Windows Azure–Prices are going down

Microsoft announced a price update for several Azure services. Many customers asked about the pricing policy of the new features in service bus (e.g. Queues and Topics). This announcement provide a clear answer. No more connection package. From now on a simple Time and Payload model.

• Reduced price for data transfers:
  • $0.12 per GB for outbound data transfers for Zone 1 (Europe and North America)
  • $0.19 per GB for outbound data transfers for Zone 2 (all other locations)

• Service Bus is free for a promotional period:
  • Service Bus is migrating to a new billing model based on relay hours and messages.  To help customers get a feel for this new model, Service Bus is offered at no charge (except for standard data transfer fees) for billing months beginning before April 1, 2012.
  • For billing periods beginning on or after April 1, 2012, Service Bus will be charged as follows:
    • $0.10 per 100 relay hours
    • $0.01 per 10,000 messages

• Access Control’s period of free service has been extended:
  • Access Control’s period of free service has been extended through November 30, 2012.
  • For billing periods beginning on or after December 1, 2012, Access Control will be charged at $1.99 per 100,000 transactions. 

• SQL Azure database size limit increased to 150 GB:
  • Size limit on a SQL Azure Business Edition database has increased from 50 GB to 150 GB.
  • Maximum charge for an individual database remains unchanged and is capped at $499.95 per billing month. It means that the price per GB is reduced in 66.66%.

So things get a little cheaper and simpler.

Enjoy the cloud

Manu