New Azure sizes as Microsoft ramps up the marketing
Microsoft adverts are everywhere at the moment, promoting Surface devices as a seasonal purchase for power and creative users. And the company is also heavily promoting its Azure cloud services, with the suggestion that Microsoft’s cloud is better than any other cloud.
Regardless of the marketing, the company is helping broaden the appeal of Azure with a new range of computer sizes for users. From a relatively lowly new Standard_A1_v2 that offers a single virtual CPU, 2GB of RAM, 10 GB of temporary SSD storage designed for moderate bandwidth use up to a new Standard_A8m_v2 that offers eight virtual CPUs, 64GB of RAM, 80 GB of temporary SSD storage designed for high bandwidth, these virtual machines offer more RAM than previous instances. There is a reduction in storage, but Microsoft suggests the move from HDD storage in the older versions to SSD drives in the newer category provides improved performance.
These instances will be available soon and further bring the appeal of cloud services to a wider range of businesses. To keep pushing cloud, Microsoft also recently announced a cloud Bot-as-a-Service offering. Using the new service, businesses can deploy a bot for customer service chats using Facebook Messenger, Skype and other services without the need for a server and only a basic level of setup and training.
Bots are increasingly used to handle first line customer queries and can be used to route inquiries or complaints to the right people, saving a business time and effort. These and other efforts make Azure cloud a compelling option, and prices will continue to fall as Microsoft battles Amazon and other cloud service providers for business with regular prices cuts and improvements in service. For example in January, Microsoft will cut the prices of Azure media encoding or streaming, used by companies with high levels of video or audio content. See the company’s pricing page (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/media-services/) after 1st January to see how the changes will work.
For any company looking to use Azure cloud services, we can help with setup and advice; get in touch to find out how they can benefit your business.
