Course Resource

Microsoft Azure: How to Navigate the Pricing Calculator

This is the landing page for the Microsoft Azure pricing calculator. For Project 2, you will have to select many categories, products, and variables to compute the cost of an Azure cloud solution. Listed below are a few steps to help you learn how to navigate the tool so you can complete your assignment. 

Landing page of the Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator

Source: Microsoft

To get started, you will need to select categories of products to include in your estimate. Select Compute from the category menu on the left. You will see the products that are associated with that category in the middle section of the screen. 

Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator with an arrow pointing right from the Compute category to available products.

Source: Microsoft

Next, select the Batch tab and the Virtual Machines tab, as shown in the screenshot below. You will see an animated calculator figure and a "Batch Added view" box slide in from the right and disappear, and "Virtual Machines Added view" box slide in from the right and disappear.

Note: The products selected in the middle screen will not show any difference once they are selected. 

Compute screen in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator with arrows pointing to Virtual Machines and Batch tabs in the products area.

Source: Microsoft

Now that you have made the initial selections, scroll to the bottom of the screen to review what has been added and to fill in other options for a given product.

Here is what Batch looks like when viewed. 

View of Batch result selected in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator, with drop-down menu for Region, a description of Batch services, drop-down menus for Tier (priority) and Instance breakdown for core, gigabytes of RAM, GB of temporary storage and price per hour. Along the bottom is a final calculation showing the number of instances (1) times 730 hours equals $23.36.

Source: Microsoft

Here is what Virtual Machines looks like when viewed. Notice the different options that you can change. The default for "VIRTUAL MACHINES" is 1, and you will be changing this to 10. Also, note the “Savings Options” for “Pay as you go,” which you will later change to “1 year reserved” for your alternate pricing. 

View of Virtual Machines result in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator with drop-down menus for Region, Operating System, Type of OS, and Tier (Standard). At bottom, there is a drop-down menu with details on the Instance with CPUs, GB and temporary storage, and default settings for 1 Virtual Machine times 730 hours.

Source: Microsoft

Try another one. Select Networking from the category menu on the left and notice the products that are shown in the middle section of the screen. 

Networking screen in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator with arrow pointing right from the category to the list of products.

Source: Microsoft

For Networking, select two products: Virtual Network and VPN Gateway. Again, you will see an animated calculator figure, and after each selection, the "Virtual Network Added view" and "VPN Gateway Added view" boxes will slide in from the right and disappear. And again, the products selected in the middle screen will not show any difference once they are selected. 

Networking screen in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator with arrows pointing to Virtual Network and VPN Gateway tabs in the products section.

Source: Microsoft

Now that you have made the selections, scroll to the bottom of the screen to view what has been added to the pricing calculator. Notice the two additions.

Here is what Virtual Network looks like when viewed. 

Virtual Network result in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator. The view includes text about creating virtual networks and VNET Peering. There are drop-down menus for Type, Data Transfer, Region, and calculations for outbound and inbound data transfers. At bottom, the monthly cost of $2 is shown.

Source: Microsoft

Here is what VPN Gateway looks like when viewed. 

View of VPN Gateway in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator. There are menus for Region, Type, and Gateway Type, a box for Gateway Hours and entries for Site to Site (S2S) Tunnels, Point to Site (P2S) Tunnels and Outbound Inter-VNET Data Transfers. A menu at the bottom is for VPN Gateway Type, and a calculation on the last line reads $0.00.

Source: Microsoft

Continue with the selections provided in the Project 2 instructions for Deliverable 1. When you have completed all your selections, scroll to the bottom of the calculator and click the Export box to populate your results into an Excel file. 

Estimated upfront cost ($0.00) and estimated monthly cost calculations ($1,897.23) in Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator. A series of buttons that read Export, Save, Save As, Share are on the left.

Source: Microsoft