The shift to the cloud has become a strategic priority for financial services institutions looking to improve agility, encourage innovation, and strengthen resilience. Yet, while the cloud offers exceptional scalability, it also introduces complexity. When not managed proactively, cloud expenses can spiral out of control.

This is exactly where one of our largest Financial Services Industry (FSI) clients found themselves.

Let's explore this scenario and show you how we implemented effective Azure cost saving measures for them.

The Challenge: Spiralling Azure Costs with Limited Visibility

Despite being an early cloud adopter, this client struggled to manage their Azure costs. What began as a strategic move to accelerate agility soon turned into a financial roadblock.

Monthly Azure bills far exceeded forecasts, and the lack of visibility into actual consumption made cost management even more difficult. Meanwhile, both finance and IT teams grew increasingly concerned about the growing expense.

The core issues included:

• Underutilised resources cluttering their Azure environment.
• Poor governance leading to fragmented expenses.
• Lack of centralised billing clarity.
• No clear cost ownership, making accountability impossible.

Facing these mounting challenges, the client needed fast intervention to transform their cloud ecosystem from a liability to an asset.

The Solution: Dotcom Brings Azure Cost Saving Expertise

Our FinOps and Azure Optimisation experts engaged with the client to instill cost clarity, operational efficiency, and financial sustainability into their Azure environment. 

Our approach started with an in-depth Cloud Cost Assessment, meticulously analysing their Azure estate - including workloads, storage, networking configurations, licensing, and more.

Next, we implemented our robust Azure Optimisation Framework built on four key pillars:

1. Cost Visibility & Governance

• We deployed Azure Cost Management dashboards for real-time spend tracking.
• We introduced governance policies and resource tagging standards to improve spend visibility across departments, environments, and services.
• We established transparency through detailed cost reporting and forecasting.

2. Rightsizing & Auto-scaling

• We identified over provisioned virtual machines (VMs) and scaled-down underutilised resources.
• We shut down or deleted inactive workloads to reduce unnecessary expenses.
• We leveraged Reserved Instances and Savings Plans to provide predictable pricing and long-term Azure cost savings.

3. Licensing Optimisation

• We optimised licensing with Hybrid Use Benefits, reducing their reliance on pricier licensing models.
• We took advantage of Microsoft CSP programs to maximise cost-efficiency.

4. Operational Efficiencies

• We automated the management of Dev/Test environments to minimise waste.
• We applied infrastructure-as-code policies to ensure consistent cloud deployment and reduce sprawl.

Together, these steps brought control back to their Azure infrastructure while unlocking growth potential.

The Outcome: 25% Annual Savings and Long-Term Azure Cost Efficiencies

The results of this transformation were nothing short of remarkable:

• 25% Annual Cost Saving on Azure spend, with better forecasting accuracy.
• Greater Visibility into costs through resource tagging and dashboard implementation.
• Improved Operational Efficiency achieved via automation, scheduled scaling, and cost governance policies.
• Smarter Decision-Making, empowering teams to prioritise cost-effective architectures.

This partnership has since evolved beyond a one-time intervention. 

Dotcom continues to deliver ongoing Azure Managed Services, uncovering further opportunities for Azure cost management and optimisation. By aligning cloud expenses with business value, we ensure our client's cloud investment provides sustainable outcomes.

Technologies & Tools Driving Azure Cost Saving Success

To achieve these results, we strategically employed:

• Azure Cost Management and real-time monitoring via Power BI dashboards.
• Insights from Azure Advisor and Azure Monitor to guide optimisation efforts.
• Automation tools, including ARM Templates and infrastructure-as-code methodology.
• Dotcom's proprietary Cloud Governance Framework and FinOps Playbook.
• Microsoft CSP Billing Optimisation Tools, allowing us to maximise value.

Final Thoughts on Effective Azure Cost Management

The cloud isn't just about deploying resources. It's about managing them intelligently. Our experience working with financial services clients has shown that unchecked Azure costs can erode the very business case used to justify cloud adoption.

Focusing on Azure cost saving strategies like governance, optimisation, and licensing adjustments makes it possible to realise significant savings without sacrificing performance. 

For this FSI client, gaining full visibility into costs and implementing proactive measures has been transformational.

Does your organisation need help taming runaway cloud costs? Azure cost saving opportunities might be closer than you think.

Partner with Dotcom

Make your cloud work for you, not against you. 

Contact us today to uncover how our expertise in Azure cost management and FinOps can deliver measurable results for your business.