The IT Melting Pot!

As I use to write; THIS IS INTERESTING! I think that Microsoft will take some market share for sure with their cloud service offerings!

Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Network now are generally available. We have new prices for Virtual Machines, Virtual Network, and Cloud Services.

Today is a major milestone for Windows Azure and all of our customers and partners. We are excited to announce that Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Windows Azure Virtual Network now are generally available. We also want to update you on new prices for Virtual Machines, Virtual Network, and Cloud Services.

Virtual Machines and Virtual Network help you meet changing business needs by providing on-demand, scalable infrastructure. These infrastructure services enable you to extend your data centers and workloads into the cloud while using your existing skills and investments. With these services, you can:

• Provision Microsoft SharePoint farms in minutes without up-front hardware investments. Integrate full-trust code to run rich apps and provide Internet-facing collaboration sites.
• Prototype your newest app or extend data marts into the cloud using Virtual Machines as a robust infrastructure for Microsoft SQL Server software. Scale on demand and connect to your on-premises infrastructure using Virtual Network.
• Embrace rapid innovation using the cloud for development and test scenarios. You can spin up any test lab or sandbox quickly, and be agile in your learning, development, and prototyping.

Let’s take a closer look at the news that we are announcing today with general availability.

New high-memory instances for Virtual Machines

When your apps need more memory, new 28-gigabyte (GB) and 56-GB instances deliver.

Updated SLA

When you deploy multiple instances of Virtual Machines, Microsoft provides a financially backed 99.95 percent monthly service level agreement (SLA).

Customer support

Our customer support team is ready and available to help you troubleshoot 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have several support plans tailored to meet your needs—from basic developer support to Premier Support. When you work with Microsoft, you have a single vendor to call for cloud and on-premises needs. 

Validated workloads

The best of Microsoft server products are validated to run on Virtual Machines, including Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, BizTalk Server 2013, and more. We also offer prebuilt virtual machine images—such as BizTalk Server and SQL Server—through the Windows Azure Virtual Machines Image Gallery with hourly pricing. Prebuilt Linux images—such as CentOS, Ubuntu, and Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)—are available in the Image Gallery from commercial distributors. In addition, a wide variety of the most popular open source applications are available as prebuilt images in VM Depot, a self-service community portal.

Price reductions for Virtual Machines and Cloud Services

Tremendous business growth globally gives us the ability to pass along benefits of scale to you, and provide competitive pricing across all geographies. We’re offering the following new prices and added value:

• Windows Virtual Machines general availability prices reduced by 21% for standard instances. New general availability prices will be effective June 1, 2013. For a small instance, the new price will be 0,6042 kr per hour. Windows Virtual Machines will remain at discounted preview prices until May 31 for standard instances.
• Linux Virtual Machines prices reduced by 25 percent for standard instances. Effective April 16, 2013, prices reduced by 25 percent for small, medium, large, and extra-large instances. For example, the price for a Linux small instance will drop from 0,5370 kr per hour to 0,4028 kr per hour in all geographies.
• Virtual Network pricing of 0,3357 kr per hour effective June 1, 2013. Until June 1, customers can use Virtual Network free of charge.
• Cloud Services web and worker role prices reduced by 33 percent for standard instances. Effective April 16, 2013, price drops by 33 percent for small, medium, large, and extra-large instances. For example, the price for a small worker role will drop from 0,8055 kr per hour to 0,5370 kr per hour in all geographies.
• Increased value of 90-day free trial, MSDN and Microsoft Partner Network offers. These offers now include additional 50 hours of usage per month of our new high-memory instances. This special offer ends June 1, 2013.

Visit our Pricing Details page for a comprehensive look at all the pricing changes.

Scalable Infrastructure in the Cloud

Bring It. We Run It.

Scalable, On-demand Infrastructure for Your Apps

Dramatically reduce your wait time to provision IT resources by rolling out apps and infrastructure in minutes. Bring your Windows or Linux-based application to the cloud as-is. Scale up or scale down as needed for a wide range of app hosting scenarios and pay only for what you use.

More in this video.

Extend and Synch.

Connect Hybrid Infrastructure Services with a Single Identity

Build hybrid services that take advantage of what you already have while enabling new innovation in the cloud. Bring your existing identities to apps running in Virtual Machines by simply connecting to your on-premises Active Directory. Running Office 365? Simply run Active Directory Federation services in Virtual Machines to sync with on-premises identities for single sign on.

Build. Learn. Test.

Rapid Innovation Using Infrastructure Services for Dev & Test

Spin up a test lab within minutes. Connect to your existing infrastructure if required. When you’re done, tear it down, bring your app back in house to run it using your on-premises infrastructure, or keep it in the cloud. The choice is yours.

More in this video.

Customize. Collaborate. Maintain.

SharePoint on Windows Azure Infrastructure Services.

Spin up SharePoint farms in minutes without major capital investments. Integrate full trust code to run rich apps and business logic, and provide internet facing collaboration sites on SharePoint that scale with your business needs.

More in this video.

Develop. Scale. Unlock.

Robust Infrastructure for SQL Server

Start small, go big. Whether you are building a lab to prototype your newest app with SQL Server or extending data marts into the cloud, Windows Azure Virtual Machines is a solid foundation you can count on. With full SQL Server compatibility you get capabilities like full-text search, or transparent data encryption for greater security.

More in this video.

Continue reading here!

//Richard