Cloud budgeting just got easier on the Anodot platform. Our budget monitoring tool has transformed to make tracking finances in the cloud seamless, customizable, and, above all, easy.  If you can’t stand the anticipation, it’s available on our user's accounts now for you to check out for those who want a detailed update on what’s new, this post got you covered on what to expect in this new update and how Anodot Cost has been further revamped to be manageable across multiple providers and teams. What are the new cloud budget monitoring features in Anodot Cost?   Working in various cloud environments is standard in the industry, with 98% of enterprises that use public cloud opting for a multi-cloud setup.  It's a smart move since a multi-cloud strategy offers many perks, such as cost optimization, improved resilience, and the ability to tap into the strengths of different cloud platforms. But every strategy has its challenges, and when it comes to cloud budgeting across many cloud providers, cost tracking has limitations, complexity, and visibility that can cause oversights and hidden costs.  We understand this has been a constant problem (especially for MSPs and Enterprises!). That’s why we’ve created these new budgeting monitoring features, which will make working in multi-cloud environments much easier and without all the headaches. Budget Improvements     Our budget management updates align with your need for a holistic view of expenses across different cloud platforms and to establish rolling budgets that adapt monthly based on the current period. Edit Existing Budgets: Modify and adjust their existing budgets to better suit changing cost requirements. Define Slack Channels for Budget Alerts: Choose particular Slack channels to receive budget alerts, ensuring quick notifications and collaboration. Multicloud Budget Alerts: Establish budget alerts, offering a comprehensive expenditure overview across various cloud platforms. Rolling Budgets: Create monthly budgets that automatically adjust based on the current period. MSP Customization   Private Pricing Transfer for MSPs has become increasingly significant. Customized pricing based on specific client needs, usage patterns, and service agreements can lead to client retention in the highly competitive and dynamic cloud services market. And now it’s available on the Anodot platform!  Personalized Private Pricing Transfer: MSPs now have the option to transfer Private Pricing settings to their customers, giving them greater control over pricing configurations.   Expanded Slack Integration   What's even better than one Slack update for budgeting? Getting another one. Streamlining communications in multi-cloud environments is a must for smooth workflows, improved collaboration, and quick responses. Our new Slack integration updates now have timely notifications so you can respond and react to any cloud activity.   Alerting features: The integration with Slack has been enhanced to enable the definition of alerts for anomalies, budgets, and other relevant notifications to be sent to specific Slack channels, streamlining communication and incident response.   Business Mapping Rules   Our Business Mapping feature already helps you gauge the business value of your cloud spending in detail by determining costs across different product sections.  You can allocate costs by project, customer, department, or any other category you prefer. Utilize specific rules and operators to establish the level of detail needed. Now, you can make rules for item descriptions!   Item description rules: Create mapping rules based on item descriptions and available options. This allows for more precise categorization and management of cost data based on specific criteria. How to Access Budget Monitoring in Anodot   Our Budget Monitoring helps you tackle the challenges of managing cloud costs in constantly changing environments. Whether you're in FinOps, finance, or part of a dev team, our platform provides robust tools for budgeting, monitoring, and forecasting to optimize your cloud spending.  Here’s a handy step-by-step guide to learning the features inside out and getting the most out of our Budget Monitoring immediately.  Anodot Budget Monitoring Components Monitor: Set and track budgets at multiple levels for daily and monthly periods. Forecast: Plan and allocate resources wisely to control costs and optimize cloud infrastructure to meet business objectives. Report: Visualize actual spending or forecasted data for all stakeholders. Alert: Receive notifications when budgets are at risk using thresholds compared to actual or forecasted spending. Creating a Budget Navigate to Monitoring > Budget: From the left menu. Click 'Create Budget': Start the budget creation process. Steps to Create a Budget   1. Details & Filters: Budget Name: Mandatory and should be unique. Budget Description: Optional for budget details presentation. Cost Basis: Mandatory selection from Amortized, Net Amortized, Unblended. Filters: Set filters to reflect the total spend if none are selected. 2. Settings: Budget Period: Monthly, with a default of 1 year onward. Budget Type: Fixed Monthly Budget: Tracks spending against a fixed monthly amount. Planned Monthly Budget: Sets the budget amount for each month, with options for auto-filling values. Fixed Period Budget: Tracks spending against a fixed set number of months. Alerts: Alert Granularity: Choose from Daily, Monthly, or Total budget periods. Alert Threshold (%): Define when the alert should trigger based on spend. Alert Trigger: Select from Forecasted Spend or Actual Spend. Recipients: Configure multiple email recipients. Complete Creation: Click 'Create Budget' to finalize. Viewing and Editing Budgets Existing Budgets: View a list of budgets and a summary of their status. Single CSP Budget and Multi-Cloud Budget: Fields Shown: Budget Name, Cloud Provider, Cost, Accumulated Current Spend, Budget Amount, Forecasted Spend, Current vs. Budgeted, Forecasted vs. Budgeted, Exceeded Budget, Remaining Budget, Alerts, Actions. Daily and Monthly View Daily View: Shows an accumulated daily view with data points representing daily costs. Monthly View: Shows bars representing the monthly budget. Budget Alerts Alerts are triggered once the threshold is crossed. Alerts for updated budgets are triggered from that point onward. Daily and monthly granularity alerts include both actual and forecast conditions. Budget Forecast Algorithm Accurate Forecasting: The platform's median monthly accuracy is 98.5%. Autonomous and Flexible: Designed for business analysts without data science intervention. Rolling Budget: A dynamic strategy that updates and extends the budget over time, rolling over unspent funds to the next period. Let us know if you have further questions about accessing Budget Monotiring in your account! This is just the Beginning   In 2024, get ready for even more from Anodot! We're introducing new upgrades and updates to different tools on the platform. Whether you're an MSP, Enterprise, or somewhere in between, your Anodot account will stay at the forefront of innovation, equipped with cutting-edge tools to optimize your cloud savings.  

If your company is a big Azure spender, you should use Azure Hybrid Benefit. If not, you're leaving money on the table.  But how much money? If eligible, your company can save up to 40% on Azure Virtual Machines, up to 55% on Azure SQL databases, and, if you combine that with Azure Reserved Instances, you can even save up to 80%.   [caption id="attachment_15979" align="alignnone" width="512"] Source: Azure[/caption] Azure Hybrid Benefit is the perfect way to cut costs while migrating to the cloud. This stable and secure offering guarantees you won't have to pay for Microsoft software changes, making it easier (and more cost-effective) to move workloads and scale.  Before we get ahead of ourselves with the benefits of this tool, let’s define some terms.  What is Azure Hybrid Benefit?   Azure Hybrid Benefit is a Microsoft licensing offering that enables you to use your pre-existing on-premise operation system and application licenses in Azure. If your company has Microsoft Software Assurance and uses Microsoft Windows, Microsoft SQL Server, and/or select Linux SUSE licenses or Red Hat licenses, you are eligible for Azure Hybrid Benefit.   Advantages of Azure Hybrid Benefit Azure Hybrid Benefit has three big advantages: Big cloud cost savings. You don’t have to buy a new license if you’re already using Azure products (we’ll go into more detail about this below). Cloud environment flexibility. It allows users to save money on cloud spending by reducing the cost of a cloud migration and letting you transition to a hybrid or fully cloud environment at your own pace.  Simplified migration. You can use your existing software and migrate your applications to the cloud without worrying about spiking operational charges. In other words, your operation doesn’t need to be disrupted. Most organizations would undoubtedly benefit from Azure Hybrid Benefit, especially if you're gearing up to migrate to the cloud and want to cut costs and bolster security and stability.   How Azure Hybrid Benefit works for license types   First, before you get too excited about using this offering, make sure your organization has an existing license covered by Microsoft Software Assurance. Once that's been verified, you have been unleashed to enjoy the many advantages of Azure Hybrid Benefit.  Azure Hybrid Benefit for Linux Virtual Machine   [caption id="attachment_15980" align="alignnone" width="610"] Source: Azure[/caption] Azure Hybrid Benefit can be applied to existing Linux VMs to eliminate software fees as your licensing cost will be covered by your pre-existing Red Hat or SUSE licenses – which means you'll only have to worry about paying for your VM compute costs.  Expect operational costs to lower due to automatic updates, patches, and image maintenance. You also won't have to worry about product redeployment because of the seamless post-deployment conversion process. Since Red Hat, SUSE, and Azure offer co-located technical support, your technical challenges will become highly streamlined, with deployment and management simplified to a unified user interface via the Azure Portal and CLI.   Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server   [caption id="attachment_15981" align="alignnone" width="560"] Source: Azure[/caption] After your verification is complete, you can apply Azure Hybrid Benefit to new or preexisting Azure VMs. This means you'll get a new, reduced hourly rate, so you can start saving up to 80% over standard pay-as-you-go rates.  This benefit includes 180 days of dual-use rights, meaning you can run the same Windows Server license for both Azure and on-premise environments. If you're still mid-migration, this benefit is a game changer because it enables you to maintain your on-premise presence for six months.  When you're looking to deploy new Azure VMs and want to include them in the Hybrid Benefit policy, just make sure you review Azure's documentation so everything is properly configured for maximum savings. You can also check out the Azure Hybrid Benefits cost calculator to get an estimate for how much you’re going to spend.   Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure SQL Database [caption id="attachment_15982" align="alignnone" width="629"] Source: Azure[/caption] Azure Hybrid Benefit can work with Azure SQL Database PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) environment or Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instances. This program is ideal for companies with strict security requirements and compliance regulations. By opting into Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure SQL Database, you can save up to 85% for SQL Server licenses... so run, don't walk.  As with the Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server, you'll receive 180 days of dual-use rights so you can use the same SQL Server license in Azure and on-premises to help smooth cloud migrations.  You'll also get an amazing vCPU exchange rate, and for each existing SQL Server Enterprise Edition license core, you can get 4 vCPUs in Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database general purpose, and Hyperscale tiers.   How Azure Hybrid Benefit works   Usually, when you purchase cloud services and software licenses, the license cost is included in the hourly cloud service costs. For example, if you were to purchase an Azure VM, the license to run Windows Server in your Azure environment will be automatically included in the per-minute cost of your chosen Windows VM. Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you cheat that system, allowing you to apply your current license to whatever Azure services you use and, in doing so, receive a lower cost.  This means you only have to pay the basic compute rate (for example, you would pay the Linux rate if you were using Windows VMs). You get to use your existing on-premise licenses and reduce cloud migration costs.  Below is a table that breaks down some example basic compute rates:  Service # of Core Licenses Hours/month Eligible VMs Monthly Estimates Savings Windows Server VMs 40 730 5 $1,543.94 42% SQL Server VMs 8 enterprise edition 730 1 $2,190 74.90% Azure SQL Managed Instance 1 standard edition 730 2 $584.19 39.70% Azure SQL Database 2 enterprise edition 730 4 $582.73 39.60%   Note that these estimates are for the Eastern US region and for instance sizes D4 v2: 8 cores, 28 GB RAM, and 400 GB SSD and for a single instance type and general purpose tier if applicable.  If you qualify, you can easily apply for Azure Hybrid Benefit. After creating an Azure VM, select "Use Hybrid Benefit" and apply the discount to your VM account.  For example, here’s what your Windows Server would look like if you applied your Azure Hybrid Benefit.  [caption id="attachment_15983" align="alignnone" width="584"] Source: Microsoft[/caption] What is the Azure Hybrid Benefits cost calculator?   Azure Hybrid Benefits Savings Calculator is a special Azure tool that helps you figure out how much you can save by switching to Azure and using Azure Hybrid Benefits.  You'll get an in-depth analysis of your future savings that breaks down how and where you can save in terms of workload, operating system, region, and more.  Switching from your current on-premise setup and using Azure Hybrid Benefits will give you a clearer picture of how much your finance team will love you, making it easy to break down the pros and cons.   How Azure Hybrid Benefit and Anodot Can Work Together   There are more ways to optimize your Azure spend than to opt into Azure Hybrid Benefit and pairing it with a cloud cost management tool like Anodot can help you boost your cloud savings through advanced data analytics. With Anodot’s cloud cost management tools, you can get all of your multicloud and K8 data in one place with customized, easy-to-understand dashboards showing the numbers down to the hour. That, plus retention periods of up to 18 to 24 months and AI-powered budget projects means you can finally invest in a tool that your finance, DevOps, and FinOps team can all agree upon.  Optimize Azure Functions pricing with our CCM features:  AI-Powered Support: Provides actionable AI-powered insights to improve cost reductions and resource utilization.  Personalized Alerts: Tailored alert systems that offer massive improvements to response times.  Next-Level Forecasting: Predictive analyses for accurate future cloud spending and budgeting. Real-time Anomaly Detection Dashboards: Customizable dashboards to help you visualize your DevOps cost-savings and identify unusual cloud cost spikes.  Multicloud Support: Offers comprehensive visibility and control across different cloud platforms. Anodot makes cloud costs simple for FinOps organizations all while helping you save up to 40% on annual cloud spending. Anodot’s real-time anomaly detection and customizable alerts mean you won’t have to worry about overspending again. You can finally have all the AI-powered support you need with budget projections so you can be certain every penny paid to the cloud is putting in work.  Need proof of concept? Talk to us for more insight into how you much you can save on cloud spend with Anodot’s tools. 

The FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) 1.0 was officially launched on June 20, 2024, marking a revolutionary shift in Cloud Cost Management (CCM). Long awaited by MSPs and FinOps, this framework now aligns data sharing among vendors, FinOps tools, and users in a simple manner. It's an exciting new era for shaking up business strategies in cloud cost analysis. But let’s take a step back and refocus on what FOCUS 1.0 is. (Pun intended.) significance of FOCUS 1.0, its impact on Anodot's Cloud Cost Management platform, and how it will transform business approaches to cloud cost analysis.   What is FOCUS 1.0?   FOCUS 1.0 has been in the making since 2021, aiming to bridge finance and engineering teams for better cloud cost management. To tackle cultural resistance when implementing FinOps practices in existing workflows and new accountability measures, The FinOps Foundation created a new framework to standardize these practices to drive long-term success, and thus, FOCUS 1.0 was born!  Breakdown of FOCUS 1.0   FOCUS 1.0 is an acronym designed to help teams within organizations effectively manage cloud financial operations by highlighting key practices for success. FOCUS in FinOps stands for: FinOps Principles: Key principles and practices to support effective cloud financial management, like being accountable, striving for continuous improvement, and maintaining transparency. Observability & Automation: Emphasizes the importance of having clear visibility into cloud usage and costs, leveraging automation to streamline processes and reduce manual effort. Collaboration & Communication: Highlights the need for effective communication and collaboration across different teams (e.g., finance, engineering, operations) to ensure everyone is aligned and working towards common goals. Utilization Optimization: This focus is on optimizing the use of cloud resources to avoid waste and ensure cost efficiency, including rightsizing resources, using reserved instances, and leveraging spot instances. Standardization & Best Practices: Advocates for establishing standardized processes and adopting best practices to ensure consistency and reliability in managing cloud finances. Here’s an example of FOCUS 1.0 in action: Suppose an MSP implemented the FOCUS 1.0 Framework for cloud financial management. Initiatives could include regular financial reviews and advanced tools, enhanced accountability, reduced manual efforts, and optimized cloud resource utilization.  Cross-functional teams would then collaborate for cost efficiency, leading to significant cloud spending reduction.  These standardized processes boost operational efficiency and teamwork, slashing cloud waste when done right and saving some serious $$$.   Source: FinOps Foundation   Impacts of FOCUS 1.0 on Anodot's Platform   We support the launch of FOCUS 1.0 and are committed to ensuring it is reflected in our integration efforts. What does that mean exactly? Users can look forward to a streamlined data process, comparing amortized and actual costs and improved onboarding for new cloud providers.  Anodot’s Strategic Implementation   Our roadmap is about getting the most out of FOCUS 1.0 with a step-by-step integration plan. Here’s what to expect from us on how we’ll support the launch of this new framework.  Integration of Azure Support Azure support integration on our platform will finish in a few months. Users can handle amortized and actual costs in a single input stream. This streamlining will enhance cost management accuracy, offering users a clearer view of cloud expenses. Introduction "Bring Your Own Data" This update will let users import their data into our platform, boosting flexibility, integrating proprietary data, and offering tailored cloud cost management for each organization's needs. Supporting Multi-Cloud Environments We strive to align Anodot’s multi-cloud solution with all FOCUS 1.0 features by providing seamless data intake and cost management across cloud providers, enabling other CSPs to create a unified platform for users to manage their cloud costs efficiently, regardless of provider.  Streamlining Onboarding and Export Processes FOCUS 1.0 will also be central to streamlining onboarding processes for new cloud providers and simplifying data export to the Anodot platform. Users can quickly and efficiently integrate additional cloud providers into their cost management strategy by reducing the time and effort required for onboarding new services.  Certification and Training  Our team comprises leading industry experts and leaders who will be well-equipped to leverage FOCUS 1.0's full potential into our solution. As part of our strategic implementation, we plan to offer certification programs that provide in-depth training on FOCUS 1.0 features and functionalities to enhance user proficiency and customer support. Collaboration with CSPs Our integration strategy includes working closely with cloud service providers to ensure that FOCUS 1.0 functions are fully supported and optimized on various platforms.  Continuous Improvement and User Feedback We value user feedback and are committed to continuous improvement. As we roll out FOCUS 1.0, we will actively seek input from our users to refine and enhance our platform. This iterative approach will help us remain responsive to user needs and continue delivering cutting-edge cloud cost management solutions. By following this comprehensive strategic roadmap, Anodot is set to harness the full potential of FOCUS 1.0, providing our users with a robust, flexible, and future-proof cloud cost management solution.   [caption id="attachment_15906" align="alignnone" width="725"] Source: FinOps Foundation[/caption]   The Future of FOCUS 1.0   This launch begins a new FinOps phase, and we plan to see it become a prominent staple for cloud providers and MSPs. The new standardization of FOCUS 1.0 comes with numerous perks. The framework is set to introduce new dimensions, reference specific billing details, and accommodate different savings plans, securing its position at the forefront of cloud cost management innovation. What to Expect from FOCUS 1.0?   Prepare for enhanced innovation, flexibility, and customization with FOCUS 1.0. It offers a comprehensive overview of costs and billing from various cloud providers and vendors. For many, this means less cloud waste, more granularity in cloud cost, and greater collaboration between cloud providers, engineers, and fiance team organizations. But here's something that really excites us - a deeper unified cross-cloud, cross-vendor cost view. The increased visibility will give businesses a full outlook on costs and billing across different cloud providers. For enterprises with multi-cloud setups, this means simplifying the task of managing scattered cost data. By bringing this data together in one view, FOCUS 1.0 helps businesses dive into their cloud expenses, spot potential cost-saving chances, and make smart financial choices. In other words, the FOCUS forecast is expecting clouds with far less waste!  Conclusion   FinOps practitioners have long waited for a framework that makes dealing with cloud costs across multiple teams SIMPLE. Now, with FOCUS 1.0, that can finally happen, bringing a new standardization in the industry that supports a unified front between organizations, cloud providers, and third-party tools.  As a third-party tool, we plan to contribute to the success of FOCUS 1.0. We'll offer users thorough documentation, strong support, and dedicated customer success teams so they can make the most of it and reach their cloud cost management goals. FOCUS 1.0 is the future, and as a leading platform for Cloud Cost Management, we’re here to support FinOps in its new era of innovation with our integration. Have more questions about the launch of FOCUS 1.0 and Anodot's integration plans for this new phase in FinOps? We’re here to answer them. 

If your business has predictable compute workloads and wants to save on Azure spend, Azure Savings Plan might be an appealing solution. So long as you fully understand this plan’s offering and consistently use the same amount of resources every year, you can save significant amounts.   Read on to discover the pros and cons of Azure Savings Plan and if this offering is a good fit for your company.   What is Azure Savings Plan for Compute?     Azure Savings Plan for Compute is a Microsoft Azure pricing model that lets users save up to 65% more in comparison to pay-as-you-go pricing models. The good news is you can start saving today. The bad news? You can start saving so long as you're ready for a one or three-year commitment to consistent compute usage. We say “up to 65%” because the actual discount is calculated based on the type of service you select, your deployment region, and if you choose a one or three year commitment. If your business has predictable workloads and is able to commit to said workloads for year(s) at a time, you may be a good fit for this plan... just know that even if your compute load drops, if you are still within your one or three year commitment to Azure, you'll still have to pay for the compute usage you committed to. This means that you should carefully consider the state of your company and your needs for the upcoming year or more before making this commitment. Source The above graphic from Azure shows that if your compute usage falls below the green line, you'll still pay for any unused resources. Compute resources within the agreed-upon plan amount are charged at discounted rates, but if you exceed that amount, you'll get hit with pay-as-you-go prices. Use cases The following are examples of different use cases where Azure Savings Plan can help rescue your budget – aka, allow you to allocate your dollars to better use: -Dev/Test environments: If you need constant compute resources for your dev/test workloads, Azure Savings Plan is likely the most cost-effective solution. -Regular workloads: A Savings Plan can be the ideal choice if you have a regular workload and known resource utilization for a set period, like a product environment. -Regular deployment pipelines: Savings Plans are also great if you use Azure VMs in a continuously regular deployment pipeline or server construction process. In other words, as we’ve said above, so long as you have a predictable compute usage, Azure Savings Plan can be the fastest way to your financial department’s heart. In particular, Savings Plan is ideal for companies that have inconsistent resource usage which makes it impossible for you to buy Azure Reservations – but we’ll go into more detail on Azure Reservations vs Azure Savings Plan below. Why use Azure Savings Plan Beyond the obvious of Azure Savings Plan (the benefit being in the name of the plan), there are several other reasons why you might want to opt into Azure Savings Plan. Despite the demand for you to commit to a one or three year period, Azure Savings Plan actually provides the most flexibility out of other Microsoft savings programs, especially in comparison to Reserved VMs (Virtual Machines). The Azure Savings Plan model enables you to move about, as you aren't stuck with a certain VM size, family, or region. This means you can change things as your business grows without having to worry about your savings plan changing. If your business is in a state of growth or anticipates expanding into new markets within the next one to three years, the flexibility offered by the Azure Savings Plan should appeal. You'll have the freedom to update your VM region to better appeal to your customers without worrying about losing your cost benefits.   Flexibility Despite the demand for you to commit to a one or three year period, Azure Savings Plan actually provides the most flexibility out of other Microsoft savings programs, especially in comparison to Reserved VMs (Virtual Machines). The Azure Savings Plan model enables you to move about, as you aren't stuck with a certain VM size, family, or region. This means you can change things as your business grows without having to worry about your savings plan changing. If your business is in a state of growth or anticipates expanding into new markets within the next one to three years, the flexibility offered by the Azure Savings Plan should appeal. You'll have the freedom to update your VM region to better appeal to your customers without worrying about losing your cost benefits. You'll also have access to resources beyond VMs. All of the following are resources included in Savings Plan: Azure Premium Functions Azure Container Instances Azure App Services (only included if you choose the Isolated v2 or Premium v3 plan) Azure Dedicated Hosts (only including compute costs) Azure SQL database compute resources Having this many resources available means you can easily distribute your cost commitments. You can split your allocated budget across VMs, Container Instances, and more, and still reap the bonus of the Savings Plan. No need for upfront payment Good (budget-friendly) news! Azure Savings Plan doesn't require upfront payment. This is an unusual feature, as many cloud providers will require this. Simplified budgeting and management Since Azure Savings Plan offers a single commitment that covers all compute usage, it's much easier to budget and manage as a whole. You don't need to worry about forecasting and navigating the different areas of Azure spending because everything will be consolidated to one tool.   How does Azure Savings Plan work Simply put, Azure Savings Plan works by locking you into a commitment for a specific amount of compute resources (measured in dollars per hour) in a set region for either a one or three year period. In return for agreeing to a set amount of compute resources for a one or three year period, you’ll get an automatically applied discounted rate of up to 65% off pay as you go rates, no manual adjustments for individual VMs or databases needed. Once your one or three-year period ends, you can let your plan lapse or modify or renew it. Remember: if your compute usage falls short of the amount you've agreed to, you'll still be billed for the full amount.   Azure Savings Plan best practices   Maximize your Azure Savings Plan benefits by doing the following: Thoroughly review your compute usage Review your current and projected compute usage. How often does that vary? Ensure that you'll be able to regularly commit to the amount required for the Azure Savings Plan so you aren't wasting money. Consider if your business is going to grow or shrink, and project your compute resources accordingly. Use a cloud cost management platform To fully understand how much you're paying for cloud resources, consider using a third party cloud cost management tool. These kinds of tools will give full insight into your spending and help you identify cost optimization opportunities. No cancellation policy All Compute Savings Plans are final purchase. You cannot cancel or get refunds, and you can't even exchange your plan for Reserved VMs. The only flexibility in terms of changing out the plan is you are able to trade Azure Reservation for a Savings Plan if you are still within the term of reservation. Long-term commitment to compute levels As you cannot cancel your plan, you're essentially committing to a level of usage, and if you don't meet that level, you'll be losing money. Make sure that level of compute power is absolutely necessary for your company and makes sense from a one or three year growth perspective to prevent budget waste.   Azure Savings Plan vs Azure Reservations   Picking between Azure Savings Plan and Azure Reservations can be a bit tricky. If you have consistent compute spend but can't buy Azure Reservation instances because you use resources inconsistently, Azure Savings Plan is the best decision for you. We've mentioned Azure Reservations a couple times before. Let's get into the difference between Azure Savings Plan and Azure Reservations because ultimately, the two accomplish the same thing: help you save money. But they are a bit different in terms of flexibility and use cases. As we've mentioned above, Azure Savings Plan lets you pick a set hourly spend for certain Azure compute services for a period of one or three years. You get a discounted rate and still some flexibility in terms of compute services. On the other hand, Azure Reservations lets you save more, but gives you less flexibility. You can still pick between a one or three year plan, only this time you have to pick specific compute services and region combinations. This means if you suddenly have the opportunity to offer services in a new region, you can't include those offerings in your Azure Reservation Plan. You can get resource discounts up to 72% from pay-as-you-go prices, but you'll have to commit to specific resources, like the VM you need to use. When it boils down to it, Azure Reservations lets you save more, but provides less flexibility, which can make the Savings Plan a lot more appealing for fluctuating businesses. There's actually a hack where you can combine both plans to get even bigger savings. You can use the Reserved Instance and a Savings Plan to cover all your resources plus possible overages. Just make sure you're set on what resources you need to use before agreeing to that one or three year plan! How to optimize your Azure spend Azure Savings Plan doesn’t have to be the only way you save money on your Azure budget. Whether you’re unsure if you want to commit to a Savings Plan or if you’ve already pulled the trigger and are still looking for ways to cut cloud costs, you’re in luck. We’ve got just the third part cloud cost optimization tool that can help you save up to 40% on annual cloud spend: Anodot. With Anodot’s cost management tools, you can get all your multicloud data projected onto comprehensive and customizable dashboards and budget projections. With data retention from 18 to 24 months that shows changes down to the hour, you’ll finally have 100% visibility into your cloud performance. Other Anodot tool features include: Automated Anomaly Detection: Personalized alerts that enhance understanding and response time to cloud spend spikes and improve real-time budgeting. AI-Powered Recommendations: Actionable AI-powered support to improve resource utilization. Multicloud Visibility: Comprehensive support and visibility across all cloud platforms so you can see your cloud spend and activity all in one place. Next Level Forecasting: Next-gen analysis to help you best budget and prioritize future spending. Why Anodot? Our speciality is demystifying cloud costs for FinOps organizations. With our real-time anomaly detection and customizable alerts, you never need to worry about overspending, and with our AI-powered feedback, you can easily optimize your budget without lifting a finger. Want a proof of concept? Talk to us to learn how much you can save with Anodot’s tools.

If you're working in the cloud, you're part of a rapidly growing industry. Global spending on public cloud services is set to double, reaching $482 billion in 2024, up from $243 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5% What's the takeaway? With organizations increasingly depending on cloud services, managing costs effectively is a must. Otherwise, the expenses will pile up, and money will flow down. But there is a saving grace, and that's understanding cloud cost at a granular level. Even better, some third-party cloud platforms offer this feature hourly. But let's get granular on how cloud hourly cost matters and how it can benefit your cloud strategy. Cost Management and Optimization Let’s face it. Collecting data hourly is better than daily. Daily reports offer a simple summary but lead to slower responses to issues detected during the day. An hourly analysis provides real-time monitoring, operational efficiency, performance tuning, and anomaly detection. This is a huge advantage when it comes to managing costs. By using hourly cost data, organizations can monitor cloud spending closely, saving money and managing budgets more effectively. Here's what you'll find in an hourly analysis for cloud optimization. Detailed Cost Tracking & Identifying Trends Hourly data gives detailed insights into cloud spending, helping you track and control costs precisely. This level of detail lets businesses monitor expenses closely, find where to cut costs without sacrificing performance, allocate budgets more effectively, and avoid unnecessary expenses by knowing when and how resources are used. But wait, there’s more… Businesses can pinpoint high and low activity periods by obtaining information on hourly usage patterns and trends. This info helps fine-tune how resources are used and cut down on unnecessary spending, making operations leaner and more efficient. Resource Utilization Everyone appreciates ROI, and in the cloud, organizations can boost application performance by 15% through cloud optimization strategies, with efficient resource utilization playing a key role. But how does seeing this on an hourly granular level optimize resource allocation? Efficiency & Scaling Decisions Monitoring cloud usage every hour helps you make the most of your resources, reduce wasted cloud space, and avoid unnecessary costs associated with having too much capacity or experiencing performance issues. By spotting cloud usage in real time, organizations can identify unused resources, such as idle storage, and optimize their cloud investments. Checking hourly means adjusting resources based on actual demand so you're not left with too much or too little. Even better? Hourly data helps you adjust scaling based on usage patterns, cutting costs during low usage and ensuring ample capacity during peak times. Efficient resource management is made simple. Long story short: checking cloud usage hourly is key to using your resources well, making smart investments, and keeping up with demand. Compliance and Reporting Tracking hourly usage and costs is key to meeting regulations and keeping stakeholders informed. Different industries, such as health and finance, have compliance rules. Accurate records are a strong asset for meeting these requirements, and hourly data provides the needed specifics for compliance. Here's what to expect from investing in hourly cloud data. Regulatory Compliance & Transparent Reporting Detailed hourly tracking is essential for ensuring compliance with various regulatory requirements. By maintaining accurate, real-time, and auditable records of resource usage and costs, organizations can meet stringent standards set by - Data protection regulations like GDPR and HIPAA - Financial regulations such as SOX and FISMA - Industry-specific standards, including PCI DSS This level of detail helps catch any unauthorized access or oddities immediately, keeping info safe and operations running smoothly. But that’s not all! Hourly tracking aids in transparency when reporting to stakeholders. By giving detailed breakdowns of resource use and costs, stakeholders like investors, execs, and regulators get key insights into the organization's efficiency and financial well-being in the cloud. This detailed approach helps improve financial planning, resource responsibility, and stakeholder trust. Utilizing detailed cloud cost data showcases adherence to governance standards and sustainability goals, demonstrating a commitment to excellence. Chargeback and Showback As frequent cloud users, you know the importance of chargeback and showback. Their financial management techniques allocate cloud costs to specific departments or organizational projects to promote awareness and encourage cost-saving behaviors without directly affecting each unit’s budget. Hourly data facilitates accurate chargeback or showback processes by providing detailed insights into department, project, or team resource usage. This level of detail promotes accountability by ensuring that costs are attributed to the appropriate units, encouraging responsible usage and cost-saving behaviors. By understanding their consumption patterns, departments can take steps to optimize their spending and manage their resources more efficiently. Cost Allocation & Accountability Incorporating hourly tracking into chargeback and showback processes boosts accuracy and transparency.. Getting detailed insights into resource usage by department, project, or team ensures every unit gets billed spot-on for what they use. Breaking down cloud usage hourly helps finance teams craft more precise financial models and forecasts. This detailed data helps organizations: – Assign costs accurately, – Making budget management – Expense justifications a breeze. Accountability is a must in the cloud, and using FinOps and accurately allocating costs is vital for fostering accountability in an organization. Businesses promote responsible usage and cost-saving habits by ensuring that costs are linked to the right units—like departments, projects, or teams. Tracking costs hourly help each unit grasp their consumption trends in real time, empowering them to optimize spending. This boosts cost efficiency and enhances strategic decision-making, allowing departments to align resource usage with organizational objectives more effectively. Strategic Decision Making Access to detailed hourly data lets you make smarter strategic decisions about infrastructure investments, service deployment, and cloud strategy. By using data to guide decisions, organizations can improve their cloud strategy and infrastructure planning, leading to better financial and operational results. Everyone appreciates transparent deals. Detailed usage data gives you leverage in cloud provider negotiations, securing better terms and optimizing contracts. No surprises in the fine print! Let’s look at this a bit more closely. Informed Decisions & Vendor Negotiations Accessing detailed hourly data steps up the game when making smart decisions about infrastructure, service deployment, and overall cloud strategy. Organizations can spot patterns, boost performance, and manage resources more efficiently by diving into resource usage trends. This data-driven approach gives businesses the tools to plan and carry out projects with laser-sharp precision and confidence, ensuring decisions are always grounded in solid evidence. Real-time analysis of usage patterns means you can make quick adjustments, lower risks, and get the most out of your investments. This keeps organizations nimble and ready to tackle changing needs, fostering growth and innovation. To secure the best deal in vendor negotiations, having a thorough grasp of usage and costs gives your organization an advantage when discussing terms with cloud service providers. Armed with detailed data, companies can pinpoint areas of overspending or underuse, using this intel to push for better terms and deals. This level of insight allows organizations to demand tailor-made solutions that fit their needs to a tee. Plus, having a clear view of consumption helps businesses predict future needs more accurately, which can shape long-term contracts and bulk buying deals at discounted rates. The end result? Not just saving money but also improving service quality and vendor relationships. Anodot's New Features Maximize Hourly Granularity in the Cloud  We are proud to introduce that Hourly cost and usage are now available as part of Cost & Usage Explorer and Assets for GCP and will soon be available for AWS. What is our Cost & Usage Explorer? Our exclusive features help you understand your billing, customize displays, and create detailed reports. The core features of Cost & Usage Explorer capture the essence by helping you manage costs effectively. Categorize costs by service, region, account, and tags. Use filters to focus on specific resource costs and gain detailed insights from data points. Customize your view with graph options and table displays for deeper analysis. For a comprehensive evaluation, explore different cost types like unblended, amortized, net unblended, and net amortized. Explore more of our Cost & Usage Explorer.   Hourly cloud insights preserve cost predictability Understanding and leveraging hourly cost and usage data is paramount for any organization striving to excel in the cloud. This granular approach can impact your cloud cost management on a multitude of levels, businesses can identify inefficiencies, optimize resource allocation, and reduce waste, leading to substantial cost savings. This level of detail really helps organizations tackle issues fast, cutting downtime and boosting system reliability. Cloud insights with Hourly Granularity can be a real time and money saver, and shouldn’t be treated as an added bonus on third-party cloud platforms. That’s why at Anodot, we’re constantly evolving our Cost & Usage Explorer to meet the ongoing demands of MSPs and FinOps in the cloud. We understand the need to have the ability to understand your billing and our proud to launch our new GCP addition as as part of Cost & Usage Explorer and Assets tool with AWS right around the corner. If you want accurate hourly granularity you need a reliable partner that’s always their in your cloud’s hour of need. That’s us. Let’s talk.  

Trying to find the best virtual machine on the market that gives you the flexibility of easy scalability and the promise of a secure network – and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg (and maybe another arm)? Azure VM is likely the best solution for you… assuming you can project costs correctly. However, Azure doesn’t make it easy with its different offerings and pricing models. It's worth noting that Azure VM pricing is competitive compared to other cloud service providers, especially when you consider the flexibility and scalability it offers. We’ll break things down so you can determine which pricing model and Azure VM type is best for your company – and your budget. What is Azure VM? Azure VM or Azure Virtual Machines is Azure’s on-demand cloud-based computing resource for Linux or Windows users to run, develop, or test applications and systems. It helps improve storage and network output with custom hardware and provides advanced security to protect against cybersecurity attacks across any platform or device. Azure VMs are scalable, so you can comfortably increase your usage to the thousands depending on your needs. You can scale across the cloud, adding or eliminating VMs according to live demand, giving you flexible scalability. This means you can adjust your VM resources in real-time to match your workload, which can help you optimize performance and control costs. Azure VM also enables you to connect VMs to your network, creating an extended data center. But, as we said above, Azure VMs are tricky regarding price. Different types of VMs are available for purchase, with pay-as-you-go, one year, and three year payment cycles. We’ll start by breaking down the different Azure VM pricing models so you can decide which offering works best for you and your company.   What are the Azure VM pricing models? There are three types of Azure VM pricing models. The best for your company depends on how many VMs you need and how long you need them. Reserved VM instances pricing model If you’re sure you need VMs for over a year or three in a specific region and have a steady use case for your application (and want to save up to 72% on VM prices), reserved VM instances are the way to go. With this model, you can easily project VM prices for the next one to three years, get automated control of Azure RIs because of instance size flexibility, and be first in line for compute capacity in your Azure region. If the one—or three-year commitment makes you nervous, you can always cancel early for a cancellation fee or exchange your selected VM service for another VM offering. You can also pay your bills monthly, not all upfront. Pay as you go pricing model Pay-as-you-go pricing means Microsoft charges you for each second a VM is running. This means you’re only paying for active use, and careful attention to your resources is a must. This pricing model can be beneficial for companies with fluctuating workloads, as they only pay for the resources they use. However, careful monitoring and management of VM usage is required to avoid unexpected costs. If you need the flexibility to increase or decrease your VM capacity and don’t want to lock in a one—or three-year commitment, this is a solid choice… so long as you’re prepared to eat the larger bill. Free VM pricing model Free! What’s not to like? Azure offers a free credit trial that allows you to earn $200 in credits for the first 30 days of your trial period. Other services are free for up to the first 12 months of using Azure products. This is a great opportunity for companies to test Azure VMs and other services without committing to a long-term contract or incurring immediate costs. In that time, you can operate in any Azure-supported region and develop multiple instances (so long as you play within the confines of their free offerings). For example, you can use 750 hours for B1s burstable VM each month for up to 12 months. The downside of this is apparent: if you’re handling heavier workloads, you will hit a wall and fast. But this is a great way to sample Azure’s services to see if they fit well with your company. What Azure VM type should I get?   Azure Virtual Machines breaks down into six different categories:    Type Sizes Description General Purpose  Av2, B, DCv2, Dv2, DSv2, Dv3, Dsv3, Dav4, Dasv4,Ddv4, Ddsv4, Dv4,Dsv4 VM, with a balance of CPU to memory, is made for testing and     development in small to medium databases.  Compute Optimized    Fsv2, Fs, F Higher ratio of CPU to memory VM ideal for network applications, batch processing, and servers with medium traffic.  Memory Optimized   Esv3, Ev3, M, GS, G, DSv2, DS, Dv2, D   Ideal for medium to large in-memory analytics or relational database servers due to the higher ratio of memory to CPU.  Storage Optimized   Ls   Contains IO and high disk throughput, making it ideal for SQL/NoSQL databases, big data, data warehousing, and more.  High-Performance Compute  H, A8-11   Premium CPU support and resources make this VM ideal for high computing and mission-critical tasks.  GPU  NV, NC, NCv2, ND Provides GPU-based processing, making it ideal for model training and inference, rendering, and video editing. Within each of these six categories, there are also 10 different sizes of Azure VM: A series VM: Best for economical entry-level dev testing and code repositories. Basic and Standard A-series VMs will retire on August 31st, 2024. A-series prices start at $11.68 per month. For instance, a startup company that is developing a new software application might find the A series VMs to be a cost-effective option for their initial testing and development needs. B series VM: Low-cost option for low to moderate baseline CPU utilization workloads that can burst to higher CPU if needed. Bursting is a feature that allows a VM to temporarily increase its performance to handle a sudden increase in workload. This can be beneficial for companies with unpredictable workloads, as it allows them to handle peak demands without having to provision additional resources. Bs-Series prices start at $3.80 per month. D series VM: General purpose compute offering that can meet the vCPU, memory, and temporary storage requirements of most production workloads. Broken down into the Dv3, Dv4, Ddv4, Dv5, and other series, all of which have varying processing power. Prices start at $41.61 per month. E series VM: Optimized for in-memory applications like SAP HANA, memory-intensive enterprise tools, and large database servers because of high memory-to-care ratio configurations. Prices start at $58.40 per month. F series VM: Compute-optimized VM because of a higher CPU-to-memory ratio. Suitable for batch processing, analytics, gaming, and web servers. Prices start at $35.77. G series VM: Two times more memory and four times more SSD storage than general-purpose D-series, making it suitable for large SQL and NoSQL databases, SAP, ERP, and data warehousing. Prices start at $320.47 per month. H series VM: Broken down into the HB series, which is optimized for HPC applications like weather simulation and silicon RTL modeling. The HC-series is optimized for intensive computation HPC applications like implicit finite element analysis, computational chemistry, and reservoir simulation. Prices start at $581.08 per month. Ls series VM: Storage-optimized VM ideal for low latency, local disk storage, and high-throughput applications. Prices start at $455.52 per month. M series VM: Ideal for heavy in-memory workloads like SAP HANA with up to t4 TB of RAM on a single VM. Prices start at $1,121.28 per month. Also, the MV2-series offers 416 vCPU on a single VM and 3 TB, 6 TB, and 12 TB memory configurations. Prices start at $16,286.30 per month. N series VM: GPU-enabled VM ideal for compute and graphic-intensive workloads. Broken down into the NC-series for high-performance computing and machine learning, the NDs-series ideal for training and deep learning, and the NV-series ideal for remote visualization workloads. Prices start at $657 per month. Example setups Azure VM pricing is complex because there are so many varieties to choose from. You’ll need to understand what kinds of servers you need support for, how much traffic you’re handling, and, more importantly, the tasks you’ll be undertaking. That will inform you which VM works best for you and how much that VM will cost. For example, let's say you've just started with some entry-level dev testing. The primary A series works best for you. If you need two cores, you’ll work with the A2 v2 instance, providing 4 GiB of RAM and 20 GiB of temporary storage. Here’s what your price breakdown would look like: Pay as you go: $65.9190 per month 1-year savings plan: $44.5665 per month 3-year savings plan: $29.7110 per month Say you need something with more computing that can handle most production workloads. You can go with the D series instead. If you're looking for something with temporary local storage and processor frequencies that can reach up to 3.5GHz, the Dads v5 series is a good choice. If you need more RAM and temporary storage, go with the D48ads v5 instance, which provides 48 vCPUs, 192 GiB of RAM, and 1,800 GiB of temporary storage. Your Azure price breakdown would look like this: Pay as you go: $1,804.5600 per month 1-year savings plan: $1,237.2869 per month 3-year savings plan: $825.9439 per month Or maybe you don’t need any temporary storage but want VM-level isolation to help remove cloud operators without additional code modification. The DCasv5 series might be a good choice. You can go with the DC8as V5 instance, which provides 8 vCPUs and 32 GiB of RAM. Here’s your price breakdown: Pay as you go: $251.1200 per month 1-year savings plan: $212.2986 per month 3-year savings plan: $163.4324 per month All prices are for the East US region. Optimize your Azure VM spend with Anodot solutions   Now that you know the ins and outs of Azure pricing, don’t sweat about the final bill. Focus on providing quality services and meeting quarterly goals while saving up to 40% on annual cloud spend with Aodot's Cloud Cost Management solution. Anodot's cloud cost management solution offers comprehensive visibility into your Azure VM bill, ensuring complete control over your cloud budget. An Anodot partnership means no surprise costs and unites your FinOps, DevOps, and Finance teams to drive down your overall expenditure. Need proof of concept? Talk to us for more insight into cloud usage, costs, and how much you can save with Anodot’s tools.

Azure Structured Query Language (SQL) has 18 different deployment options, service tiers, compute models, and two different pricing models: vCores and Database Transaction Units (DTU). Because of these complexities, it’s nearly impossible to project monthly budgets! This guide will explain the common Azure SQL pricing configurations and offer tips on optimizing your cloud budget. What is Azure SQL database? An Azure SQL database is a cloud-based SQL server that handles automated database management functions like upgrades, patches, backups, and monitoring. This type of database is appealing because it can scale and offers hands-off service offerings. Azure SQL pricing is so complicated because of the different prices associated with the deployment methods, service, and compute tiers. First, there are three different deployment methods, then three service tiers, and finally, two compute models, not to mention the already 18 different types of offerings – and that’s not even getting into if you want to pick a DTU or vCore model. We’ll discuss different examples of how these prices fluctuate depending on whether you choose a DTU model with a managed instance deployment method in the hyperscale provisioned compute model, but for now, let’s define some of these terms. Deployment methods There are two pricing models for Azure Functions: Consumption and Premium. Let’s break down these models so you can decide which works best for you and your business: 1. Managed instance The model that gets you a fully managed Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine. Expect easy on-premise SQL Server database migrations. 2. Elastic pool Provides shared resources via a group of Azure SQL Single Databases. 3. Single database As it sounds, this is a single database used by an organization. Service tiers Now that we’ve finished covering the different deployment models, here’s a breakdown of the three service tiers you should expect. (Again, we’ll discuss these in terms of largest to smallest). 1. Hyperscale Best used for enormous Online transaction processing (OLTP) systems. With this service tier, you can auto-scale storage and compute commands. 2. Premium/Business critical Best used for medium to large OLTP systems. Expect high latency and low resilience. 3. Standard/General purpose Best service tier for common workloads. Compute models There are also two compute models you should be aware of: 1. Provisioned This compute model includes Azure resources to help you run your database. 2. Serverless This model acts as a serverless component. Expect auto-scaling compute with billing per second use. Pricing by service tiers for Azure SQ Now that we've covered the different deployment options and compute models, here's what the two Azure SQL pricing models, DTU and vCore, look like. We've included breakdowns of example costs for common combinations with these pricing models. DTU stands for Database Transaction Units. It measures the compute resources needed to keep your database running. You can use Azure's DTU calculator to determine exactly how many DTUs you need. Prices increase depending on the number of DTUs your database requires and the storage needed. No matter your DTU selection, you’ll get a minimum of 250 GB of storage. Here’s an example of what Azure SQL DTU pricing for the Standard instance in the Eastern US region looks like: DTU Model DTU stands for Database Transaction Units. It measures the compute resources needed to keep your database running. You can use Azure's DTU calculator to determine exactly how many DTUs you need. Prices increase depending on the number of DTUs your database requires and the storage needed. No matter your DTU selection, you’ll get a minimum of 250 GB of storage. Here’s an example of what Azure SQL DTU pricing for the Standard instance in the Eastern US region looks like: DTUs  Included storage  Max storage  Price for DTUs + storage S0   10 250 GB 250 GB $0.0202/hour S1   20 250 GB 250 GB $0.0404/hour S2   50 250 GB 250 GB $0.1009/hour S3   100 250 GB 1 TB $0.2017/hour S4   200 250 GB 1 TB $0.4033/hour S6   400 250 GB 1 TB $0.8066/hour S7   800 250 GB 1 TB $1.6130/hour S9   1,600 250 GB 1 TB $3.2260/hour S12   3,000 250 GB 1 TB $6.0488/hour vCore Mode The vCore pricing model is more flexible than the DTU model. You can use virtual cores to measure your resources similarly to using on-premise server cores. To provide the most detail, here’s a close-up of how vCore pricing changes depending on whether you choose the provisioned or serverless compute model. Provisioned compute Provisioned compute prices are calculated based on the number of vCores you choose. Be aware that vCore prices can fluctuate depending on whether you have Azure Hybrid Benefit. If you do have Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can save 40% and transfer your current SQL Server licenses to your vCores. If you only have a standard Microsoft software license, you’ll be paying the standard prices we list below. All below prices are for the East US region and are based on Single Base deployment and use the Standard service tier: vCORE Memory (GB) Pay as you go 1 year reserved capacity 3 year reserved capacity 2 10.2 $0.505/hour $0.398/hour $0.337/hour 4 20.4 $1.009/hour $0.796/hour $0.674/hour 6 30.6 $1.514/hour $1.194/hour $1.011/hour 8 40.8 $2.018/hour $1.592/hour $1.348/hour 10 51 $2.522/hour $1.990/hour $1.685/hour 12 61.2 $3.027/hour $2.388/hour $2.022/hour 14 71.4 $3.531/hour $2.786/hour $2.359/hour 16 81.6 $4.035/hour $3.183/hour $2.696/hour 18 91.8 $4.540/hour $3.581/hour $3.033/hour 20 102 $5.044/hour $3.979/hour $3.370/hour 24 122.4 $6.053/hour $4.775/hour $4.043/hour 32 163.2 $8.070/hour $6.366/hour $5.391/hour 40 204 $10.088/hour $7.958/hour $6.739/hour 80 396 $20.175/hour $15.915/hour $13.477/hour 128 652 $32.280/hour $25.464/hour $21.563/hour   Watch out for these additional provisioned compute prices: The above prices only cover compute charges. Storage prices are billed separately. For example, you’ll see $0.115 per GB/month using the Premium Azure Blob Storage tier. Expect to pay $0.20 per GB/month if you require point-in-time recovery. Expect to pay $0.05 per GB/month if you require long-term retention. Serverless compute Choosing the vCore serverless compute option means you can dynamically pick between 0.5 and 16 vCores and between 2.02 GB and 48 GB of memory. The serverless compute vCores cost $0.5218 per vCore hour and $0.115 per GB/month. You should also be aware of additional charges such as: $0.20 per GB/month for backup storage if you ever require point-in-time restoration $0.05 per GB/month if you require long-term retention Optimizing Azure SQL pricing Anodot’s cloud cost management solution means you don’t have to question your Azure SQL pricing budget because you’ll get 100% end-to-end visibility. Our tools enable you to control your budget and uncover previously unknown charges, all while fully aligning your FinOps, DevOps, and Finance teams. Anodot’s tool provides complete visibility into Azure SQL pricing while eliminating wasteful spend. Use our ML-driven forecasting tool to properly allocate costs by service, unit, team, app, and more. Save up to 40% on annual cloud spend, and don’t puzzle over Azure pricing again. Instead, you can focus on what matters – providing quality services and meeting quarterly goals. Get proof of concept. Talk to us for more insight into Azure SQL prices and how much you can save with Anodot’s tools.

Complete Azure Functions Pricing Guide   Azure Functions is a serverless computer Microsoft Azure service. Its goal is to enable developers to create scalable, cost-optimized, event-driven applications without the hassle of server management.  However, like most Azure cloud-based offerings, the costs of Azure Functions can be muddied by the different pricing models and the factors that can increase (or decrease) your monthly bill. Our guide simplifies things so you can be confident your Azure spend is optimized down to the last dime. Who benefits from using Azure Functions?   Before we get into how to optimize your Azure pricing and spending, let’s break down who should be using Azure Functions, and how you should be benefiting from it.  Azure Functions will appeal to any company working with smaller apps that have events that function independently of other websites.  Since one of the biggest appeals of Azure Functions is the ability to write less code and maintain less infrastructure while saving on costs, this, of course, appeals to most FinOps organizations. You won't have to worry about small menial tasks like order processing, task scheduling, database cleanup, or even IoT data processing, as Azure Functions can help.  Basically, if you're a cloud user who needs help with DevOps and wants to save time and money on application and system development, Azure Functions is for you. Your DevOps team will thank you, and your FinOps team will love you because of how Azure Functions will streamline the most menial tasks – and how much money you can save!  Azure Functions pricing models There are two pricing models for Azure Functions: Consumption and Premium.  Let’s break down these models so you can decide which works best for you and your business:  Consumption The consumption plan is the most common Azure Function pricing model. A pay-as-you-go model charges users based on function execution time and total number of functions, meaning idle time is free.  Executions cost $0.20 per one million executions. You are charged $0.000016 per GB-s for execution time. Here's an example of how much you might spend if you run a function for 1000 milliseconds and use 300 MB of memory: 0.000016 x 300 would be $0.0048 for each execution. If you execute that function two million times each month, the cost would be 2,000,000 x $0.0048 per month, or $9,600. Premium Suppose you're looking for a payment plan that's better suited toward supporting longer execution time, hybrid connections, virtual network connectivity, generally higher processing power, and better resource reliability and availability. In that case, the Premium plan is for you.  Prices depend on the number of vCPU and memory resources you need. There are four different tiers to pick from:  Plan vCPUs Memory Price Premium V2 4 vCPUs 14 GiB $0.532 per hour Premium V3 8 vCPUs 28 GiB $1.064 per hour Premium V4 16 vCPUs 56 GiB $2.128 per hour Premium V5 32 vCPUs 112 GiB $4.256 per hour   Here's an example of what this pricing looks like when applied: If you pick the Premium V4 tier and use your function app 24 hours a day for 30 days, you'll pay 24 x 30 x $2.128, or $1532.16.  What factors impact Azure Functions pricing   Pricing for Azure Functions isn't only determined by a choice of consumption or premium. The following are other factors to monitor when calculating budgets.  Region  Azure charges different prices for different regions of the world. East US is broken down into two regions while West US is broken down into three, so expect multiple price variations for your country, with the divide usually taking place on the East/West.  Outside the US, the UK is divided into two pricing regions: the South and the West. Israel is only Israel Central. India is divided into Central, South, and West India.  Outbound data transfer  If you transfer data from your function app to other non-Azure services (APIs, storage accounts, databases), you'll be charged for the amount of data transferred.  Outbound data transfers are typically charged on a per gigabyte basis, with prices increasing depending on how many zones you must pass through. Prices typically start at $0.035 per GB, and increase as high as $0.16 per GB.  Complexity of function  The more complex the function, the more memory consumption and run time you'll need. In other words, the more complex the function, the higher the cost.  Frequency of execution  The more your function is triggered, the more executions you'll need, impacting your cost. When budgeting, remember how often a function will need to be run.  Function length The time it takes for your function to run will directly impact execution time and memory used. The longer your execution time, the higher the bill.  How to optimize your Azure Functions price   Azure Functions don't have to take up a huge section of your budget. You can optimize your spend so you know not even a single dollar has gone to waste.  Optimize code  Since longer execution times and more complex functions lead to more enormous bills, optimize your code so it's as efficient as possible. This will reduce execution time and the number of executions you need to run, and your finance team will thank you.  Cache  Caching lets you store frequently used data, so you don't need to execute your function each time you need it.  Pick the best plan  Ensure you're using the best plan for your Azure Functions' usage. If you need advanced features like hybrid connections or increased processing power, you're better off going with Premium. But if you need more time to be ready to commit to regular bills and only use Azure Functions occasionally, stick with the Consumption plan.  Automate scaling  Enabling automated scaling means Azure Functions will up or downscale your function app based on usage patterns. This is a great tactic for ensuring you only use the necessary resources.  Monitor your cloud usage Big spikes in Azure Functions can be either a nuisance or a budget breaker. Azure Monitor can help track execution time, memory usage, and the number of executions, but it often doesn’t provide enough control to help fully optimize your budget.  That’s where third-party cloud monitoring tools like Anodot come into play.  [CTA id="cad4d1a1-3990-4d6b-bb21-ccdcbb6949db"][/CTA] Optimizing Azure Functions pricing   Good news—there is an easier way to never worry about your Azure prices again: Anodot's cloud cost management solution. Get 100% end-to-end visibility and a tool that allows you complete control over your budget and helps you uncover any unknown charges. Eliminating wasteful spending while uniting your FinOps, DevOps, and Finance teams.  Other Anodot features include:  Next-Gen Forecasting: Predictive analysis for accurate future cloud budgets and spend. Multicloud Assistance: Comprehensive control and visibility across all of your cloud platforms. AI-Powered Recommendations: Actionable AI-powered support for efficient resource utilization and cost reduction. Real-time Anomaly Detection: Identify unusual cloud cost spikes for proactive management. Personalized Dashboards & Alert: Customizable dashboards and alert system to help monitor your DevOps cost-savings.  Our ML-driven forecasting tool enables you to allocate costs by service, unit, team, app, and more, all while helping you save up to 40% on annual cloud spend. We’ve worked hard to design a tool that lets you focus on what matters, like quarterly goals and annual budget, so you don’t ever have to worry about cloud cost monitoring taking up too much of your teams’ time. Get proof of concept. Talk to us for more insight into Azure Functions prices and how much you can save with Anodot’s tools.    

How Much Do Azure DevOps Services Cost – Your 2024 Guide   Calculating your Azure DevOps budget doesn’t need to make your palms clammy. Consider this your 2024 guide to figuring out all you need about Azure DevOps pricing so nothing sneaks up on your monthly budget. But let's define some terms before we get into the nitty-gritty details.  What Are Azure DevOps Services?   Azure DevOps is Microsoft's dev-specific tools and services designed to make it easier for developers, project managers, FinOps, and other contributors to collaborate while building software. It includes the following services:  Azure Boards: Agile tools designed for cross-team collaboration.  Azure Pipeline: CI/CD that can automatically build and test code and is compatible with any platform, cloud, and language.  Azure Repos: Cloud-hosted, unlimited private Git repos that help with application code management. Azure Artifacts: Package management that allows developers to store, manage, and share code and other artifacts. Azure DevOps differs from other Azure pricing models in that DevOps offers more visibility into developmental costs and other optimization opportunities.  However, much like other Azure products, Azure DevOps pricing can get a little tricky since there are so many cost factors.     How Does Azure DevOps Pricing Work?   Azure DevOps pricing is entirely based on what features you and your team need. Since everything is so custom, it can be hard to estimate the final bill. Don't worry—we'll guide you through what to expect! Before we dive in:  Good news—Azure DevOps offers a free plan! The bad news? It's limited.  The silver lining lies in scaling up: as your user base grows, the cost per user per month decreases, benefiting larger organizations. Here’s the breakdown of each feature on your Azure DevOps bill. Users You get your first 5 basic users for free. After that, each user costs a certain amount depending on the user's access level.  The tiers:  Basic users: Users can access all features except Azure Test Plan administration, which involves creating test suites, cases, and plans. Five Basic users are included initially, with each extra user incurring a $6 monthly charge. Basic+Test Plan users: These users have access to the Azure Test Plans administration and all the access available to a Basic user. Each Basic+Test Plans user costs $52/month.  Visual Studio subscriber: A Visual Studio subscription includes an Azure DevOps Services license! So, if you’re already receiving your monthly $150 credits, you can consider yourself an honorary Basic DevOps user.  Stakeholder: This access level is free! Whoo! Stakeholders have similar functionality to Basic users but cannot access Azure Repos or certain advanced features on Azure Boards.  Azure Active Directory  Azure Active Directory (or AAD) is by no means required but offers much better security support as it forces users to use 2FA/MFA. AAD can be used for limited but free use, but if you want to use Conditional Access Policies, you'll have to start to pay. If you want to beef up your security, it's worth looking into.  Azure Pipelines  Azure Pipelines is your go-to CI/CD configuration and run tool. You can run on any agents while building, deploying, and testing. Pricing is based on the number of parallel (CI/CD) jobs you run.  You start with one free hosted agent, a job, and 1,800 minutes of usage. Going beyond that threshold will cost you $40 per every additional Microsoft-hosted CI/CD. For every additional self-hosted CI/CD parallel job, it's $15 extra. BONUS: If you have Visual Studio Enterprise subscribers, you get one Self Hosted Pipeline for free! Azure Artifacts Azure Artifacts includes 2 GiB free and $2 per GiB after that threshold. If you reach 10 GiB (2 GiB free plus 8 GiB paid), you start to get discounts! Azure Artifacts include sophisticated access controls, integration with Azure Pipelines, support for Maven, npm, and Python packages, upstream sources to protect dependencies on open-sources, and industry-leading NuGet Servers.  Subscription type When you make your first Azure purchase, you'll be prompted to pick an Azure subscription type. Your Azure DevOps prescription can be pay-as-you-go, part of your Enterprise Agreement, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), or another Azure subscription.  Support plans Azure DevOps only offers paid support if you can't find the help you need on the self-service pages. There are three levels, starting at $29/month and increasing as high as $1,000/month.  [CTA id="cad4d1a1-3990-4d6b-bb21-ccdcbb6949db"][/CTA] What Is an Azure DevOps Server?   Azure DevOps Server is the self-hosted, on-premise solution that Azure DevOps offers.  Prices start at $45 per user and can increase to $499 per user, depending on the additional services and platforms required. You can pick either monthly or yearly billing.  Optimize Azure DevOps Pricing to Avoid Breaking Your Budget   Azure DevOps pricing doesn’t have to send your accounting team into a cold sweat! You can always use Azure’s cost management tools… but you’ll run into this one (big) drawback: Using cost-savings tools provided by the company you’re paying doesn’t incentivize said company to provide the best cost savings.  If you really want to optimize your Azure DevOps spending, you’ll need outside help. With Anodot’s cost management tools, you can get data down to the hour with retention periods of up to 18 to 24 months – and easy-to-understand dashboards and budget projections. That means you can get all your multicloud and K8 data in one place! Other Anodot features include:  AI-Powered Support: Provides actionable AI-powered support for efficient resource utilization and cost reduction. Customizable Alerts: Enhances understanding and responsiveness with tailored alerting systems. Next-Level Forecasting: Utilizes predictive analysis for accurate future cloud spending and budgeting. Multicloud Support: Offers comprehensive visibility and control across different cloud platforms. Real-time Anomaly Detection: Quickly identifies unusual spikes in cloud costs for proactive management. Personalized Dashboards: Easy to customize dashboards to help you visualize your DevOps cost-savings.  Anodot demystifies cloud costs for FinOps organizations and helps you save up to 40% on annual cloud spending. Anodot’s AI-powered insights mean you barely need to lift a finger to optimize your resource utilization. With features like real-time anomaly detection and customizable alerts, you won’t have to worry about overspending again. Get all the forecasting support you need while building customizable dashboards to track the money you’re saving.  Need proof of concept? Talk to us for more insight into cloud usage, costs, and how much you can save with Anodot’s tools.