Microsoft Azure (IaaS) Cost Estimator Tool

One question that I get rather frequently: “How much would running my machines on top of Microsoft Azure really cost me?” (or something similar).

Well, you probably know that the first answer that comes to mind is “It depends.” (probably can be used on any occasion in IT, what do you think? Smile). I hope that the next step is “Well, let’s take a look what do have, what do you really use, what can be migrated, let’s profile the usage, and then we will calculate it (using Excel, of course), and…”.

Good news is that now you have the tool for this scenario, called Microsoft Azure (IaaS) Cost Estimator Tool! Smile

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The tool itself looks very nice, and it’s easy to use (do I need to mention that this tool is also free?), so I really can’t think of a reason not to use it (or just give it a try). It also downloads the updated XML that verifies that the latest version is installed and that the latest pricing is used.

You can download this great tool here (it’s about 3,5 MB in size), with walkthrough here.

If it says that Microsoft Azure maybe is not right for you (based on the data you fed it with), you can still take a test-drive of Microsoft Azure, and decide for yourself (after all – it is a tool, it can be wrong Smile).

Have a nice day!

P.S. Let’s not forget about the awesome Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit, which is also freely available out there… Smile

Just released – Veeam Management Pack v7

Guys at Veeam have released a new version of their management pack for System Center – Veeam® Management Pack™ v7 (now with Hyper-V support, which is kind of a big deal for those running Hyper-V & Veeam)!

As they say on their website – “This new version is the most comprehensive, intuitive and intelligent extension for app-to-metal management of Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere and Veeam Backup & Replication™.

One interesting thing about the product is that it now offers the same features for monitoring, reporting and capacity planning for both hypervisors. You’ll get:

  • Interactive topology views of compute, storage and network
  • Real-time Hyper-V performance monitoring
  • In-context dashboards and heat maps

More detailed info is available here.

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They also have a very cool offer – here you can request a free product license (Enterprise edition) including one year of free Standard maintenance for Hyper-V environments up to 100 sockets (offer available until December 31, 2014).

So… grab your license and start exploring! Smile