Cost Optimization

Azure Storage Cost Optimization

Reference guide for identifying cost savings opportunities in Azure Storage accounts through tier analysis, lifecycle policies, and orphaned resource detection.

Scope

Resolve subscription names to subscription scope paths. For cross-subscription requests, process no more than ten accessible subscriptions per batch. Tenant IDs are not Cost Management scopes.

Resource Graph workflow

1. Query AdvisorResources for Cost recommendations whose resource ID belongs to a storage account or managed disk.

2. Query Resources for matching configuration such as SKU, redundancy, kind, access tier, location, attachment state, management-policy presence when exposed, and ownership tags.

3. Join recommendations to inventory by resource ID. Preserve the Advisor recommendation text, impact, savings fields, currency, and period.

4. Use access, capacity, and transaction metrics only when an Azure Resource Manager MCP (ARM MCP) operation returns them for the same resource and period.

An unattached disk, missing policy, SKU, redundancy choice, or resource tag is an inventory fact, not proof of waste. Do not classify storage as idle, underutilized, or safe to tier, resize, or delete without an authoritative recommendation or matching observed usage evidence.

Quantify opportunities with actual usage, current cost, and live prices. Do not use generic savings ranges.

When Advisor or observed access evidence supports tiering analysis, load Lifecycle guidance.

Resource Graph Queries

Find storage accounts without lifecycle policies:

Lifecycle policy contents are not queryable through Resource Graph. Use the applicable ARM MCP storage operation. If unavailable, use the Storage Resource Provider API through the fallback process.

Find Premium storage accounts in non-production:

Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.storage/storageaccounts'
| where sku.name contains 'Premium'
| where tags.environment in~ ('dev', 'test', 'staging', 'sandbox')
| project name, resourceGroup, sku=sku.name, tags

Find GRS/GZRS accounts in dev/test (redundancy downgrade candidates):

Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.storage/storageaccounts'
| where sku.name contains 'GRS' or sku.name contains 'GZRS'
| where tags.environment in~ ('dev', 'test', 'staging')
| project name, resourceGroup, sku=sku.name, location, tags

Find classic (v1) storage accounts:

Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.storage/storageaccounts'
| where kind =~ 'Storage'
| project name, resourceGroup, location, kind

Find orphaned managed disks (unattached):

Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.compute/disks'
| where isempty(managedBy)
| project name, resourceGroup, location, diskSizeGb=properties.diskSizeGB, sku=sku.name

Report Templates

Subscription-Level Summary

Include: subscription name/ID, total monthly storage cost, account count by SKU/tier, total data stored (TB), top issues found.

Detailed Storage Account Analysis

Include: account name, resource group, SKU/redundancy, kind, monthly cost, capacity (GB), access tier distribution (%), lifecycle policy status, and optimization recommendations.

ARM MCP Tools

Use Azure Resource Graph (ARG) operations for inventory and configuration. Use ARM MCP storage operations for management policies and access tracking, and ARM MCP monitoring operations for capacity and transaction metrics. Use the Storage Resource Provider or Azure Monitor API fallback when needed, and report an evidence gap if neither source returns the required data.

Pricing

Use get_retail_prices for the requested region, redundancy, tier, and currency. Include storage, transaction, retrieval, early-deletion, and rehydration costs when relevant; never rely on embedded rates.