Last week we’ve introduced two first apps from our new initiative – AxGarage. This week we are releasing a new service – Usage Analyzer for Azure.

What is Usage Analyzer and why you may need it

A couple of months ago we decided to audit our Azure subscription. We kind of knew that we weren’t extremely disciplined allocating Azure resources while we were in BizSpark, but which of our multiple projects were the least optimal in terms of Azure consumption was a mystery to us.

So, we went looking, and figuring this out turned out to be a bit more challenging than we expected. Especially if you want to look at it from the business (money) perspective.

You can get information by resource types from your invoices. Or you can get a very detailed CSV file but combing through it is not an easy task. So we made an internal tool to be able to slice and group the data from that file as we want to see it.

Now, in the spirit of the AxGarage initiative, we are making this internal tool public.

How to use Usage Analyzer for Azure

Login into your Microsoft Azure account and download monthly usage file (Version 2 – Preview) from the Billing history for your subscription. Upload this file to Usage Analyzer and you’ll get a default parsed view of that file.

You can regroup, filter and sort the resulting data as you see fit for your task at hand. Analyze it directly on the web or you can download a processed file to analyze or visualize it further with a tool of your choice (Excel, etc.)

How much does it cost?

Usage Analyzer for Azure is in beta and is free for now. We will continue providing a free version later on, but some features or usage volumes may be restricted to a paid plan.

Current status and known issues

Sample Azure usage files are not something you can find easily on the internet, so we have only tested the tool with a few provided by our friends. We need your help testing and improving the tool with your actual data. Please try the service and let us know if you encounter any issues or have ideas on how it can be improved. Send us an email at azureusage@axgarage.com.

We know that the tool doesn’t work with usage files from Enterprise Agreement portal. Please let us know if you are an EA Azure customer and would like to use our Usage Analyzer tool.

Get in touch and spread the word!

We have been able to save hundreds of dollar per month by analyzing and optimizing our Azure usage with this tool and we want everyone to be able to reap the benefits of being in the know. Please share information about Usage Analyze for Azure with your friends on social media, blogs, mailing lists, etc. so more people and companies can save money and help us improve the service. Do not hesitate to contact us with your ideas at azureusage@axgarage.com.

Thank you!