Mixing Production and Non-Production Applications in the Same App Service Plan

Aaran Bhambra

CER:

Azure-Compute-9432

Service Category

Compute

Cloud Provider

Azure

Service Name

Azure App Service Plans

Inefficiency Type

Inefficient environment isolation

Explanation

This inefficiency occurs when production and non-production applications are hosted within the same App Service Plan. Production workloads often require higher availability, performance, or scaling characteristics, driving the plan toward larger or higher-cost SKUs. When non-production workloads share that plan, they inherit the higher cost structure even though their availability and performance requirements are typically much lower, resulting in unnecessary spend.

Relevant Billing Model

All applications within an App Service Plan share the same SKU and instance cost, regardless of individual workload criticality.

Detection

Identify App Service Plans hosting a mix of production and non-production applications
Review whether non-production workloads are constrained by production-level sizing decisions
Assess whether environment separation is preventing appropriate right-sizing

Remediation

Separate production and non-production applications into different App Service Plans
Size non-production plans independently using lower-cost SKUs aligned with reduced requirements
Align App Service Plan design with environment criticality and lifecycle expectations

Relevant Documentation

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-plan-manage

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/environment/intro

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