User Guide
Everything you need to get started with Cloud Iceberg and optimize your Azure costs.
1. Getting Started
Sign In
Sign in with your Microsoft Azure account. Cloud Iceberg only requests read-only access (Azure Reader role) — it never creates, deletes, or modifies your resources. No credit card required.
Run Your First Audit
Go to the Audits page and click Run Audit. The scan runs in real-time — you'll see results appear progressively with a phase counter tracking progress. A typical scan takes under 5 minutes.
Review Results
Once complete, you'll see unused resources, right-sizing recommendations, and estimated monthly savings. Expand any row to see resource details, tags, and pricing breakdown.
2. Audit Dashboard
The Audits page is the core of Cloud Iceberg. It provides a comprehensive optimization analysis of your Azure subscriptions.
Savings Banner
The top banner shows your total estimated monthly savings, broken down by resource category, along with the total number of resources flagged. Use the export buttons (Excel, CSV) to download the full report.
Quick Wins (All Plans)
Orphaned or idle resources you can remove immediately for instant savings:
| Resource Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Orphaned Public IPs | IP addresses not attached to any resource |
| Unattached Disks | Managed disks with no associated VM |
| Zombie Firewalls | Firewall rules with no traffic |
| Unused Bastions | Azure Bastion hosts with no activity |
| Idle Redis / Cosmos DB | Cache or database instances with no utilization |
| Inactive Storage | Storage accounts with no access |
| Elastic Pools | Under-utilized SQL elastic pools |
| AKS Clusters | Under-utilized Kubernetes clusters |
| PostgreSQL / MySQL | Under-utilized database instances |
Each row expands to show: resource name, type, SKU, resource group, location, monthly cost, tags, and creation date.
VM Right-Sizing (Pro+)
6-axis analysis of each virtual machine: CPU usage, RAM usage, generation (migration to newer gen), family (alternative VM families), zombie detection (inactive VMs), and deallocated VMs (stopped but still billed). Each VM includes multiple resize options with a current vs. recommended cost comparison.
SQL Optimization (Pro+)
A 4-step recommendation engine:
- Billing analysis — DTU vs. vCore cost comparison
- Workload profiling — CPU, memory, and IOPS at the 95th percentile
- Tier recommendation — Basic/Standard/Premium or General Purpose/Business Critical
- Sizing — optimal vCore count with cost projections
App Service Optimization (Pro+)
Recommendations for migrating App Service plans from v2 to v4 SKUs, with per-plan cost analysis and savings estimates.
Disk Optimization (Pro+)
Analysis of Premium and Ultra disk utilization — IOPS, throughput, and consolidation suggestions to reduce your storage costs.
Reservation Tracking (Business)
Monitor your Azure reservation utilization at 7-day and 30-day intervals. Track expiration dates to plan renewals and avoid wasted commitment spend.
Diff Tracking (Pro+)
Each resource is tagged as new or recurring compared to your previous audit, so you can track optimization progress over time.
Audit History
The history bar at the top of the page shows your past audits. Click any previous audit to review its results.
3. Costs
Full visibility into your Azure spending across all subscriptions, regardless of your plan.
Features
- Cost summary: current month total with comparison to the previous month
- Breakdown by service: interactive treemap visualization with drill-down
- Daily trend: day-by-day spend line chart
- Top resources: your most expensive resources, ranked
- Subscription breakdown: cost comparison across subscriptions
- Cost by tag (Pro+): group costs by your Ice Tags
Cost History
| Plan | History |
|---|---|
| Free | 2 months |
| Pro | 12 months |
| Business | 5 years |
4. Inventory
A complete list of all your Azure resources across all subscriptions, with advanced filters.
Filters
Filter by region, subscription, VM operating system, database engine, App Service OS, licenses, and Log Analytics workspaces.
Views by Resource Type
- VMs: breakdown by OS (Windows/Linux) and SKU
- Databases: SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Cosmos DB, Redis
- App Services: by OS and SKU
- AKS: clusters with node count, SKU, and cost
- Storage: storage accounts
- Log Analytics: workspaces and DCR rules
- Licenses: Windows and SQL license tracking
7. Scheduling
Automate start/stop of idle resources to cut costs outside business hours.
How It Works
- Create a calendar with start/stop times per day
- Select your timezone
- Assign resources (VMs, AKS, SQL databases, App Services)
Limits by Plan
| Plan | Calendars | Resources per Calendar | Custom Schedules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 (preview, not active) | Unlimited | Mon-Fri uniform only |
| Pro | 5 active | 25 | Yes (per-day) |
| Business | 20 active | 100 | Yes (per-day) |
Smart Suggestions
Cloud Iceberg analyzes your metrics and suggests which resources to schedule, grouped by subscription, with expected savings.
Permissions
The scheduling feature requires a Service Principal with Contributor access on the resources to manage. Cloud Iceberg checks permissions automatically and alerts you if any resources can't be scheduled.
8. Metrics
Real-time performance monitoring across your Azure resources.
Supported Resource Types
Granularity
| Plan | Available Granularities |
|---|---|
| Free | Daily only |
| Pro / Business | Daily, 6-hourly, hourly |
Charts include percentile annotations: average, P50, P95, and max.
9. Settings & Notifications
Email Notifications
- Enable/disable email alerts
- Choose frequency: daily or monthly
- Set a minimum cost threshold to filter noise
- Add multiple recipients: Free (1), Pro (5), Business (15)
Microsoft Teams Notifications (Pro+)
- Configure a Teams webhook URL
- Test the connection with the built-in test button
Refresh Token
Store your Azure refresh token (encrypted) to enable automatic scheduled scans. You can revoke it at any time.
Service Principal
Instructions and links for setting up an Azure Service Principal, required for the scheduling feature.
10. Account
Profile
Edit your display name.
Statistics
View your total audits, total savings identified, current plan, and next available scan time.
Subscription Management
- Upgrade: switch to Pro or Business
- Manage subscription: access Stripe portal to update payment, change plan, or cancel
Delete Your Data
You can delete all your personal data at any time. This erases your name and email, deletes all detailed audit reports, and keeps only anonymized statistics (GDPR-compliant).
11. Exporting Data
Excel Export (Pro+)
A multi-sheet workbook with all audit data:
| Sheet | Contents |
|---|---|
| Cloud Iceberg | All resources — name, type, SKU, cost, location, tags |
| Recommendations | Current/target SKU, savings, pricing (PAYG, 1-year, 3-year) |
| SQL Databases | Name, server, SKU, tier, CPU/RAM/DTU/IO metrics |
| SQL Recommendations | Full 4-step analysis results |
| DTU Recommendations | Tier, DTU, P95 usage, cost comparison |
| VM Right-Sizing | 6-axis analysis, cost options, total savings |
| AKS Recommendations | Node count, CPU/memory, cost, savings |
| PostgreSQL / MySQL | SKU, CPU/memory metrics, cost |
CSV Export (Pro+)
Same content as Excel, formatted for data pipelines and integrations.
PDF Report (All Plans)
Summary report with top waste categories and recommendations.
12. Plans & Pricing
| Feature | Free | Pro | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | €99/mo | €349/mo |
| Subscriptions scanned | 1 (auto-selected) | 3 (your choice) | 10 (your choice) |
| Scan frequency | Weekly | Hourly | Every 6 hours |
| Quick Wins | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| VM Right-Sizing | No | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Recommendations | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reservation Tracking | No | No | Yes |
| Diff Tracking | No | Yes | Yes |
| Excel/CSV Export | No | Yes | Yes |
| Email recipients | 1 | 5 | 15 |
| Teams Webhooks | No | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduling | 1 preview | 5 active | 20 active |
| Cost History | 2 months | 12 months | 5 years |
| Custom Tags | 2 | 20 | 20 |
| Metrics Granularity | Daily | Daily / 6h / 1h | Daily / 6h / 1h |
Data Visibility
- Audits page: limited by plan (number of subscriptions analyzed)
- Costs, Inventory, Tags, Metrics: all your subscriptions are visible regardless of plan
13. FAQ
Can Cloud Iceberg modify my Azure resources? +
No. The tool is read-only by default. The only exception is the scheduling feature, which can start/stop VMs and databases — but only when you explicitly configure a schedule. We never create, delete, resize, or reconfigure any resource.
How long does an audit take? +
Typically under 5 minutes, depending on the number of resources in your subscriptions.
Why do I see all my subscriptions on the Costs page but not on Audits? +
By design. The Costs, Inventory, Tags, and Metrics pages show all your subscriptions for full visibility. The Audits page limits the number of subscriptions analyzed based on your plan tier for detailed optimization recommendations.
Is my data secure? +
Yes. All data is stored in Europe (Sweden), tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, access is read-only, and we're fully GDPR-compliant with self-service data deletion. See our Security page for full details.
How do I cancel my subscription? +
Go to Account and click "Manage subscription" to access the Stripe portal where you can change or cancel your plan.
What Azure role do I need? +
The Reader role on your subscriptions is sufficient for audits. Cost data requires Cost Management Reader. The scheduling feature requires Contributor on the specific resources to manage.
See also: Security & Permissions · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service