Cost Management for Microsoft Azure
Published: 2023-08-04 13:08:24

Cost management has been one of the most crucial aspects in cloud computing over the years, many times we try to ignore this end, but in the long run, we may need to pay stipe price if we do not give a close attention to this.

Today, I would like to briefly run you through how you can manage cost on azure.

Before I proceed, I shall like to share with you factors that affect cost management in Azure.


Factors that can affect costs in Azure are:

- Resource type
- Consumption
- Maintenance
- Geography
- Subscription type
- Azure Marketplace

Resource Type
When you provision an Azure resource, Azure creates metered instances for that resource. The meters track the resources' usage and generate a usage record that is used to calculate your bill. With a storage account, you specify a type such as blob, a performance tier, an access tier, redundancy settings, and a region. With a virtual machine (VM), you may have to consider licensing for the operating system or other software, the processor and number of cores for the VM, the attached storage, and the network interface. 

Consumption
Pay-as-you-go has been a consistent theme throughout, and that’s the cloud payment model where you pay for the resources that you use during a billing cycle. If you use more compute this cycle, you pay more. If you use less in the current cycle, you pay less. 

Maintenance
The flexibility of the cloud makes it possible to rapidly adjust resources based on demand. Using resource groups can help keep all of your resources organized. In order to control costs, it’s important to maintain your cloud environment. 

Geography
When you provision most resources in Azure, you need to define a region where the resource deploys. Azure infrastructure is distributed globally, which enables you to deploy your services centrally or closest to your customers, or something in between. With this global deployment comes global pricing differences. The cost of power, labor, taxes, and fees vary depending on the location. Due to these variations, Azure resources can differ in costs to deploy depending on the region. For example, it’s less expensive to move information within Europe than to move information from Europe to Asia or South America.


Network Traffic
Billing zones are a factor in determining the cost of some Azure services.
Bandwidth refers to data moving in and out of Azure datacenters. Some inbound data transfers (data going into Azure datacenters) are free. For outbound data transfers (data leaving Azure datacenters), data transfer pricing is based on zones. A zone is a geographical grouping of Azure regions for billing purposes. 


Subscription type
Some Azure subscription types also include usage allowances, which affect costs.
For example, an Azure free trial subscription provides access to a number of Azure products that are free for 12 months. It also includes credit to spend within your first 30 days of sign-up. You'll get access to more than 25 products that are always free (based on resource and region availability).

Azure Marketplace
Azure Marketplace lets you purchase Azure-based solutions and services from third-party vendors. This could be a server with software preinstalled and configured, or managed network firewall appliances, or connectors to third-party backup services. When you purchase products through Azure Marketplace, you may pay for not only the Azure services that you’re using, but also the services or expertise of the third-party vendor. Billing structures are set by the vendor.


Now, let me quickly show you how to use your pricing calculator so as for you to know your cost estimate for resources provisioned on your Azure account.


Pricing calculator
The pricing calculator is designed to give you an estimated cost for provisioning resources in Azure. You can get an estimate for individual resources provisioned including compute, storage, and associated network costs, build out a solution, or use an example scenario to see an estimate of the Azure spend. The pricing calculator’s focus is on the cost of provisioned resources in Azure.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/p689hsu97685u2sxsv84.JPG)


Go to the Pricing calculator.
Notice the following tabs:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/42r0dpknwr1gbfq0bcxj.png)

Products This is where you choose the Azure services that you want to include in your estimate. You'll likely spend most of your time here.
Example scenarios Here you'll find several reference architectures, or common cloud-based solutions that you can use as a starting point.
Saved estimates Here you'll find your previously saved estimates.
FAQs Here you'll discover answers to frequently asked questions about the Pricing calculator.

Estimate your solution 
Here you add each Azure service that you need to the calculator. Then you configure each service to fit your needs.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/w8yctf65amvx5csrhpvr.png)

Scroll to the bottom of the page. Each service is listed with its default configuration.

Configure services to match your requirements
1. Under Virtual Machines, set these values:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/koa1btc1ozpsgd9lssdp.png)

Leave the remaining settings at their current values.

2. Under Azure SQL Database, set these values:


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0h0sevw2fr8wtsa9reeu.png)

3. Under Application Gateway, set these values:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/a5zu0lrgszjxvy7c3gqb.png)

Review, share, and save your estimate
At the bottom of the page, you see the total estimated cost of running the solution. You can change the currency type if you want.
At this point, you have a few options:

Select Export to save your estimate as an Excel document.
Select Save or Save as to save your estimate to the Saved Estimates tab for later.
Select Share to generate a URL so you can share the estimate with your team.

You now have a cost estimate that you can share with your team. You can make adjustments as you discover any changes to your requirements.
Experiment with some of the options you worked with here or create a purchase plan for a workload you want to run on Azure.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/uwv5ti3iyc3596ba0vyh.png)

Compared with this

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/zxrdxhi1pgdnvfmcc8ew.png)