The Windows Azure Platform Pricing Calculator is designed to help application developers get a rough initial estimate of their Windows Azure usage costs. But where to start? What sort of numbers do you plug in?

A series of white papers from MSDEV helps give you a starting point for figuring it all out. Start with Getting a Start on Windows Azure Pricing and pick a scenario that is similar to your app. Then, use simple sliders in the pricing calculator to plug information about your application —like how many compute instances your application will use, the size of your database, the amount of data transferred to and from the application, and how much storage the application will need. Set the sliders and the calculator kicks out the estimated monthly cost to run the application on a pay-as-you-go model or through special offers.

The series is based on several scenarios that will give you a start on figuring out pricing for your application :

• Windows Azure Pricing Scenario: Asset Tracking Application. If you’re developing an asset tracking application to run on Windows Azure, how do you estimate its monthly cost? The Windows Azure team recently launched a new pricing Azure pricing calculator designed to help developers estimate the cost of running their applications on Azure.
• Windows Azure Pricing Scenario: E-Commerce Web Site. Estimating the monthly cost of running your e-commerce application on Windows Azure just got easier. The Windows Azure team recently launched a new pricing calculator designed to help developers estimate the cost of running their applications on Azure. You use simple sliders to plug information about your application into the calculator—like how many compute instances your application will use, the size of your database, the amount of data transferred to and from the application, and how much storage the application will need.
• Windows Azure Pricing Scenario: Sales Training Application. If you’re developing a sales training application rich in video and other media, how do you estimate its monthly cost to run on Windows Azure? The Windows Azure team recently launched a new pricing calculator designed to help developers estimate the cost of running their applications on Azure. You use simple sliders to plug information about your application into the calculator—like how many compute instances your application will use, the size of your database, the amount of data transferred to and from the application, and how much storage the application will need. offers.
• Windows Azure Pricing Scenario: Social Media Application. Estimating the monthly cost of running your social media applications on Windows Azure just got easier. The Windows Azure team recently launched a new pricing calculator designed to help developers estimate the cost of running their applications on Azure. You use simple sliders to plug information about your application into the calculator—like how many compute instances your application will use, the size of your database, the amount of data transferred to and from the application, and how much storage the application will need.

Feel free to leave a comment here on a scenario that you might need.

Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation