Purchase recommendations for Azure reserved instances
Use the Purchase new reserved instances page to get a quick view of the potential savings that you can achieve by purchasing Azure reserved instances. A recommendation is provided for each suggested Azure reserved instance that includes details, such as the instance type, region, term, and so on.
Azure Virtual Machines is one of the most widely used Azure service in the Compute category. This service has significant billing impact if it is not configured or provisioned properly. The virtual machine cost for an Azure account can be reduced significantly if reserved virtual machines are used for an account for an available zone within a region. Unlike on-demand, when you purchase a reserved instance, you commit to pay for all the hours starting from one year or three year term; in exchange, the hourly rate is lowered significantly.
Reserved instance recommendation is about providing the optimum count of the reserved instances, so that the operational cost of that account reduces considerably. Recommendations are generated based on the past usage of your existing Azure instances, instance type, usage of the on-demand virtual machines, eligible hours of the reserved instances, discount percentage for each reserved instance, and other aspects. The monthly cost for the reserved instance is calculated with the help of the reserved instance pricing for 1-year term and No upfront option. Actual costs are based on the usage of the instances and might vary from the estimated savings.
By default, the recommendations are displayed on the Dashboard with a summary of the number of reserved instances to be purchased and the estimated savings that you can achieve by purchasing them. You can also drill down into a specific resource pool or account from the Resource Pools or Accounts page to view the recommendations.
For detailed recommendations, click <Number> Rls. The Recommendations page opens and the instance list is displayed in the Purchase new reserved instances tab.
From this page, you can achieve the following goals:
- Determine the total number of Azure reserved instances that you must purchase to obtain cost savings.
- Determine the estimated cost savings that you can achieve by purchasing new reserved instances.
To analyze recommendations for purchasing Azure reserved instances
- In the navigation bar of BMC Helix Cloud Cost, select Recommendations.
The Summary section provides a quick overview of the number of reserved instances to be purchased and the estimated savings that you can achieve by purchasing them. The page also contains a table with the type of instance, operating system, region, number of reserved instances required, estimated savings, and the on-demand cost per month.
- Click the instance name.
The Resource Details page opens. - Review the details of the reserved instance to be purchased. The recommendation provides details such as, the number of reserved instances to be purchased for the selected instance type, account name, region, term, number of reserved instances required, total savings, and the monthly savings that you can achieve by purchasing the reserved instances.
Every recommendation has an Efficiency icon associated with it. The icon indicates the level of efficiency improvement. It is based on the estimated savings (in $) per month that you can achieve by implementing the recommended actions. One of the following icons is displayed:
- Cost saving is greater than $50
- Cost saving is less than $50 but greater than $25
- Cost saving is less than $25
You can save an offline copy of the page in a CSV file for reference. To do so, click Export All to CSV. When you export to CSV, all the recommendation details are exported. You can use this file as quick reference to purchase the reserved instances.