Monday, February 24, 2014

Part 5 : Windows Azure Subscription

In order to use Windows Azure, we need to have a subscription for Windows Azure.
The http://www.windowsazure.com web-site provides everything you need to get started with Windows Azure – including overview content, developer tutorials and documentation, account management, and more.

In order to deploy applications to Windows Azure, you need an account. This article describes various options to get a free trial account (and paid one).

Option 1 : Windows Azure Trial Account
Sign up for the Windows Azure Free Trial. The free trial will costs nothing and it doesn't obligate you to buy anything at the end of it.  It provides an easy way to try out and get started with Windows Azure. The free trial provides everything you need to get started with Windows Azure. 
You receive a $200 credit to spend on Azure services during the trial. You can use this $200 however you want to create and try out any combination of Azure resources. It enables you to explore Azure cloud entirely for free.

If you exceed your $200 free credit, or your one month is up, your free trial account gets suspended . You can optionally upgrade your trial to be a Pay-As-You-Go Azure subscription at this point if you want to continue using and paying for services. If not you won’t be billed anything.

Remember that you have only 1 month and $200 credit to try out the Windows Azure. Use your credit and time wisely. Remove any running instances at the end of each day or whenever no longer in use. 

You need to provide three things for trial subscription:
  • The Windows LiveID account you want to use to use to sign-in and manage your account
  • A mobile phone number to get  a verification code.
  • A credit card

The credit card is not billed and during the free trial you’ll have a spending limit set to $0.  Spending limit ensure that you never have to worry about accidentally going over the resources included in a free offer and being charged.  If you end up building an application that exhausts the monthly amounts included in the free trial before the month ends, and you have a spending limit set to $0, then Windows Azure by default disable the application for the remainder of the month (leaving your data in read-only mode) . This ensures you are never billed anything during the free trial. 
You can remove the spending limit if you want to continue using the Windows Azure services. In this case, any usage in excess of the monthly allocation will be charged at standard rates.

There are some free trial account usage limitation that you can get from the following link :
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/offers/ms-azr-0044p#header-3

Clicking on  the link http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial-b/ will take you to a sign-up page that enables you to quickly register a new account and get started with Windows Azure.


Option 2 :  MSDN Subscription
MSDN subscribers have azure benefits included with their subscription.

There are several ways to get an MSDN Subscription:
  • Purchase one of Visual Studio subscription offers.
  • Qualify for the Silver or Gold ISV Competency (or other competencies)
  • If you are a startup, join BizSpark.
  • Or if you are in an enteprise, there’s a good chance you already have access to it.
Once you have MSDN subscription, Log in to MSDN subscription site(http://msdn.microsoft.com/nl-nl/subscriptions/aa336858.aspx) using your live id which is mapped to your MSDN subscription. Then click on My Account ,you will see list of Subscription benefits, from Windows Azure section, click on "Activate Windows Azure" hyperlink, this will guide you how to use MSDN Subscription with Azure.

For the first month after activation of your benefit, you receive $200 of Windows Azure credits. After the first month, you receive $100 of Windows Azure credits every month.

Check the following link to see all the benefits available to MSDN subscribers 
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/msdn-benefits-details/


Option 3 : Windows Azure BizSpark
Windows Azure provides great benefits for BizSpark members. BizSpark members automatically receive the Windows Azure benefit through their Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN subscriptions. These benefits include $150 monthly credits of Windows Azure, lower rates and no additional charge for using MSDN software on Windows Azure. In addition, BizSpark members retain production use rights under this Windows Azure benefits offer. Not a Bizspark member

Option 4 : Windows Azure Pass , Windows Azure academic pass
More details can be found here :


Option 5 : Pay as you go
No commitment. Pay for what you use each month. This offer is billed at the standard Pay-As-You-Go rates. The Pay as You Go plan offers flexibility with no upfront costs and no long term commitment.  You will be notified at least 30 days in advance of any changes to the Pay-As-You-Go rates. New services may be added periodically to the Windows Azure platform. 





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