimize their Azure costs, including:
Azure Cost Management blogs: The Azure Cost Management blog provides updates and best practices for optimizing Azure costs, case studies, and success stories from organizations that have successfully optimized their Azure costs.
Azure Cost Management webinars and training: Azure provides various webinars and training resources to help organizations learn more about Azure cost management and optimization. These resources include online courses, in-person training sessions, and virtual events.
Azure Cost Management Community: The Azure Cost Management community is a forum for Azure users to share best practices, ask questions, and connect with other users and experts. The community is a valuable resource for organizations seeking guidance and support on optimizing their Azure costs.
Azure Cost Management support: Azure provides a range of support options for organizations looking for help with Azure cost management. These options include online, phone, and support from Azure partners and third-party vendors.
By leveraging these resources and strategies, organizations can optimize their Azure costs and get the most value from their investment in the cloud.
Male manager is explaining about the company’s cost graph on the laptop computer for employees to listen to and share the analysis.
Azure is a powerful and feature-rich cloud platform that offers a wide range of services and tools to help organizations build, deploy, and manage applications and workloads. However, the cost of using Azure can be a significant concern for organizations, particularly as the scale and complexity of their Azure environment grow.
Optimizing Azure costs requires a strategic approach considering the organization’s specific needs and requirements. To help organizations optimize their Azure costs, we recommend the following strategies:
Understand your workloads: One of the critical steps in optimizing Azure costs is to understand the specific workloads and resources consumed in your environment. This includes identifying which services and resources are used, how they are used, and how much they cost.
Right-size your resources: Ensuring your resources are appropriately sized for your workloads is critical to optimizing Azure costs. This can involve scaling resources up or down as needed to meet the demands of your workload or selecting cost-effective resource sizes that meet your performance requirements.
Utilize Azure Cost Management tools: Azure provides various tools and services to help organizations optimize costs, including Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor, and the Azure Pricing Calculator. These tools can help you identify optimization opportunities, track your costs over time, and plan for future growth.
Use resource tagging: Resource tagging is a powerful tool for optimizing Azure costs. It allows you to assign metadata to your resources and track their usage and costs more granularly. This can help you identify and optimize underutilized or overutilized resources and allocate costs more effectively.
Optimize resource deployment: The way that you deploy resources in Azure can have a significant impact on your costs. To optimize your costs, consider using resource groups to manage and deploy resources more efficiently and leverage deployment automation tools like Azure Resource Manager templates to streamline resource deployment.
By following these strategies, organizations can optimize their Azure costs and get the most value from their investment in the cloud.
Azure cost management best practices:
Effective Azure cost management requires a strategic approach considering the organization’s specific needs and requirements. To help optimize Azure costs, we recommend the following best practices:
Understand your workloads: One of the critical steps in optimizing Azure costs is to understand the specific workloads and resources consumed in your environment. This includes identifying which services and resources are used, how they are used, and how much they cost.
Right-size your resources: Ensuring your resources are appropriately sized for your workloads is critical to optimizing Azure costs. This can involve scaling resources up or down as needed to meet the demands of your workload or selecting cost-effective resource sizes that meet your performance requirements.
Use resource tagging: Resource tagging is a powerful tool for optimizing Azure costs. It allows you to assign metadata to your resources and track their usage and costs more granularly. This can help you identify and optimize underutilized or overutilized resources and allocate costs more effectively.
Optimize resource deployment: How you deploy resources in Azure can significantly impact your costs. To optimize your costs, consider using resource groups to manage and deploy resources more efficiently and leverage deployment automation tools like Azure Resource Manager templates to streamline resource deployment.
Leverage Azure Cost Management tools: Azure provides tools and services to help organizations optimize costs, including Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor, and the Azure Pricing Calculator. These tools can help you identify optimization opportunities, track your costs over time, and plan for future growth.
Azure cost management tools:
Azure provides a range of tools and services to help organizations optimize their costs, including:
Azure Cost Management: Azure Cost Management is a comprehensive platform that provides visibility into your Azure costs, usage, and trend data. With Azure Cost Management, you can track your costs in real-time, optimize your resource usage, and optimize your Azure spending.
Azure Advisor: Azure Advisor is a free service that provides recommendations to help you optimize your Azure resources. Advisor analyzes your resource utilization and workload patterns and provides recommendations to help you optimize your costs, improve performance, and increase security.
Azure Pricing Calculator: The Azure Pricing Calculator is a tool that allows you to estimate the cost of running your workloads on Azure. You can use the calculator to estimate costs based on specific services, regions, and resource sizes and compare the cost of running your workloads on Azure to other cloud platforms.
Azure cost management strategies:
Effective Azure cost management requires a strategic approach considering the organization’s specific needs and requirements. To help organizations optimize their Azure costs, we recommend the following strategies:
Adopt a cost-conscious mindset: To optimize your Azure costs, adopting a cost-conscious mindset and approach to resource management is essential. This involves being aware of the cost of your resources and actively seeking ways to optimize those costs.
Develop a cost management plan: A cost management plan is a roadmap for optimizing your Azure costs over time. Your plan should outline your cost management goals, the strategies and tactics you will use to achieve those goals, and the metrics you will use to track your progress.
Utilize Azure Cost Management tools: Azure provides tools and services to help organizations optimize costs, including Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor, and the Azure Pricing Calculator. These tools can help you identify optimization opportunities, track your costs over time, and plan for future growth.
Use resource tagging: Resource tagging is a powerful tool for optimizing Azure costs. It allows you to assign metadata to your resources and track their usage and costs more granularly. This can help you identify and optimize underutilized or overutilized resources and allocate costs more effectively.
Optimize resource deployment: How you deploy resources in Azure can significantly impact your costs. To optimize your costs, consider using resource groups to manage and deploy resources more efficiently and leverage deployment automation tools like Azure Resource Manager templates to streamline resource deployment.
Azure cost management tips:
In addition to the strategies and best practices mentioned above, there are several additional tips that organizations can follow to optimize their Azure costs:
Monitor your costs regularly: Monitoring your Azure costs can help you identify optimization opportunities and make changes to reduce your costs. Azure provides a range of tools and services, such as Azure Cost Management and Azure Advisor, that can help you to track your costs and identify areas for improvement.
Consider using reserved instances: Reserved instances can help you to save on Azure compute costs by allowing you to reserve capacity for your workloads at a discounted rate. When you purchase a reserved instance, you commit to using a specific computing capacity for a certain period in exchange for a discounted rate.
Use Azure Hybrid Benefit: Azure Hybrid Benefit is a licensing benefit that allows organizations with Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to use their existing licenses to save on Azure compute costs. By leveraging Azure Hybrid Benefit, organizations can reduce their Azure compute costs by up to 55%.
Utilize Azure Cost Management policies: Azure Cost Management policies allow you to set rules and alerts to help you optimize your Azure costs. You can use policies to define budget thresholds, set alerts for when costs exceed a certain threshold and enforce resource tagging standards.
Use Azure Cost Management APIs: The Azure Cost Management APIs allow you to access your Azure cost and usage data programmatically, enabling you to build custom cost management solutions or integrate your Azure cost data with other tools and systems.
Azure cost management tools – documents that can help:
Azure provides a range of documentation and resources to help organizations optimize their Azure costs, including:
Azure Cost Management: The Azure Cost Management tool and its documentation provide detailed information on how to use the Azure Cost Management platform, including how to track your costs, optimize your resource usage, and manage your Azure spending.
Azure Advisor: The Azure Advisor documentation provides information on using the Azure Advisor service to optimize your resources and reduce costs. The documentation includes information on how to use Advisor to identify optimization opportunities, get recommendations, and track the progress of your optimization efforts.
Azure pricing: The Azure pricing tool provides detailed information on the cost of Azure services, including pricing details for specific regions, resource sizes, and services. The documentation also includes Azure pricing plans, discounts, and billing options.
Azure cost management pricing:
The cost of using Azure varies depending on the specific services and resources consumed. Azure offers a range of pricing plans and options to suit the needs of different organizations, including:
Pay-as-you-go pricing: With pay-as-you-go pricing, you pay for the specific Azure services and resources you consume based on the published rates. This pricing model is ideal for organizations with variable or unpredictable workloads or wanting the flexibility to scale their resources up or down as needed.
Commitment-based pricing: Commitment-based pricing allows you to purchase Azure services at a discounted rate in exchange for a commitment to use a certain number of resources over a specified period. This pricing model is ideal for organizations that have predictable or stable workloads and can commit to using a certain number of resources over a more extended period.
Azure Hybrid Benefit: Azure Hybrid Benefit is a licensing benefit that allows organizations with Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to use their existing licenses to save on Azure compute costs. By leveraging Azure Hybrid Benefit, organizations can reduce their Azure compute costs by up to 55%.
Azure cost management resources:
In addition to the documentation and tools mentioned above, there is a range of additional resources available to help organizations optimize their Azure costs, including:
Azure Cost Management blogs: The Azure Cost Management blog provides updates and best practices for optimizing Azure costs, case studies, and success stories from organizations that have successfully optimized their Azure costs.
Azure Cost Management webinars and training: Azure provides various webinars and training resources to help organizations learn more about Azure cost management and optimization. These resources include online courses, in-person training sessions, and virtual events.
Azure Cost Management Community: The Azure Cost Management community is a forum for Azure users to share best practices, ask questions, and connect with other users and experts. The community is a valuable resource for organizations seeking guidance and support on optimizing their Azure costs.
Azure Cost Management support: Azure provides a range of support options for organizations looking for help with Azure cost management. These options include online, phone, and support from Azure partners and third-party vendors.
By leveraging these resources and strategies, organizations can optimize their Azure costs and get the most value from their investment in the cloud.
Azure zombie resources are cloud resources that are no longer in use but remain active and consuming resources, resulting in unnecessary charges. Zombie resources can occur when cloud resources are not adequately decommissioned or deleted or when resources are left running but are no longer needed.
These resources can be a significant problem for organizations using Azure, as they can result in unexpected and potentially significant Azure bills. To avoid this issue, it is essential to regularly review and clean up your use of Azure to ensure that all resources are appropriately decommissioned or deleted when they are no longer needed. Several factors can contribute to the development of Azure zombie resources.
For example, zombie resources can occur when:
Resources need to be correctly decommissioned: When resources are no longer needed, it is vital to decommission them properly by deleting or deallocating them. Without this step, the resources will continue to consume and generate charges.
Resources are left running when not in use: Some resources, such as virtual machines, can be left running when not in use, resulting in ongoing charges. To avoid this issue, stopping or deallocating resources when they are not needed is vital.
Resources are not adequately managed: Resource management is critical to avoiding the development of Azure zombie resources. This includes regularly reviewing resource usage and taking steps to decommission or delete resources that are no longer needed.
There are many tools and strategies that organizations can use to identify and remove Azure zombie resources, including:
Using Azure Resource Manager policies: Azure Resource Manager policies can enforce resource management standards and automatically decommission or delete resources that are no longer needed. For example, you can use policies to specify that resources must be deleted after a certain period of inactivity or to delete those terminated automatically.
Using Azure Cost Management tools: Azure Cost Management tools, such as Azure Advisor, can help organizations identify resources that are consuming significant resources or generating high costs and suggest ways to optimize their usage. For example, Azure Advisors can identify underutilized or overutilized resources and recommend actions to maximize their use.
Review resource usage: Reviewing resource usage can help organizations identify resources that are no longer needed and take steps to decommission or delete them. This can be done manually or automated using tools like Azure Resource Manager policies.
As technology evolves and organizations become more reliant on it, managing software licenses and deployments has become increasingly complex and critical. Microsoft’s Windows and SQL Serverare among the most widely used software platforms, making it essential for IT departments to ensure that they are adequately licensed and optimized. This is where MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support comes in.
Our Microsoft True Up Support is designed to help IT departments navigate the complexities of Windows and SQL Server licensing and optimize their deployments for maximum efficiency and cost savings. With our team of licensing experts and powerful tools, we can help you ensure that you comply with Microsoft’s licensing requirements and take advantage of all the benefits your licenses offer.
One of our clients, a Fortune 500 Customer, saw significant benefits from using our Microsoft True Up Support. The Director of Infrastructure at this organization stated, “MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support provided us with the expert guidance and tools we needed to optimize our Windows and SQL Server licenses. We reduced our licensing costs by over 30% and ensured that we fully complied with Microsoft’s requirements. The value we received from this service was tremendous, and I highly recommend it to any organization looking to optimize their Microsoft licenses.”
SQL Server Deployments And Additional Tools
In addition to expert guidance and powerful tools, our Microsoft True Up Support also includes the following:
A comprehensive assessment of your current Windows and SQL Server deployments
A report outlining any compliance risks or inefficiencies in your current licensing and deployment strategies
Recommendations for optimizing your licenses and deployments for cost savings and efficiency
Ongoing support to ensure that you are fully up-to-date with the latest licensing requirements and best practices
We understand the importance of accessing reliable and accurate information when managing software licenses. That’s why we are dedicated to providing IT departments with the expert guidance and tools they need to optimize their Microsoft licenses and deployments. Our Microsoft True Up Support is a cost-effective solution that can help you save time, money, and resources while ensuring that your organization fully complies with Microsoft’s licensing requirements.
Customers Reviews On Microsoft Licensing and Microsoft True-Up Support
Customer quote 1: “MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support was a game-changer for our organization. The team provided a comprehensive assessment of our current licensing and deployment strategies. It recommended several cost-saving measures that we would never have thought of. The tools and support that we received have made it much easier for us to manage our licenses and ensure compliance with Microsoft’s requirements.” – CIO, a large financial services organization.
Customer quote 2: “We have been using MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support for several years, and it has been an invaluable resource for our IT department. The team’s expertise and attention to detail have allowed us to optimize our Windows and SQL Server licenses and reduce our costs significantly. We highly recommend this service to any organization looking to manage their Microsoft licenses effectively.” – IT Manager, a large healthcare organization.
At MetrixData 360, we aim to help organizations like yours achieve the greatest value from their Microsoft office licenses. Our Microsoft True Up Support provides you with the expert guidance, tools, and support you need to optimize your deployments and ensure that you fully comply with Microsoft’s licensing requirements.
If you’re interested in learning more about how our Microsoft True Up Support can help your IT department, we would be happy to arrange a consultation with one of our experts. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at MetricData 360 to schedule a time that is convenient for you. Alternatively,you can also answer the questionnaire.
As technology continues to evolve and organizations become more reliant on it, managing software licenses and deployments has become increasingly complex and critical. Microsoft’s Windows and SQL Serverare among the most widely used software platforms, making it essential for IT departments to ensure that they are adequately licensed and optimized. This is where MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support comes in.
Our Microsoft True Up Support is designed to help IT departments navigate the complexities of Windows and SQL Server licensing and optimize their deployments for maximum efficiency and cost savings. With our team of licensing experts and powerful tools, we can help you ensure that you comply with Microsoft’s licensing requirements and take advantage of all the benefits your licenses offer.
One of our clients, a Fortune 500 Customer, saw significant benefits from using our Microsoft True Up Support. The Director of Infrastructure at this organization stated, “MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support provided us with the expert guidance and tools we needed to optimize our Windows and SQL Server licenses. We reduced our licensing costs by over 30% and ensured that we fully complied with Microsoft’s requirements. The value we received from this service was tremendous, and I highly recommend it to any organization looking to optimize their Microsoft licenses.”
SQL Server Deployments and Additional Tools
In addition to expert guidance and powerful tools, our Microsoft True Up Support also includes:
A comprehensive assessment of your current Windows and SQL Server deployments
A report outlining any compliance risks or inefficiencies in your current licensing and deployment strategies
Recommendations for optimizing your licenses and deployments for cost savings and efficiency
Ongoing support to ensure that you are fully up-to-date with the latest licensing requirements and best practices
We understand the importance of accessing reliable and accurate information when managing software licenses. That’s why we are dedicated to providing IT departments with the expert guidance and tools they need to optimize their Microsoft licenses and deployments. Our Microsoft True Up Support is a cost-effective solution that can help you save time, money, and resources while ensuring that your organization fully complies with Microsoft’s licensing requirements.
Customers Reviews On Microsoft Licensing and True-Up Support:
“MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support was a game-changer for our organization. The team provided a comprehensive assessment of our current licensing and deployment strategies. It recommended several cost-saving measures that we would never have thought of. The tools and support that we received have made it much easier for us to manage our licenses and ensure compliance with Microsoft’s requirements.” – CIO, a large financial services organization.
“We have been using MetrixData 360’s Microsoft True Up Support for several years, and it has been an invaluable resource for our IT department. The team’s expertise and attention to detail have allowed us to optimize our Windows and SQL Server licenses and reduce our costs significantly. We highly recommend this service to any organization looking to manage their Microsoft licenses effectively.” – IT Manager, a large healthcare organization.
At MetrixData 360, we aim to help organizations like yours achieve the greatest value from their Microsoft Office licenses. Our Microsoft True Up Support provides expert guidance, tools, and support to optimize your deployments and fully comply with Microsoft’s licensing requirements.
To explore how our Microsoft True Up Support can help your IT department, we would happily book a virtual consultation with one of our experts.
Keeping up with the ever-changing technology landscape can be a challenge. The rise of cloud computing has made it easier for businesses to quickly adopt new software, but now staying on top of license management is more important than ever. Microsoft 365 is a staple in many organizations, and understanding how to optimize licenses can save your business money and time.
Managing office licenses for large-scale enterprise environments is no easy task. With a growing number of users, organizations are increasingly looking for ways to simplify their license management and optimize their use of cloud software. This blog will discuss some simple ways to simplify your Microsoft 365 license management and improve its risk mitigation.
Optimizing Licenses Across Large Environments
It’s easy for a business to become over-dependent on the convenience of Microsoft 365. Save yourself costly mistakes by only buying the necessary licenses that your employees need. According to SaaS purchasing platform Vertice, businesses overpay for collaboration solutions by 20% to 30% on average. Organizations are wasting significant money per month due to the excess licensing of Microsoft 365.
Hence, the first step in simplifying your Microsoft 365 license management is understanding how to optimize licenses across large environments. Identifying which users need which type of license can help you ensure that you are not overbuying licenses. It’s important to have a clear picture of who needs which type of license in order to maximize cost savings and efficiency.
One way to do this is by leveraging an automated system that can quickly identify unused licenses, so they can be removed or reassigned as needed. This will help you avoid the costly mistake of paying for unneeded licenses and will also reduce the amount of time spent manually managing them. Automation is key when it comes to optimizing large environments where multiple users may need access to different types of software or services.
Improving Risk Mitigation
Staying compliant with Microsoft 365 business standard activation and Microsoft 365’s licensure rules is key to avoiding potential penalties or fines and managing Microsoft licenses. Failing to do so can put your business at risk of hefty fines and disrupt operations that could have easily been avoided with the proper understanding of compliance laws.
A recent Flexera report shows that nearly 24% of respondents paid more than $1 million as a result of violations. Without a clear sense of Microsoft licensing explanation and understanding, you may find yourself or your company in hot water over an issue that could have been easily circumvented by procuring enough licenses to cover the Microsoft 365 number of users and features being utilized. Additionally, being aware of any and all changes in licensing regulations should also be taken seriously, as even small alterations can generate serious outcomes when disregarded.
A good office 365 device license management system should provide detailed tracking information about who has access to what, so you can identify any potential issues quickly and easily address them before they become a problem
SLIM360 as a Solution
SLIM360 is an innovative online platform designed to streamline the process of managing Microsoft 365 licenses across large-scale enterprise environments. It applies to any type of agreement, including pay-as-you-go, term, subscription, and perpetual implementations. The solution quickly scans your computers for installed software and compares the identified instances to your current licenses purchased, which identifies both over-licensed and under-licensed usage.
The tool also provides an estimated cost for any unused or expired licenses, along with a risk analysis that measures the potential benefit these licenses may offer in improved security. Moreover, SLIM360 provides actionable insights through predictive analytics to gain a proactive advantage in managing and avoiding unexpected costs due to using more licenses than necessary.
In summary, SLIM360 is designed to compare your usage to the available licensing tiers and highlight where your employees are over-licensed so you can save money and identify any areas that you may be potentially under-licensed, ensuring you stay compliant without exposing yourself to risk caused by under-licensed employee usage.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 licensing is an essential part of any organization’s IT infrastructure, but it’s easy for things to get out of control if not managed properly. Thankfully, there are some simple steps you can take that will help streamline your Microsoft 365 license management process while still ensuring that all users have the appropriate level of access they need. By leveraging automation tools and improving risk mitigation, you’ll be well on your way toward having an effective, efficient system in place for managing your licenses across large environments more effectively than ever before.
Without a software asset management tool, your company might be overspending on Microsoft software. In order to ensure that you have the right data and insights at the tip of your fingers, Metrix360 offers SLIM360, allowing you to streamline all the necessary information for your software assets. So contact us today or visit our website for more details.
Microsoft 365 is a powerful cloud-based platform that provides businesses with various services, including applications, storage, and communications. Investing in Microsoft 365 can be extremely rewarding for businesses, giving them access to powerful tools and programs. However, costs can quickly add up if you are not careful. With this in mind, it’s important to ensure that your precious resources are being used effectively by controlling your Microsoft 365 budget. In this blog post, we’ll discuss why it is essential to manage the Microsoft budget in 2022 and provide five tips for managing your Microsoft 365 budget to get the most value from it.
Cloud Spend Costs with Microsoft 365
Regarding cloud spending costs with Microsoft 365, it is extremely important to have a thorough understanding of all the associated with the Microsoft 365 budget. Without knowledge and oversight, businesses can easily find themselves facing unexpected spending spikes and surging costs due to inefficient or redundant use of cloud resources and consumption.
Microsoft 365’s expansive offering of programs means that it can be easy to unwittingly rack up costs with disorganized budgeting and suboptimal planning. But thankfully, the right Microsoft budgeting app, approaches, and cost-management strategies can help ensure that organizations avoid runaway spending. Investing in cost management tools and having proper visibility into where their money is going are key strategies for reducing cloud spending costs with Microsoft 365.
5 ways to Control Your Microsoft 365 Budget
To avoid cloud spend costs sneaking up on you, staying informed about Microsoft 365 is essential. Staying within the budget template while taking advantage of Microsoft 365’s capabilities can be a tricky balancing act. To help, here are five strategies that organizations can use to get the most out of their Microsoft 365 investment without overspending. From optimizing license usage to researching subscription deals, these tactics will ensure your organization stays on track with its financial goals.
1. Utilize Discounts and Subscriptions
One of the best ways to save money on your Microsoft 365 budget is to take advantage of discounts and subscriptions. Microsoft often has exclusive promotions or corporate discounts that you can leverage to get even more savings. The most popular discount program currently is the Workplace Discount Program (which allows businesses to give employees discounts on personal projects). Additionally, subscription-based plans can help you save money, as their TEI Study mentions that businesses are able to save up to 29$ per employee on technology costs in the long run since they come with a reduced fee over time. Taking the time to explore all the discounts and subscriptions available from Microsoft can pay off when it comes to reducing your budget and ensuring you get the subscription you need at a much lower cost.
2. Analyze Usage Reports
Many businesses don’t realize how much they’re spending on their Microsoft 365 service until they look at Microsoft usage reports. These reports provide detailed information about what features are being used and how much each feature is costing you over time. You can obtain a pre-built dashboard with a cross-product overview of the preceding twelve months and a variety of pre-built statistics through Microsoft 365 usage statistics. You receive unique usage insights for each analysis. User-specific data is accessible for the previous full month of the calendar as well. By analyzing these reports, you can identify areas where you may be spending too much money or where there may be room for cost savings.
3. Understand Licensing Requirements
Understanding your licensing requirements is key when it comes to controlling your costs with Microsoft 365. Different licenses come with different price tags depending on what features you need, so it’s important to take the time to understand what licenses exactly will meet your needs without breaking the bank.
4. Consider Third Party Solutions
There are plenty of third-party solutions available that can help reduce your costs with Microsoft 365 while still providing all the features you need to get work done efficiently. Researching these solutions before making any purchase decisions can help ensure that you’re getting the right product at the right price point without sacrificing quality or functionality.
5. Optimize Your Storage
The last tip for controlling your costs with Microsoft 365 is optimizing your storage space usage. Many organizations find themselves paying more than necessary for storage space due to excess files or unnecessary backups taking up space on their servers. Taking steps such as regularly deleting old files or archiving older documents can free up valuable storage space and reduce your overall costs with Microsoft 365 significantly over time.
For large-scale organizations, expensive over-licensing of employees can cause considerable losses each month. Recognizing this challenge, SLIM 360 provides an effective solution: by comparing current usage to available licensing tiers and highlighting any discrepancies that may result in wasted costs. This streamlined system offers modern organization for Software Asset Management which simplifies the process towards license optimization, so you’re able to accurately establish a budget planner for your business accordingly.
Furthermore, by carefully monitoring your agreements with its integrated AI engine, SLIM 360 prevents you from wasting valuable time finding, synthesizing, and analyzing gigabytes of licensing worksheets. By doing so, SLIM 360 will demonstrate and give you the following:
Notifications on possible cost reductions for purchases in Azure and Office 365.
Advise regarding Azure
Security alerts across Office 365 and Azure.
Automated subscription renewals
This will enable you to concentrate completely on license handling in your company.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 provides businesses with an incredibly powerful platform that offers a wide array of features and functionality at a competitive price point, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement when it comes to managing costs associated with this service. By utilizing discounts and subscriptions, analyzing usage reports, understanding licensing requirements, considering third-party solutions, and optimizing storage space usage, you can maximize efficiency while minimizing expenses related to using this powerful cloud platform. Being mindful of spending and taking the time to plan ahead will put you on track for financial success.
To learn more about SLIM360 and how it can assist you in managing your Microsoft 365 budget.
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SQL Server Deployments And Additional Tools
