The SRE's Guide to Azure Cost Optimization: A Taming Strategy for 'Dirty' Environments

Introduction: The “Dirty Environment Takeover”

You just inherited a 5-year-old Azure subscription. The bill is $80,000/month and rising. Nothing is tagged. No one knows who built what. Your new boss wants you to cut costs by 30%, but your engineers are afraid to delete anything because “that random VM might be running something critical.”

Sound familiar?

The old advice you’ll hear is “just shut it off and see who screams.” Let me be clear: This is not a strategy; it’s a career-limiting move.

The real challenge isn’t just the cost. It’s the fear. The fear of breaking production. The fear of deleting something that turns out to be critical at 3 AM on a Saturday. The fear of being the person who took down the company’s revenue stream to save a few thousand dollars.

This is not another guide about “perfect tagging strategies” or “greenfield best practices.” Those articles are written for a perfect world that doesn’t exist. This is a practical, battle-tested strategy for taming real-world, complex, “dirty” Azure environments.

I’ll show you exactly how to:

• Find waste with 100% confidence it’s actually waste
• Prove it’s safe to delete before you touch anything
• Build a repeatable process that doesn’t require perfect documentation
• Sleep soundly knowing you didn’t break production

Let’s turn that overwhelming $80,000/month Azure bill into something manageable—without the career risk.

Chapter 1: Why Your Environment is a Mess (And Why It’s Not Your Fault)

The Root Cause: Success Creates Chaos

First, let me tell you something important: This mess is not your fault. In fact, it’s often a symptom of success.

That chaotic Azure environment? It’s the result of:

• Engineers moving fast to ship features (good!)
• Teams having autonomy to spin up resources (necessary!)
• Projects pivoting quickly based on customer feedback (agile!)
• Proof-of-concepts that became production overnight (startup life!)

The mess isn’t a failure—it’s the exhaust of a fast-moving engineering organization. But now it’s your problem to solve.

The Myth of “Perfect Tagging”

Every Azure cost optimization guide starts the same way: “First, implement a comprehensive tagging strategy…”

Let me save you some time: Tagging strategies always fail over time. Here’s why:

1. Human Error: Even with the best intentions, engineers forget to tag resources during late-night deployments
2. Project Deadlines: When the CEO wants that feature shipped yesterday, proper tagging becomes tomorrow’s problem
3. No Day-One Governance: Most organizations implement tagging policies after thousands of resources already exist
4. Team Turnover: The person who knew what “proj-alpha-test-v2” meant left the company 18 months ago

If you’re waiting for perfect tags to optimize costs, you’ll be waiting forever. We need a different approach.

The “Native Tool” Gap

Azure Advisor is a decent tool. It can help with:

• Right-sizing recommendations
• Reserved Instance suggestions
• Basic idle resource detection

But here’s where it fails in dirty environments:

• It has no context for your specific environment
• It can’t identify most orphaned resources
• It doesn’t understand resource dependencies
• It treats every resource as equally important

Azure Advisor was built for clean environments. You need tools for the real world.

Defining the 3 Types of Cloud Waste

Before we dive into solutions, let’s define what we’re hunting. In my experience investigating hundreds of Azure environments, waste falls into three categories:

1. Orphaned Resources (The Zombies)

These are resources with no parent, billing you for absolutely nothing:

• Unattached managed disks ($50-500/month each)
• Unused public IPs ($3-5/month each, but they add up)
• Network interfaces not attached to any VM
• Snapshots from VMs deleted years ago

Real case: We found 89 unattached Premium SSD disks in one environment, costing $12,000/month. They’d been orphaned for 14 months.

2. Idle Resources (The Sleepers)

Resources that exist but do nothing:

• VMs at 0% CPU for weeks
• Stopped-but-not-deallocated VMs (still billing you!)
• Load balancers with no backend pools
• App Services with no traffic

Real case: 47 VMs in “Stopped” state (not deallocated) costing $8,400/month. The team thought “stopped” meant “not billing.”

3. Underutilized Resources (The Oversized)

Resources doing tiny jobs with massive capacity:

• E64s_v3 VMs running simple cron jobs
• Premium tier databases for dev environments
• P30 disks (1TB) storing 50GB of logs
• Standard Load Balancers for internal testing

Real case: A batch job running once daily on a E32s_v3 VM. Actual CPU usage: 2% for 10 minutes. Monthly cost: $2,100.

Chapter 2: Your “First 30 Days” Audit Plan (Finding the Low-Hanging Fruit)

Let’s get you some quick wins. These are safe, immediate cost reductions you can implement in your first 30 days without breaking anything.

Step 1: Get Visibility (Even If It’s Messy)

First, you need to see what you’re dealing with. Azure Cost Management + Billing is your starting point:

1. Navigate to Cost Management + Billing → Cost analysis
2. Group by Resource group (even if they’re poorly named)
3. Sort by Cost (descending)
4. Export the top 20 resource groups to Excel

Yes, it’s messy. Yes, the names like “RG-Test-123” tell you nothing. But now you know where the money is going.

Pro tip: Add a column for “Owner” in your Excel. Even if you have to ask around, mapping resource groups to teams is your first detective work.

Step 2: Find the “Stopped-But-Not-Deallocated” VMs (The #1 Quick Win)

This is the most common and expensive mistake in Azure. “Stopped” VMs still cost you money. Only “Deallocated” VMs stop billing.

Here’s a PowerShell script you can run right now to find them:

# Connect to Azure
Connect-AzAccount

# Get all subscriptions
$subscriptions = Get-AzSubscription

$stoppedVMs = @()

foreach ($subscription in $subscriptions) {
    Set-AzContext -SubscriptionId $subscription.Id
    
    # Find all stopped but not deallocated VMs
    $vms = Get-AzVM -Status | Where-Object {
        $_.PowerState -eq 'VM stopped' -and 
        $_.PowerState -ne 'VM deallocated'
    }
    
    foreach ($vm in $vms) {
        $vmSize = $vm.HardwareProfile.VmSize
        $pricing = Get-AzVMSize -Location $vm.Location | 
                   Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $vmSize}
        
        $stoppedVMs += [PSCustomObject]@{
            Subscription = $subscription.Name
            ResourceGroup = $vm.ResourceGroupName
            VMName = $vm.Name
            Size = $vmSize
            Location = $vm.Location
            EstimatedMonthlyCost = [math]::Round($pricing.NumberOfCores * 50, 2) # Rough estimate
        }
    }
}

# Output results
$stoppedVMs | Format-Table -AutoSize
$totalWaste = ($stoppedVMs | Measure-Object -Property EstimatedMonthlyCost -Sum).Sum
Write-Host "Total monthly waste from stopped VMs: `$$totalWaste" -ForegroundColor Yellow

Expected savings: We typically find $5,000-$15,000/month in stopped-but-not-deallocated VMs in environments over $50k/month.

Step 3: Hunt the Orphaned Resources

Finding Unattached Managed Disks

Unattached disks are pure waste. Here’s how to find them:

# Find all unattached managed disks
$unattachedDisks = Get-AzDisk | Where-Object {$_.ManagedBy -eq $null}

$diskWaste = @()
foreach ($disk in $unattachedDisks) {
    # Estimate monthly cost based on disk type and size
    $monthlyCost = switch($disk.Sku.Name) {
        'Premium_LRS' { $disk.DiskSizeGB * 0.135 }  # ~$0.135/GB for Premium SSD
        'Standard_LRS' { $disk.DiskSizeGB * 0.05 }  # ~$0.05/GB for Standard HDD
        'StandardSSD_LRS' { $disk.DiskSizeGB * 0.075 } # ~$0.075/GB for Standard SSD
        default { $disk.DiskSizeGB * 0.05 }
    }
    
    $diskWaste += [PSCustomObject]@{
        DiskName = $disk.Name
        ResourceGroup = $disk.ResourceGroupName
        DiskSize = "$($disk.DiskSizeGB) GB"
        DiskType = $disk.Sku.Name
        CreationTime = $disk.TimeCreated
        DaysSinceCreation = (New-TimeSpan -Start $disk.TimeCreated -End (Get-Date)).Days
        EstimatedMonthlyCost = [math]::Round($monthlyCost, 2)
    }
}

$diskWaste | Sort-Object EstimatedMonthlyCost -Descending | Format-Table -AutoSize

Finding Unused Public IPs

# Find unattached public IPs
$unusedIPs = Get-AzPublicIpAddress | Where-Object {$_.IpConfiguration -eq $null}

$ipWaste = @()
foreach ($ip in $unusedIPs) {
    $ipWaste += [PSCustomObject]@{
        IPName = $ip.Name
        ResourceGroup = $ip.ResourceGroupName
        IPAddress = $ip.IpAddress
        SKU = $ip.Sku.Name
        CreationTime = $ip.Tag['CreationTime'] # If tagged
        MonthlyCost = if($ip.Sku.Name -eq 'Standard') { 5 } else { 3.65 }
    }
}

$totalIPWaste = ($ipWaste | Measure-Object -Property MonthlyCost -Sum).Sum
Write-Host "Total monthly waste from unused IPs: `$$totalIPWaste" -ForegroundColor Yellow

Safety check: Before deleting any disk or IP, verify:

1. Check if it was created in the last 7 days (might be temporarily unattached)
2. Look for any “DO NOT DELETE” tags
3. Check if the resource group name contains “prod” or “production”

[Related Guide]: For a complete technical deep-dive on finding and safely removing orphaned resources, check out our comprehensive guide: The Ultimate Guide to Finding and Safely Deleting Azure Orphaned Resources

Chapter 3: The Deep-Dive (Solving the “Untagged” Nightmare)

Now comes the hard part: identifying waste when nothing is tagged and documentation is non-existent. This is where most guides give up. Not us.

Strategy 1: “Guilt by Association” - Inferring Ownership

When tags fail, become a detective. Resources might not be tagged, but they leave clues:

Resource Group Patterns

Look for naming patterns in resource groups:

• RG-APP-DEV-* likely belongs to the app team’s dev environment
• *-TEST-* or *-TEMP-* are usually safe to investigate aggressively
• Date patterns like *-2021-* might indicate old projects

Network Association

VMs in the same VNet usually belong to the same application:

# Map VMs to their VNets to find application boundaries
$vmNetworkMap = @{}

$vms = Get-AzVM
foreach ($vm in $vms) {
    $nic = Get-AzNetworkInterface -ResourceId $vm.NetworkProfile.NetworkInterfaces[0].Id
    $subnetId = $nic.IpConfigurations[0].Subnet.Id
    $vnetName = $subnetId.Split('/')[8]
    
    if (-not $vmNetworkMap.ContainsKey($vnetName)) {
        $vmNetworkMap[$vnetName] = @()
    }
    $vmNetworkMap[$vnetName] += $vm.Name
}

# Output VMs grouped by VNet
foreach ($vnet in $vmNetworkMap.Keys) {
    Write-Host "`nVNet: $vnet" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    $vmNetworkMap[$vnet] | ForEach-Object { Write-Host "  - $_" }
}

Key Vault and Storage Account Access

Resources that access the same Key Vault or Storage Account likely belong to the same application:

# Find resources accessing each Key Vault
$keyVaults = Get-AzKeyVault
foreach ($kv in $keyVaults) {
    $accessPolicies = (Get-AzKeyVault -VaultName $kv.VaultName).AccessPolicies
    Write-Host "`nKey Vault: $($kv.VaultName)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    foreach ($policy in $accessPolicies) {
        Write-Host "  - $($policy.DisplayName): $($policy.ObjectId)"
    }
}

Strategy 2: Metric-Based Waste Detection

When you can’t determine ownership, let the metrics tell you if something is waste:

The “30-Day Zero Activity” Rule

# Check VM metrics for the last 30 days
function Get-VMActivityStatus {
    param($VMName, $ResourceGroupName)
    
    $endTime = Get-Date
    $startTime = $endTime.AddDays(-30)
    
    # Get CPU metrics
    $cpuMetrics = Get-AzMetric `
        -ResourceId "/subscriptions/$subscriptionId/resourceGroups/$ResourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/$VMName" `
        -TimeGrain 01:00:00 `
        -StartTime $startTime `
        -EndTime $endTime `
        -MetricName "Percentage CPU"
    
    $avgCPU = ($cpuMetrics.Data | Measure-Object -Property Average -Average).Average
    
    # Get Network metrics
    $networkInMetrics = Get-AzMetric `
        -ResourceId "/subscriptions/$subscriptionId/resourceGroups/$ResourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/$VMName" `
        -TimeGrain 01:00:00 `
        -StartTime $startTime `
        -EndTime $endTime `
        -MetricName "Network In Total"
    
    $totalNetworkIn = ($networkInMetrics.Data | Measure-Object -Property Total -Sum).Sum
    
    return [PSCustomObject]@{
        VMName = $VMName
        ResourceGroup = $ResourceGroupName
        AvgCPU = [math]::Round($avgCPU, 2)
        TotalNetworkInGB = [math]::Round($totalNetworkIn / 1GB, 2)
        IsLikelyWaste = ($avgCPU -lt 1 -and $totalNetworkIn -lt 1GB)
    }
}

# Analyze all VMs
$allVMs = Get-AzVM
$vmAnalysis = @()
foreach ($vm in $allVMs) {
    $vmAnalysis += Get-VMActivityStatus -VMName $vm.Name -ResourceGroupName $vm.ResourceGroupName
}

$likelyWaste = $vmAnalysis | Where-Object {$_.IsLikelyWaste -eq $true}
Write-Host "`nVMs with near-zero activity (likely waste):" -ForegroundColor Yellow
$likelyWaste | Format-Table -AutoSize

Database Waste Detection

For Azure SQL Databases and Cosmos DB:

# Check database utilization
$databases = Get-AzSqlDatabase -ServerName * -ResourceGroupName *

foreach ($db in $databases) {
    $metrics = Get-AzMetric `
        -ResourceId $db.ResourceId `
        -TimeGrain 01:00:00 `
        -StartTime (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) `
        -EndTime (Get-Date) `
        -MetricName "dtu_consumption_percent"
    
    $avgDTU = ($metrics.Data | Measure-Object -Property Average -Average).Average
    
    if ($avgDTU -lt 5) {
        Write-Host "$($db.DatabaseName): Avg DTU: $avgDTU% - Consider Basic tier or deletion" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    }
}

The “So What” Moment

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably thinking: “This is a nightmare of PowerShell scripts and manual cross-referencing.”

You’re absolutely right.

Doing this manually means:

• Running dozens of scripts across multiple subscriptions
• Cross-referencing metrics across different Azure portals
• Maintaining massive Excel sheets that are outdated the moment you save them
• Spending days on analysis that needs to be repeated monthly
• Still having uncertainty about what’s safe to delete

And here’s the worst part: The moment you finish your audit, the environment is already “dirty” again. New orphaned resources are created daily. VMs are stopped but not deallocated. Test resources become permanent fixtures.

[Related Guide]: For more strategies on managing untagged environments, read our detailed guide: How to Manage Azure Costs When Your Tagging is a Complete Mess

Chapter 4: The Automated Solution (Introducing Cloud Sleuth)

We’ve just spent three chapters showing how manual auditing is slow, risky, and basically a full-time job. Every script you run, every metric you check, every Excel row you update—it’s all time you’re not spending on actual engineering work.

This is exactly why we built Cloud Sleuth.

What Makes Cloud Sleuth Different

Cloud Sleuth is an automated discovery tool built specifically for the “dirty environment” scenario. We’re not another generic cost management platform. We’re built by engineers who’ve inherited messy Azure environments, for engineers dealing with the same nightmare.

How Cloud Sleuth Works

1. Connects in 5 Minutes (Read-Only, Zero Risk)

• One-click connection using Azure AD
• Read-only access only - we can’t delete or modify anything
• No agents to install, no code to deploy
• Works with existing RBAC and security policies

2. Sees Beyond Tags - Our “Context Engine”

Our engine doesn’t just look at tags (because yours are probably useless). Instead, we correlate:

• Metrics: 30-day CPU, network, disk I/O patterns
• Dependencies: What talks to what, which resources share Key Vaults
• Lifecycle patterns: Creation dates, last modification, access patterns
• Network topology: VNet associations, NSG rules, Load Balancer configs
• Identity connections: Service principals, managed identities, access patterns

This creates a complete picture of what’s actually happening in your environment.

3. The “Safety-Check” Report - Sleep Soundly

This is our killer feature. We don’t just identify waste; we prove it’s safe to delete:

==============================================
CLOUD SLEUTH RISK-FREE SAVINGS REPORT
==============================================
Environment: Production Azure Subscription
Analysis Date: 2024-01-20
Total Monthly Spend: $82,400
==============================================

CONFIRMED WASTE (100% Safe to Delete)
----------------------------------------------
Category: Orphaned Resources
- 47 Unattached Premium Disks: $8,200/month
  Last attached: 180+ days ago
  Zero read/write operations
  No backup policies attached
  
- 23 Unused Public IPs: $115/month
  Never attached to any resource
  Zero traffic logs
  
- 112 Orphaned Network Interfaces: $0/month
  (No direct cost but cluttering environment)

Category: Zombie VMs (0% Activity)
- 31 VMs with 0% CPU for 30+ days: $12,300/month
  Zero network traffic
  No active connections
  No scheduled tasks running
  
TOTAL RISK-FREE SAVINGS: $20,615/month
Annual Savings: $247,380

[DOWNLOAD DETAILED REPORT] [DELETE RESOURCES SCRIPT]
==============================================

MEDIUM RISK SAVINGS (Require Verification)
----------------------------------------------
- 15 Oversized VMs (avg 2% CPU): $6,200/month
  Recommendation: Resize to smaller SKUs
  
- 8 Premium Databases in DEV: $3,100/month
  Recommendation: Switch to Basic tier
  
==============================================

Real Customer Results

Case Study: FinTech Startup

• Environment: 3-year-old, 2,400+ resources, zero tags
• Monthly spend: $67,000
• Cloud Sleuth discovered: $19,400/month in confirmed waste
• Time to discovery: 12 minutes
• Time saved vs manual: ~2 weeks of engineering time

Case Study: E-commerce Platform (Your actual case from the file)

• Environment: 5-year-old, inherited after acquisition
• Monthly spend: $51,200
• Cloud Sleuth discovered: 89 zombie VMs costing $18,400/month
• Additional findings: 247 other wasteful resources
• Total potential savings: $24,300/month

The Cloud Sleuth Dashboard

[Visual placeholder: Screenshot of Cloud Sleuth dashboard showing waste categories, risk levels, and one-click remediation options]

Key features visible in the dashboard:

• Waste by Category: Pie chart showing orphaned vs idle vs oversized
• Risk Assessment: Green/Yellow/Red indicators for each resource
• Confidence Score: Our ML model’s confidence that something is waste
• Dependencies Map: Visual graph of resource relationships
• One-Click Reports: Export for finance, detailed technical docs for engineers

Why This Matters for Your Career

Using Cloud Sleuth isn’t just about saving money. It’s about:

1. Looking like a hero: Walk into your next meeting with $20k+/month in guaranteed savings
2. Zero risk: Only delete what we’ve confirmed is 100% safe
3. Time back: Stop spending weeks on manual audits
4. Continuous monitoring: Get alerts when new waste appears
5. Career growth: Be the person who tamed the chaos

Start Your Free Waste Audit

Stop guessing. Stop scripting. Stop worrying about breaking production.

[Get Your Free Waste Audit] - Connect in 5 minutes, see your actual waste in 10.

No credit card. No commitment. No risk.

Chapter 5: Building a Long-Term FinOps Culture

Cleaning up waste is just the first step. If you don’t change the system that created the mess, you’ll be back here in six months. Let’s build a sustainable FinOps culture that prevents waste from accumulating.

Governance That Actually Works

1. The “Minimum Viable Tagging” Policy

Forget complex 20-tag taxonomies. Start with just THREE required tags:

{
  "Owner": "email@company.com",     // Who to contact
  "Environment": "prod|dev|test",    // Can we delete it?
  "DeleteAfter": "2024-12-31|never"  // When does it expire?
}

Implement with Azure Policy:

# Create a policy requiring these three tags
$policyDef = @{
    DisplayName = "Require Basic Tags"
    Description = "Require Owner, Environment, and DeleteAfter tags"
    Mode = "Indexed"
    PolicyRule = @{
        if = @{
            field = "type"
            equals = "Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups"
        }
        then = @{
            effect = "deny"
            details = @{
                message = "Resource groups must have Owner, Environment, and DeleteAfter tags"
            }
        }
    }
}

New-AzPolicyDefinition @policyDef

2. Auto-Deletion for Test Resources

Set up automation to delete anything tagged with DeleteAfter when the date passes:

# Azure Automation Runbook to clean expired resources
$today = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd"
$resources = Get-AzResource | Where-Object {
    $_.Tags.DeleteAfter -ne $null -and 
    $_.Tags.DeleteAfter -ne "never" -and 
    $_.Tags.DeleteAfter -lt $today
}

foreach ($resource in $resources) {
    # Send warning email first
    Send-MailMessage -To $resource.Tags.Owner -Subject "Resource scheduled for deletion: $($resource.Name)"
    # Add to deletion queue (implement grace period)
    Add-ToDelectionQueue -ResourceId $resource.Id -GracePeriodDays 3
}

Budget Alerts That Don’t Get Ignored

Most budget alerts are useless because they fire too late or too often. Here’s what actually works:

The “Anomaly Alert” (Not Just Threshold)

# Set up intelligent budget alerts
$budget = New-AzConsumptionBudget `
    -Name "IntelligentBudget" `
    -Amount 50000 `
    -TimeGrain Monthly `
    -StartDate (Get-Date -Day 1) `
    -EndDate (Get-Date).AddYears(1) `
    -ContactEmail @("sre-team@company.com") `
    -ContactRole @("Owner", "Contributor") `
    -NotificationKey "ActualCost" `
    -NotificationThreshold @(80, 100, 120) `
    -NotificationEnabled

But more importantly, set up anomaly detection:

# Alert on unusual spending patterns, not just thresholds
$anomalyAlert = @{
    Name = "DailySpendAnomaly"
    Condition = "Daily spend > 150% of 7-day average"
    Action = "Email + Slack + Create incident"
}

“Showback” Not “Chargeback” - Building Accountability Without Being Punitive

The goal isn’t to punish teams for spending money. It’s to make costs visible so teams can make informed decisions.

The Monthly “Cost Review” Meeting Template

Run this 30-minute meeting monthly with each team:

1. Show the Numbers (5 min)

   • “Your team’s Azure spend: $12,400 this month”
   • “Trend: +15% from last month”
   • “Biggest cost: VM-PROD-API-01 at $3,200”

2. Identify Surprises (10 min)

   • “Did you expect VM-PROD-API-01 to cost $3,200?”
   • “Are these 5 test databases still needed?”
   • “Notice any resources you don’t recognize?”

3. Find Optimizations Together (10 min)

   • “Could VM-PROD-API-01 use reserved instances?”
   • “Can we schedule DEV environments to shut down at night?”
   • “Would spot instances work for your batch jobs?”

4. Set Actions (5 min)

   • Owner takes 2-3 specific optimization actions
   • Schedule follow-up for next month
   • Celebrate wins from previous month

The “Cost per Feature” Dashboard

Help teams understand the business impact:

Feature: User Authentication Service
- Monthly Azure Cost: $3,200
- Monthly Active Users: 45,000
- Cost per User: $0.071
- YoY Efficiency: +23% (cost per user down)

This transforms the conversation from “you’re spending too much” to “let’s make this more efficient.”

The “FinOps Champion” Program

Identify one engineer per team who:

• Gets read-only access to cost management
• Attends monthly FinOps sync meetings
• Shares optimization wins
• Gets recognized for savings achieved

Create a simple recognition system:

• Waste Warrior: Found >$1,000/month in savings
• Optimizer Elite: Reduced team costs by >20%
• FinOps Champion: Sustained 3+ months of cost reduction

Automation Opportunities Checklist

Here are the top automation opportunities that prevent waste:

• Auto-shutdown for DEV/TEST (Save ~30% on non-prod)
• Rightsizing recommendations (Weekly automated reports)
• Orphan resource detection (Daily scans, weekly reports)
• Reserved Instance optimization (Monthly analysis)
• Spot instance conversion (For appropriate workloads)
• Storage tier optimization (Hot → Cool → Archive)
• Backup retention policies (Delete old backups)
• Snapshot lifecycle management (Auto-delete after X days)

Conclusion: From Overwhelmed to In Control

Let’s recap the journey we’ve taken together:

1. You’re not alone: Thousands of engineers inherit “dirty” Azure environments every year
2. The mess isn’t your fault: But now you have the tools to fix it
3. Quick wins exist: Stopped VMs and orphaned disks can save you thousands immediately
4. Manual auditing works but doesn’t scale: Scripts and spreadsheets will burn you out
5. Automation is the answer: Whether you build it or buy it
6. Culture beats process: FinOps is a team sport, not a solo mission

Your Two Paths Forward

You now have two paths:

Path 1: The Manual Way

• Use the scripts in this guide
• Spend 2-3 weeks on initial audit
• Find $10-30k/month in savings
• Repeat monthly (forever)
• Accept some risk of breaking things

Path 2: The Automated Way

• Connect Cloud Sleuth in 5 minutes
• See your waste report in 10 minutes
• Get guaranteed safe deletions
• Continuous monitoring included
• Focus on engineering, not Excel

The Real Cost of Waiting

Every day you wait costs real money:

• $80,000/month = $2,667/day
• 20% waste (conservative) = $533/day going to nothing
• One week of delay = $3,731 burned

But the real cost isn’t money—it’s opportunity. Every hour you spend on manual cost analysis is an hour not spent on:

• Building features
• Improving reliability
• Learning new skills
• Actually enjoying your work

Your Next Action

I’ll leave you with three options, ranked by impact:

1. Best Option: Start your free Cloud Sleuth audit - See your actual waste in 10 minutes

2. Good Option: Run the PowerShell scripts from Chapter 2 today - Find those stopped VMs and orphaned disks

3. Minimum Option: Export your cost data and identify your top 5 resource groups to investigate

Whatever you choose, start today. Your CFO is looking at that Azure bill right now, wondering why it keeps growing. Be the person with answers, not excuses.

Let’s Connect

Have questions about your specific environment? Found massive savings using this guide? Hit a roadblock we didn’t cover?

• Email: help@cloudsleuth.com
• LinkedIn: Cloud Sleuth Community
• Slack: FinOps Practitioners (find us in #azure-cost)

Remember: You’re not just reducing costs. You’re taming chaos, building credibility, and taking control of your infrastructure.

Welcome to the club of engineers who’ve successfully tamed their dirty Azure environments. Your Azure subscription—and your career—will thank you.

**Ready to see your actual waste