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Category: Microsoft Azure

Best Practices for Azure Zombie Resources and Cost Management

Posted on by Hailey Austin

What Are Azure Zombie Resources?

What Are Azure Zombie Resources?
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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.  
  3. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Contact us to learn how we can help you manage your Azure resources and get proper visibility of your data.

 

Azure Cost Management

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

Azure Cost Management
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.

  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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%.
  1. 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 Cost Management

Posted on by Hailey Austin

Azure Cost Management

Azure Cost Management
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.

  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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%.
  1. 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.

 

What Are Azure Zombie Resources?

Posted on by Hailey Austin

What Are Azure Zombie Resources?

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.  
  3. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

How IT Departments Can Navigate the Complexities of Windows and SQL Server Licensing

Posted on by Hailey Austin

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 Server are 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 ToolsSQL 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.

SLIM 360: The Only Tool You Need to Control Licensing Costs

Posted on by Hailey Austin

Harness the Data You Need to Optimize Your Software Licensing

MetrixData 360 and SLIM 360, as software licensing management tools, provide the data you need to optimize your software licensing, reduce costs, and ensure compliance. With comprehensive and customized reporting, you can gain visibility into utilizing all your software assets and make informed decisions about the software you acquire.

 

The software industry is making incredible strides at all ends of the spectrum, bringing new challenges that organizations, large and small, must act on to remain competitive. One of the most critical areas executives must monitor license compliance. Ensuring your organization complies with thousands of software titles can become a nightmare. However, there’s finally a solution to this problem: SLIM 360.

Unlock Powerful Insights

SLIM 360: Manage Licensing Costs

MetrixData 360 and SLIM 360 software tools offer potent insights into utilizing your assets, helping you make informed decisions about software acquisition and usage. A comprehensive dashboard and detailed reporting allow you to monitor usage, track compliance easily, and identify cost-reduction opportunities.

Reduce Your Software Costs

Reduce Your Software Costs

With our software procurement solution, you can quickly reduce your software costs by taking advantage of volume discounts and other cost-saving measures. Our software procurement solution makes it easy to stay on top of your software costs and ensures that you always get the best deals on software licenses.

 

Say Goodbye to Manual Software Tracking

Say Goodbye to Manual Software Tracking

Manually tracking software licenses and costs is a time-consuming process that can be difficult to keep up with. With our software procurement solution, you can easily keep track of your software licenses, costs, and contracts in one place. You’ll have access to real-time data on your software usage and can make informed decisions about your IT procurement strategy.

Simplify Your Procurement Process

Our software procurement solution simplifies the procurement process by automating the process of purchasing software licenses. Our intuitive interface makes tracking your software licenses and costs easy and ensures you have the proper licenses for your organization. With our software procurement solution, you can rest assured that you’re always up-to-date with your software licensing agreement and costs.

Optimize Your Software Licenses

Software licenses can be complicated and expensive. Mike Austin, an experienced director who knows the challenges of managing software licenses and costs, decided there was a need for a software licensing management tool that users needed to provide the data needed to optimize their software licensing agreement and reduce cost.

 

With Mike Austin’s help, you can ensure you get the most out of your licenses. Mike will review your current licenses, identify opportunities for savings, and help you get the best deals for your next software purchase.

 

It’s no news that there are many ways to save money on your software licensing. But how do you know which one will be best for you? Are they worth the investment? What if you invest, but it never pays off? These are all questions that software buyers may have in mind, and SLIM 360 aims to provide insight into the answers.

 

Get a Health Check Today!  

 

Want to understand your software costs? The ability to document past decisions, current status, and future projections means that you’ll have a much more effective discussion with your team members to look at your options and make an informed decision. 

 

So, book a call here: Office 365 Savings Blueprint Meeting

5 Tips for Controlling your Microsoft 365 Budget

Posted on by Hailey Austin

5 Tips for Controlling your Microsoft 365 Budget

5 Tips for Controlling your Microsoft 365 Budget

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

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

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. 

 

There are four ways to optimize storage by 80%.

 

  • Cutting redundant, obsolete, and trivial information by evaluation through SharePoint Migration Assessment Tool.
  • Automating lifecycle management.
  • Adopting a defensible destruction approach (DDA).
  • Backing up content to remove inactive accounts.

 

SLIM360 as a Solution

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. 

4 Tips to Upgrade Your Azure Financial Reporting

Posted on by Mike Austin

If you’re like most organizations these days, you’re utilizing Azure to power at least a portion of your operations. Additionally, if you use Azure, you are aware of how crucial it is to keep a close check on your expenses, as it’s a constant struggle to avoid paying more than you need to. Here are a few tips and recommendations on how you can upgrade your Azure financial reporting and develop strong FinOps (Financial Operations) for your company so that you can maximize savings and get the most out of your investment.

Look at Your Costs on a Rolling 30-Day Period

1. Look at Your Costs on a Rolling 30-Day Period

One of the finest techniques for keeping track of your Azure costs is to look at them on a rolling 30-day period. This way, you can spot trends and optimize your usage accordingly. You can search for patterns and adjust the way you employ services. You can also use this method to compare your current month’s usage to previous months so that you can see if you’re making progress in terms of efficiency.

A 30-day period is an ideal number to follow for ensuring consistency in cost assessment. This is because most managers prefer having cost comparisons on a month-to-month basis. Further, typical Azure reports are produced monthly, which is another factor to consider. However, months can have 28 days, 30 days, or 31 days which can cause inconsistency when comparing costs. Hence taking an average,  a rolling 30-day period seems to be a reasonable period of time to follow.

It should be noted that your Log Analytics workspaces and Application Insights services often incur the most expenses through data import and maintenance. Through a 30-day rolling period, you will be able to accurately determine how much of the Azure budget is being spent on insight and other Azure services. 

One popular tactic is to activate supervision for a small subset of resources, then use the calculators and the observed data levels to estimate your expenditures for the entire ecosystem.

2. Remove FX (Foreign Exchange) from the Reporting  

If you have multiple subscriptions in different currencies, it can be helpful to remove foreign exchange (FX) from the reporting and solely report in a single currency (USD). This will make it easier for you to compare your costs across different time periods and see how exchange rates are affecting your spending. It will also help you track your costs more accurately since currency fluctuations can sometimes distort the data.

Remove FX (Foreign Exchange) from the Reporting

3. Associate Costs To Match Where “Value” is Being Achieved

Another way to upgrade your Azure financial reporting is to associate costs with customers, departments, etc. This will help you match your costs with the areas of your business that are actually generating value. For example, if you have a department that is responsible for generating revenue, you’ll want to make sure that its costs are properly reflected in the overall financial picture. By doing this, you can get a better understanding of where your money is going and how it is being used.

You can further associate cost with revenue to create a “unit economic” Key Performance Indicator (KPI) on a per workload/RSS-group level. By doing this, you can track how much each unit is costing you and compare it to the revenue that it is generating. This will help you make better decisions about where to allocate your resources and identify areas where additional investment might be needed.

4. Use FinOps (Financial (Cloud) Operations) to Enhance Financial Reporting

Finally, one last tip for upgrading your Azure financial reporting is to utilize FinOps’ benefits. And what is FinOps? The administration technique known as FinOps, or financial operations, encourages collaborative accountability for an organization’s cloud infrastructure deployment and expenditures.

The FinOps  methodology brings together leadership from the finance, IT, and DevOps sectors to control the overall cost of cloud platforms across an organization. With FinOps, an organization gives cross-functional teams the authority to control cloud costs while functioning according to FinOps standards. In order to implement the best practices for cloud financial planning, the FinOps initiative frequently involves setting up governance structures with a team or council.

Use FinOps (Financial (Cloud) Operations) to Enhance Financial Reporting

Four steps can be taken to implement a FinOps structure:

  • Analysis. Monitor all cloud spending and gain insight into team-specific IT expenditures and allotment.
  • Benchmarking. Evaluate cloud instance efficiency to identify over- and underprovisioning.
  • Optimization. To enhance cost/performance, rightsize instances, shift loads, and tweak applications.
  • Negotiation. Streamline your cloud service provider (CSP) payments and match your overall performance with cloud service allocation.

To preserve productivity, spur innovation, upgrade financial reporting, and reduce costs, you have to perform these processes on a regular basis.

 

Conclusion

Azure offers organizations a robust framework for managing their operations, but it’s crucial to monitor expenditures to prevent out-of-control spending. You may improve your Azure financial reporting by using the aforementioned advice so that you have a proper insight into where your money is invested and how it is being used. This information will help you make informed decisions about where to allocate resources and invest in new technologies.

Managing your Azure costs can become a little complicated. Hence, our experts are here to assist you in managing all your Azure costs with ease. So, if you’re looking for ways to cut Azure spending, request a demo on our website to find out how much you can save.

5 Hidden Azure Cost Optimizations: How to Save on Azure

Posted on by Hailey Austin

The more resources you spend on your business, the better it gets. With Azure’s increased variety and efficiency boosters like machine learning tools for data analysis or IoT connectivity options, there are no limits to what can be achieved. But be aware, Azure cost management can also be very challenging. 

 

Understanding where your company’s money is coming from might be complex, given that firms frequently own dozens of Azure-related services for which they must make monthly payments. Shifting more assets to the cloud and cloud expenses also comprise a sizable portion of IT expenditures. 

 

So, do you want to know how to reduce IT budgets?

 

There are various Azure cost optimization secrets that can assist you in visualizing and controlling costs. You can use these to cut down on waste and maximize already-existing resources.

 

Here are some insights on practices and tools that can assist you in optimizing your Azure costs. 

1. Efficient Use of VMs

Azure provides a diverse range of virtual machines (VMs) with various hardware and functionality options. To determine which offers maximum throughput or efficiency while being cost-efficient, experiment with different VMs for the same job. You can auto-scale to adopt the number of VMs for actual workloads and continue with the VMs that perform best. 

 

Keep in mind that 100% utilization of all VMs will result in the lowest cost. By utilizing Azure Monitor to analyze your metrics alongside techniques, such as auto-scaling, to update the number of machines based on utilization, aim to reach as close to this target as possible.

 

2. Utilizing B-series VMs

Another way to ensure Azure cost optimization is through B-series VMs. The B-Series virtual machines provided by Azure are intended for programs that are normally inactive but occasionally see spikes in consumption. If the job is manageable, you can earn credits with low levels of computational resources. The CPU power is increased with abrupt spikes in consumption, and you can use the credits to cover the cost of capacity addition. The machine returns to its default CPU power when credits have been used up. 

 

B-Series VMs offer reductions from 15-55% compared to other VMs. Determine which tasks must be available but only seldom require high throughput or performance, and migrate them to B-Series virtual machines.

 

 

3. Shifting Workloads to Containers

Containers weigh less compared to VMs. You can run up to hundreds of containers on a single host machine, with each running a different containerized program. By repackaging your programs as containers, you can significantly lower VM utilization and your expenditures. Consider moving workloads to a container service like Azure Kubernetes Service from conventional Azure VMs (AKS). 

4. Using Storage Tiering

Most continuing costs for Azure setups are often related to memory. With decreasing costs per each storage tier of Azure Blob Storage, several redundancy choices are also available (less redundancy means less storage cost). Consider researching Azure storage pricing to find out how much each storage service costs. 

 

Shifting less critical or infrequently accessed data to a cheaper tier or a lower redundancy option will help you save money. You can further build tiering storage management into your software to ensure that data is routinely migrated to a lower-cost tier when it is no longer required.

5. Utilizing Cost Optimization Tools

The Azure consumption tools, such as SLIM 360 for Azure, are highly beneficial if you are interested in controlling your budget reports and improving Azure cost optimization. SLIM 360 is one of these tools and is solely designed to uncover your potential for cost savings, helping you carefully examine your data to identify superfluous expenses so they can be reinvested into your business.

 

Working with the information generated by the Azure portal can be challenging. The overwhelming volume of data that Azure customers receive frequently leaves them unable to make sense of it. Solutions like SLIM 360 Azure Reporting streamline and simplify the process of analyzing results by compiling them into plain-language graphs and charts, enabling greater use of your Azure Portal invoices.

 

MetrixData 360: Here to Help

 

If you attempt to break down your costs using the receipts in your Azure portal, you will probably be met with a headache from complex data spreadsheets. However, MetrixData 360’s Azure Usage Tool is specially designed to comprehend Azure’s detailed pricing and simplify it into information that is easy to understand and use. Our tool categorizes your current Azure charges for storage, VMs, SQL databases, and more. The total cost for each category is then shown, along with the list price and any discounts used. 

If you’re looking for how to reduce IT budgets, visit our website to book a demo to see how much you can save.

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