14 DAY TRIAL // As of February 1st, 2010, Microsoft’s Cloud platform is generally available in no less than 21 countries around the world. Windows Azure graduated from Community Technology Preview (CTP) to production release at the start of January 2010, but only as of January 2nd, 2010, Microsoft started billing customers leveraging Windows Azure. The same is valid for the company’s Cloud-based relational database service constructed on SQL Server technologies, and labeled SQL Azure. In order to compensate for the time zone differences between the 21 markets in which Windows Azure and SQL Azure are available, the software giant will only start charging for Windows Azure and SQL Azure as of 12:00 AM February 2, 2010 GMT. Although in production release since January, neither customers nor partners were billed for their usage of the Cloud platform the past month.
“We are announcing the general availability of Windows Azure and SQL Azure in 21 countries. Starting [on February 1st] customers and partners across the globe will be able to launch their Windows Azure and SQL Azure production applications and services with the support of the full Service Level Agreements (SLAs),” revealed Doug Hauger, general manager, Windows Azure, Business and Marketing. “We’re hearing great feedback from those who are developing and deploying applications and services across the Windows Azure platform. Since January 2010, thousands of customers have moved from CTP (Community Technology Preview) to production. Starting today our partners will be able to begin selling their solutions to their customers, helping them to reach new markets and increase their revenue.”
Developers that have failed to jump aboard the testing process for Windows Azure when the platform was still in CTP, and therefore free, will continue to be able to take advantage of a no-charge offering from Microsoft, provided they own MSDN Premium subscriptions. Otherwise, customers and partners will need to start paying for Windows Azure, in accordance with the company’s pay-as-you-go business model. Information on what Microsoft is charging for Windows Azure is available via the image on the left, or the Pricing page on the Windows Azure website. At the same time, the software giant is urging all customers still running Windows Azure CTP to make the jump to the final version as fast as possible.
“Customers who have yet to upgrade their CTP accounts to paid commercial subscriptions are encouraged to do so at the earliest in order to maintain access to their accounts. Customers who have not yet upgraded their Windows Azure CTP accounts will have their service disabled and any Windows Azure Storage will be made read-only. SQL Azure CTP customers who have not upgraded their accounts will be able to keep using their existing databases but will no longer be able to create new databases. On March 1, 2010, the SQL Azure CTP accounts that have not been upgraded will be deleted. On April 1, 2010, the Windows Azure Storage CTP accounts that have not been upgraded will be deleted. It is important to export your data if you do not plan to upgrade to a commercial subscription prior to these dates,” a member of the Windows Azure team stated.