Unlock the Power of Microsoft Cost Management

Microsoft Cost Management is a comprehensive suite of FinOps tools designed to help organizations like yours analyze, monitor, and optimize their Microsoft Cloud spending. With Cost Management, you can gain complete visibility into your cloud costs, proactively manage your budget, and unlock significant cost savings.

Understand the Commerce Data Pipeline

At the heart of Cost Management is the Microsoft Commerce data pipeline, which powers all commercial transactions across Microsoft’s cloud services. This pipeline collects granular usage data from your Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform services, and applies discounts based on your specific price sheet to generate “rated usage” data.

Understanding this process is key to effectively managing your costs. Cost Management shows usage in the measurement unit, while invoices display the quantity in the higher-level pricing unit. Additionally, credits are applied at the end of the month, so it’s important to monitor costs throughout the billing cycle.

Organize and Allocate Costs with Ease

Organizing and allocating cloud costs is crucial for accurate chargeback and business unit reporting. Cost Management offers several options to structure your resources and subscriptions, including:

  • MCA billing profiles and invoice sections
  • EA departments and enrollment accounts
  • Management groups
  • Subscriptions and resource groups
  • Resource tags

By leveraging these tools, you can streamline cost reporting and ensure invoices are routed to the correct business units. Cost allocation allows you to “move” or split shared costs, providing a more accurate view of where charges originate.

Monitor Costs and Optimize Proactively

Cost Management and Billing provide a range of alerts and notifications to keep you informed and help you manage your cloud spending proactively. Set up budget alerts, anomaly alerts, and scheduled alerts to stay on top of your costs.

To optimize your cloud costs, explore Azure’s free services, take advantage of Azure Advisor recommendations, and leverage Azure savings plans, reservations, and the Azure Hybrid Benefit. These tools can help you reduce your resource costs by up to 72% compared to pay-as-you-go rates.

Get Started with Cost Management Today

Whether you’re just beginning your cloud journey or looking to optimize an established cloud infrastructure, Microsoft Cost Management can help you make the most of your cloud investments. Leverage the suite of FinOps tools to gain visibility, control costs, and drive innovation across your organization.

To learn more, visit the Microsoft Cost Management documentation and explore the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator to estimate your potential savings.

Source: Overview of Cost Management