Microsoft Azure provides a wide range of storage, networking, analytics, and computing capabilities. Below is an overview of the most commonly used services, their starting prices, and example usage scenarios for a typical workload:
Service Azure Pricing Breakdown:
Here is the Azure Pricing breakdown in brief; have a look and proceed as per your requirements.
Block Blob Storage (Hot Tier): Price: $0.02 per GB per month.
Example: Storing 500GB in Blob Storage for one month. 500GB * $0.023 = $11.5 per month.
Functions (Serverless): Price: $0.20 per million executions.
Example: A serverless function with 7 million executions per day for 1 month. 30 days * 7 million executions * $0.20 = $42 per month.
Linux Virtual Machines (VMs): Price: $0.004 per hour.
Example: Using 20 VMs for one month (10 VMs for 30 days, 24 hours/day). 10 VMs * 30 days * 24 hours/day * $0.004 = $57.6 per month.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS, Standard tier): Price: $0.10 per cluster per hour.
Example: Running 8 million clusters per day for one month. 30 days * 24 hours/day * 8 million clusters * $0.10 = $576 per month.
Total Monthly Cost Example:
- 20 VMs: $57.6
- Serverless function with 7 million executions per day: $42
- 500GB of Blob Storage: $11.5
- AKS: $576
Total: $687.1 per month.
If this seems a bit complex, don’t worry -we’ll explain the details of Azure Pricing further below!
Intercept offers a detailed look at the various Azure storage options and their prices. They have full Azure pricing information that was not included in the article.
Pricing Models and Structures
Azure provides several price structures, including pay-as-you-go, spot pricing, and reserved instances. Azure also provides a free tier, albeit services are much more limited, with some services available for the first 12 months and others indefinitely.
What Influences Your Azure Pricing?
- Compute
- Storage
- Networking
- Developer Tools
- Databases
- Integration
- The Internet of Things
- Migration
- Mixed Reality
- Mobile
- Web
- Azure’s Security Center
Azure Free Tier
Azure offers two free tiers: a 12-month and a 30-day free option. Some services remain free permanently. Azure offers free services that can be used indefinitely, including
- Azure App Service, Azure DevOps, and DevTest Labs are all examples of development services.
- Messaging, Routing, and Automation: The services include event grid, Azure automation, and load balancer.
- Data Management and Search: Data Factory Catalog and Cognitive Search are free data management and search platforms.
- Networking services offer unlimited incoming data transmission, limited outbound data transfer (up to 15GB), virtual networks (VNets), and data transfer between VNets.
- Serverless and container services include Service Fabric, Azure Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS), and Azure Functions (which can handle up to a million requests).
- Azure Advisor, Security Center, and Active Directory B2C are among the additional services provided.
Be cautious when using these free services. You will be charged if you utilize any offerings other than those listed here.
For example, if you use Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) but want to deploy containers, you will be charged for the VMs and container instances deployed.
Pay as You Go
Azure’s pay-as-you-go concept allows consumers to pay based on product usage. This means you are charged for each service you utilize, down to the second. So you don’t have to worry about making a long-term commitment or paying for services you won’t use.
This may appeal if you still need to commit to a product. It also lets you scale up or down as needed, which means you can use Azure services more or less depending on your needs. This makes it an excellent choice for handling unpredictable workloads or when you’re unsure how much capacity you’ll require.
Azure offers many possibilities; the key is to understand how everything is organized and where the pricing starts. We hope we have helped you at least a little.
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