Factors Affecting Azure Pricing

Compute Requirements

Your Azure deployment will usually include multiple virtual machines that are optimised for different functions.  Microsoft’s cloud can allow a range of pre-configured VMs which have varying processors, memory size and storage to allow them to perform different functions.

Azure pricing differs for the various VM configurations.  At the top level, machines are categorised based on the type of usage available, and these categories are sub-divided based on their performance.

When analysing the compute requirements for your infrastructure, it is essential plan out the right machines to cover each aspect of usage – whether this is a storage optimised machine to manage your database, a general purpose VM to handle front end, or high performance compute optimised virtual machines to handle the management of the application itself.

Storage Requirements

The amount of data and the way it is stored in the cloud have a significant impact on Azure pricing.  At the simplest level, locally redundant storage (LRS) costs a fraction of a penny per GB per month, however managed SSD can cost significantly more – over £1 per GB per month.  The type of storage required is dependent on the way that you need to access it – regularly accessed or shared files will need faster storage whereas archives may be stored in a less intensive way.

As part of the architecture phase analysis of your current needs will help inform the structure of your infrastructure and contribute to the overall Azure pricing model that best suits your business’s requirements.

Network Services

Over and above the processing and storage of your data, accessing and protecting it in the cloud will have an impact on the overall cost of your network.

Managed Azure solutions that incorporate back-ups, anti-malware software, and Firewalls must all be considered and will contribute to the monthly subscription rates that you incur.  These services are often overlooked when initial Azure pricing is estimated, and as such, their inclusion can raise the cost above expectations.

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Managing Azure Costs

The biggest advantage that Azure’s flexibility brings to businesses migrating their data to the cloud is the ability to quickly change the infrastructure that is used.

This can be achieved in two main ways:

• Long term analysis and asset management
• Dynamic usage analysis and optimisation

Regular assessments of consumption are an important aspect of management.  This helps to ensure that the performance levels offered by your solution match expectations and that applications run correctly for the number of users and volume of data being processed.  Over time, most businesses find that the amount that they store in the cloud increases, so regular assessments help to manage the resource level.

A reporting tool attached to your infrastructure helps to manage Azure pricing more dynamically.  Real time analysis of usage, coupled with the ability to scale up the machines used to service that usage, means that rather than running costly higher performance virtual machines all the time, you can back down to lower spec machines when demand is lower.

Igroup’s approach to managing the cloud needs of our clients uses both of the above methods to ensure that they do not pay for resource that they don’t need, and more importantly, benefit from a cloud deployment that maximises performance during peak times and improves the ability of the business to process and share information.