Microsoft’s Start/Stop VM Solution vs. ParkMyCloud

Users looking to save money on public cloud may be in the market for a start/stop VM solution. While it sounds simple, there is huge savings potential available simply by stopping VMs, typically on a schedule. The basic idea is that non-production instances don’t need to run 24×7, so by turning VMs off when they’re not needed, you can save money.

If you use Microsoft Azure, perhaps you’ve seen the Start/Stop VM solution in the Azure Marketplace. You may want this tool if you want to configure Azure to start/stop VMs for the weekend or on weekday nights. It may also serve as a way to avoid creating a stop VM powershell.

Users of Azure have taken advantage of this option to start/stop VMs during off-hours, but have found that it is lacking some key functionality that they require for their business. Let’s take a look at what this Start/Stop tool offers and what it lacks, then compare it to ParkMyCloud’s comprehensive offering.

Azure Start/Stop VM Solution

Let’s take a look at Azure’s start/stop VM solution. The crux of this solution is the use of a few Azure services, specifically Automation and Log Analytics to schedule the VMs and Azure Monitor emails to let you know when a system was shut down or started. Both scheduling and keeping track of said schedules are important.

As far as the backbone of Azure services, the use of native tools within Azure can be useful if you’re already baked into the Azure ecosystem, but can be prohibitive to exploring other cloud options. You may only use Azure at the moment, but having the flexibility to use other public clouds in the future is a strong reason to use cloud-agnostic tools today.

Next, this solution costs money, but it’s not very easy to estimate the cost (but does that surprise you?). The total cost is based on the underlying services (Automation, Log Analytics, and Azure Monitor), which means it could be very cheap or very expensive depending on what else you use and how often you’re scheduling resources.

The schedules themselves can be based on time, but only for a single start and stop time — which is not practical for typical applications. The page claims it can be based on utilization, but in the initial setup there is no place to configure that. It also needs to be set up for 4 hours before it can show you any log or monitoring information.

The interface for setting up schedules and automation is not very user-friendly. It requires creating automation scripts that are either for stopping or starting only, and only have one time attached. This is tedious, and the single-time configuration makes it difficult to maximize off time and therefore savings.

To create new schedules, you have to create new scripts, which makes the interface confusing for those who aren’t used to the Azure portal. At the end of the setup, you’ll have at least a dozen new objects in your Azure subscription, which only grows if you have any significant number of VMs.

Users have noted numerous complaints in the solution’s reviews:

• “Great idea — painful to use — I don’t know why it couldn’t work like the auto shutdown built into the VM config with maybe a few more options (on/off weekdays vs. weekends). Feels like a painful set of scripts with no config options once it’s deployed (or I don’t understand how to use it).”
• “Tried to boil the ocean — This solution is complex and bloated. It still supports classic VMs. The autostop solution only supports stop not start. Why bother using this?”
• “Start/Stop VM Azure — Difficult to do and harder to modify/change components. I’ll have difficulty to repeat to create another schedule for different VM.”

Luckily, there’s an easier option.

How it stacks up to ParkMyCloud

So if the Start/Stop VM Solution from Microsoft can start and stop Azure VMs, what more do you need? Well, we at ParkMyCloud have heard from customers (ranging from day-1 startups to Fortune 100 companies) that there are features necessary for a cloud cost optimization tool if it is going to get widespread adoption.

That’s why we created ParkMyCloud: to provide simple, straightforward cost optimization that provides rapid ROI while being easy to use. You can use ParkMyCloud to save money through Azure start/stop VM schedules for non-production resources that are not needed evenings and weekends, as well as RightSizing overprovisioned resources.

Here are some of the features ParkMyCloud has that are missing from the Microsoft tool:

• Single Pane of Glass — ParkMyCloud can work with multiple clouds, multiple accounts within each cloud, and multiple regions within each account, all in one easy-to-use interface.
• Easy to change or override schedules — Users can change schedules or temporarily override them through the UI, our API, our Slackbot, or through our iOS app.
• Schedule recommendations — the Azure tool requires users to determine their own schedules. ParkMyClouds recommends on/off schedules based on keywords found in tags and names, and based on resource utilization history.
• Policy engine — ParkMyCloud can assign schedules automatically based on rules you create based on teams, names, or other criteria.
• RightSizing — in addition to on/off schedules, you can also save money with RightSizing. Our data shows that more than 95% of VMs are operating at less than 50% average CPU, which means they are oversized and wasting money. Changing the VM size or family, or modernizing instance types, saves 50–75% of the cost of the instance.
• User Management — Admins can delegate access to users and assign Team Leads to manage sub-groups within the organization, providing user governance over schedules and VMs. Admin, Team Lead, and Team Member roles are able to be modified to fit your organization’s needs.
• No Azure-specific knowledge needed — Users don’t need to know details about setting up Automation Scripts or Log Analytics to get their servers up and running. Many ParkMyCloud administrators provide access to users throughout their organizations via the ParkMyCloud RBAC. This is useful for users who may need to, say, start and stop a demo environment on demand, but who do not have the knowledge necessary to do this through the Azure console.
• Enterprise features — Single sign-on, savings reports, notifications straight to your email or chat group, and full support access helps your large organization save money quickly.
• Integrations — use ParkMyCloud with your favorite SSO tools such as Ping and Okta. Get notifications and send commands back to ParkMyCloud through tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
• Straightforward setup — it usually takes new users 15 minutes or less to set up a ParkMyCloud account, connect to Azure, and get started saving money.
• Reporting — with ParkMyCloud, users can view, download, and email savings reports covering costs, actions, and savings by team, credential, provider, resource, and more.
• Notifications — users can get configurable notifications of ParkMyCloud updates & activities via email, webhook or ChatOps.
• Huge cost savings and ROI — here are just a few examples from some of our customers.
• A global fast food chain is managing 3,500+ resources in ParkMyCloud and saving more than $200,000 per month on their cloud spend
• A global registry software company has saved more than $2.2 million on their cloud spend since signing up for ParkMyCloud — an ROI of 6173%
• A global consumer goods company with 200+ ParkMyCloud users saves more than $100,000 per month on their cloud spend.

As you can tell, the Start/Stop VM solution from Microsoft can be useful for very specific cases, but most customers will find it lacking the features they really need to make cloud cost savings a priority. ParkMyCloud offers these features at a low cost, so try out the free trial now to see how quickly you can cut your Azure cloud bill.

Related Reading:

• ParkMyCloud vs. Scripting
• Azure RightSizing
• Azure VM Types Comparison
• AWS Resource Optimization Recommendations

Originally published at www.parkmycloud.com on August 5, 2019.