See Seven Best Azure Cost Management Tools to Optimize Your Cloud Spending

Due to the complex nature of the cloud environment, Azure costs can quickly get spiral out of control. As costs increase, the expenses can mount way beyond your budget.

That’s why you need Azure cost management tools to visualize your cloud spending better. With cost management tools, you’ll have practical insights on how costs vary for each service. Some of our tool options use artificial intelligence to forecast future spending for deeper visibility. You can track cloud costs and detect anomalies before they reflect on your bill by using these tools.

Our criterion has the best Azure cost management tools based on overall reputation and reviews on the Azure Marketplace. We also considered other factors, including time in business and the efficiency of applications.

Top Seven Azure Cost Management Tools

Here are some of the best Azure cost management tools to optimize your cloud spending:

Azure Cost Management

Like other major cloud platforms, Azure has built-in tools to help you optimize your cloud spending. Microsoft Azure uses advanced analytics to analyze usage patterns, which leads to escalating costs. Azure Cost Management also gives recommendations to help you save costs.

You can also set specific budgets; Azure notifies you whenever you exceed a configured budget. Azure users can also set notifications alerting them whenever they exhaust allocated resources. Azure offers inbuilt cost management services free for all users.

Spot by NetApp

One effective way of reducing cloud costs is using Spot resources. Spot refers to excess compute resources in the cloud. Anyone can use spot capacity for temporary and volatile workloads. Spot by NetApp can help you cut costs by as much as 89% with Elastigroup. Elastigroup automates the allocation of excess compute resources.

Users can also access multiple Spot virtual machines within a single group. That way, you can right-size the ideal capacity while saving on costs. Spot also gives provides usage reports on cloud spend insights. You can implement cost management recommendations to optimize cloud spending.

CloudHealth by VMware

CloudHealth helps Azure users lower cloud bills through automation. You can create custom rules which automate how you use your cloud spend. It also provides a detailed breakdown of cloud costs against set budgets. In addition, users can easily detect anomalies using the CloudHealth dashboard.

If you need the input of experts on optimizing your cloud spend, use CloudHealth reports. Subscribers can allocate chargebacks to relevant business units, which is another way of optimizing cloud spending. CloudHealth simplifies your overall financial health under a Cost Summary dashboard.

Apptio Cloudability

As cloud adoption increases, people consume more cloud services. Azure offers a good environment to grow, but with growth, costs can increase, and cost management becomes even more complex as startups grow. Apptio helps Azure users allocate the right tags for each cost center. That way, you’ll have an easy time interpreting the report. Plus, you can share billing reports with other team members so that each department understands how bills vary over time. Most importantly, Apptio offers tips on rightsizing Azure resources.

OneView Cloud Expense Management

OneView, by Nebula, is a proactive way of optimizing cloud spending. OneView has a good dashboard where you can view actionable metrics. You can forecast future costs and reduce bill shock based on these metrics.

For instance, you can view all expenses, regardless of the cost centers, number of accounts, and cloud providers. So you can compare how Azure costs vary with other platforms. OneView integrates with other providers to give detailed analysis, reports, and forecasts.

Cloud Cost Management by myCloudDoctor

Cloud optimization should be a continuous process. Scalable companies need experts to audit accounts periodically. Azure has free and paid services. For this reason, shared resources make it difficult to allocate cost centers.

Cloud cost management services by myCloudDoctor can help you allocate shared expenses. It’s a combination of insights from their MultiCloud Cost Management tool and their cloud engineers.

nOps Azure Cost Optimization

nOps is a leading cloud platform management provider with excellent Azure capabilities. Azure users can use nOps for various cost management operations, from tracking costs to detecting anomalies. All cost management capabilities are under one Cloud Cost-Control Dashboard.

Users can optimize cloud costs based on leading standards like the Azure Well-Architected framework. For example, under the cost-optimization pillar, you can find prioritized insights and necessary cost management actions.

nOps can help you:
· Get a healthy glimpse of the Azure infrastructure
· Continuously implement cost-management findings
· Automate Azure operations and compliance

The Bottom Line

There are several Azure cost management tools that you can use to stay ahead of your costs. Each tool has its ideal use-cases, and you can choose depending on your business needs.

nOps is ideal for businesses looking for more versatile ways of operating in the cloud. nOps addresses critical challenges faced by fast-growing companies in the Azure cloud, such as visibility, cost control, security, governance, and more. Click to learn more about Azure cost optimization capabilities by nOps.