Free Windows Azure for 1 Month

A new promotion from Microsoft is designed to allow a number of 1,500 developers to test drive its Cloud platform free of charge for a whole month. Via the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA devs in the United States can effectively request a Windows Azure one month pass, that will allow them to use Windows Azure and SQL Azure at no cost for an entire month. Microsoft has set up a Windows Azure Pass USA website designed to offer customers interested in testing its Cloud platform the details of the promotion.

“This is a great opportunity to get started with the Windows Azure Platform without having to include your credit card number! This offer is limited to the first 500 developers to respond each calendar month between August 1 and ending October 31, 2010. It’s important to note that the pass will expire at the end of each calendar month. If you receive the pass on August 15 the pass will expire on August 31,” revealed Wes Yanaga, from the ISV Developer team.

Once on the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA site, devs will notice that Microsoft is also providing links to a range of resources designed to deliver insight into the company’s Cloud offerings. Microsoft will allow 500 developers each month for the next three months to get a free pass for Windows Azure, and customers will need to time their requests as best as possible in order to get the most out of the deal.

“This Windows Azure Platform pass is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other Windows Azure Platform pass,” Microsoft informed. “At the end of each calendar month your Windows Azure Platform account user ID and password will be deactivated. All deployments, databases, data, services and storage accounts associated with this user ID and password will also be deleted automatically. You will not be able to recover the information.”

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