Azure Sessions

In Azure projects, asking the right questions ensures that your resources are optimized for performance, security, and cost-effectiveness.

This section will guide you through the types of questions to consider when managing Azure services, troubleshooting issues, or maximizing efficiency in your cloud environment.

Key areas of focus

The following are some example questions tailored for your Azure resources, aimed at helping you manage and monitor your account efficiently:

General resource management

• What resources are currently running in my Azure subscription?
• How much is my current Azure spend, and which services are contributing the most?
• Are there any underutilized or idle resources that I can optimize or remove?
• How can I improve the cost efficiency of my Virtual Machines (VMs)?
• What is the current status of my reserved instances or reserved capacity?

Virtual machines (VMs)

• What VMs are running, and how are they performing?
  • Follow-up: “What’s the CPU or memory usage on VM X?”
• Are there any VMs experiencing high CPU utilization or memory pressure?
• Which VMs are nearing the end of their reserved capacity term?
• What VM sizes should I switch to for better performance or cost savings?

Azure storage

• Which Azure storage accounts contain public blobs or files?
• Are there any storage accounts that do not have soft delete or versioning enabled?
• What is the current usage of my largest storage account?
  • Follow-up: “Which blobs are consuming the most space in this account?”
• Are all my storage accounts encrypted, and do they comply with security policies?

Azure networking

• What virtual networks (VNets) are currently deployed, and which resources are connected to them?
• Do I have any unused public IP addresses or network interfaces?
• What is the current network traffic flow within my VNets?
• How many network security groups (NSGs) are in use, and are any too permissive?
  • Follow-up: “Are there NSGs with open inbound rules or excessive access permissions?”

Azure SQL & databases

• What databases are currently running in my account?
• Is there any unusual query performance or high resource usage on my Azure SQL databases?
• When was the last automated backup taken for my databases?
• Are there any old database backups or data that can be archived or deleted?
• Are my databases running at optimal performance, or should I consider scaling?

Azure functions

• Which Azure Functions are consuming the most resources or triggering the most invocations?
• Are there any Azure Functions that haven’t been invoked in a long time?
• How is the overall performance of my Azure Functions, including failures or timeouts?
  • Follow-up: “Were there any performance bottlenecks or resource throttling incidents?”

Azure Monitor & alerts

• What active alerts are currently raised in Azure Monitor?
• Have there been any breaches of thresholds defined in my monitoring setup?
• Can I get a report of key metrics for my core services (e.g., VMs, databases, storage)?
• What are the most common issues or alerts showing up in my monitoring logs?

Azure Active Directory (AAD) & security

• Do I have any inactive or stale users, groups, or service principals in Azure AD?
• Which users have global administrator rights, and when did they last log in?
• Are there any AAD users with expiring or inactive access keys?
• What security best practices can I implement to improve my subscription’s security posture?

Cost management

• What services are contributing the most to my costs this month?
• Can I get a breakdown of costs per environment (e.g., dev, test, production)?
• Which resources can I right-size or eliminate to reduce my overall spending?
• How do my current costs compare to the previous month, and where can I make improvements?