Microsoft announce that budget evaluations in Azure Cost Management now include Reservations and Marketplace purchases rather than just usage information.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/2KWjqDW, some examples on how you might implement the new features here: https://bit.ly/2WgjUtO, and a tutorial on creating budgets here: https://bit.ly/2Whw8lU.
Microsoft announce that Azure Spot virtual machines are now generally available.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/2VgCQrQ, and get a reminder of how they work on our blog here: http://bit.ly/2Ou0v5y.
Microsoft announce that special discounts are now available for Windows Virtual Desktop used within an Azure dev/test Subscription. Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/2K0C6Sg. There’s also language added to page 56 of the April 2020 Product Terms document detailing the use rights of Windows Virtual Desktop in dev/test environments. Find the Product Terms documents here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
Azure Information Protection Plan 2 is being discontinued as a standalone offering. Page 6 of the April 2020 Product Terms document confirms that existing customers will continue to have access to the service for the term of their Subscription, and customers with true-up rights will continue to have the option to true-up for the term of their Enrolment. Find the Product Terms documents here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
FastTrack for Azure helps customers to accelerate the deployment of their Azure solutions and it’s at no cost from Microsoft for eligible customers.
Eligibility is focussed around having an identified Azure project supported by the FastTrack program that’s expected to reach at least $5,000 of service usage per month within 12 months of deployment.
FastTrack services have recently also become available in Japan (http://bit.ly/2Vk9jza) and countries in the Asia Pacific region (http://bit.ly/32qT6tn).
Find out more about FastTrack for Azure here: http://bit.ly/2kriyNO.
If you want an easy way to check availability of the Azure products by region then this is useful page: http://bit.ly/39S81zt. Choose the product family and region(s) and then see whether services are generally available, in preview, or slated for future availability with expected timelines.
Windows 7 reached End of Support on 14 January, 2020. Although Microsoft’s recommendation is to upgrade to Windows 10 or move to Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure, customers may purchase Extended Security Updates to continue to receive security updates for critical and important issues. There’s a useful article if you’re intending to deploy these ESUs here: http://bit.ly/39nxuk1, and the FAQ page for Windows 7 End of Support is updated for February 2020 here: http://bit.ly/38dkWeJ.
Azure Cost Management helps customers to feel in control of their Azure spending and to maximise their cloud investment. There are continual innovations to the functionality available, and this January update details the latest changes including improved reporting, new ways of saving money with Azure, and recent changes to Azure usage data: http://bit.ly/2Ov9pQ9.
Microsoft announce the preview of Azure spot virtual machines. Azure Spot VMs let you access unused Azure compute capacity at large discounts compared to pay-as-you-go prices. These VMs are evicted when Azure no longer has available compute capacity and must reallocate its resources. At that point, the VM is deallocated and no additional VM-related changes are incurred, but other resources, such as disk or network, continue to run and accrue charges.
Ideal workloads for Azure Spot VMs include:
Azure Spot VMs are created in the same way as regular VMs, but a flag is set at the time of creation, designating it as a Spot VM. At this point in the preview the pricing is fixed for a Spot VM, but in the future the pricing will vary based on capacity for a particular VM in a particular region. You’ll be able to choose your eviction terms: when Azure needs the capacity, or when the variable pricing reaches a maximum price that you have set.
As a comparison of pricing, for an Fsv2 VM, the pay-as-you-go price per hour is $0.163, while the Spot price is $0.065 per hour, with 1-year and 3-year Reserved Instances at $0.142 and $0.1227 per hour respectively.
Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/36O659J and there’s a useful FAQ at the bottom of this page: http://bit.ly/2tsxXBO.
The set of features that make up Azure Cost Management is constantly evolving and you can find the latest news from the ACM team here: http://bit.ly/38xdT13.
If you’re newer to ACM then there are some new videos: a shorter one here: http://bit.ly/2PjyRZH and a more detailed one here: http://bit.ly/34kPHvs.