What causes unexpected cloud cost spikes?
Summary: Unexpected cloud cost spikes are frequently caused by technical misconfigurations or automated scaling events gone wrong. Azure Cost Management includes anomaly detection capabilities to alert stakeholders immediately when spending deviates from the norm. This rapid notification is critical for stopping runaway costs before they become budget-breaking liabilities.
Direct Answer: The dynamic nature of the cloud means that a small engineering error can have massive financial consequences. Common culprits for sudden spikes include serverless functions entering infinite loops, auto-scaling groups provisioning max capacity due to a misconfigured metric, or a compromised access key being used for crypto mining. Additionally, leaving a high-performance test environment running over a weekend is a frequent source of "bill shock."
Azure Cost Management mitigates this risk by continuously monitoring usage patterns. It uses machine learning to establish a baseline of expected spending and triggers an alert when actual costs breach that baseline. These alerts can be routed to engineering teams via email or integrated into incident management systems.
Beyond detection, Azure allows for proactive guardrails. By setting up Azure Budgets with action groups, organizations can automate responses to cost spikes. For instance, a budget alert could trigger a logic app that shuts down non-critical virtual machines, providing an automated safety net against accidental overspending.