How To Get Accurate Azure Cost Estimates with the Azure Calculator UK

When you’re on the hunt for the best Azure deal for your data storage and service delivery, it can be difficult to work out how to get the best estimated pricing using the Azure calculator UK. In this guide, we’ll take you through the key steps for doing just this, ensuring you always get the best deal for what you need and have no unwelcome surprises when it comes to your quote.

The main things to consider when using the Azure calculator:

1. It’s important to check pricing across different Azure regions and make sure that you’ve set yours correctly. Pricing can vary depending on region (For more information on UK Azure data centres please see our blog here about them). The Azure price calculator has settings for each country or region but its easy to overlook this step. 
2. You should also check that the region you’ve selected offers the services you need, as they don’t all provide the same ones. Some regions are updated faster than others, so availability of configurations/SKUs for VMs can even be different
3. Remember to check the bandwidth and storage capabilities to make sure they’re appropriate for your needs
4. Allow additional space for backup and disaster recovery (DR) and include that on the Azure storage calculator UK
5. Think about your wider infrastructure including any secondary and tertiary services. Do you need a single sign-on/identity/security/VPN for the main system, or additional connections / Hybrid?
6. Azure calc costs are always shown in the currency of your business entity, so if you are based in the UK and use either the UK South or UK West data centres, then you will be billed in GBP
7. Give yourself time to refine your quote, and carry out multiple Azure price calc scenarios, as you will be asked for further information once you have inputted your requirements. It’s worth taking the time to monitor your environment to find the answers you need and allow enough margin for error on things such as reads and bandwidth
8. Make sure you understand the estimates that the Azure calculator gives you, for example:
• Check whether the result is for daily, monthly or annual usage
• Check what constitutes a month on the calendar vs a month on the calculator
9. It’s worth building in some contingency to your estimate - view the Azure calculator result as a minimum cost and understand how this can be worked into your budget or business case

You can access the Azure cost calculator here.

Once you have Azure infrastructure running, costs can creep up over time so for more on how you keep them under control read our article about this. 

How IG CloudOps can help

We have worked with hundreds of Azure environments and provide a number of services around the Microsoft Azure technology stack. Our team is certified for Microsoft Azure and can help you implement, maintain and improve your Azure cloud infrastructure.

Our CloudOps has been designed to bring together performance and cost monitoring tools, support processes and general administration functions through a single portal to manage your cloud which includes:

• Always on support, fault find and fix
• Management monitoring and reporting dashboards
• Proactive infrastructure optimisation
• Tools and apps to enhance cloud performance
• Support and advisory services
• Guaranteed cost savings

We guarantee that using our CloudOps service will provide you with the best value and Azure performance over time, using algorithms to select the best performing environment at all times. To find out more, visit our website or email us.