Best Azure Optimization Tools for 2022

Optimizing the Azure cloud will help you get a good grip on several cloud resources and sets you up for long-term growth. The Azure cloud is a complex environment and always relies on various tools to optimize performance, security, costs, reliability, and efficiency. Azure Optimization tools will help you eliminate unnecessary resources and do cloud operations according to industry standards.

There are lots of tools you can use to optimize different aspects of cloud security, costs, performance, and more. Even though each tool has different functionalities, they all help get the most out of the cloud. After all, there is no limit in the number of tools to use as they all optimize performance.

Why Should You Optimize The Cloud?

Azure cloud has several services, solutions, and third-party providers. Cloud optimization can help you run more efficiently and reduce most of the burden. Here are some reasons to optimize your Azure cloud:

• An optimized account will yield better quality products and more secure applications than one without optimization
• Cloud optimization can help entrepreneurs in highly regulated industries to meet compliance requirements
• Cloud optimization can keep capital and operating expenses low, allowing you to re-channel cloud budgets to more productive activities

Top 5 Azure Optimization Tools

If you want to optimize your cloud in 2022, make sure you have these tools on your tech stack.

Azure Cost Alerts

Azure issues real-time alerts through the Azure Cost Alerting service. Azure users can get alerts based on set budgets, credits, and spending limits with this service. The tool helps users set thresholds on budgets and spending consumption. Users can get alerts when their consumption exceeds the specified amount.

Azure also supports credits as an external funding source. Users can get notifications when they consume 90% of their credit. This helps users remediate any deficits to your account, because delayed bills may get an account suspended.

Another way of optimizing cloud spending is by setting departmental quotas. So if a department reaches its quota, Azure sends an alert to the right person. Timely warnings are vital in optimizing cloud costs.

Azure Advisor Recommendations

Azure Advisor gives recommendations on how to get the most out of Microsoft Cloud. Azure Advisor reads data from various tools, computes the data, and recommends a practical action item depending on cloud configurations.

The tool gives recommendations on the availability of resources, optimizing performance, and security best practices. All suggestions arise from past usage patterns. The azure advisor also grades recommendations to help you prioritize high-impact activities.

If you are new to Azure cloud, Azure Advisor will guide you systematically until you meet Azure best practices. Azure Advisor gives a score based on how well architected your workloads are. Users can optimize based on this score.

Azure Optimization Engine

This tool is a better version of Azure Advisor. Unlike Azure Advisor, this Optimization Engine has a better interface and valuable charts to aid your cloud optimization process. The Engine gives solutions to common challenges in the Azure cloud. More features of the Azure Optimization engine include:

• This Engine consolidates all Azure Advisor recommendations in one dashboard.
• The tool assists in right-sizing Virtual Machines based on users’ needs.
• Azure Optimization Engine helps in finding resources with high availability hence minimizing downtime.
• The tool compares your cloud to Azure’s Well-Architected Framework.

You can find more details about Azure Optimization Engine on GitHub.

Azure PowerShell

PowerShell can help Azure users manage and optimize resources on their Windows servers. Microsoft recently introduced the Zero Trust model for getting more secure applications. The model emphasizes micro-segmentation and adds that users should never trust any client.

Azure users can use the PowerShell interface to set custom rules for each application to resolve these issues. Azure PowerShell uses a command line to help you manage all resources on the Microsoft Cloud.

With this PowerShell, you can securely access cloud resources remotely. One of the useful commands involves updating all resources through the command line. You can also automate tasks that you would otherwise do manually.

Azure Firewall

Firewalls can help secure your cloud against common networking threats. Azure Firewall will optimize your cloud security by controlling the inflow and outflow of traffic. Azure users can configure rules to restrict both inbound and outbound traffic with this tool. Azure Firewall can inspect and filter malicious traffic. Users can also configure firewalls on each resource. Azure users can also use this tool to block known IP addresses with malicious traffic.

The premium feature of the Azure Firewall can detect specific patterns that lead to cyber-attacks. By getting rid of malware attacks, crypto-mining schemes, and Trojan attacks, Azure Firewall will elevate the security of your cloud applications.

The Bottom Line

One of the best ways of optimizing the cloud involves following the Azure Well-Architected framework, which gives you a competitive edge in your niche. Therefore, it’s best to choose tools designed against the well-architected best practices.

nOps has advanced capabilities for optimizing cloud performance. nOps can help you assess your Azure cloud resources to identify opportunities to re-architect workloads and run them more efficiently. It also allows you to minimize risks and accelerate time to market.

Start your nOps free trial or schedule a demo today!