Where Azure Goes Wrong for SMEs (and How to Take Back Control)

Microsoft Azure offers flexibility, scalability and access to more than 200 cloud-based tools and solutions.
But it also comes with challenges.

Have you ever looked at your Azure invoice and thought, “What am I actually paying for?” If so, it might be time to take a closer look at how your cloud setup is being managed.

Many SMEs start with a simple setup. But over time, Azure environments tend to grow organically, often without a clear structure or cost control. Suddenly, you're faced with confusing invoices, unexpected charges, unused or duplicated resources and unclear performance issues.

Where Azure Starts to Get Out of Control

What starts as a simple cloud setup - a server, some storage, maybe a virtual machine - can quickly become a complex web of resources.

As your business grows, so does your Azure environment. Teams initiate new resources, expand storage, or add services to support new projects. Before you know it, your infrastructure has grown arms and legs, with no clear view of what's running, why it's there, or how much it's costing.

Some of the most common challenges we've helped to solve include:

• Unclear invoices: Azure billing reports are often long and difficult to interpret, especially for finance teams.
• Uncontrolled growth: Resources are created on the go without proper naming conventions or tagging, making them difficult to monitor or manage.
• Overprovisioned systems: Servers running 24/7 when they don't need to, or using high performance storage options when standard ones would do just fine.
• Shadow costs: Each virtual machine can come with additional costs for associated services such as networks, backups and IP addresses, often going unnoticed until the invoice arrives.

Left unchecked, this kind of unstructured growth leads to wasted spend, reduced performance and unnecessary stress.

Regaining Visibility and Control

The good news? These problems are common and fixable.

With a few key practices, it's possible to regain visibility and control of your Azure environment.

A clear naming convention, proper tagging and consistent documentation can go a long way in helping you understand what's running, why it's there and how much it costs.

Tagging resources allows you to group related items, such as a server and its associated backups, storage and networking, so you can see the big picture. This makes it easier to track usage, allocate costs and make smarter decisions about what to keep and what to reduce.

These small adjustments can make a big difference in how you manage your Azure environment on a day-to-day basis. We've helped many organisations identify forgotten resources, reduce unnecessary usage and identify quick wins like turning off virtual machines at night or switching to more cost-effective storage options.

Resilience, Uptime and Business Continuity

Azure also offers powerful tools to keep your systems running smoothly, even when the unexpected happens.

With built-in business continuity and disaster recovery options, you can go beyond traditional backups. Instead of recovering from a copy hours later, Azure lets you replicate your infrastructure in real time. So if something goes down, a second server can take over immediately - with minimal disruption to your business.

And when it comes to scalability, Azure can dynamically add or remove servers based on your usage. This means better performance at peak times and cost savings when demand is low.

These features used to be the preserve of large enterprises - but now they're available to businesses of all sizes. The challenge is knowing how to configure them to meet your real needs.

Azure Cost Saving Opportunities

Once you have visibility into your Azure environment, the next step is to optimise it so that you're not paying for more than you need.

Over time, many organisations end up running servers 24/7, even when they're not in use. In many cases, these can be turned off overnight or scaled back during off-peak hours. Azure gives you the flexibility to schedule usage, so you only pay for what you need, when you need it.

Another common problem is overprovisioning. For example, powerful (and expensive) disks may be used for tasks that don't require them. By reviewing your infrastructure and aligning it with your actual workloads, it's often possible to downgrade certain elements, such as storage options or compute power, without compromising performance.

In some cases, organisations use a full virtual server when a lighter, more cost-effective storage solution would suffice. Azure offers a wide range of services and sometimes a simple switch from one type of resource to another can lead to significant savings.

We've seen that even small changes, such as adjusting a backup schedule, replacing a file server with a storage account, or reviewing licence usage, can help reduce costs while maintaining (or even improving) performance.

Bringing It All Together

These small adjustments can make a big difference in how you manage your Azure environment on a day-to-day basis. We've helped many organisations identify forgotten resources, reduce unnecessary usage and identify quick wins like turning off virtual machines at night or switching to more cost-effective storage options.

Managing Azure doesn't have to be overwhelming with the right structure. Your cloud setup can be efficient and cost-effective with naming conventions and tagging, scheduled usage and optimised performance. That's where the right guidance makes all the difference.

How Grant McGregor can help

At Grant McGregor, we work with organisations across the UK to get real value from Azure. We offer a free assessment to help you identify opportunities for cost savings and improvements. If you're facing rising costs, unused resources or unclear billing, our team can help you simplify and optimise your Azure setup.

Ready to take control of your Azure environment?

Discover how we help organisations like yours optimise and manage Azure more effectively.

Book a free Azure consultation today!

Call us: 0808 164 4142 

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