Overview
Azure Documenter supports reporting scenarios across cost, compliance, security, and architecture. This article describes the most common use cases for teams that need recurring, shareable documentation instead of one-off manual exports.
Business value
- Replace manual, ad-hoc reporting with repeatable document configurations
- Give different stakeholders the document type that matches their needs, without building custom reports
- Support audits and reviews with evidence-based documentation rather than screenshots
How it works
Azure Documenter is used across five common scenarios. Each one is built around the document type or publish option that fits the audience.
Use cases
Each use case below names the teams it suits, the need it addresses, and the key scenarios it covers.
1. Monthly cost and executive reporting
Who it's for: Cloud administrators, finance teams, leadership
A cloud administrator or finance stakeholder needs a recurring summary of resource and billing activity. They configure an Executive summary or Billing details document with a fixed billing date range and currency, and generate it every month.
Key scenarios:
- Recurring executive summary: generate an Executive summary document each month to share with leadership
- Billing review: generate a Billing details document with a fixed billing date range and currency for finance teams
- Stakeholder sharing: share the generated document with leadership or finance teams
2. Cost optimization reviews
Who it's for: Cloud administrators, FinOps practitioners, finance teams
A cloud administrator wants to find savings opportunities before a budget review. They generate a Rightsizing recommendations document to find over-provisioned resources, and a Reservation recommendations document to evaluate potential savings of up to 60% through Azure Reserved Instances.
Key scenarios:
- Rightsizing review: identify over-provisioned resources before a budget review
- Reservation evaluation: evaluate potential savings through Azure Reserved Instances
3. Security and compliance audits
Who it's for: Security teams, compliance teams, cloud administrators
A security or compliance team needs to demonstrate regulatory adherence. They generate a Security compliance document for a subscription-wide assessment and an Access details document to review who has access to what.
Key scenarios:
- Subscription-wide assessment: assess compliance across a whole subscription with a Security compliance document
- Access review: review who has access to what with an Access details document
- Audit evidence: support audits with generated documents instead of screenshots
4. Architecture documentation and onboarding
Who it's for: Team leads, cloud architects, new engineers
A team lead wants to explain how a set of Azure resources supports a particular business process, for example when onboarding a new engineer or preparing for an incident response review. They use the Diagrams area to map the relevant resources across subscriptions into a single architecture view.
Key scenarios:
- Resource mapping: map the resources that support a business process across subscriptions into one architecture view
- Engineer onboarding: show a new engineer how Azure resources support a business process
- Incident response reviews: prepare for an incident response review with a clear picture of the resources involved
5. Governance reporting via a knowledge base
Who it's for: Cloud administrators, governance teams, documentation owners
An organization wants generated documents to live in a searchable, shareable location instead of static files. They configure the publish platform to Document360, so each generated document is published directly to a knowledge base project instead of being distributed as a file.
Key scenarios:
- Publish to a knowledge base: publish each generated document directly to a Document360 project
- Searchable and shareable location: keep governance documents where people can search and share them
- No file distribution: skip sending static files to stakeholders