Azure Advisor
Slide deck explaining Azure Advisor: suggests best-practice improvements for Azure resources. Covers how Advisor generates guidance, five categories (Reliability, Security, Performance, Cost, Operational Excellence), differences from Azure Monitor and Cost Management, when to use Advisor, and best practices.
Azure Advisor
Introduction to Azure Advisor: suggests best-practice improvements for Azure resources, you choose what to change.
Azure Advisor
Introduction to Azure Advisor: suggests best-practice improvements for Azure resources, you choose what to change.
Azure Advisor: the purpose
Azure Advisor suggests best-practice improvements; you choose what to change. Analyzes your Azure resources and usage. Surfaces actionable guidance (not automatic fixes). Helps you build an improvement backlog. You decide: apply, postpone, or dismiss.
How Advisor generates guidance
Advisor uses configuration plus usage telemetry to produce actionable guidance. Input 1: resource configuration. Input 2: usage telemetry. Output: best-practice actions you can choose to implement. Not a mandate; it's guidance.
Azure Advisor categories (5)
Advisor organizes guidance into five operational themes. Reliability: resilience and availability improvements. Security: reduce common risks and unsafe configurations. Performance: remove bottlenecks and right-size for speed. Cost: reduce unnecessary spend (underutilized resources). Operational Excellence: consistency, workflows, operational hygiene.
Advisor vs Azure Monitor
Advisor helps you improve; Azure Monitor helps you detect and alert in real time. Azure Advisor: best-practice guidance over time. Azure Monitor: metrics/logs, dashboards, alert rules. Example signal: Central Processing Unit (CPU) spike to Azure Monitor. Don't expect Advisor to alert you 'the moment it breaks'.
Advisor vs Microsoft Cost Management
Advisor suggests savings actions; Cost Management analyzes and controls spend. Advisor (Cost): optimization ideas to reduce waste. Cost Management: cost analysis and reporting over time. Cost Management: budgets and budget alerts. Use both: ideas (Advisor) plus controls (Cost Management).
When recommendations appear
Advisor runs in the background; recommendations may take time to show or refresh. Not instant, not real-time. Newly created resources: up to approximately 24 hours for recommendations. After changes: recommendations may refresh later. Plan reviews as a routine, not a minute-by-minute check.
When Advisor is the right tool
Use Advisor when you want a guided improvement backlog across categories. Best for: 'What should we improve next?'. Produces a prioritized set of best-practice actions. Covers 5 categories (not just Cost). Good for subscription-wide reviews.
Pick the right tool for the job
Advice, alerts, and budgets are different problems—use the matching tool. Alerts plus dashboards to Azure Monitor (telemetry plus alert rules). Cost reporting plus budgets/alerts to Microsoft Cost Management. Advisor supports both with optimization guidance. Don't use Advisor for real-time alerting or budgeting.
Apply recommendations with context
Recommendations are optional; validate impact against real constraints. Apply when it aligns with workload needs. Postpone when timing or roadmap conflicts. Dismiss when it violates constraints (latency, availability, compliance). Advisor helps you decide—your environment sets the rules.
Common pitfalls + key takeaways
Know what Advisor is—and what it is not. Not monitoring/alerting to use Azure Monitor. Not automatic remediation to you choose changes. Not instant to recommendations may take approximately 24 hours. Cost ideas does not equal cost management to use Microsoft Cost Management for budgets/reporting.