Windows Azure Compute Pricing
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Windows Azure Compute
Windows Azure Compute
A great application hosting environment
Windows Azure provides developers an internet-scale hosting environment with a runtime execution environment for managed code. With geographically distributed datacenters, Windows Azure Compute provides developers with the functionality to build, host and manage complete and compelling applications across the world.
Focus on your application, not operational constraints.
Windows Azure enables developers to deploy and manage applications services as a whole as opposed to individual Virtual Machines (VMs). The automated service management provided by Windows Azure offers customers the following administration, availability and scalability benefits:
Administration: Windows Azure automatically takes care of things such as load balancing and failover thereby reducing the effort and cost of administering the application environment.
Availability: Windows Azure is designed to let developers build applications that are continuously available, even in the face of software upgrades and hardware failures.
Scalability: Windows Azure enables developers to build scalable applications that run in Microsoft’s global data centers. Just as important, it allows developers to scale down applications when necessary, letting them use just the resources they need.
Build complete applications using flexible and powerful roles.
A Windows Azure compute service is built from one or more roles. In Windows Azure, a service may run one or more instances of each role type. A service could also be composed of one of more instances of multiple role types.
Windows Azure supports the following three types of roles:
- A Web role is customized for web application programming and supported by IIS 7.
- A Worker role is used for generalized development, and may perform background processing for a web role.
- A Virtual Machine (VM) role runs an image (a VHD) of a Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine. This VHD is created using an on-premises Windows Server machine, then uploaded to Windows Azure. Customers can configure and maintain the OS and use Windows Services, scheduled tasks etc. in the VM role. Once it’s stored in the cloud, the VHD can be loaded on demand into a VM role and executed. The VHD can be used as the base image for all instances of a VM Role.
More control of your application environment.
The VM role and elevated privileges functionality in Windows Azure provide developers with more control over their application environment. For small changes like configuring IIS or installing an MSI, developers can use the elevated privileges feature. This approach is best suited for small changes and enables the developer to retain automated service management at the Guest OS and the application level. When the customizations are large in number or require changes that cannot be automated, developers can use the VM role instead. When developers use the VM role, they retain most benefits of automated service management (load balancing and failover) with the exception of Guest OS patching.
The full IIS functionality provides developers the ability to enable multiple IIS sites per Web role and to install IIS modules. The Remote Desktop functionality also enables you to connect to a running instance of your application or service to monitor activity and troubleshoot common problems.
Flexible instance sizes to meet your application needs.
Your application requirements dictate what size VMs you need, so we built a range of options to choose from. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server. The table below summarizes the resources provided by each instance size. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server. Learn more about Windows Azure pricing.
Windows Azure Compute Instance Specifications and Pricing
Although many resources are dedicated to a particular instance, some resources associated to I/O performance, such as network bandwidth and disk subsystem, are shared among the compute instances on the same physical host. During periods when a shared resource is not fully utilized, you are able to utilize a higher share of that resource.
The different instance types will provide different minimum performance from the shared resources depending on their size. Compute instance sizes with a high I/O performance indicator as noted in the table above will have a larger allocation of the shared resources. Having a larger allocation of the shared resource will also result in more consistent I/O performance.
You can now sign up for the Windows Azure VM role and Extra Small Instance BETA via the Windows Azure Platform Management Portal.
VM role Pricing and Licensing
The pricing model for the Windows Azure VM role is the same as the existing pricing model for Web and Worker roles. Customers are charged at an hourly rate depending on the compute instance size. The Windows Azure fee for running the VM role – whether consumption or commitment based - includes the Windows Server licensing costs.
The license for the Windows Server 2008 R2 is covered through the Windows Azure VM Role licensing. Customers may use bits obtained through Volume Licensing (physical or electronic) to create the image. At launch, customers can deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 for production use in the VM role. In addition, During the Windows Azure™ VM role beta, developers can use the 64-bit version of Windows Server R2 in the VM Role for production services. Other Microsoft® software acquired through an active MSDN® license or subscription can be run in the Windows Azure VM Role for development and test purposes only. Microsoft will gather feedback on how customers and partners utilize the Windows VM Role and use that feedback to develop broader licensing scenarios for the cloud. This provision for MSDN in the Windows Azure VM Role is being offered until May 2011 irrespective of the duration of the Beta phase. Use of any third party software in the VM Role will be governed by use rights for that software.
There is no requirement for Windows Server Client Access Licenses (CALs) to connect to the Windows Azure VM role. There is also no transfer of use rights from any existing WS08 R2 license acquired through any other licensing program to the Windows Azure VM role nor are rights from the VM Role transferable to any other device.
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