FinOps optimization of IaaS & PaaS for Azure App Service
Budget growth driven by oversized PaaS instances brought to a halt. Dynamic elasticity and financial engineering standards implemented.
01 Challenges and context
Context and strategic stakes
Following its extensive Cloud adoption, the client hosted a sprawling application fleet on the PaaS 'Azure App Service', encompassing production, staging, and development environments. Monthly invoices escalated due to chronic over-provisioning of instances, often chosen by default without capacity considerations. The absence of proper tagging prevented cost allocation across Business Units, while the lack of software elasticity rules (auto-scaling) and reservation coverage led to significant financial waste.
02 Work carried out
Approach and methodology
The project commenced with establishing surgical visibility. We inventoried each application and implemented a strict 'Tagging by Design' policy to financially allocate costs by Business Unit and deployment environment. Simultaneously, we collected and audited performance telemetry (CPU utilization, RAM, network saturation) for each App Service hosting plan to objectively assess the actual capacity waste rate across the fleet.
03 Outcomes achieved
Results and indicators
42 %
Monthly operational cost reduction
$537,000
Savings secured over 12 months
12 months
Savings secured period
FinOps Performance: Radical 42% reduction in the monthly operational cost of the entire Azure App Service fleet.
Financial Volume: Elimination of half a million dollars in waste, with $537,000 in savings secured over 12 months.
Sustainable Governance: Deployment of sizing standards and achievement of 360-degree cost visibility per business entity.