Why Small Teams Overspend on Azure
It usually starts innocently: a developer spins up a VM for testing, picks a "Standard D4s v5" because it was the default, and forgets about it. A month later, you're paying ₹15,000/month for a VM running at 5% CPU utilisation. Multiply this by 3-4 resources and you're bleeding money.
1. Right-Size Your Virtual Machines
Open Azure Advisor → go to Cost recommendations. It tells you exactly which VMs are oversized based on actual CPU and memory usage over the last 14 days. Downsizing a D4s to a B2s can save 60-70% instantly.
2. Use Azure Reserved Instances
If you know you'll need a VM or database for 1-3 years, Reserved Instances save you 30-72% compared to pay-as-you-go. You can pay monthly (no upfront commitment needed) and exchange or cancel if your needs change.
3. Set Up Cost Alerts
Go to Cost Management → Budgets → Create a monthly budget with alerts at 50%, 80%, and 100%. You'll get an email before costs spiral. This takes 5 minutes and prevents surprise bills.
4. Stop Resources After Hours
Dev/test VMs don't need to run 24/7. Use Azure Auto-Shutdown to stop them at 7 PM and start them at 9 AM. For a D4s VM, this saves roughly ₹10,000/month just by running it 10 hours instead of 24.
5. Use Azure App Service Instead of VMs
Many teams run VMs just to host a web app. Azure App Service (PaaS) is cheaper, auto-scales, auto-patches, and you don't manage the OS. A Basic B1 plan starts at ~₹1,000/month.