This promotional offer enables you to try a limited amount of the Windows Azure platform at no charge. The subscription includes a base level of monthly compute hours, storage, data transfers, a SQL Azure database, Access Control transactions and Service Bus connections at no charge. Please note that any usage over this introductory base level will be charged at standard rates.
Included each month at no charge:
Windows Azure
25 hours of a small compute instance
500 MB of storage
10,000 storage transactions
SQL Azure
1GB Web Edition database (available for first 3 months only)
Windows Azure platform AppFabric
100,000 Access Control transactions
2 Service Bus connections
Data Transfers (per region)
500 MB in
500 MB out
Any monthly usage in excess of the above amounts will be charged at the standard rates. This introductory special will end on March 31, 2011 and all usage will then be charged at the standard rates.
As part of AWS’s Free Usage Tier, new AWS customers can get started with Amazon EC2 for free. Upon sign-up, new AWScustomers receive the following EC2 services each month for one year:
750 hours of EC2 running Linux/Unix Micro instance usage
750 hours of Elastic Load Balancing plus 15 GB data processing
10 GB of Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) plus 1 million IOs, 1 GB snapshot storage, 10,000 snapshot Get Requests and 1,000 snapshot Put Requests
15 GB of bandwidth in and 15 GB of bandwidth out aggregated across all AWS services
Paid Instances-
Standard On-Demand Instances
Linux/UNIX Usage
Windows Usage
Small (Default)
$0.085 per hour
$0.12 per hour
Large
$0.34 per hour
$0.48 per hour
Extra Large
$0.68 per hour
$0.96 per hour
Micro On-Demand Instances
Micro
$0.02 per hour
$0.03 per hour
High-Memory On-Demand Instances
Extra Large
$0.50 per hour
$0.62 per hour
Double Extra Large
$1.00 per hour
$1.24 per hour
Quadruple Extra Large
$2.00 per hour
$2.48 per hour
High-CPU On-Demand Instances
Medium
$0.17 per hour
$0.29 per hour
Extra Large
$0.68 per hour
$1.16 per hour
Cluster Compute Instances
Quadruple Extra Large
$1.60 per hour
N/A*
Cluster GPU Instances
Quadruple Extra Large
$2.10 per hour
N/A*
* Windows is not currently available for Cluster Compute or Cluster GPU Instances.
NOTE- Amazon Instance definitions differ slightly from Azure definitions
Instances of this family are well suited for most applications.
Small Instance – default*
1.7 GB memory
1 EC2 Compute Unit (1 virtual core with 1 EC2 Compute Unit)
160 GB instance storage
32-bit platform
I/O Performance: Moderate
API name: m1.small
Large Instance
7.5 GB memory
4 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each)
850 GB instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m1.large
Extra Large Instance
15 GB memory
8 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each)
1,690 GB instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m1.xlarge
Micro Instances
Instances of this family provide a small amount of consistent CPU resources and allow you to burst CPU capacity when additional cycles are available. They are well suited for lower throughput applications and web sites that consume significant compute cycles periodically.
Micro Instance
613 MB memory
Up to 2 EC2 Compute Units (for short periodic bursts)
EBS storage only
32-bit or 64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Low
API name: t1.micro
High-Memory Instances
Instances of this family offer large memory sizes for high throughput applications, including database and memory caching applications.
High-Memory Extra Large Instance
17.1 GB of memory
6.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 3.25 EC2 Compute Units each)
420 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Moderate
API name: m2.xlarge
High-Memory Double Extra Large Instance
34.2 GB of memory
13 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 3.25 EC2 Compute Units each)
850 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m2.2xlarge
High-Memory Quadruple Extra Large Instance
68.4 GB of memory
26 EC2 Compute Units (8 virtual cores with 3.25 EC2 Compute Units each)
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m2.4xlarge
High-CPU Instances
Instances of this family have proportionally more CPU resources than memory (RAM) and are well suited for compute-intensive applications.
High-CPU Medium Instance
1.7 GB of memory
5 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2.5 EC2 Compute Units each)
350 GB of instance storage
32-bit platform
I/O Performance: Moderate
API name: c1.medium
High-CPU Extra Large Instance
7 GB of memory
20 EC2 Compute Units (8 virtual cores with 2.5 EC2 Compute Units each)
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: c1.xlarge
Cluster Compute Instances
Instances of this family provide proportionally high CPU resources with increased network performance and are well suited for High Performance Compute (HPC) applications and other demanding network-bound applications. Learn more about use of this instance type for HPC applications.
Cluster Compute Quadruple Extra Large Instance
23 GB of memory
33.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 x Intel Xeon X5570, quad-core “Nehalem” architecture)
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Very High (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
API name: cc1.4xlarge
Cluster GPU Instances
Instances of this family provide general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) with proportionally high CPU and increased network performance for applications benefitting from highly parallelized processing, including HPC, rendering and media processing applications. While Cluster Compute Instances provide the ability to create clusters of instances connected by a low latency, high throughput network, Cluster GPU Instances provide an additional option for applications that can benefit from the efficiency gains of the parallel computing power of GPUs over what can be achieved with traditional processors. Learn moreabout use of this instance type for HPC applications.
Cluster GPU Quadruple Extra Large Instance
22 GB of memory
33.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 x Intel Xeon X5570, quad-core “Nehalem” architecture)
2 x NVIDIA Tesla “Fermi” M2050 GPUs
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Very High (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
API name: cg1.4xlarge
versus-
Windows Azure compute instances come in five unique sizes to enable complex applications and workloads.
Compute Instance Size
CPU
Memory
Instance Storage
I/O Performance
Extra Small
1 GHz
768 MB
20 GB*
Low
Small
1.6 GHz
1.75 GB
225 GB
Moderate
Medium
2 x 1.6 GHz
3.5 GB
490 GB
High
Large
4 x 1.6 GHz
7 GB
1,000 GB
High
Extra large
8 x 1.6 GHz
14 GB
2,040 GB
High
*There is a limitation on the Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) size if you are deploying a Virtual Machine role on an extra small instance. The VHD can only be up to 15 GB.
lowered the threshold for our volume based discounts from 50 terabytes to 1 terabyte, extending volume pricing discounts to more customers. Here’s a summary of the changes:
Old New
First 1TB $0.150 $0.140
Next 49TB $0.150 $0.125
Next 50TB $0.140 $0.110
Next 400TB $0.130 $0.110
Next 500TB $0.105 $0.095
Next 4000TB $0.080 $0.080 (no change)
Over 5000TB $0.055 $0.055 (no change)
To help new AWS customers get started in the cloud, AWS is introducing a new free usage tier. Beginning November 1, new AWScustomers will be able to run a free Amazon EC2 Micro Instance for a year, while also leveraging a new free usage tier for Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic Block Store, Amazon Elastic Load Balancing, and AWSdata transfer. AWS’s free usage tier can be used for anything you want to run in the cloud: launch new applications, test existing applications in the cloud, or simply gain hands-on experience with AWS.
Below are the highlights of AWS’s new free usage tiers. All are available for one year (except Amazon SimpleDB, SQS, and SNS which are free indefinitely):
AWS’s free usage tier startsNovember 1, 2010. A valid creditcard is required to sign up.
See offer terms.
AWS Free Usage Tier (Per Month):
750 hours of Amazon EC2 Linux Micro Instance usage (613 MB of memory and 32-bit and 64-bit platform support) – enough hours to run continuously each month*
In addition to these services, the AWS Management Console is available at no charge to help you build and manage your application on AWS.
* These free tiers are only available to new AWS customers and are available for 12 months following your AWSsign-up date. When your free usage expires or if your application use exceeds the free usage tiers, you simply pay standard, pay-as-you-go service rates (see each service page for full pricing details). Restrictions apply; see offer terms for more details.
** These free tiers do not expire after 12 months and are available to both existing and new AWS customers indefinitely.
The new AWS free usage tier applies to participating services across all AWS regions: US – N. Virginia, US – N. California, EU – Ireland, and APAC – Singapore. Your free usage is calculated each month across all regions and automatically applied to your bill – free usage does not accumulate.