How to Identify and Remove Idle Azure Resources
Idle resources refer to cloud assets such as virtual machines, disks, or databases that sit underused or entirely unused over time, resulting in unnecessary costs without providing any benefits. While Azure Advisor does point out certain idle resources—like underutilised Azure VMs—it unfortunately does not cover all types of idle or orphaned resources, particularly those spread across various subscriptions, services, or created temporarily for testing purposes.
Even when identified, many teams find it difficult to take the necessary steps. A typical reason is the absence of clear ownership. Without knowing who provisioned a resource or understanding its current importance, teams may hesitate to delete or resize them. This indecision often leads to continued unnecessary expenses that can linger for months. Let’s explore how Turbo360 can help you navigate this challenge.
How to Identify Idle Azure Resources with Turbo360?
We’re thrilled to introduce a robust enhancement to Turbo360’s Cost Analyzer— the “Other Recommendations” feature—designed to make cloud cost optimisation straightforward and proactive.
This powerful functionality assists organisations in identifying and eliminating idle, unused, and orphaned Azure resources distributed across subscriptions and management groups, offering actionable insights, notification workflows, and the ability to generate exportable reports.
Now, let’s delve into how this feature can unveil opportunities for hidden cost savings and streamline the optimisation of your Azure environment with minimal effort.
Why This Feature is Crucial
No matter how well-managed your Azure environment is, it will inevitably accrue unused resources over time—think certificates, unnecessary public IPs, unattached managed disks, or logic app API connections devoid of workflows. These can quietly inflate your cloud costs.
Turbo360’s “Other Recommendations” tackles this issue in several ways:
- Automatically locating underutilised or idle resources across your cloud infrastructure.
- Delivering resource-specific details and tailored recommendations.
- Facilitating proactive notifications to the right team or stakeholder.
- Enabling Excel exports for offline reporting or audit processes.
How to Access the Feature
You can find this functionality in your Cost Analyzer via:
Cost Group → Optimization → Other Recommendations
Here, Turbo360 performs a scan across multiple subscriptions, consolidating all identified unused or idle resources into a single, unified view.
What Recommendations Can You Expect?
Below is a sample list of recommendations for unused or idle Azure resources outlined under “Other Recommendations” by Turbo360:
| Recommendation | Description | Count |
| Expired Certificates | Certificates that are past their validity and no longer trusted | 681 |
| API Connections with no Logic App | Unused API connectors without any Logic Apps | 94 |
| Unused NSGs, Subnets, IPs, VMs, Endpoints | Network and compute resources without associations | … |
| App Services with No Apps | App service plans that are operational without any deployed apps | 6 |
| Elastic Pool without DB | SQL Elastic Pools with no associated databases | 2 |
| Subscriptions without Resource Groups | Orphaned subscriptions | 0 |
Notification-Based Recommendations
One of the standout features of Turbo360 is its actionable notifications. From the recommendations view, you can easily:
- Click on a recommendation name.
- Select a specific unused resource.
- Click “Trigger Notification”.
- Choose a team/channel/email recipient.
- Hit Send.
The team member or group will receive a well-structured email detailing the necessary actions to take.
Sample Notification Email
The email comprises:
- Resource ID
- Resource group
- Subscription
- Location
- SKU (e.g., Free Tier App Service)
- A quick link for returning to other recommendations
This feature streamlines ownership and remediation, making it fast and accountable.
Exporting Recommendations to Excel
If you wish to analyse or share these recommendations offline, each type supports a one-click Excel export:
Click Recommendation → Download as Excel
The downloaded workbook will include all essential metadata for your infrastructure or FinOps team to review and act upon.
What’s Next?
This is merely the beginning. Our aim is to enhance your Azure cost governance by ensuring it is:
- Automated
- Transparent
- Actionable for teams
The “Other Recommendations” feature moves you closer to complete workload optimisation, a key FinOps priority for 2025 according to the latest FinOps report.
Give It a Try Today!
Log into Turbo360 and navigate to Cost Analyzer → Optimization → Other Recommendations to explore these valuable insights within your cloud environment.
Start with small steps: notify a colleague, export a report, and take action.
If you require assistance with setup or wish to see this functionality in action, consider taking a free trial.
