Microsoft Has Started Charging for the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Service

The Windows Azure AppFabric Caching service free ride is over. Microsoft has announced that as of August 2011, it has started charging customers leveraging the service.

Some Microsoft Cloud customers are bound to be among those that used the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching service for the past few months without paying a single cent.

The free usage was a promotional deal that the software giant had launched in order to boost adoption of the new Windows Azure offering.

“For the past few months, we have offered the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching service free of charge for the promotional period that ends July 31, 2011. For all billing periods beginning on August 1, 2011 onward, we will begin charging [for the service],” noted a Windows Azure team member.

According to the Redmond company, standard monthly rates will apply for all customers taking advantage of the AppFabric Caching service.

$45.00 is the least amount that customers can pay, and will get them a cache of no less than 128MB. If they require more cache, then they’ll need to pay extra, namely: $55.00 for 256MB, $75.00 for 512MB, $110.00 for 1GB, $180.00 for 2GB, and $325.00 for 4GB, according to information provided by Microsoft.

“If you are signed up for one of the Windows Azure Platform offers, it may include a 128MB cache option at no additional charge for a certain period of time, depending on the specific offer,” the Windows Azure team representative added.

Microsoft has set up a webpage listing all the Windows Azure Platform offers, and customers need only visit it in order to see whether their subscription also implies AppFabric Caching service costs.

Since Windows Azure employs a pay-as-you-go pricing model, Microsoft is advising customers to monitor their cache usage in order to make sure that they will not be charged extra.