หมายเหตุ
การเข้าถึงหน้านี้ต้องได้รับการอนุญาต คุณสามารถลอง ลงชื่อเข้าใช้หรือเปลี่ยนไดเรกทอรีได้
การเข้าถึงหน้านี้ต้องได้รับการอนุญาต คุณสามารถลองเปลี่ยนไดเรกทอรีได้
When designing your architecture, balance remote access requirements with financial constraints while maintaining secure connectivity to virtual machines. For an overview of Azure Bastion capabilities, see What is Azure Bastion. Key considerations include:
- Do your allocated budgets enable you to meet security and accessibility goals?
- What's the spending pattern for Bastion across your workloads?
- How will you maximize Bastion investment through better SKU selection and resource utilization?
A cost-optimized Bastion strategy isn't always the lowest cost option. You need to balance security effectiveness with financial efficiency. Tactical cost-cutting can create security vulnerabilities or accessibility gaps. To achieve long-term secure access and financial responsibility, create a strategy with risk-based prioritization, continuous monitoring, and repeatable processes.
Start with the recommended approaches and justify the benefits for your remote access requirements. After you set your strategy, use these principles through regular assessment and optimization cycles. For comprehensive guidance on cost management, see Azure Cost Management documentation and the Azure pricing calculator.
Understand the pricing model
Azure Bastion uses a dual-component pricing model that combines hourly SKU charges with outbound data transfer costs. Understanding both components helps you optimize total cost of ownership.
Hourly SKU charges: Each Bastion deployment incurs hourly charges based on the selected SKU tier, billed continuously from deployment regardless of usage. Additional instances for host scaling have lower hourly rates than the base SKU deployment, making scaling more cost-effective when needed.
Data transfer costs: Outbound data transfer from Azure Bastion to your client is charged in tiers, with the first 5 GB per month free. Transfer rates decrease at higher volume tiers, rewarding consolidation. Inbound data transfer to Bastion isn't charged.
Regional variations: Pricing varies by Azure region. When planning multi-region deployments, consider regional pricing differences in your total cost calculations.
For current pricing details across all regions, see Azure Bastion pricing.
Develop remote access discipline
Cost optimization for Azure Bastion requires understanding your remote access patterns and aligning investments with business priorities. Set up clear governance and accountability for deployment decisions. For more on governance frameworks, see Azure governance documentation.
| Recommendation | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Develop a comprehensive virtual network inventory that catalogs all virtual networks requiring remote access and their business criticality levels. | A complete inventory enables risk-based deployment decisions and prevents both over-provisioning expensive Bastion resources and leaving critical networks without secure access. You can prioritize investments based on actual business impact. |
| Establish clear accountability for Bastion deployment decisions with defined roles for security, operations, and finance teams. | Clear accountability ensures deployment decisions consider both security requirements and budget constraints. Collaborative decision-making prevents siloed choices that might compromise security or exceed budgets. |
| Create realistic budgets that account for both immediate access needs and planned growth in virtual networks and virtual machines. | Proper budgeting enables predictable Bastion costs and prevents reactive decisions during security incidents. You can plan deployment expansion as your infrastructure grows. |
| Implement risk assessment frameworks that define minimum access levels and standardized policies for different network types. | Risk-based frameworks provide structured approaches to evaluate remote access security while ensuring consistent deployment decisions. They help identify critical networks, assess vulnerabilities, and determine appropriate Bastion configurations based on business impact and risk tolerance, preventing both under-protection of critical networks and over-deployment to low-risk environments. |
Choose the right SKU
Azure Bastion offers four SKU tiers with different cost profiles: Developer (free), Basic (moderate), Standard (moderate-to-higher), and Premium (highest). Select the SKU that balances your feature requirements with budget constraints. For comprehensive SKU comparison and feature details, see Choose the right Azure Bastion SKU.
| Recommendation | Cost Optimization Benefit |
|---|---|
| Maximize Developer SKU usage for all development and test environments where single-VM access is acceptable. | Developer SKU eliminates 100% of Bastion costs for nonproduction workloads. No hourly charges, no data transfer fees. Use this tier to reserve budget for production deployments. See Connect with Azure Bastion Developer. |
| Start with Basic SKU for production environments unless advanced features are required. Upgrade only when you identify specific feature gaps. | Basic SKU minimizes production costs while providing essential capabilities (peering, Kerberos, concurrent connections). Prevents over-provisioning by deploying only needed features. Evaluate actual usage before committing to higher-cost tiers. |
| Select Standard SKU when cost analysis justifies advanced features. Key cost drivers: scaling needs (>2 instances), native client requirements, or operational efficiency from shareable links. | Standard SKU enables cost-effective scaling through host scaling (2-50 instances) with incremental pricing. Variable costs align with actual demand. Advanced features can reduce operational overhead that offsets higher hourly rates. |
| Choose Premium SKU when compliance requirements mandate session recording or when Standard-to-Premium cost difference is negligible compared to total infrastructure spend. | Premium adds minimal cost over Standard while future-proofing deployments. Session recording eliminates need for third-party audit solutions. Private-only deployment can reduce networking costs in highly restricted environments. |
| Implement phased SKU adoption across virtual networks based on business criticality. Use Basic for lower-priority networks, Standard/Premium for critical workloads. | Tiered deployment strategy optimizes total cost by matching SKU expense to business value. High-priority networks justify premium features; others use cost-effective tiers. Prevents blanket deployments of highest-cost SKU. |
Design for architecture efficiency
Optimize your architecture to maximize the value of each Bastion deployment while maintaining security and functionality. Your architectural decisions directly impact ongoing costs. For architectural guidance, see Azure Well-Architected Framework and Bastion design and architecture.
| Recommendation | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Leverage virtual network peering to consolidate Bastion deployments across multiple connected virtual networks instead of deploying separate instances. | A single Bastion deployment can serve VMs across peered virtual networks, significantly reducing costs. You eliminate duplicate deployments while maintaining secure access across your network topology. For peering guidance, see Work with virtual network peering and Bastion. |
| Use Bastion Developer for individual development and test scenarios where you don't need concurrent connections or advanced features. | Bastion Developer is free and perfect for dev/test workloads, eliminating costs entirely for these environments. You can upgrade to a dedicated SKU when moving to production or when you need additional features. |
| Consolidate remote access through centralized Bastion deployments in hub virtual networks rather than deploying to each spoke network. | Hub-based deployment reduces the total number of Bastion resources needed. You minimize hourly charges by serving multiple spoke networks from a single Bastion instance through virtual network peering. |
| Plan instance count strategically by understanding your concurrent session requirements to avoid over-provisioning scale units. | Each instance adds to hourly costs, so right-sizing prevents unnecessary spending. Additional instances cost less per hour than the base SKU deployment, making incremental scaling more economical. Standard and Premium SKUs support host scaling (2-50 instances), allowing you to adjust capacity based on actual usage patterns. For host scaling details, see Configure host scaling. |
Optimize resource utilization
Get the most value from your Bastion investments by using included features efficiently and aligning deployments with actual usage patterns.
| Recommendation | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Take advantage of Azure Monitor integration and built-in diagnostic logs without additional charges for Bastion monitoring and analysis. | You get maximum value from your investment by using included monitoring capabilities. This provides session visibility and usage analysis needed for ongoing optimization without additional costs. For monitoring guidance, see Monitor Azure Bastion. |
| Use shareable links (Standard SKU and higher) to enable secure access for users without Azure credentials, reducing the need for additional authentication infrastructure. | Shareable links provide secure, time-limited access without requiring Azure portal access or additional tooling. This simplifies access management while controlling who can connect to specific VMs. See Create shareable links. |
| Implement native client support (Standard SKU and higher) for SSH and RDP connections to improve user experience and reduce browser overhead. | Native client support enables users to connect using local SSH/RDP clients, providing better performance and familiarity. This reduces browser resource consumption and improves connection quality. See Connect using native client. |
| Configure host scaling (Standard and Premium SKUs) to match instance count with actual concurrent session requirements based on usage patterns. | Dynamic scaling ensures you maintain adequate capacity during peak usage while avoiding over-provisioning during low-demand periods. Each instance supports 20 concurrent RDP and 40 concurrent SSH connections, allowing precise capacity planning. See Configure host scaling. |
| Leverage availability zones where available to improve resilience without deploying redundant Bastion resources across regions. | Zone-redundant deployment provides high availability within a single Bastion resource. You get improved reliability without the cost of multiple regional deployments. See Bastion and availability zones. |
| Optimize data transfer patterns by consolidating Bastion deployments and being mindful of outbound data transfer volumes. | The first 5 GB of outbound data transfer per month is free across all your Bastion resources. Consolidating multiple small deployments into fewer larger ones helps you maximize this free tier. Higher data transfer volumes benefit from tiered pricing with decreasing rates at scale. |
Monitor and optimize over time
Remote access needs change as your infrastructure evolves. Set up continuous monitoring and regular optimization cycles to maintain cost efficiency.
| Recommendation | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Configure cost alerts when Bastion spending approaches predefined budget thresholds. | Proactive notifications prevent budget overruns and enable timely adjustments to deployment strategy. You can respond to cost increases before they impact other initiatives. To create cost alerts, see Monitor usage and spending with cost alerts. |
| Conduct quarterly reviews of Bastion deployments and their usage patterns to identify optimization opportunities. | Regular reviews ensure investments remain aligned with business priorities. You can identify underutilized deployments, consolidation opportunities, or SKU downgrade candidates based on actual feature usage. |
| Monitor session patterns and connection usage to optimize instance counts and identify unused deployments. Use diagnostic logs and Azure Monitor metrics. | Understanding actual usage patterns enables data-driven scaling decisions. You can adjust instance counts based on real session data rather than theoretical requirements, and identify deployments that can be decommissioned. |
| Track data transfer costs alongside hourly SKU charges to understand your complete Bastion spending profile. | Data transfer costs can be significant for high-usage deployments. Monitoring both cost components helps identify optimization opportunities, such as consolidating deployments to maximize free tier benefits or optimizing connection patterns to reduce outbound data transfer. |
| Track deployment return on investment (ROI) using cost management best practices to measure value and implement lifecycle management. | ROI measurement demonstrates deployment value and guides future investment decisions. Regular cleanup of unused or underutilized Bastion resources prevents spending growth that doesn't align with business value while freeing budget for higher-priority networks. |
| Review feature utilization to ensure you're on the appropriate SKU tier for your actual usage patterns. | Feature usage analysis identifies opportunities to downgrade SKUs when advanced capabilities aren't being used. Moving from Premium to Standard, or Standard to Basic when appropriate, can reduce costs while maintaining necessary access. However, SKU downgrades require deleting and recreating Bastion. See View or upgrade a SKU. |