Solution brief
Azure Cost and Waste Solution Brief
Two pages on this decision: what to measure, who has to sign it off, and what should be true before you commit. Free, and written to be forwarded.
Get the solution briefSolutions / Cloud cost
Microsoft 365 cost optimisation across licences, Azure and Cloud PCs.
Find the waste before your renewal locks it in.
On annual plans, you have 7 days after a purchase or renewal to cut seats. After that, the count is locked for the rest of the term. EtherInsights finds unused licences, oversized Azure resources and idle Cloud PCs, prices each one and names an owner before that window closes.
14-day free trial on your own tenantRead-only by default
- 7 days
- After a renewal to cut seats on an annual plan, then the count is locked for the term
- 30 days ahead
- Add your renewal dates and EtherInsights warns you, with the seats to cut before the renewal
- £0.79
- A user a month for EtherInsights, set against the full plan price of every idle seat it finds
Estimate your reclaimable Azure VM spend.
A planning range from two answers. Connect your tenant for the real figure, backed by evidence.
When were these VMs last reviewed for sizing?
Estimated reclaimable spend£1,200 to £1,600a month, or £14,400 to £19,200 a yearGet my real number, free
Illustrative only. The range uses default right-sizing assumptions, not your usage, reservations or discounts.
Your renewal sets next year’s bill.
On annual plans, you have 7 days after a purchase or renewal to cut seats. After that, every unused seat is locked in for the rest of the term.
What is happening
Spend keeps running after the need ends.
Leavers keep licences, project VMs keep running and Cloud PCs stay provisioned long after the work moved on.
Why it gets missed
Every view shows a slice.
Licences live in one admin centre, Azure in another, Cloud PCs in a third. Nobody sees the waste in one place, so nobody owns it.
What good looks like
Waste found before the renewal, with owners.
Every unused seat and idle resource has a price, a named owner and a date to beat: your renewal. The same review runs again next month.
Idle Azure resources, and what each one costs.
A stopped VM that still bills, a disk with nothing attached and a public IP address you no longer need. EtherInsights shows each one's monthly cost, so your team can decide what to clean up first.
Watch with chapters and transcript
Read the transcript
- Every month, an idle Azure resource can add another cost to the bill.
- A virtual machine that is stopped but still billed.
- A disk with no machine attached.
- A public IP address you no longer need.
- Finance sees one total. The idle items sit inside it, unnamed.
- EtherInsights identifies those resources and shows their monthly cost, so your team can decide what to clean up first.
- Start with the one that costs most. Your team decides what happens next.
- It's read-only by default, with nothing to install.
- Export a PDF with every resource, its resource ID and its estimated monthly cost, for the person who owns it.
- Put that budget back into the services your people use.
- Try EtherInsights free for fourteen days on your own tenant.
- Idle Azure resources still bill every month
- Disks, IP addresses and the one total that hides them
- Identify idle resources and their monthly cost
- Read-only, and a PDF for the owner
- Put the budget back into your services
See savings evidence flow.
A focused walkthrough of Microsoft 365 licence waste, Azure spend, and owner-backed savings actions.
Every saving has an owner, a value and a date to beat: your renewal.
Seats found after the renewal are paid for until the next one. Every saving here has an owner, a monthly value and a date to beat.
Seats to cut before each renewal
Add your renewal dates and EtherInsights warns you 30 days ahead, with the inactive, underused and duplicate licences to cut before the renewal.
Savings pipeline with named owners
Every opportunity has an assignee, an estimated monthly impact and a target close date.
Azure right-sizing with audit evidence
Oversized VMs, idle App Services, unattached disks and stale snapshots.
Storage and Cloud PC waste in the same review
SharePoint and OneDrive against quota, and Cloud PC capacity against entitlement.
A number finance will accept
Before and after figures, the date each action closed, and who signed it off.
Start here
Start with a savings report, not a sales cycle.
See this working on your own tenant.
Four things you can check on your own tenant.
Seats nobody uses. Changes nobody noticed. AI nobody approved. EtherInsights finds all three across your Microsoft estate, gives each one an owner, and keeps the proof. From £0.79 a user a month.
Seats, changes and AI, one price.
Seats nobody uses, changes nobody noticed and AI nobody approved, found in one platform. The waste becomes one annual figure your finance lead can read, with a date to beat: your renewal.
£0.79 per licensed user per month, whole platform
Try it on your own tenant today.
Your tenant, your number, 14 days. Connect read-only and see real findings in the first session.
14-day free trial on your own tenant. Cancel inside the trial.
An owner on every finding.
Each finding says what to cut, who owns it and what it is worth. The savings report tracks what was actually cut.
A savings report with an owner, an action and a value on every line
Nothing fails silently.
Every leaver closed, checked and filed. Every check says what it couldn't read: anything unread shows as "Not read", never as zero. Read-only by default, and changes are opt-in, run under your own admin's delegated sign-in.
ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 42001
A UK software company for the Microsoft estate. Listed by Microsoft as a Windows 365 partner, on Microsoft Marketplace, and certified to ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 42001.
About EfficientEther
Start with a savings report, before your next renewal.
An idle seat costs its full plan price every month, and EtherInsights costs £0.79 a user. The first pass is read-only, and changes are opt-in.
£0.79per licensed user / month
Whole platform, one price. You pay for licensed users only. A licensed user is an account that is switched on and holds any Microsoft licence, such as E3. Volume and MSP pricing on request.
Take it to the people who decide.
Free documents for this decision, written to be forwarded.
Questions people ask first.
Microsoft facts on this page are checked against Microsoft Learn. Glossary of terms
On annual plans, you have 7 days after a purchase or renewal to cut seats. After that, the count is locked for the rest of the term, so the time to find unused seats is before the renewal date, not after it.
Guides and analysis on this topic
Read the blog
Cloud optimisation · 17 Jul 2026
Azure VM Right-Sizing: A Practical Guide
Right-size Azure virtual machines with evidence: gather Azure Monitor metrics, read Advisor recommendations, pick a smaller SKU and resize safely.
Read article
Microsoft 365 · 14 Jul 2026
How to Find Unused Microsoft 365 Licences (and Reclaim Them)
Find unused Microsoft 365 licences with the admin centre and Get-MgSubscribedSku, tell unassigned from dormant seats, and run a monthly reclaim loop.
Read article
Cloud optimisation · 23 Jul 2026
Azure Reservations vs Savings Plans: Which Should You Choose?
Azure reservations vs savings plans: how each commitment discount works, the flexibility trade-off, and when to choose reservations, savings plans, or neither.
Read articleSee it on your own tenant this week.
Start on your own, see it with a practitioner, or ask the question procurement will ask. Every path has a person behind it and a published price.
- TodayConnect read-only in about seven minutes. Nothing in your tenant changes.
- First sessionFindings appear as the scan runs, each with a monthly figure and an owner.
- Day 14Keep the plan or cancel.
See what your Microsoft estate is wasting.
Connect your own tenant with read-only consent. Licence, Azure and Cloud PC findings appear in the first session.
- 14-day free trial on your own tenant
- Read-only by default, actions opt-in
- ISO 27001, 9001 and 42001
Next: sign in with Microsoft and approve read-only access. About seven minutes to connect.
Prefer to see it first? Watch the 90 second tour