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Azure Spend Down in 6 Months

With Stronger Security & SOC 2 / ISO 27001:2022 Readiness

For a U.S. alternative-investment platform on Microsoft Azure, we eliminated unnecessary resources across storage, networking & security, analytics, VMs, and databases—while tightening access/process controls and preparing the estate for SOC 2 and ISO 27001.

Microsoft Azure Cost Optimization Security & Governance SOC 2 / ISO 27001 Readiness FinOps + Cloud Ops

−70%

Monthly Azure run-rate

↑ to 82%

Secure Score

100%

MFA & PIM coverage

0

Production downtime from changes

Client & Context

Alternative-investment platform on Azure (multi-subscription hub-and-spoke). Workloads across AKS, App Service, Azure SQL, ADLS Gen2, Event Hubs, Front Door/App Gateway, Key Vault, Databricks/Synapse, Log Analytics/Sentinel.

Industry
FinTech

Cloud
Microsoft Azure

Duration
6 months

Approach
FinOps + Governance

Goal
≥50% cut, achieved 70%

Objectives

Eliminate unnecessary resources and right-size by category (storage, networking & security, analytics, VMs, databases).
Strengthen process & access controls (RBAC, PIM, Conditional Access) and cloud security (Defender, Sentinel).
Prep environment and artifacts for SOC 2 and ISO 27001.

Cost Reductions by Category

Action	Detail	Impact
Lifecycle & tiers	Blob hot→cool/archive; consolidate ADLS Gen2; ZRS only where needed	−68% storage cost
Audit-ready logging	Compress/rotate diagnostics; immutable Archive retention	Lower cost, stronger evidence

Action	Detail	Impact
Egress controls	Private Endpoints + VNet integration; NAT reductions	−72% networking spend
Security appliances	Consolidate Azure Firewall; standardize WAF policies	Less fixed cost, simpler ops

Action	Detail	Impact
Databricks policy	Auto-terminate, job clusters, spot where safe, retire idle workspaces	−75% analytics cost
Synapse right-fit	Pause/retire dedicated pools; serverless for bursty queries; scheduled pipelines	Massive fixed cost cuts

Action	Detail	Impact
Rightsize & Arm	Shift to Dpsv5 (Arm) after testing; Hybrid Benefit where eligible	−62% VM cost
Commitments	1-yr Savings Plans/RI for steady compute; Spot for stateless	Lower unit rates

Action	Detail	Impact
Serverless & pooling	Move non-critical to serverless; consolidate elastic pools; prune replicas	−65% DB cost
Tuning	Automatic tuning, index hygiene, vCore ceilings via telemetry	Smaller footprints

All changes preserved SLAs and audit logging; no production downtime.

Improved Control & Security

Policy & Tagging: Management Groups + Azure Policy, 98% tag compliance.
Identity: Entra ID Conditional Access + MFA; PIM for privileged roles (JIT access).
Threat Protection: Defender for Cloud tuned; Sentinel detections + response playbooks.
Change Control: GitOps/IaC (Bicep/Terraform), evidence-ready release checklists.

Secure Score

53% → 82%

MFA & PIM

100% coverage

High-Severity findings

↓ 76%

SOC 2 / ISO 27001:2022 Readiness

We mapped Azure controls to SOC 2 and ISO 27001, built the evidence factory, and closed technical gaps while documenting process items.

Control matrix (identity, logging, backup/DR, vulnerability, vendor mgmt)
Evidence exports: policy compliance, activity logs, PIM activations
SoA draft, Risk Register, Incident Response Plan, Backup/Restore tests

Timeline at a Glance

Month 1: Tagging/Policy guardrails; budgets & anomaly alerts; MFA/Conditional Access; first quick wins.

Month 2: Storage lifecycle; Private Endpoints; firewall/WAF rationalization.

Month 3: VM rightsizing/Arm/Hybrid Benefit; Savings Plans/RI; DB serverless & pooling.

Month 4: Databricks/Synapse optimization; Sentinel & Defender tuning.

Month 5: GitOps change control; PIM rollout; evidence factory live.

Month 6: Final category cuts; SOC 2/ISO 27001:2022 packs delivered.

“We asked for cost relief; we got that and a cleaner, auditable Azure estate. Hitting 70% savings without operational drama changed our unit economics.”
— CTO, Alternative-Investment Platform

Ready to see how TekClarion can help you cut your cloud costs while making better your cloud access controls and cloud security?

Contact TekClarion Today!