5 Cost-Saving Tips for Azure

As a developer, it is important that you understand how to work with Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform. However, a common thing I hear is that the cloud is just too expensive. Either you can't spend the money necessary to learn it, or your boss thinks it is too expensive to move your services to. Well, in this video I am going to show you five ways to save money in Azure. That way you have the confidence to move your career, or your business, forward.

[joemccormick]

I was working through the Azure Web Apps section of your Getting Started with Azure course when I watched this video, and I started getting confused about how the Fur Storage website could only cost $0.01/month. It made sense after I rewatched this video and noted your comments that the Fur Storage website is a static web app--this is a different dev stack than the content presented in the Azure Web Apps section. Great stuff, thank you!

[marcusmaunula]

Good. This is the part that many MVP.s forget when they throw around azure services like Candy. Azure can very quickly become very expensive if you are not careful. I have learned the hard way but still :). It's a difference when you work with a company like L'Oreal and Berts Used Cars also, different sensitivity to costs ;).

[tchpowdog]

For people wondering about DTUs, I did a good bit of research on this a few years ago - I created a test database on a local VM (4 cores 8GB ram) and then I copied that database to an Azure SQL instance. I then created a handful of varied, long running queries. I ran them against the VM and then against the Azure SQL instance. I tested this against several different DTU settings. The VM was roughly equivalent to a 400 DTU Azure SQL instance.

Also, the performance difference in DTUs is pretty much linear. A 100 DTU instance will be 2x faster than a 50 DTU instance, for example.

I now use Azure DBs for everything I do, even my dev environment. It's MUCH cheaper than running SQL Server and a local server or VM. One thing to lookout for - Azure SQL DBs are instanced, this can cause initial connection times to be much longer than you would experience with SQL server. There are settings for this, I think you can set the DB to be "always running", but this does affect the cost!

[shawnmofid]

Thank you so much for this content. I have had a site on Azure for a couple of moths now, w/o a db, and it has been free. I love it. I have not looked into other vendors too much, but I love what Microsoft provides in terms of helping you get up and going.

[chadbennett]

Tim, I LOVE your content. It has helped me a ton. One request/feedback (which I know is super crappy as all your content is free but it may help you too). Slim down your talking by like 30% at least. You have a tendency to repeat stuff and over explain things. This video could have been 20 - 30 minutes but instead it was an hour. Again AMAZING content and I can't thank you enough for it. But I think your watchers would appreciate and watch more if it was more focused and less verbose. I hope that feedback helps you because your videos have helped me a ton. Side note - I have been hesitant to purchase your course because of the long explanations seen in these videos. If the courses are like that... well I just can't sit through that much when it does feel like they could be compressed to about half the time.

[hillarysagwa]

THANK YOU TIM. this has been so beneficial

[digestingpuma]

Simple, yet powerful tips, and as usual, great explanation.

[huaxung]

I hosted Blazor server on Azure App Service with custom domain and ssl and it costed me 50$ a month. What did I go wrong?

[goodoleme]

This couldn't have come at a better time for me. thanks!

[sonicdev]

One request , please use dark theme where ever possible like in azure portal and Ide,
Watching on phone in night will be more pleasant for folks like me .
Thanks

[marcusmaunula]

Especially I would like a deep dive into their Search services. They are very hard to configure right without costs going up like a rocket (maybe AI or something).

[troymitchel]

It would be nice (for developers) if you could specify a cap so you wouldn't be stuck with a huge surprise at the end of the month. If you hit the cap then you would be notified.

[marvelcz]

Insta like just because of title :) Thank you again for relevant content

[Christobanistan]

In my experience, these estimation tools are wildly optimistic, and you need a lot more CPU than you think. It just seems like Microsoft places huge artificial delays and hangs if you don't go well over the minimums.

[PatrickIvan]

Great content in the right timing. Do you ever plan to make video about Azure Cosmos DB?

[andywalter]

Here is some advice i need from watching the video. I went to the pricing calculator for the blob storage. I really don't understand that part at all. I chose an example of 1 gig (the least storage it shows). The cost can range from 2 cents to over 20, 000 dolllars even for one gig. How does a person guarantee if they use blob storage they will not be charged 20, 000 dollars. From what I can see, if a person assumes worse case scenario, then they have to tell their boss that blob storage costs 20, 000 for just one gig of storage. Not sure how many companies are willing to spend 20, 000 dollars a month for blob storage for just one gig of storage. That could be very common unfortunately.

[kazeemquadri]

How do you optimize and increase the speed of fetching data from your database as the database and application grow? I currently have this issue. I have tried using Quereables, Store Procedures. I would love to get your opinion on this

[chrisls]

Great video, although technically you aren't supposed to run a production website on the MSDN subscription offer. But for $0.01 a month I don't think MS would care lol.

[MikeMike-msns]

Timestamps would really be appreciated here

[Christobanistan]

If you're gonna use a VM, don't use SQL Server on it. Period. Switch to PostgreSQL or MariaDB.