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If you’re managing resources in Azure, you’ve likely faced challenges around optimizing and securing your cloud environment. Azure Quick Review (azqr), an open-source tool from Microsoft, is a straightforward solution that can help you quickly assess your Azure environment and highlight potential issues. Here’s why azqr is so useful for your day-to-day cloud operations.

What is Azure Quick Review (azqr)?

Azure Quick Review is a command-line tool designed to simplify the assessment of your Azure subscriptions and resources. It’s available on GitHub (https://github.com/Azure/azqr) and provides an automated way to perform a high-level analysis of your Azure infrastructure. The main goal is to offer you insights into security, compliance, performance, and cost-related aspects of your Azure resources, all in a digestible format.

Why Use Azure Quick Review?

Managing Azure resources manually can become cumbersome, especially when your cloud footprint is growing. Azure Quick Review offers several practical benefits:

1. Automated Assessments

azqr automates the assessment process for your Azure environment. Instead of manually checking each resource’s configuration, you can use azqr to perform comprehensive evaluations in minutes.

It covers key Azure resources like virtual machines, SQL databases, storage accounts, and more.

2. Consistent, Standardized Reviews

One of the main issues with manual audits is inconsistency. Azure Quick Review brings a standardized approach to your resource analysis. It ensures that each assessment follows the same set of guidelines and best practices, which is particularly helpful when working in teams.

3. Focus on Security and Compliance

Azure Quick Review evaluates the security posture of your resources by flagging configuration issues. It checks for vulnerabilities, like public endpoints where they shouldn’t be, or missing network security groups (NSGs).

You can use azqr to ensure your deployments comply with organizational policies or regulatory requirements. Its output can be a handy guide to tightening security gaps in your Azure setup.

4. Cost Optimization Insights

As your Azure usage grows, so does the likelihood of mismanagement and unnecessary costs. azqr highlights resources that could be over-provisioned or underutilized, offering you potential cost-saving opportunities.

The report can help identify expensive configurations and unused resources that can be scaled back or shut down.

5. Quick, Readable Reports

Azure Quick Review outputs the analysis in a clear and accessible format. The results include color-coded indications of areas needing attention and a summary that prioritizes key actions.

Reports generated by azqr are ideal for sharing with stakeholders or for keeping as a quick reference.

6. Easy to Set Up and Use

Installation is simple. You can install azqr via Python’s pip, and from there, it’s easy to integrate into your existing workflows. If you already use command-line tools for Azure, azqr feels like a natural extension of that.

How to Get Started with azqr

Getting started is straightforward:

• Installation: First, clone the GitHub repository or install it via pip (pip install azqr).
• Running the Tool: You can use azqr commands to scan specific subscriptions or resource groups. The CLI provides flexibility to focus on exactly what you need.
• Reviewing Results: Once complete, you get a summary report highlighting potential security gaps, compliance issues, and opportunities to optimize your resources.

For more details, check out the GitHub page: Azure Quick Review on GitHub

When Should You Use azqr?

Azure Quick Review is particularly useful in several scenarios:

• Periodic Audits: Use azqr to conduct regular reviews of your Azure environment to ensure compliance and security standards are up to date.

• Pre-Deployment Checks: Before making new services live, azqr can be used to review configurations and spot potential issues.

• Cost Management Exercises: Regularly run azqr to help with cost audits, identifying waste or unnecessary spending.

Report

Here is what the report looks like, you get a list of Recommendations, ImpactedResources, ResourceTypes, Inventory, Advisor, Defender, Costs and Pivot Table tabs.

Summary

Azure Quick Review (azqr) is an invaluable tool for Azure users who want to stay on top of resource management without spending hours on manual reviews. It’s straightforward to use, delivers consistent insights, and helps you optimize both costs and security across your cloud environment. By incorporating azqr into your routine, you can gain a clearer understanding of your Azure resources and keep your deployments running efficiently and securely.

The post Azure Quick Review (azqr): A Practical Overview appeared first on Azure Greg.