Windows Azure update: wide availability of virtual machines and networks, SLA, memory increase, price reduction

Yesterday there was a big and very important announcement for the entire Windows Azure platform. The general availability of the IaaS platform was announced: virtual machines and virtual networks in the Windows Azure cloud. The status of broad accessibility for the cloud service means the provision of SLA (Service Level Agreements), guarantees and support from Microsoft.

Among other things, along with the announcement are two new virtual machines in Windows Azure with memory sizes of 28 GB (4 cores) and 56 GB (8 cores). New types of virtual machines with increased memory size are designed for projects and solutions that require a large amount of memory.
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Along with the announcement of the broad availability of the IaaS platform in Windows Azure, we offer new SQL Server, BizTalk Server and SharePoint images with licensing of relevant servers (including long-awaited SQL Server licensing). You can choose from various server versions, for example, from Web Edition to Enterprise for SQL Server.

We have tested more of our own products to work on the IaaS platform and are ready to guarantee the work and implement support for deployment of server solutions in the Windows Azure cloud. A detailed list of Microsoft products that support deployment to the cloud can be found at this link .

Developers and IT professionals using Linux for their projects are offered the official images of openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 with support from SUSE, Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 from Canonical, CentOS 6.3 from OpenLogic. In addition, more than 200 pre-configured images of Linux-based virtual machines with dozens of different tools are already available through the VMDepot community with dozens of different tools: Ruby, Django, Solr, Jenkins, Jetty, Nginx and many others.

And finally, we reduce the prices of IaaS and PaaS by 21% and 33%! Along with this price reduction, we are committing ourselves to the already existing 200,000 and all future Windows Azure customers to comply with the Amazon Web Services prices for computing capacity, storage and channels.

Try new features and capabilities right now using the free 90-day trial . Primary information about working with virtual machines in Russian can be found on our portal azurehub.ru . Support friendly community of users of Windows Azure is located on Facebook .

Additional resources

About all the announcements and even more about the innovations on the link in the blog of Scott Guthrie . We encourage you to try new features and share your impressions with us. Tell us what you think in the group of Russian-speaking Windows Azure users on Facebook .

Summary table of virtual machine prices in Windows Azure:



I suggest to get acquainted on our Facebook page with a colorful infographic dedicated to the wide availability of the IaaS platform.

Just do not miss the videos dedicated to the infrastructure in the cloud:



testing and development in the cloud:



launching heavy servers and services in the Windows Azure cloud (using the example of SharePoint):

Do not miss

Do not miss the previous announcements of updates to the Windows Azure platform, which are published almost every week:

• Active Directory and backups in the cloud , site tracing and other Windows Azure updates;
• Windows Azure Update : Hadoop, Dropbox, Mercurial, PhoneGap;
• Updates and news of the Windows Azure platform for the month (February-March 2013);
• Cloud support for Android applications;
• Overview of Windows Azure platform updates for the month : Media Services, Notification Hubs, VM Depot, Redis.

useful links

Below you will find links to resources that will help you in using the Microsoft cloud platform:

• Free 90 Day Windows Azure Trial
• Free access to Windows Azure resources for startups , partners , teachers, MSDN subscribers
• Windows Azure Development Center (azurehub.ru) - scripts, tutorials, examples, recommendations on choosing services and developing on Windows Azure
• Latest Windows Azure News - Twitter.com/windowsazure_ru

And if you are already developing on Windows Azure or want to find the developers of your service, visit appprofessionals.ru .

We will be happy to answer your questions at azurerus@microsoft.com .

And we are waiting for you in the Windows Azure Community on Facebook . Here you will find experts (don't forget to ask them questions), photos, and lots and lots of news.

Video recordings of Windows Azure Summit reports and video interviews that were conducted during a large cloud conference.