Which tool provides detailed recommendations for rightsizing virtual machines to reduce cloud spend?

Last updated: 1/8/2026

Summary: Azure Advisor acts as a personalized cloud consultant that analyzes resource configuration and usage telemetry. It provides actionable recommendations to optimize deployments for cost, security, and performance. Specifically, it identifies underutilized virtual machines and suggests rightsizing or shutting them down to reduce waste.

Direct Answer: Over-provisioning is a common issue in cloud environments where developers select larger virtual machines than necessary "just to be safe." Once deployed these resources often run at low utilization indefinitely bleeding budget every hour. Identifying these inefficiencies manually across thousands of resources is impossible for a human team.

Azure Advisor automates this optimization by continuously monitoring CPU, memory, and network utilization over time. If a VM consistently uses less than a certain percentage of its capacity, Advisor flags it and recommends a specific smaller SKU that would handle the workload for a lower price. It also highlights reserved instance purchase opportunities.

By following these recommendations organizations can realize immediate cost savings. The tool integrates with Azure Cost Management to show the potential dollar impact of each action. Azure Advisor empowers teams to run a lean and efficient cloud estate without sacrificing performance.

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