General Windows Azure Issues

Question

• Windows azure automatically scales (by providing more instances), or do I need to change this?
• an extra small copy costs $ 0.05 / hour. According to Azure SLA, I need to use at least 2 instances. This means that 2 * $ 0.05 * 24 * 30 = $ 72 / month. I can get an asp.net hosting package for $ 5 per month. Are there any suggestions that I don’t know about, so I can build from the very beginning on the Azure architecture or just switch to azure when I need more scaling and other services that Azure offers, because the price difference is too high for me.

Answer 1

1) Azure does not scale automatically. You either need to code this function yourself (there are many open source examples that show the basics), or use the automatic scaling service, for example, @ http://www.paraleap.com

2) If your business is a small business (less than a million dollars a year and using MS technologies), you can get into the Microsoft Bizspark @ http://www.bizspark.com program - they offer 3 years of MSDN, which includes 1 istance calculation works 24 hours a day, 7 days for 16 months for free. Also, if you have MSDN, you already have 16 months of Azure for free.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

• No, you need to do this yourself by changing the configuration or do it using the code where you conduct the diagnostic survey. Azure exposes and enhances the value of instances. Please note that it will take 15 minutes before the new instance is ready.

• If you want a SLA in Azure, you really need at least 2 instances. There are several suggestions on Azure that can get you started: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/ . But if you do not need scaling, etc., and just want to run a blog / site, then it is probably better to go to standard hosting at the moment. Azure has its merits and a great environment, but it is not the best environment for all circumstances. I suggest you take a look at what your application needs to do if you foresee steep ups and downs during certain hours, ...

Neudesic also created a Windows Azure pricing ROI calculator: http://azureroi.cloudapp.net/ . But you can probably also speak with a Microsoft representative in your country for exact prices / offers / ...

Answer 3

You only need to run 2 instances if you need your service to ensure the reliability guaranteed by the Azure SLA.

Microsoft can sometimes run its instances “cyclically” to apply basic system updates to virtual machines or transfer your virtual machines to other equipment in a data center, etc. If you have only one instance running, your service will experience downtime for several minutes while the update is in progress. If you have two instances running, one instance will be disabled for updating while your other instance is still running and processing incoming requests. When the update on instance 1 is completed, it will process processing requests, and instance 2 is disabled for the update.

If you do not care about continuous uptime, you can simply run 1 copy at half the price - $ 31 / month according to your calculations.

If you are comparing $ 5 / month ASP.NET hosting, you are not comparing apples to apples. An ASP.NET accounting station worth $ 5 a month almost certainly does not provide SLA with excess redundancy in the event of a hardware failure in the data center.