Cost Optimisation Pillar

The Cost Optimisation pillar of the Azure Well-Architected Framework focuses on maximising the value of your cloud spend. It is not about spending as little as possible — it is about ensuring that every pound or dollar you spend delivers business value. Over-provisioning wastes money; under-provisioning degrades performance. The goal is to find the right balance.

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Design Principles

Plan and Estimate

Before deploying any workload, estimate its cost using the Azure Pricing Calculator. Understand the pricing model for every service you plan to use. Many teams are surprised by their first Azure bill because they did not account for data transfer, storage transactions, or log ingestion costs.

Monitor and Optimise Continuously

Cost optimisation is not a one-time exercise. Cloud costs change as your workload evolves, as Azure introduces new pricing models, and as usage patterns shift. Implement continuous monitoring and review processes.

Maximise Utilisation

Cloud resources that sit idle are wasted money. Right-size your resources, shut down what you do not need, and use autoscaling to match capacity to demand.

Choose the Right Pricing Model