Archives

Archives / 2013 / September
  • Windows Azure: New Virtual Machine, Active Directory, Multi-Factor Auth, Storage, Web Site and Spending Limit Improvements

    This week we released some great updates to Windows Azure.  These new capabilities include:

    • Compute: New 2-CPU Core 14 GB RAM instance option
    • Virtual Machines: Support for Oracle Software Images, Management Operations on Stopped VMs
    • Active Directory: Richer Directory Management and General Availability of Multi-Factor Authentication Support
    • Spending Limit: Reset your Spending Limit, Virtual Machines are no longer deleted if it is hit
    • Storage: New Storage Client Library 2.1 Released
    • Web Sites: IP and Domain Restriction Now Supported

    All of these improvements are now available to use immediately.  Below are more details about them.

  • MSDN Subscribers: Windows Azure Aston Martin Sweepstakes through Sept 30th

    Earlier this summer we announced a number of great changes to Windows Azure that make it a fantastic cloud environment to use for Dev/Test scenarios.  These Dev/Test capabilities work great even for scenarios where you are building apps that ultimately will still be deployed using on-premises servers.

    Some of the dev/test changes we announced for Windows Azure included:

    • No Charge for Stopped VMs
    • Pay by the Minute Billing
    • MSDN Use Rights Support on Windows Azure
    • Heavily Discounted MSDN Dev/Test Rates – up to 97% discount off standard rates

    We also introduced a new MSDN Monthly Monetary Credit program – which allows you to use up to $150 per month of free monetary credits on Windows Azure for dev/test scenarios.  These credits renew every month – enabling you to use $1000+ of free dev/test capacity every year

  • Windows Azure: New Distributed, Dedicated, High Performance Cache Service + More Cool Improvements

    This morning we released some great updates to Windows Azure.  These new capabilities include:

    • Dedicated Cache Service: Announcing the preview of our new distributed, dedicated, high performance cache service
    • AutoScale: Schedule-based auto-scaling for Web Sites and Virtual Machines and richer AutoScale history logs
    • Web Sites: New Web Server Logging Support to save HTTP Logs to Storage Accounts
    • Operation Logs: New Filtering options on top of Operation Logs

    All of these improvements are now available to use immediately (note: some are still in preview).  Below are more details about them.