How Chess Found £12.7k in Annual Azure Savings Using Our Own Cost Optimisation Assessment
At Chess, we’re always looking for smarter ways to work – not just for our customers, but within our own cloud environments too. So when we launched our Azure Cost Optimisation Assessment, we decided to put it to the test internally. We ran it across several Azure subscriptions in our estate to get a clearer picture of our real consumption and to uncover any hidden waste.
By acting on a focused set of recommendations, we identified £12,700 in annual Azure savings – all from simple, low‑risk changes.
What We Found
Running the assessment across our in‑scope Azure subscriptions gave us a clear, actionable view of where spend was slipping. The tools highlighted three main areas:
- Underutilised Virtual Machines – oversized or consistently idle when measured against CPU, memory, and network activity.
- Idle Azure SQL Databases – still incurring monthly costs despite little or no usage.
- Unattached Managed Disks – no longer linked to running resources but still being billed.
These areas made up the majority of the savings opportunity. Better still, each recommendation carried minimal operational risk, required little effort, and delivered immediate financial benefit.
Even in a well‑managed environment, seeing just how quickly cloud waste can build up was a powerful reminder of why ongoing cost optimisation matters.
How These Insights Help Us Improve
The value of the assessment went far beyond the dollar figure. The visibility we gained is now helping us strengthen the way we run our cloud estate.
Better Governance
Breaking down spend by resource type – compute, storage, networking, PaaS – gives us clearer accountability. We can now align costs more transparently to service owners and business functions.
Stronger Operational Discipline
The assessment showed where idle or forgotten resources had been left running. This insight is helping us improve tagging standards, automate lifecycle policies, and build more consistent clean‑up routines.
A Regular Review Rhythm
The built‑in 30‑day optimisation plan provides a simple cadence for ongoing right‑sizing, quick wins, and commitment reviews. It helps us stay on top of our estate, rather than react to issues later.
More Accurate Budgets
With a better understanding of usage patterns and forecasted spend, we can now plan more confidently and match budgets to what we actually consume.
What This Exercise Taught Us
Running our own assessment reinforced some important truths about cloud operations:
- Optimisation is never “done”. Even well‑architected environments accumulate inefficiencies over time.
- Visibility drives action. Without a single view across compute, databases, storage, and consumption trends, waste can stay hidden for months.
- Small inefficiencies add up quickly. A handful of idle SQL databases or unattached disks can quietly cost thousands a year.
- Data removes risk. Recommendations backed by clear utilisation data make it easier to make confident decisions.
Why It Matters - for Us and Our Customers
This wasn’t just an exercise in cost cutting. It proved the value of a repeatable, scalable approach to cloud governance – one we can continue to apply internally and share with our customers.
By using our own assessment tools, supported by deep visibility from LogicMonitor, we showed exactly what we deliver for organisations every day:
- Smarter cloud investments
- Cleaner and more efficient environments
- Predictable, controlled costs
- No compromise on performance or resilience
This internal success story reinforces a simple truth: proactive cost optimisation isn’t optional. It’s a key part of responsible cloud management – and with the right tools, the savings are easier to uncover than most teams expect.
About the author
Chess
Chess is one of the UK’s leading independent and trusted technology service providers, employing more than 240 skilled people across the UK, supporting over 18,000 organisations.
We believe IT should work for you, reduce costs, deliver efficiency, keep you secure, enhance your work-life balance, improving performance. At Chess, we’re passionate about our unique culture and our continuous investment in our people to be industry experts.
We’re extremely proud that our people voted us No.1 in ‘The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for’ list 2018, and we continue to celebrate more than 17 years in the top 100.