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Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Key Differences & Similarities

Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Key Differences & Similarities

Q: 1. Does Azure Advisor offer insights into cost optimization?

Yes, Azure Advisor offers insights into cost optimization. It analyzes our spending, thus improving the overall efficiency of our Azure environment.

Q: 2. How does Azure Monitor help in identifying and troubleshooting issues?

Azure Monitor’s real-time monitoring and custom alerts offer great insights into resource health and performance. It’s invaluable in all kinds of troubleshooting.

Q: 3. Can Azure Advisor offer guidance on best practices for Azure resource deployment?

Azure Advisor provides recommendations based on Azure's best practices. It helps us adhere to security standards, and stay compliant with guidelines during deployment.

Q: 4. Is Azure Advisor limited to specific resource types or services?

No, Azure Advisor is not limited to specific resource types or services. It offers recommendations for all types of Azure services and resources.

By Akhsayarka Almmyan Deka

Updated on Sep 27, 2023 | 9 min read | 5.0k views

Table of Contents

Conceived in the 1990s, and perfected in the 2010s, cloud computing has disrupted enterprise operations all over the world today. These days most organizations host their daily operations on the cloud. Microsoft’s Azure is one of the most renowned players in this domain. And to get the most out of our Azure Solution Architecture, it’s paramount to know the difference between Azure Monitor vs. Azure Advisor.

We'll tackle the longstanding debate of Azure Monitor vs. Azure Advisor in this blog. Starting with a detailed comparison of their differences, we'll explain both of their use cases. At the same time, we'll also study how they are similar. This will help us learn all the ins and outs of Azure resource management.

Thus, this KnowledgeHut blog will show us how to fine-tune our Azure environment. Let’s get started!

Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor [Head-to-Head Comparison]

We can explain the Azure Advisor vs Monitor dichotomy with seven key parameters. Let's consider a quick breakdown:

PARAMETER	AZURE MONITOR	AZURE ADVISOR
Functionality	Provides comprehensive monitoring, alerting and diagnostics for Azure resources.	Recommends best practices for optimizing Azure resources. Helps manage costs, improves security and boosts performance.
Data Collection	Collects and stores telemetry data such as logs, metrics and traces from Azure resources for analysis and visualization.	Analyzes data across your Azure subscription to provide recommendations based on Azure best practices.
Security	Provides monitoring and alerting capabilities to detect security threats / anomalies in Azure resources.	Offers security-related recommendations such as: identity and access management, network security and compliance checks.
Automation	Supports automation through Azure Logic Apps, Azure Functions and Azure Monitor Action Groups.	Offers Azure Policy integration to automate resource configuration. Also aids compliance enforcement.
Custom Metrics	Allows us to collect, analyze and visualize custom metrics using Application Insights and Log Analytics.	Primarily focuses on Azure-native metrics and recommendations. Can also integrate with custom policies and initiatives.
Use Cases	Ideal for monitoring resource health, diagnosing issues, setting alerts and troubleshooting.	Best suited for optimizing Azure costs, enhancing resource performance and ensuring security compliance.
Best Practices	Provides insights into resource-level best practices. Examples: setting up alert rules and configuring diagnostics settings.	Offers actionable recommendations for cost optimization, security and performance improvements based on Azure best practices.

Difference Between Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor

Now, let us discuss each of these Azure Monitor vs Advisor parameters in more detail, based on different factors.

1. Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Functionality

Azure Monitor

Comprehensive Monitoring: Azure Monitor is your go-to tool for comprehensive monitoring of Azure resources. It’s wide range of monitoring features includes:
- Logs: to provide insight into resource activities. For example, you can use Azure Monitor Logs to track user sign-in activities in Azure Active Directory.
- Metrics: that allow us to visualize trends in resource usage. With this data, we can set up alerts when predefined thresholds are breached. For instance, monitoring CPU usage on Azure VMs.
Alerting and Remediation: Azure Monitor enables us to create custom alerts based on specific conditions. We can then automate remediation by using Azure Logic Apps or Azure Functions. For instance, we can automatically scale a VM based on its CPU usage.
Security Monitoring: Azure Monitor integrates seamlessly with Azure Security Center, thereby enhancing our system security. It’s a great way to detect and respond to security concerns.

Azure Advisor

Optimization Recommendations: The key focus of Azure Advisor is to provide actionable insights on optimizing our resource usage. It recommends changes based on:
- Cost Optimization: By analyzing our spending, it offers suggestions to reduce costs. For example, we may have certain VMs that are not doing any productive work. In such cases, Advisor will recommend that we decommission these resources.
- Performance Improvement: Advisor can also help boost the performance of our Azure resources. For example, I/O operations in VMs can be super costly. Using managed disks here will improve performance.
Integration with Azure Policies: Azure Advisor seamlessly integrates with Azure Policy. This lets us enforce compliance across our Azure subscription. A good example is mandating encryption at rest for Azure Storage using Azure Policy based on Advisor recommendations.

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2. Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Data Collection

Azure Monitor

Telemetry Data Collection: Azure Monitor acts as a central hub for the collection and storage of telemetry data. This includes logs and metrics to indicate resource status.
Application Insights: Azure Application Insights is a service dedicated to performance monitoring. It collects data on user interactions, exceptions and dependencies in our applications.
Custom Metric Collection: Azure Monitor is a super customizable service. We can ingest data by using custom logs and metrics. For example, set up specialized monitoring through IoT sensors. Consider going through online Cloud training courses to know more.

Azure Advisor

Recommendation Data Analysis: Azure Advisor analyzes existing data within our Azure subscription to recommend improvements. This is what sets it apart from Monitor.
Azure Native Metrics: Advisor relies primarily on metrics and data native to Azure. It doesn't offer many options for customization.
Policy-Based Data Analysis: Azure Advisor's analysis is policy-driven. It evaluates our Azure resources against predefined policies and best practices. These are tailored towards specific goals such as cost management or security.

3. Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Security Insights

Azure Monitor

Security Monitoring: Azure Monitor offers security monitoring capabilities through its versatile logging system. We can gather security events using AAD audit logs, Azure Security Center alerts and Azure Firewall logs. We also get customization options here: we can create custom alerts and queries for specific security events.
Alerting and Response: We can define several security scenarios, and set up automated responses to them. For example, we can set up alerts for multiple failed login attempts, a possible sign of a security breach.
Integration with Azure Security Center: Azure Monitor also integrates with Azure Security Center. This provides us a consolidated view of security events as well as recommendations.

Azure Advisor

Security Recommendations: While Azure Advisor primarily focuses on optimization, it also offers security-related suggestions. These cover three key aspects of security: Identity and Access Management (IAM), Network Security and Security Center Recommendations.
Security Best Practices: Azure Advisor's recommendations ensure that our Azure resources are secure, and that they follow recommended security guidelines.
Actionable Insights: Azure Advisor's security recommendations come with guidance on the optimal implementation plan. It provides step-by-step instructions to help enhance our overall security posture.

4. Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Integration with Automation

Azure Monitor

Integration with Azure Services: Azure Monitor integrates seamlessly with all Azure services, making it a central hub for monitoring and diagnostics. Thus, it can collect telemetry data, metrics and logs from all over our Azure ecosystem.
Third-Party Integrations: Monitor also supports integration with third-party monitoring solutions. For example, we can connect to tools like ArcSight ESM or IBM QRadar to consolidate security telemetry.
Customization with Azure Functions: Azure Monitor can be customized further through Azure Functions. We can create custom scripts to perform specific tasks based on monitoring data.

Azure Advisor

Azure Policy Integration: Azure Advisor integrates with Azure Policy to help enforce best practices in our cloud implementation.
Azure Resource Recommendations: Azure Advisor provides actionable tips for enhancing our Azure services. We can implement them directly from the Azure Advisor dashboard. For instance, we can resize VMs or optimize storage accounts directly based on Advisor's suggestions.
Customization through Notifications: We can choose to receive email notifications whenever Azure Advisor detects anomalies.

5. Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Use Cases

Azure Monitor

Real-time Monitoring and Diagnostics: Azure Monitor is ideal for real-time monitoring and diagnostics of Azure resources. Two key examples include: Azure Monitor alerts for excessive CPU usage and alerts when our storage account gets too full.
Security Threat Detection: Azure Monitor aids in anomaly detection by collecting security logs. It can even follow up by triggering alerts on suspicious activities.
Root Cause Analysis: Azure Monitor is a central hub to store various kinds of logs. As such, it helps in root cause analysis whenever issues arise in our Azure environment. For example: we can analyze API call logs to understand bottlenecks in our web apps.

Azure Advisor

Cost Optimization: The core philosophy behind Azure Advisor is to identify design flows in a given Azure implementation. As such, it recommends options for optimizing our Azure bills. E.g.: it may suggest rightsizing VMs or terminating underutilized resources to help save on compute costs.
Performance Improvement: To enhance the performance of our Azure resources, we can rely on Azure Advisor's recommendations. It provides insights into resource configurations to boost performance. E.g.: Azure Advisor might recommend switching to premium storage for improved I/O performance on a database server.
Compliance and Governance: Azure Advisor helps ensure that resources adhere to the best practices and governance standards. E.g.: Advisor can recommend encryption at rest for Azure Storage accounts to meet compliance requirements.

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6. Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Best Practices

Azure Monitor Best Practices

Use Alerts Wisely: Configure meaningful alerts in Azure Monitor to proactively address any possible issues.
Utilize Log Analytics Queries: Leverage log queries to gain deep insights into resource activities.
Log Retention Policies: Define log retention policies to manage the storage costs of log data.
Security Integration: Integrate Azure Monitor with Azure Security Center for comprehensive security insights.

Azure Advisor Best Practices

Regularly Review Recommendations: Review and act upon Azure Advisor's recommendations.
Implement Automation: Automate Advisor's recommendations using Azure Policy for better resource governance.
Customize Notifications: Tailor Advisor's notifications to ensure the right personnel are alerted to critical recommendations.
Monitor Progress: Continuously monitor progress made through Advisor's recommendations to maximize their impact.

7. Azure Monitor vs Azure Advisor: Custom Metrics

Azure Monitor Custom Metrics: A key selling point of Azure Monitor is its native support for customized metrics. In this context, a “standard” metric is a general indicator (such as server logs). In contrast, a custom metric is one defined by the user. Example: an e-commerce app may consider keyword search by demographic dividend as a custom metric.
Azure Advisor Custom Metrics: And on the other side of the debate, Azure Advisor does not support custom metrics whatsoever. Advisor recommendations best practices based on Azure’s native metrics. It focuses on optimizing resource configurations to manage costs, security and compliance.

How are They Similar?

Azure Monitor and Azure Advisor are two distinct services designed to fulfill different purposes. Despite their differences however, these services share three key commonalities:

Both can be integrated with Azure Policy: Azure Advisor and Azure Monitor can extend their functionalities by integrating with Azure Policy. For example, Azure Policy can automatically enforce Advisor’s recommendations, and leverage Azure Monitor to gauge the impact.
Both align with Azure's best practices and guidelines: Whether it's optimizing costs, enhancing security or improving performance, both services help us align with Microsoft's recommended standards. This ensures that our Azure implementation adheres to industry standards.
Both Azure Monitor and Azure Advisor provide actionable insights: Azure Monitor offers us a way to respond to any given issue in real time. Similarly, Azure Advisor offers detailed recommendations to holistically optimize our operations. Thus, both services provide us actionable insights.

What Should You Choose Between Azure Monitor and Azure Advisor?

Let's consider a few scenarios to understand when to use Azure Monitor vs. Azure Advisor:

Choose Azure Monitor For

Real-time Monitoring: Azure Monitor excels at providing immediate visibility into the status of your resources.
Detailed Insights: Azure Monitor offers in-depth insights into resource activities through logs and metrics. It provides granular diagnostic data for easy troubleshooting.
Customizable Analytics: Azure Monitor provides extensive customization options. It helps us integrate business KPIs directly into the software solution.

Choose Azure Advisor For

Cost Optimization: Advisor’s primary focus is optimizing our costs. It’s a one-stop solution for analyzing spending patterns across our Azure environment.
Resource Optimization: Azure Advisor helps enhance resource efficiency. It offers insights into resource configurations to improve performance.
Compliance and Governance: Azure Advisor's recommendations help ensure that our resources adhere to all relevant compliance standards.

Final Thoughts

Every data engineer faces the dilemma between Azure Monitor and Azure Advisor at some point in their careers. If we are to get the best out of our Azure subscriptions, it’s vital we understand what these services offer, and how they differ.

We hope this blog was able to resolve the dichotomy between Azure Advisor vs Monitor for you. As a next step, do consider reading KnowledgeHut's Azure Solution Architecture.

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