Microsoft’s cloud ambitions have never been greater. With sustained investment in artificial intelligence, Copilot, and large-scale infrastructure projects, demand for compute power across Azure regions has grown at an unprecedented pace.

Recent service disruptions and regional throttling have prompted wider discussions about cloud capacity management and the balance between innovation and stability. The sheer scale of AI workloads, combined with increasing enterprise migrations, is testing the limits of available infrastructure — particularly within certain European regions.

For customers, this raises a crucial question: how efficiently is their own cloud footprint being used? Many organisations have seen consumption rise sharply in the last 18 months, often driven by automatic scaling, duplicated environments, and under-monitored virtual machines.

Meanwhile, the commercial pressure to renew or expand Azure commitments continues. Microsoft’s shift toward the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) model has encouraged larger pre-committed spends , yet many enterprises are finding that actual usage patterns don’t always match their contractual obligations.

This is where ITAA’s (new) Smart Provisioning Service provides tangible value.

Our consultants combine capacity monitoring and licensing expertise to analyse the true utilisation of your Windows Server, SQL Server, and Azure workloads. We identify over-provisioned cores, under-used resources, and consolidation opportunities, providing clear recommendations to reduce both infrastructure and licensing costs. In today’s cloud environment, efficiency isn’t just a cost issue, it’s a resilience issue. As capacity becomes a strategic resource, right-sizing your estate ensures that you stay compliant, cost-effective, and ready to adapt as conditions change.

→ Discover how ITAA’s Smart Provisioning Service can help you optimise your Azure environment.

About the Author

Lucy Baker, Senior Microsoft Consultant

Robert Wright is an ex-Microsoft auditor turned Licensing Consultant. He focuses on license compliance with a strong emphasis on cost-saving strategies. With a proven track record, he excels in optimizing licensing portfolios across various industries, particularly in the public sector.