Microsoft AKS Ignite 2023 updates and Cost Analysis addon

calendarNov 14, 2023 · 2 min read · Kubernetes AKS  ·
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Within this blog, I want to give an overview of two amazing Microsoft blogs which you definitely must read, which came out this week.


AKS Cost Analysis add-on
Within this Microsoft Blog, Microsoft are explaining how to solve the cost visibility challenge. Microsoft is excited to announce the preview of the AKS Cost Analysis add-on, an Azure native experience that enables granular breakdown of AKS cluster costs. This add-on is built on the OpenCost project and available for Standard and Premium tier AKS clusters at no additional cost. Cost allocation data is reported directly in the Azure Portal.

AKS is the first Azure service to provide service-specific cost drill downs. What does this mean for customers? Azure Cost Management will now offer Kubernetes-specific views in the Cost Analysis UI to show cost allocation of AKS cluster infrastructure resources (ex: VMSS, public IPs, disks, etc.) by Kubernetes specific constructs like cluster and namespace. This added granularity will help organizations understand exactly how much individual applications cost and which clusters or applications need optimization.

Shared costs such as idle, system reserved, and service SLA costs, which typically can’t be apportioned to a specific namespace are also reported. This gives organizations the flexibility to allocate shared costs in the way that works best for their scenario – proportionally, by fixed percentage, uniformly etc. Here is a sneak peek of the new UI views:


AKS Ingite 2023 updates
Within this Microsoft Blog, all new updates of Microsoft Ignite 2023 are shown. A quick summery can be found below:

  • Improving resilience and uptime with simplified global footprint;
  • Kubernetes powering the AI revolution via AI Toolchain Operator addon for AKS;
  • Confidential Containers via kata in Technical Preview (run any workload leveraging confidential hardware capabilities without any code changes);
  • Image Integrity in Technical Preview (which allows you to sign any container image in ACR and validate its signature via policy on an AKS cluster, leveraging the Ratify open-source project);
  • Visualize, reduce costs & streamline operations.
    • Cost Visualization (in the Azure Cost Management Portal);
    • Efficient scaling and cost reduction (via the Keda addon which is in General Availability):
    • Lighting fast and efficient container starts (faster image pull);
    • System reserved optimization (optimizing the resource usage of the kubernetes system components after Kubernetes 1.28);
    • Simplifying common operations (Application routing addon in General Availability);