The Azure Cost & Sustainability Blueprint: Optimize, Automate, Save

This course blends the flexibility of self-paced learning with the structure of live, instructor-led sessions. You'll learn from world-class industry experts and gain practical skills to drive meaningful results in your workplace. Our digital platform also empowers you to track your progress and manage your learning journey effectively.

The two-day course provides a comprehensive guide to optimizing cost and sustainability in Microsoft Azure environments. It equips learners with practical skills to implement FinOps principles, manage billing and resource tagging, and automate cost-saving strategies across compute, storage, networking, and serverless services. Through hands-on lessons, participants will learn to align technical decisions with business goals, reduce waste, and enhance visibility and accountability in cloud spending.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Understand and apply FinOps and sustainability principles within Azure.
• Use Azure-native tools for cost governance, billing, and forecasting.
• Optimize compute, storage, and networking resources for cost efficiency.
• Implement tagging and management group strategies for cost allocation.
• Leverage reservations, hybrid benefits, and serverless platforms for savings.
• Automate cost and sustainability improvements using Azure AI and automation tools.

Participants should have:

Basic knowledge of Microsoft Azure services and architecture.

Familiarity with cloud computing concepts and billing models.

Experience with Azure portal navigation and resource management.

Understanding of organizational budgeting or financial accountability is helpful but not required.

Target audience

This course is designed for:

• Cloud architects and engineers responsible for Azure infrastructure.
• IT operations and finance professionals involved in cloud cost management.
• Sustainability officers and FinOps practitioners.
• Technical decision-makers seeking to align cloud usage with business and environmental goals.

Lesson 1: Azure FinOps & Sustainability Essentials

Objective: Understand how FinOps, cost governance, and sustainability practices are integrated into Azure and aligned with business goals.

• Introduction to FinOps in Azure
  • What is FinOps? Core principles in a Microsoft context
  • Key personas: Finance, Engineering, and Product collaboration
  • Azure’s CAF (Cloud Adoption Framework) and FinOps alignment
• Sustainability in Azure
• Microsoft’s commitment to carbon negativity and renewable energy
• Using the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator
• Aligning with Azure’s Sustainability Guidance and WAF
• Setting up Azure Cost Management + Billing
• Establishing chargebacks/showbacks and accountability
• Azure Policy for enforcing governance and tagging
• Evaluating trade-offs in design decisions
• Aligning technical decisions with business priorities
• Creating a culture of cloud financial accountability
• Cost Governance & Visibility
• Balancing Cost, Performance & Sustainability

Lesson 2: Mastering Azure Billing, Tagging & Management Groups

Objective: Use Azure-native tools for billing, budgeting, tagging, and hierarchical cost control across subscriptions.

• Understanding Azure Pricing & Billing Models
  • Azure Pay-as-you-go, Reservations, and Spot VM pricing
  • Analyzing Azure invoices, EA/MCUA usage, and billing scope
  • Azure Pricing Calculator & TCO Estimator
• Cost Visibility & Forecasting
• Navigating Azure Cost Analysis
• Budgeting and alerting with Azure Budgets
• Forecasting spend across departments or projects
• Importance of resource tagging for cost tracking
• Azure Tagging best practices and enforcement via Azure Policy
• Using Cost Allocation Rules and management groups
• Structuring Azure Management Groups for cost and policy control
• Consolidated billing via Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA)
• RBAC and scopes of cost visibility
• Tagging & Cost Allocation Strategies
• Subscription & Management Group Optimisation

Lesson 3: Optimising Azure Compute & Autoscaling for Cost Efficiency

Objective: Minimise waste and overprovisioning by right-sizing compute workloads and leveraging automation.

• Right-Sizing Azure Compute Resources
  • Identifying underused VMs with Advisor & Metrics
  • Selecting optimal VM series (D, B, E, F, etc.)
  • Leverage Azure Migrate for workload assessments
• Virtual Machine Cost Optimisation
• Azure Spot VMs vs. Reserved vs. Pay-as-you-go
• Use of Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS)
• Evaluating Azure Reservations for predictable workloads
• Azure Container Instances vs. AKS
• Cost trade-offs between Azure Functions and AKS
• Reducing function execution time and concurrency limits
• Configuring autoscaling for performance and cost
• App Service autoscale rules
• Using Azure Automation for off-hours scale-downs
• Container & Serverless Efficiency
• Scaling Best Practices

Lesson 4: Cost & Sustainability Optimisation for Azure Storage & Databases

Objective: Reduce costs and environmental impact across Azure Storage, SQL, Cosmos DB, and Synapse.

• Azure Storage Cost Optimisation
  • Blob storage tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive)
  • Lifecycle management and automatic tiering
  • Cost-effective replication (LRS, ZRS, GRS)
• Disk & Snapshot Management
• Azure Disk types (Standard HDD/SSD vs. Premium SSD)
• Snapshot management and orphaned disk cleanup
• Azure Storage Explorer for audit and management
• Comparing Azure SQL vs. SQL Managed Instance vs. PostgreSQL
• Cosmos DB: Provisioned vs. serverless throughput
• Optimising Synapse workloads with workload management
• Data lifecycle policies and archival strategies
• Avoiding unnecessary data duplication
• Azure Purview for data governance and cleanup
• Database Efficiency
• Data Sustainability Best Practices

Lesson 5: Reducing Azure Networking & Data Transfer Costs

Objective: Optimise data egress, routing, and network resources to reduce unnecessary spend.

• Understanding Azure Data Transfer Pricing
  • VNet peering, inter-region, and internet egress costs
  • Using Cost Analysis for network insights
  • Identifying costly architecture patterns
• Minimising Unnecessary Transfers
• Using Private Link and ExpressRoute
• Optimising use of Azure CDN & Front Door
• Best practices for hybrid cloud connectivity
• Right-sizing Azure Firewall, NAT Gateway, and Load Balancers
• DNS cost control via Azure DNS
• Traffic routing efficiency using Azure Traffic Manager
• Network Resource Optimisation

Lesson 6: Maximising Savings with Reservations, Hybrid Benefits & Serverless

Objective: Leverage Azure Reservations, Hybrid Benefits, and serverless platforms for predictable cost savings.

• Understanding Azure Commitment Options
  • Reservations for VMs, SQL, App Services, and Synapse
  • Azure Hybrid Benefit (for Windows & SQL licenses)
  • Exchange and cancel strategies for flexibility
• Maximising Reservations
• Managing unused reserved capacity
• Azure Advisor recommendations for reservations
• Monitoring via Cost Management APIs
• Optimising workloads with Azure Functions and Durable Functions
• Event-driven designs using Event Grid & Service Bus
• Cost controls for Logic Apps and App Services
• Alerts for unused or underused reservations
• Budgeting tools and Advisor integration
• Using ARM templates and Bicep for standardised deployments
• Serverless Savings Strategies
• Automation for Commitment Management

Lesson 7: Automating Cost & Sustainability Optimisation in Azure

Objective: Enable continuous cost and sustainability improvements using Azure-native automation and AI tools.

• Azure Advisor & Recommendations
  • Automating cost and performance recommendations
  • Integrating Advisor with Azure Monitor alerts
  • Custom workflows with Logic Apps or Azure Functions
• Monitoring & Reporting Sustainability
• Using the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator
• Carbon accounting dashboards in Azure
• Strategies for reducing compute and storage energy usage
• Azure Automation Runbooks for cost cleanup
• Leveraging Cost Management APIs for proactive optimisation
• Scheduled scale-downs and shutdowns
• Using Cost Anomaly Alerts
• Azure Monitor Workbooks for spend insights
• Implementing AI/ML pipelines for predictive optimisation
• Automation for Cost Management
• AI and Anomaly Detection

Exams and assessments

There is no specific exam or certification associated with this course.

Hands-on learning

This course includes practical labs.

Self-paced learning

• Up to 1 hour, completed over a 2-week period prior to the live event.
• It is recommended that the self-paced learning is completed prior to joining the live event.
• It is recommended that learners have a minimum of 2 weeks between the course booking and the instructor-led live event to complete the necessary hours of learning.
• The self-paced learning is available 2 weeks prior to the live event and for 12 months following the live event.

Instructor-led live event

• This course has a 2-day live event.