Microsoft Cost Management updates—February 2025 (summary)
Here's a quick run-down of the Cost Management updates for February 2025: Cost details datasets now include AccountId and InvoiceSectionId columns to support more cost allocation scenarios. Note: These columns are already available in FOCUS exports. Copilot is now one click away from the Cost Management overview with new sample prompts that can help you get started with Copilot for Azure. Learn about the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification with the Learning FOCUS blog series. New ways to save money with Microsoft Cloud: Generally available: Changes to instance size flexibility ratios for Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances for M-series. Generally available: Azure NetApp Files now supports minimum volume size of 50 GiB. Public preview: Reduce costs with Hibernation in Azure DevTest Labs. Public preview: Troubleshoot disk performance using Microsoft Copilot in Azure. Public preview: Azure Monitor integrates performance diagnostics for enhanced VM troubleshooting. Public preview: Introducing the new AKS Monitoring Experience—Unified Insights at your fingertips. Documentation updates for Cost Management API modernization, programmatically creating MCA subscriptions, and more. This is just a quick summary. For the full details, please see Microsoft Cost Management updates—February 2025.Moving to a Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) from an Enterprise Agreement (EA)
Microsoft has introduced a new contractual model for Azure enterprise customers, called the Microsoft Customer Agreement. Guidance on changes to the billing hierarchy can be found here: Set up billing for Microsoft Customer Agreement - Azure Microsoft Senior Cloud Solution Architect Dina Fatkulbayanova has written a great article on LinkedIn sharing her knowledge and recommendations of the transition process and billing hierarchy changes: Moving from EA to MCA: what you should know Check it out and please share with your networks on LinkedIn!Microsoft Cost Management updates—November 2024 (summary)
Here's a quick run-down of the Cost Management updates for November 2024: Export to Microsoft Fabric preview signup. New Azure OpenAI view in Cost analysis. Estimate costs for Azure OpenAI in Copilot for Azure. Build Cost analysis views in Copilot for Azure. New ways to save money with Microsoft cloud: Storage account default egress limit increase to 200 gbps. Azure backup reduced protected instance fees hana backup. Linux VM promotional offer. Autoscale in vCore based Azure Cosmos DB for MangoDB (Preview). Extended security updates enabled by Azure Arc. New capabilities to aid Migration and Hybrid Cloud Management (Preview). Documentation updates Azure OpenAI, Red Hat Linux, and Nutanix reservations. This is just a quick summary. For the full details, please see Microsoft Cost Management updates—November 2024.
Managing Azure OpenAI costs
As AI adoption accelerates across industries, organizations are increasingly integrating these technologies into their core operations. With the growing reliance on AI, it has become essential for our customers to manage their AI spend. This blog post covers how you can leverage Cost Management to analyze, monitor, and optimize your Azure OpenAI costs. Please note that the tools mentioned below are also applicable for other Azure services.Optimize your Azure costs with our expert guidance, pricing tools, and resources
Efficient management of cloud resources is pivotal for controlling costs and building resilient infrastructure. Taking a strategic approach not only maximizes return on investment but also positions your organization to innovate and manage risk. Recognizing the needs of our customers to bolster their cloud management practices, Microsoft recently launched Azure Essentials as an all-in-one showcase for prescriptive guidance, expert training, and AI-assisted solutions.
