Practitioner ebook
The Microsoft 365 and Azure Cost Optimisation Handbook
Find avoidable Microsoft 365 and Azure spend, agree changes with the right owners, and confirm the result before reporting savings.
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What this handbook helps you decide
Walk into the renewal meeting with a cost baseline that finance and IT both accept.
Most Microsoft renewals arrive with one number attached, the quote. The figures that would let you challenge it, purchased against assigned seats, real activity, service dependencies and the Azure resources still sized for last year's project, sit in separate reports owned by separate people. By the time they are assembled the renewal window has usually closed.
This handbook builds the baseline first, then works through licences and Azure separately, because the evidence and the owners are different. Chapter 1 sets the scope, the decision and the deadline before data collection starts. Chapter 2 separates what is purchased, assigned, active and required. Chapter 3 reduces Azure waste without creating service risk.
It also holds a hard line between an opportunity and a verified saving. Every worked quantity in the book is illustrative and is meant to be replaced with your own tenant, agreement and billing data, so the figure you report to finance is one your own evidence supports.
- How to set the scope, the decision and the deadline before anyone starts pulling reports.
- Why entitlement overlap matters as much as inactivity when you review seats.
- How to check service dependencies before changing a plan, so security or voice features do not disappear.
- How to close the gap between a leaver and a reclaimed seat, and when the commitment can actually drop.
- How to review oversized, idle and stranded Azure resources with the owner who has to approve the change.
- How to keep opportunities and verified savings in separate columns after the first review.
What you get
- 35 pages, an introduction and four chapters, written by Ryan Mangan and reviewed on 23 August 2026.
- A reference set of 24 product and authoritative sources.
- Worked examples for the cost baseline, the licence review, the Azure review and the monthly cadence.
- Guidance on who to bring into each review, and a first ninety days of repeatable cost control.
Who it is for
IT managers, Microsoft 365 administrators, Azure operations teams, finance partners, procurement leads and MSP practitioners preparing a renewal or a recurring cost review. Most useful to teams running tenants of roughly 50 to 600 users, where one person often covers several of those roles.
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