Windows 10: Ma azure and VM's

**jimbo45** · 08 May 2017

Hi there
has anybody got an idea on roughly what the monthly cost of the Azure Cloud service is for say a home user or a small (individual sole trader) type of business.

Basically to run 2 VM's with a small amount of e-commerce.

Looking at Ms's licensing- you'd need a Ph.D in Mathematics to even begin to understand what the costs are.

Cheers
jimbo

**Kari** · 09 May 2017

Having had a bit luck, I have one normal MSDN subscription and an additional subscription through MPN membership paid by my ex partners. Both of these subscriptions give me €130 monthly Azure credits, a total of €260. Depending on your MSDN subscription level (or rather Visual Studio subscription as it's known today) you will get €45 (£40 / $50), €85 (£75 / $100) or €130 (£115 / $150) monthly Azure credits.

More: Monthly Azure credit for Visual Studio subscribers

In my case my credits have always been enough to pay for my use of Windows Server in Azure although I have to admit that as I want to / need to keep it free I only use as basic services as possible (each core / GB RAM / GB HDD costs extra). The new Azure Cost Calculator is quite easy to use and gives surprisingly accurate cost estimates: Pricing calculator | Microsoft Azure

The best way to find out the real cost (in my opinion) is to use the free 30 day Azure trial offer with comes with €170 credits, set up the service you need or are interested in and after the trial period see if cost meets your expectations. The trial requires a valid credit card but nothing is charged, even if you use the free credits before trial period runs out the service will stop, it will not continue by charging your card.

Azure trial: Microsoft Azure: Cloud Computing Platform Services

Kari

**jimbo45** · 09 May 2017

Hi there

Thanks

That seems the most sensible way -- I think also if I use it for business I can deduct a decent amount of the cost in business taxes (depending on where the business is registered !!!) --It's OK here though and I have a decent .is domain server for routing the e-commerce through to the login on the azure cloud which will do the real work. The front end domain will have product details etc and browsing catalog stuff etc -- i.e the easy bit !!! -- so the azure part would only be used once a customer want to purchase something and then things like credit card valuations etc - i. e processing stuff would use the Ms server / cloud.

I do think though some of these large corporations could be a bit more "Small business" friendly -- I believe - was it a chinese saying -- "Out of an Acorn can come a mighty Oak" --not sure if the Chinese though had Oak trees !!! -- wasn't Ms itself started in some small shed !!!

Cheers
jimbo

**Kari** · 09 May 2017

Yes, I completely agree.

Although I like Azure very much, for me as a private user using Azure only because of personal interest and to learn more about it, it would be out of the question without these free credits. As long as I can have it free I play around as much as I can, for instance when month is about to end and I still have unused credits I might set up additional virtual machines just to play with them and test if I have learned something.

Pure Windows Server 2016 use I'll average about €6 a day.

Windows 10: Ma azure and VM's

Ms Azure costs / licensing and VM's

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