May 25, 2011 09:03 GMT  ·  By

A new web application from Microsoft is available to customers that want to assess the costs of embracing the company’s Cloud offerings. The Windows Azure Platform Pricing Calculator is now live, and available free of charge on the site dedicated to Windows Azure.

As the official label of the web app implies, the Windows Azure Platform Pricing Calculator can provide cost estimates for companies looking to switch to Windows Azure.

“The Windows Azure platform gives you the flexibility to pick services and offers based on your business needs. To help you select the right Windows Azure platform offer and estimate your monthly costs, we’ve just launched a new pricing calculator,” revealed Aashish Dhamdhere, Senior Product Manager, Windows Azure.

The Windows Azure Platform Pricing Calculator is designed to forecast the investments necessary to access enough of the Redmond company’s Cloud resources to cover customer needs.

In this regard, the calculations are based on data provided by users. Customers need to know, or at least approximate a range of factors, including Compute Instances, Relational Databases, Storage and Transactions, Content Delivery Network, Bandwidth and Service Bus.

With the specific inputs in place, the Windows Azure Platform Pricing Calculator will provide cost estimates.

“Along with predicting your expected monthly costs, the pricing calculator then recommends the most cost effective offer for you to purchase Windows Azure platform services,” Dhamdhere added.

Just to give it a try, I maxed out all the dials on the Windows Azure Pricing Calculator, and receive two offers from Microsoft, one for $12,699.00 /month and the other for as much as $18,815.05 /month.

Still, it’s critical to note that Microsoft is providing the Windows Azure Platform Pricing Calculator more as a generic guidance tool in terms of Cloud costs. Customers should treat the results returned by the app as suggestions, and nothing more.

“You should not interpret any output you receive as a part of this process to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy of any information presented in the report,” the company noted.

“You should not view the results of this report as a substitute for engaging with a third party expert to independently evaluate you or your company’s specific computing needs. The analysis report you will receive is for informational purposes only.”

My personal advice to customers adopting Microsoft’s Cloud is to use the Windows Azure Platform Pricing Calculator only as a stepping stone to putting together a complete assessment themselves.