Recommendations
Three categories of action: what to buy, what is underutilized, and what is expiring. Open Recommendations > Commitments from the left navigation, or click View in Commitments from a recommendation detail panel.
On This Page
Refresh cadence
Recommendations are regenerated on every scan. The lookback period Azure uses to evaluate purchase candidates (7, 30, or 60 days) is configured under Settings.
Layout & Navigation
Drill down by clicking a subscription, then a category, to load the detail panel. Tenant-wide (Shared-scope) purchase recommendations are grouped under a dedicated All Subscriptions (Shared) entry that sorts to the top of the subscriptions column rather than scattering identical copies across every subscription.
Each detail panel header has a View in Commitments button that cross-navigates to the dashboard pre-filtered by the selected subscription.
Recommendation Subtypes
Three subtypes use a consistent color scheme everywhere on this page, in the email alert, and on the dashboard widgets:
- Purchase
- Green. New RIs or savings plans Azure suggests buying. Works in all tiers, the default Reader role is enough.
- Underutilized
- Orange. Commitments running below the configured threshold. Requires enhanced tier.
- Expiring
- Red. Commitments approaching expiry within the warning window. Requires enhanced tier. The Expiring filter option is hidden in base tier.
The Type filter dropdown at the top of the page is multi-select, so an empty selection means all three subtypes show. Inactive commitments (cancelled, expired) are excluded from underutilized and expiring alert generation.
Purchase Cards
Each Purchase card surfaces what Azure suggests buying along with the SKU, region, term, and recommended quantity (for RIs) or commitment per hour (for savings plans). The green Estimated Savings panel shows per-month and per-year impact alongside the current on-demand cost.
Savings plan recommendations are per hour
The Recommended Commitment on a savings plan purchase card is in dollars per hour, not dollars per month. Multiply by 730 to estimate monthly impact.
Underutilized Cards
Underutilized cards show current utilization against the configured threshold and an orange Estimated Monthly Wastage panel. The rationale below suggests downsizing, exchanging, or letting the commitment expire.
Card window vs. dashboard window
The Nd in the utilization label on this card (for example, "7-day util") reflects the Underutilized Evaluation Window scanner setting, not the dashboard window. They are intentionally separate, configure them under Settings.
Expiring Cards
Expiring cards show the expiry date, days until expiry (highlighted in orange at 30 days or fewer), and the estimated on-demand cost if the commitment lapses. An Action Recommended panel suggests renewing or converting to a savings plan.
Hiding Recommendations
Click Hide on a recommendation card you've deliberately set aside (a commitment you plan to renew manually, a Purchase suggestion that conflicts with a planned migration). The dialog has an optional Reasonfield; if you provide one, it's recorded in the StratoLens activity log.
To find hidden items later, click the Show hidden checkbox in the header. It only appears once you have at least one hidden item, and the label includes the count, for example Show hidden (3). From there, click Unhide on a card to bring it back.
Hide is tenant-wide
Hidden recommendations are shared across all StratoLens users in your tenant. If you hide a recommendation, no one in your organization will see it until someone unhides it. The activity log records who hid it and the optional reason. When everything is unhidden from the show-hidden view, the toggle silently turns itself off.
Resolved & Realized Savings
Toggle Show resolved in the header to switch the entire page from active recommendations to Resolved Commitment Recommendations. This shows commitments that were previously flagged as underutilized or expiring and have since been renewed, downsized, or exchanged, alongside the savings the change unlocked.
The page subtitle changes to View resolved commitment recommendations and realized savings when this toggle is on. Selection state is cleared when you toggle it.
Use resolved view to prove impact
Track quarterly cleanup work by reviewing the resolved view. Each card lists what was changed and the realized savings, useful for showing finance the ROI of commitment cleanup.
Troubleshooting
I see purchase recommendations but no underutilized or expiring alerts.
Answer
You're likely in base tier. Underutilized and expiring alerts require enhanced tier. Open the Commitments dashboard and click Permissions & Data Tier to grant the two opt-in roles.
I hid a recommendation by accident.
Answer
Click Show hidden in the header (it appears once you have at least one hidden item), find the recommendation, and click Unhide on the card.
The Underutilized card says "7-day util" but my dashboard shows 30-day.
Answer
Those are two different windows. The dashboard utilization window is display-only. The window used to evaluate underutilized alerts is the Underutilized Evaluation Window scanner setting. They are intentionally separate so you can browse the dashboard at any window without retraining the alert engine.
Why is the same purchase recommendation showing up under "All Subscriptions (Shared)" and not on a specific subscription?
Answer
Azure returns identical Shared-scope (tenant-wide) purchase recommendations regardless of which subscription is queried. StratoLens deduplicates and stores them once under All Subscriptions (Shared) rather than scattering identical copies across every subscription.