Azure Monitoring Tools: A Managed Service vs DIY For Your Cloud Management

When planning your Azure monitoring strategy, you have the choice to either use a managed service or configure all of the necessary tools yourself. Depending on your business needs and goals, one solution may be more suitable than the other.

To help make an informed decision between a managed service or building/configuring Azure monitoring tools for your organization, it's important to consider the pros and cons of each option.

DIY - Configuring Azure monitoring tools

If you opt to build Azure monitoring capabilities yourself, there are several advantages. This option allows for greater control and customization over the components of your Azure monitoring tools. You'll also have access to more detailed analytics and reports, potentially giving you a greater level of insight into the performance of your specific Azure environment.

However, this option requires you to do all of the heavy lifting. You need to select the tools you are going to use, both native Azure tools as well as other paid and open-source tools. This will require building the capability in-house to deploy, configure, maintain and manage these tools as well as Azure. You will also need to hook these tools into Azure and manage their security and versioning of them. As soon as you start to consider things this way it starts to look like a series of small to medium size projects which you have to carry out just to get to the starting line and see some benefits.

If you put that internal selection and upskill time to one side for a moment, then another thing to consider is that there is a cost associated with all of this even if you go for the open-source route. Each of the Azure monitoring tools you set up will need Azure infrastructure to run on or will have a licence/usage cost associated with it if it's SaaS.

When you start to look at the total cost of ownership a turn-key cloud management service starts to look very attractive.

Using a managed service

When considering buying Azure monitoring tools, it's important to remember that you're paying for the convenience of having these tools pre-configured and readily available in a turnkey service.

Generally, managed Azure monitoring services provide a comprehensive set of features and capabilities that allows you to manage your cloud infrastructure. Additionally, Azure monitoring services are often updated regularly, ensuring that you can stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in Azure & security changes as they happen.

A managed service will also usually have additional components from the partner who provides them such as cost analysis and security monitoring. As well as this the service provider will often offer bolt-on services such as cloud support and consultancy services around the platform.

This being the case, a managed service can be a complete solution for supporting your cloud infrastructure and providing the associated services you need for your business; rather than trying to piece things together yourself and having the implementation distraction and upskill time.

If you want to find out more about why cloud management software should be part of your cloud management strategy read our article here. 

What's next, is it CloudOps?

Ultimately, when it comes to Azure monitoring tools, how you proceed is a balance between your business needs and what's available in the market. But if you need cloud management for AWS & Azure then using a managed service which includes Azure monitoring tools can be a cost-effective option.

CloudOps brings together a set of open-source tools for managing and maintaining the cloud into one management portal. It is a turnkey service so you get the value of monitoring, cost analysis, security monitoring and pen testing from day one.

If you want to find out more about the tools and technology driving CloudOps then read about what's under the hood here.

Or if you want to see the software yourself then you can take a test drive with Dan Jones and find out how CloudOps can be your Azure monitoring solution.