Thomas Maurer shares practical advice on optimizing Azure expenses using Reserved Instances. In partnership with Microsoft Azure’s Priyanshi, this episode highlights essential cost-saving strategies for cloud workloads.

Optimize Azure Costs with Reserved Instances

Author: Thomas Maurer

In this Azure Essentials Show episode, Thomas Maurer teams up with Priyanshi from Microsoft Azure to explain how organizations can optimize their cloud spending through Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances (RIs).

What Are Azure Reserved VM Instances?

  • Reserved Instances provide discounted pricing compared to pay-as-you-go rates for virtual machines with predictable workloads.
  • By committing to a one- or three-year reservation, organizations can significantly reduce long-term Azure costs.

Strategies for Cost Optimization

  • Analyze Historical Usage: Use Azure Advisor and your service consumption data to identify candidates for reservation purchases.
  • Reservation Recommendations: Lean on Azure’s built-in tools to get data-driven recommendations for what to reserve.
  • Setting the Right Scope: Scope your reservation at the right level—single subscription or shared—to maximize utilization.

Best Practices

  • Monitor Utilization: Set up RI Utilization Alerts so you’re notified about underused resources.
  • Enable Auto-Renewal: Use auto-renewal to ensure ongoing reservation savings without manual intervention.
  • Avoid Common Pitfalls: Beware of overcommitting or reserving for unpredictable workloads.

Practical Steps

  1. Review VM Usage: Check your organization’s Azure VM usage within the Azure portal.
  2. Consult Azure Advisor: Evaluate reservation recommendations provided by Azure Advisor or within the purchase flow.
  3. Utilize Learning Resources: Microsoft Learn and dedicated video series offer step-by-step instructions for purchasing and monitoring reservations.

Resources

About the Author: Thomas Maurer is the EMEA Global Black Belt for Sovereign Cloud at Microsoft, collaborating with C-level leaders and technical teams to accelerate digital transformation using Microsoft’s sovereign, hybrid, and multicloud solutions. He is a community advocate and well-known speaker at industry events like Microsoft Ignite.

Find more at Thomas Maurer’s Cloud and Datacenter Blog

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