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Azure Backup Review: Health, Vaults, and Cost

Overview​

Backups shows coverage, health, vault and policy, and cost for the Azure subscriptions you select. It answers which resources are protected, which backups are failing and since when, which vault and policy protect each resource, what existing backups cost over the last 30 days, and what unprotected resources would likely cost to back up.

How each resource is rated​

Spotto combines backup data from several Azure sources and gives every resource one status.

Each scan Spotto reads resource inventory (VMs, unattached managed disks, AKS clusters, and PostgreSQL and MySQL flexible servers, each of which should have a backup), Recovery Services vaults (protected items, backup jobs and policies, plus VM backup status from Resource Graph), Backup vaults (backup instances and policies), built-in backups for Azure SQL databases and SQL managed instances, and billing and retail prices. Each resource gets one status, checked in order with the first match winning: 1 Failed if the latest backup or backup job failed or there is a protection error; 2 Not protected if no vault or built-in backup is found, or protection is stopped, paused or soft-deleted; 3 Needs attention for a warning on the last backup, no recovery points, a latest recovery point older than 7 days, or a backed-up resource that can't be found; 4 Protected if a vault or built-in backup protects it; 5 otherwise Unknown. Example with made-up values: 40 resources across Contoso's subscriptions, 26 protected with $412 backup cost over the last 30 days, 4 needing attention, 2 failed and sorted to the top of the table, and 8 not protected that would cost about $190 a month if enabled (estimate).Each scan Spotto reads resource inventory (VMs, unattached managed disks, AKS clusters, and PostgreSQL and MySQL flexible servers, each of which should have a backup), Recovery Services vaults (protected items, backup jobs and policies, plus VM backup status from Resource Graph), Backup vaults (backup instances and policies), built-in backups for Azure SQL databases and SQL managed instances, and billing and retail prices. Each resource gets one status, checked in order with the first match winning: 1 Failed if the latest backup or backup job failed or there is a protection error; 2 Not protected if no vault or built-in backup is found, or protection is stopped, paused or soft-deleted; 3 Needs attention for a warning on the last backup, no recovery points, a latest recovery point older than 7 days, or a backed-up resource that can't be found; 4 Protected if a vault or built-in backup protects it; 5 otherwise Unknown. Example with made-up values: 40 resources across Contoso's subscriptions, 26 protected with $412 backup cost over the last 30 days, 4 needing attention, 2 failed and sorted to the top of the table, and 8 not protected that would cost about $190 a month if enabled (estimate).

Azure can keep failed job history after a later backup succeeds, so a historical failed job alone does not make a resource Failed. The status uses the latest backup, the latest job, and the current protection state.

Turn the evidence into a decision​

Select the labelled briefcase Business Value button beside Notes. The brief combines live protected, failed, unprotected, stale, and estimated-cost evidence with a priority body of work.

Live facts are deterministic; estimates remain labelled and mixed currencies are never combined. Generate tailors only the narrative for permitted users and saves it to the exact scope. Clear removes that saved narrative and immediately restores the standard Business Value content without deleting Customer Context or changing live facts. Regenerate when Spotto reports that evidence changed. Above 100 subscriptions, curated live guidance remains available without AI or persistence.

Current position and priority work​

Start with the failed and unprotected workloads named in the brief, then investigate stale recovery points and prove the critical restore paths. The names come from the same ordered rows as the backup table; Spotto still asks you to confirm business criticality rather than assuming it from technical status. Coverage alone does not prove that a service can be restored within an acceptable time.

Tag resources by business criticality, recovery tier, service owner, environment, and cost allocation. This makes the protection standard and restore-test cadence explicit, and helps teams find gaps when services change ownership or new resources are deployed.

Expected change​

For unprotected resources, the brief shows current protection coverage → projected coverage if every currently unprotected resource in scope is enabled. It also shows the existing estimated monthly enablement cost when the scope has one currency. Mixed-currency scopes keep estimates separate at resource level instead of creating a false total.

This completes the technical side of the case: coverage gained for the estimated recurring cost. The financial consequence of downtime or data loss remains unvalued until the customer supplies service criticality, recovery time and recovery point objectives, and an agreed cost of interruption. Failed and stale backups also remain separate work; enabling protection does not prove recoverability.

Business outcomes​

Backup investment creates value when priority services can be restored within agreed recovery time and recovery point objectives. The review connects coverage and failures to operational continuity rather than treating backup configuration as the finish line.

Cost of delay​

Ransomware, deletion, corruption, or a platform incident could exceed acceptable data-loss and downtime limits. Unprotected data may be permanently lost, while failed or stale backups can provide false confidence until a restore is urgently required.

Decision required​

Approve the priority recovery scope, accountable service owners, required restore tests, and acceptable recovery cost.

Validate with stakeholders​

When you can manage Company Notes, select any question in the portal to retain the answer in the relevant Customer Context note.

  • Which services are business-critical, what are their recovery time and recovery point objectives, and how are they identified through resource tags?
  • When was each critical restore path last tested successfully?
  • Who accepts the trade-off between recovery cost, recovery speed, and retained history?

Where to find it​

In the Spotto Portal, open a company and go to Tasks -> Review -> Backups.

Use the subscription selector at the top of the page to choose the subscriptions you want to review. It behaves like the selector on other subscription-scoped pages, including URL and saved selection state.

Key capabilities​

Backup posture summary​

The summary cards show:

  • Protected: resources with active vault or built-in backup protection.
  • Failed Backups: resources with a current failed backup signal or active failure history.
  • Not Protected: resources that should have a backup but do not appear to.
  • 30 Day Backup Cost: observed backup cost from the last 30 days.
  • Estimated Monthly If Enabled: estimated monthly cost if currently unprotected resources were backed up.

If the selected subscriptions use different currencies, the cost cards show Mixed; use the table for per-resource cost.

Resource-level backup table​

Each row shows:

  • Resource name, type, and subscription.
  • Backup status.
  • Latest backup or recovery point time.
  • Failure summary, failed-since date, and consecutive failure count when available.
  • Recovery Services vault, Backup vault, and policy details when available.
  • Observed 30-day backup cost.
  • Estimated monthly backup cost if the resource is not currently protected.

Failed rows are sorted to the top. You can search by resource, vault, policy, subscription, status, or resource ID. When Azure supplies job details, the row also shows the latest failed job, so you can tell a one-off failure from an ongoing one.

Backup cost review​

For protected resources, Spotto uses the subscription's billing data and allocates backup cost where possible, shown with the subscription currency code and symbol.

For unprotected resources, Spotto estimates the monthly cost from resource characteristics and Azure retail pricing. Actual-cost confidence is shown as exact, allocated, estimated, or unavailable; estimate availability is shown separately as available, partial, or unavailable.

Technical reference​

ComponentDetails
Cost handlingExisting backup cost comes from collected billing data. Estimates use retail pricing where a supported workload and pricing match are available.
Currency handlingResource rows show the currency supplied for that subscription. Cost cards are only summed when the selected subscriptions share one currency.
RefreshThe page reflects the latest completed scan for each selected subscription.

How it differs from Azure portal views​

Azure portal backup views work well when you already know which vault or resource to inspect. Spotto Backups is built for review across subscriptions: it starts from resources rather than vaults, lists unprotected resources next to protected ones, combines backup health with cost, and links each failure to its resource, vault, and policy.

Troubleshooting​

The page shows no backup posture data​

What you're seeing: The table is empty or shows the backup posture empty state.
Likely causes:

  • The selected subscriptions have not completed a data protection scan yet.
  • No ready subscriptions are selected.
  • The cloud account does not have enough permissions to collect the required Azure backup data.

How to fix:

  1. Confirm the subscription selector includes the subscriptions you expect.
  2. Check cloud account sync status in Connectors -> Cloud Accounts.
  3. Confirm the Azure cloud account has read access to backup, resource, and billing data.
  4. Re-check after the next scan completes.

A protected resource shows no cost​

What you're seeing: A protected backup row shows N/A for 30-day cost.
Likely causes:

  • The billing export did not include identifiable backup meter rows for that resource or vault.
  • The backup cost was bundled or could not be allocated confidently.
  • Billing data for the last 30 days is not available for the subscription.

How to fix:

  1. Confirm subscription cost visibility is enabled.
  2. Review the subscription's billing sync status.
  3. Check whether the vault has shared backup meters that need allocation rather than direct resource matching.

Estimated cost is unavailable​

What you're seeing: An unprotected resource shows N/A or an unavailable estimate.
Likely causes:

  • The resource type is not yet supported by the backup pricing model.
  • Required sizing data, such as protected disk size, backup storage quantity, region, or workload shape, is missing.
  • Azure retail pricing did not return a matching meter for the workload and currency.

How to fix:

  1. Confirm the resource has complete inventory data in Spotto.
  2. Check that the resource region and workload type are supported.
  3. Treat unavailable estimates as review items rather than zero-cost backups.

A failure looks historical​

What you're seeing: A row has latest failed job details, but the latest backup status is healthy.
Likely cause: Azure can retain failed job history even after a later backup succeeds.
How to use it:

  1. Check the Status column first.
  2. Use the failure detail as context when the status is Failed or Needs Attention.
  3. Review the vault job history if you need the full incident timeline.
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