Windows Cloud Services Aren’t Exclusive to Microsoft

The Windows Azure brand has captured mindshare for the buzzword-du-jour, ‘cloud computing’. However, Microsoft certainly isn’t the only option for cranking up virtual machines to meet unexpected or peak demands.

For example, I see that OrcsWeb has released its Windows Cloud Servers product, starting at $99.99 a month*.  Competition is a good thing - and make sure you do some cost comparisons when researching cloud resources. Some of us were unpleasantly surprised by Azure’s pricing structure**. OrcsWeb has a nifty Cost Calculator to give a rough estimate of what you’re in for.

One thing I haven’t heard much about in Azure is whether you can get any kind of access to the operating system. In the OrcsWeb Cloud Services scenario you get Remote Desktop console access so you can explore and/or tweak the virtual machine.

* Full disclosure: OrcsWeb gives ASP.NET MVPs a Small Business Shared Hosting account at no charge while they’re MVPs.

** MS kindly reversed the charges I incurred during the MVP deployment contest. (Yup, it’s nice to have friends in the MVP programme.)