Businesses are unknowingly overspending across their Microsoft cloud estate, with recent research showing that 53% of enterprises waste more than 10% of their cloud budget on underused resources*.
"The cloud cost challenge has evolved significantly" said Paolo Rodia, Services Director at Highgate IT Solutions. "It's no longer just about Microsoft 365 licences. We're seeing substantial waste from Azure resources that were spun up for projects and never decommissioned, storage accounts growing unchecked, development environments running 24/7, and data consumption costs without anyone noticing."
The challenge is compounded by the fact that over half of IT teams struggle to maintain clear visibility across their entire IT estate**, making it difficult to identify optimisation opportunities.
"Most organisations don't have a Microsoft cloud problem – they have a visibility problem," says Paolo. "When you're managing both licensing and consumption-based services, without ongoing insight into actual usage patterns, it's almost impossible to optimise effectively."
Through its partnership with Lenovo, Highgate IT Solutions now offers FinOps for Workplace, a comprehensive service that combines advanced analytics with expert advisory support to help organisations optimise their entire Microsoft investment.
The service begins with a structured Health Check that provides high-level analysis of an organisation's Microsoft cloud environment, delivering visibility into usage statistics across Microsoft 365 licensing, Azure consumption, data growth, project-driven usage, and security posture.
Organisations can then choose to engage ongoing FinOps services, which include:
– Unified analytics dashboard providing comprehensive oversight of cloud usage across the organisation
– Multi-dimensional insights revealing licence utilisation, resource consumption and cost drivers
– Security and compliance scoring across key categories including MFA adoption and access controls
– Tailored recommendations for license optimisation, Azure resourcing and data management
– Cost allocation and chargeback to identify which teams or projects are driving consumption
– Renewal planning to right-size subscriptions based on actual usage patterns
"This isn't about cutting technology budgets. It's about making sure every pound spent delivers real value," says Paolo. "In many cases, organisations find they can re-invest savings from Azure consumption and right-sized licensing into tools and services that better support innovation and growth."
Highgate IT Solutions offers FinOps services through flexible quarterly and annual engagement models, allowing organisations to scale advisory support according to their needs and maturity.
"Some clients start with a one-off Health Check to understand where they stand, while others engage us for ongoing optimisation and monitoring," explained Paolo. "The key is having a trusted advisor who can translate complex usage data into clear priorities and help maintain efficiency as your business evolves."
Sources
*Oomnitza, The 2023 Snapshot Survey: SaaS and Cloud Spend Optimization and Automation, 2023.
**IT Asset Management, Flexera 2024 State of ITAM Report, 13 June 2024.
Get started with a complimentary Health Check. Contact us today to discuss what optimisation could look like for your organisation.
