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The Right-Sizing Recipe: Azure Advisor Cost Optimization Masterclass

Stop building tools. Start using the FREE ones Microsoft already gave you. A comprehensive guide to Azure Advisor's cost recommendations with actionable steps.

FREE
Built into Azure
30 min
Monthly Time Investment
30-50%
Typical Cost Savings

Table of Contents

What Is Azure Advisor?

Azure Advisor is Microsoft's free built-in recommendation engine that analyzes your Azure resources and provides personalized best practices across five categories:

  • Cost - Save money on your Azure resources
  • Security - Protect your resources
  • Reliability - Ensure business continuity
  • Operational Excellence - Improve efficiency
  • Performance - Optimize speed and responsiveness
The Best Part

It's already analyzing your environment. You just need to look at it. No setup, no configuration, no premium subscription required.

Accessing Azure Advisor

1Method 1: Azure Portal

  1. Navigate to portal.azure.com
  2. Search for "Advisor" in the top search bar
  3. Click on "Advisor" service
  4. Select "Cost" from the left menu

2Method 2: Direct Link

Go directly to:

https://portal.azure.com/#blade/Microsoft_Azure_Expert/AdvisorMenuBlade/Cost

3Method 3: PowerShell

PowerShell
# Get all cost recommendations across subscriptions
Get-AzAdvisorRecommendation | Where-Object {$_.Category -eq "Cost"} | Format-Table

Understanding Cost Recommendations

Azure Advisor provides several types of cost recommendations. Here are the most impactful ones you'll encounter:

Right-size or shutdown underutilized VMs

30-50% per VM

Identifies VMs with low CPU utilization over 7 days. Move to smaller SKU or shutdown if unused.

Delete or reconfigure idle network gateways

$140-730/month per gateway

Finds VPN/ExpressRoute gateways with no traffic that are costing money for nothing.

Buy reserved instances to save vs pay-as-you-go

40-72% vs pay-as-you-go

Identifies consistent VM usage patterns that would benefit from 1 or 3-year commitments.

Optimize spending on Azure SQL databases

20-40% per database

Detects underutilized databases or opportunities to move to better pricing tiers.

Eliminate unprovisioned ExpressRoute circuits

$50-6,000/month per circuit

Finds ExpressRoute circuits that aren't connected to anything but still billing.

Configure autoscaling for App Service Plans

20-60% during off-peak hours

Identifies static App Services that could benefit from dynamic autoscaling.

The Chef's Step-by-Step Recipe

Follow this proven 5-step process to turn Azure Advisor recommendations into real cost savings.

1

Run Your First Analysis (5 minutes)

  1. Open Azure Advisor → Cost tab
  2. Set filters:
    • Impact: High (start with big wins)
    • Subscription: Select the subscriptions you want to analyze
    • Resource Group: Leave blank to see all
  3. Click "Download as CSV" to export all recommendations
Chef's Tip

Do this monthly. Set a calendar reminder for the first Monday of every month. Make it a habit, like reviewing your bank statement.

2

Prioritize by Impact (10 minutes)

Sort recommendations by Potential yearly savings (descending)

Quick wins to tackle first:

  1. Idle VPN gateways ($1,680-8,760/year each)
  2. Underutilized large VMs ($2,000-10,000/year each)
  3. Unprovisioned ExpressRoute circuits ($600-72,000/year each)
  4. Reserved Instance opportunities ($500-5,000/year)
Chef's Tip

Start with anything saving >$100/month. These are your "low-hanging fruit." Don't overthink it—just pick the biggest numbers and validate them.

3

Validate Recommendations (15 minutes)

For VM Right-Sizing:

  • Click the recommendation
  • Review the "Usage Details" chart
  • Verify CPU is consistently low (not just a temporary dip)
  • Check Max CPU to ensure no spikes above 80%
  • Look at the past 30 days, not just 7

For Network Gateways:

  • Verify the gateway truly has no connections
  • Check if it's being used for DR/backup scenarios
  • Confirm with network team before deletion
Chef's Tip

Azure Advisor is smart, but YOU know your workload. Always validate before acting. A "low CPU" VM might be waiting for batch processing at month-end.

4

Take Action (30 minutes)

To resize a VM using PowerShell:

PowerShell
# Get the VM
$vm = Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName "MyResourceGroup" -Name "MyVM"

# Stop the VM (required for resizing)
Stop-AzVM -ResourceGroupName "MyResourceGroup" -Name "MyVM"

# Resize the VM
$vm.HardwareProfile.VmSize = "Standard_D2s_v5"
Update-AzVM -VM $vm -ResourceGroupName "MyResourceGroup"

# Start the VM
Start-AzVM -ResourceGroupName "MyResourceGroup" -Name "MyVM"

Or use the Portal:

  1. Navigate to the VM
  2. Select "Size" under Settings
  3. Choose the recommended size
  4. Click "Resize" (VM will restart)
Chef's Tip

Always resize non-production VMs first to test the new size. Confirm the application still performs well before touching production.

5

Track Your Savings (5 minutes)

After implementing recommendations:

  1. Go back to Azure Advisor
  2. Click "Postpone" or "Dismiss" on implemented recommendations
  3. Add a note about what you did and the date
  4. Export a new CSV to track month-over-month progress

Create a simple tracking spreadsheet:

MonthRecommendationsImplementedMonthly SavingsAnnual Impact
Dec 2024158$1,240$14,880
Jan 2025125$680$8,160

Advanced Tips: Getting More from Advisor

1. Use Azure Resource Graph for Bulk Analysis

Query all high-impact cost recommendations across subscriptions at once:

PowerShell
# Get all high-impact cost recommendations
$query = @"
AdvisorResources
| where type == 'microsoft.advisor/recommendations'
| where properties.category == 'Cost'
| where properties.impact == 'High'
| extend
    resourceName = properties.impactedValue,
    savings = properties.extendedProperties.savingsAmount,
    currency = properties.extendedProperties.savingsCurrency
| project resourceName, properties.shortDescription.problem, savings, currency
| order by savings desc
"@

Search-AzGraph -Query $query

2. Set Up Advisor Alerts

Create alerts when new high-impact recommendations appear:

  1. Azure Advisor → Alerts
  2. Create alert rule
  3. Condition: "Advisor Recommendation Created"
  4. Filter: Category = Cost, Impact = High
  5. Action: Email your team
Chef's Tip

This catches new waste as it appears, not just monthly reviews. You'll get notified when someone spins up an oversized VM or forgets to delete a gateway.

3. Use Workbooks for Visualization

Create a custom Azure Workbook to visualize:

  • Total potential savings over time
  • Recommendations by category
  • Implementation rate
  • ROI of optimization efforts

Template available at: cloudcostchefs.com/tools/advisor-workbook

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Ignoring "Low" impact recommendations

Even $10/month adds up across 50 resources. Low-hanging fruit is still fruit. Don't leave money on the table.

Mistake 2: Implementing all recommendations blindly

Some VMs have periodic high usage. Always validate with actual usage patterns over at least 30 days, not just 7.

Mistake 3: Not tracking what you've done

You'll forget what you implemented. Document everything for audit trails and to prove ROI to leadership.

Mistake 4: Only checking once

New recommendations appear as workloads evolve. Monthly reviews are essential. Set it and forget it doesn't work for cost optimization.

Mistake 5: Dismissing Reserved Instance recommendations

"We might migrate" is not a reason to skip 60% savings. 1-year RIs are flexible enough for most scenarios and pay for themselves in 6-8 months.

Real-World Success Story

50-person SaaS Startup

Starting Point:

  • Azure Spend: $12,000/month
  • Advisor Recommendations: 47

Actions Taken:

  • ✓ Resized 12 underutilized VMs: $840/month saved
  • ✓ Deleted 3 idle VPN gateways: $420/month saved
  • ✓ Purchased Reserved Instances for 8 production VMs: $1,200/month saved
  • ✓ Configured autoscaling for 5 App Services: $380/month saved
$2,840
Monthly Savings
$34,080
Annual Impact
4 hours
Time Investment
$8,520
ROI per hour

The Monthly Advisor Ritual

Set a recurring calendar event:

"First Monday - Azure Cost Checkup"

30-minute routine:

Open Azure Advisor → Cost
Export CSV of all recommendations
Sort by savings (high to low)
Identify top 3 opportunities
Validate with usage data
Implement 1-2 quick wins
Document in tracking spreadsheet
Set reminders for longer implementations
The Promise

Do this every month and you'll save thousands annually. It's that simple. 30 minutes of focus = $2,000-5,000 in savings per month for most organizations.

Quick Reference Commands

Get all cost recommendations:

PowerShell
Get-AzAdvisorRecommendation -Category Cost

Get high-impact only:

PowerShell
Get-AzAdvisorRecommendation -Category Cost |
    Where-Object {$_.Impact -eq "High"}

Export to CSV:

PowerShell
Get-AzAdvisorRecommendation -Category Cost |
    Export-Csv -Path "advisor-recommendations.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Suppress a recommendation (after implementing):

PowerShell
Disable-AzAdvisorRecommendation -ResourceId "/subscriptions/..."

Ready to Start Saving?

Azure Advisor is FREE and already analyzing your environment. All you need to do is look at it and take action.

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