Identifying cost spikes
As we learned in Chapter 1, Understanding Cloud Bills, and Chapter 3, Monitoring Costs, at this stage, you should be familiar with all the tools that allow you to get a full picture of your spending and keep it predictable and under budget. Sometimes, however, there are specific conditions that will create unexpected spikes in your costs and will call for a prompt cleanup action. My recommendation is to check the Azure Cost Management page daily and look at a daily stacked view of your spending. The following screenshot shows the cost management page:
Figure 5.7 – Example of a daily stacked chart on your cost management page
In normal operations, you should be able to identify a nice clean pattern (just as the one pictured in the previous example) and immediately spot any spikes that do not resemble your normal pattern of operations.
Spikes can be caused by many underlying issues:
- An application that is calling a service...
