Best Practices for Cleaning Up Azure Resources After a Year of Operation

Opibility recently completed an Azure audit for a client, uncovering significant opportunities for cost savings and performance optimization.

After a virtual instance or other Azure resources have been running for a year, performing a cleanup to ensure optimal performance, manage costs, and maintain a secure cloud environment is essential. Over time, unused or underutilized resources, outdated configurations, and accumulated data can lead to inefficiencies and higher costs. Here are the best practices for cleaning up your Azure environment after a year.

1. Review and Audit Resource Usage

Start by assessing which resources are still in use and which are not. Use Azure’s built-in tools to get a clear picture:

• Azure Cost Management and Billing: Identify resources that are consuming the most costs and check if they are still needed.

• Azure Advisor: Get recommendations on unused or underutilized resources.

• Log Analytics: Review resource usage patterns over the past year to identify inefficiencies.

2. Delete Unused Resources

Unused resources can accumulate over time, leading to unnecessary costs. Common resources to check include:

• Virtual Machines (VMs): Shut down and delete VMs that are no longer required.

• Disks: Remove orphaned managed disks that were detached from deleted VMs.

• Public IPs: Delete unattached public IP addresses.

• Load Balancers and Network Interfaces: Ensure no idle network resources are lingering.

• Resource Groups: Consolidate resources and delete empty or unused resource groups.

Cost Savings: Cleaning up unused VMs and disks can reduce monthly Azure costs by up to 30%, according to Microsoft’s cost management data.

3. Optimize Storage Accounts

Storage accounts often accumulate redundant or outdated data. Follow these steps:

• Delete Unused Storage Blobs: Identify and remove blobs that haven’t been accessed in a long time.

• Archive or Move Data: For data that must be retained, consider moving it to a lower-cost storage tier such as Cool or Archive.

• Clear Log Data: Review and delete old diagnostic or activity logs that are no longer required.

Cost Savings: Moving rarely accessed data to the Cool or Archive tier can save up to 50% on storage costs.

4. Review Networking Resources

Networking resources can also remain active even if they’re not needed:

• Check NSGs and Rules: Remove unnecessary network security groups and outdated rules.

• Delete Idle Virtual Networks: Ensure virtual networks without active resources are cleaned up.

• DNS Zones: Review and remove unused DNS zones.

Cost Savings: Regularly auditing and cleaning up networking resources can reduce network-related expenses by 15% to 20%.

5. Evaluate Reserved Instances and Licenses

If you’ve reserved instances or purchased licenses:

• Right-Size VMs: Evaluate whether the current VM size is still appropriate for the workload.

• Check Reserved Instance Usage: Ensure your reserved instances are fully utilized and adjust reservations if needed.

Cost Savings: Right-sizing VMs can save up to 35% in operational costs, while optimizing reserved instances can cut costs by 20%.

6. Secure Your Environment

Cleanup time is also a good opportunity to ensure your environment’s security:

• Review Access Controls: Remove unnecessary role assignments and ensure that only the right people can access resources.

• Update Policies: Ensure your Azure policies are up to date and compliant with current business requirements.

• Delete Old Keys and Certificates: Remove expired or unused access keys and SSL certificates.

7. Optimize Monitoring and Alerts

• Review Alert Rules: Update or remove outdated alert rules.

• Disable Unused Metrics: Stop tracking metrics that are no longer relevant.

• Tune Log Retention: Adjust the retention period for logs to save on storage costs.

Cost Savings: Tuning log retention policies can reduce monitoring and storage expenses by up to 25% annually.

8. Document Changes

As you clean up, keep detailed documentation of the changes made:

• Resource Inventory: Update your inventory to reflect the current state of your Azure resources.

• Policies and Procedures: Document any new policies or cleanup routines for future reference.

9. Automate Cleanup Processes

To prevent resource sprawl in the future:

• Set Resource Tags: Use tagging to categorize resources by owner, environment, or lifecycle stage.

• Enable Azure Automation: Schedule cleanup tasks, such as shutting down idle VMs or deleting unused resources, using Azure Automation or Logic Apps.

• Policy Enforcement: Use Azure Policy to enforce rules, such as automatically deleting resources that exceed a defined lifespan.

10. Conduct a Final Review

Before concluding the cleanup process:

• Verify Dependencies: Ensure that no critical dependencies were accidentally removed.

• Check Billing: Review your Azure bill after cleanup to confirm cost reductions.

• Run Tests: Test remaining resources to ensure everything is functioning as expected.

Cost Savings: Businesses that perform annual Azure cleanups report average savings of 20% to 50% on their cloud bills, depending on the scope and scale of their environment.

Conclusion

Regularly cleaning up your Azure environment is crucial for maintaining efficiency, reducing costs, and ensuring security. Following these best practices can keep your cloud environment lean and optimized for future workloads. Schedule periodic reviews—at least annually—to maintain a healthy and cost-effective Azure setup.