14 DAY TRIAL // A new release of the Windows Azure platform AppFabric software development kit version 1.0 is now available through the Microsoft Download Center. The update introduced to the SDK is designed to align the offering with the changes associated with the commercial availability of Windows Azure platform offers. Microsoft announced in early January 2010 that charges would start to accrue in April, 2010 for customers leveraging the Windows Azure platform AppFabric. Customers and Microsoft partners with a Windows Azure platform AppFabric commercial account will start being billed tomorrow, according to the software giant.
“The Windows Azure platform AppFabric April Release is now live. In addition to improvements in stability, scale, and performance, this release addresses two previously communicated issues in the March billing preview release. We recommend that you re-check your usage previews for April 7th or later per the instruction in the March Billing Preview announcement to ensure that you sign up for the appropriate pricing plan in preparation for AppFabric billing that will start after April 9,” a member of the Windows Azure platform AppFabric team revealed.
Windows Azure platform AppFabric brings to the table two services, the AppFabric Access Control and AppFabric Service Bus. The Windows Azure platform AppFabric “SDK includes API libraries and samples for building connected applications with the .NET platform. It spans the entire spectrum of today’s Internet applications – from rich connected applications with advanced connectivity requirements to Web-style applications that use simple protocols such as HTTP to communicate with the broadest possible range of clients,” Microsoft stated.
Service Bus is available at $3.99 per Connection-month, while Access Control comes with a price tag of $1.99 per 100,000 Transactions. However, costs could vary, since AppFabric is fully SLA (service level agreement)-supported. As accounts will begin to accrue charges come April 9th, 2010, customers could pay less if Microsoft’s Cloud platform suffers from downtime. The Redmond company offers a 10% credit if Service Bus and Access Control connectivity respectively goes below 99.95%, and a 25% credit if it’s lower than 99%.
Windows Azure platform AppFabric SDK V1.0 is available for download here.