Today’s Azure Announcements & upcoming local training events
Did you hear the latest news about Windows Azure? We have just unveiled the biggest update to 
Windows Azure since its release, including new Windows Azure services: Web Sites, Virtual Machines, and Media Services! We have continued to focus on open source development tools and technologies, even enabling Linux to run on the Windows Azure Platform. We invite you to try our cloud platform for the first time, or give it a second look if you have tried it before.
I know some of you will be very excited about the below new additions as they are features you have asked about!
Check out more details & get ready for your hands-on experience of our newest services now:
Web Sites TRY NOW
Get started for free using shared instances and scale as you go using reserved instances for greater isolation and performance. Ten shared-instance websites are free for one year, and any reserved instances that you use are significantly discounted during preview. Please click here for full details.
Virtual Machines & Virtual Network TRY NOW
Virtual Machines gives you application mobility so you can move your existing applications back and forth between on-premises and the cloud. Then, create your own virtual private network (VPN) in Windows Azure and securely connect your VMs to on-premises infrastructure. Virtual Network is available at no charge during preview, while Virtual Machines is significantly discounted off of our current compute rates during preview. Please click here for full details.
Media Services TRY NOW
Media Services offers the flexibility, scalability, and reliability of a cloud service to handle high-quality media experiences for a global audience. Media Services is free during preview, but is limited to 1 terabyte of data processing per month. Please click here for full details.
In addition to these new features, we are previewing an updated and streamlined HTML5-based Management Portal, which you can access from multiple platforms, browsers, and devices.
To get all of the news on the latest release of Windows Azure, visit the Windows Azure blog—and give us your feedback. To see Windows Azure in action, watch Scott Guthrie’s keynote address from the Meet Windows Azure Event.
There are also the new services available:
Locally Redundant Storage. By default, storage accounts are set up to be geographically redundant. Customers that do not require this additional level of durability now can turn off Geo Redundancy and obtain significant savings (for example, a savings of over 25% based on our standard Pay-As-You-Go rates). Locally Redundant Storage is still highly durable, with multiple replicas stored within the same sub-region.
SQL Reporting. SQL Reporting is a new business intelligence service that allows you to publish reports to the cloud or embed reports directly within on-premises applications. The service will be offered at no charge for billing periods beginning prior to August 1, 2012. Thereafter, there will be a charge per hour per reporting instance. Each reporting-instance hour enables a customer to generate up to 200 reports. Please click here to view the standard Pay-As-You-Go rates for SQL Reporting.
For full details on pricing of all our services, visit our new Pricing Overview webpage,.
We hope you are excited about the new features and updated services of Windows Azure for your cloud development. Enjoy!
You can register to learn more at one of our upcoming events:
Windows Azure DevCamp
Date: 19th June 2012
Time: 9am – 5pm
Location: University of NSW Matthews Theatre A Botany Street Gate 11RandwickNew South Wales 2031 Australia
Register for Sydney Windows Azure DevCamp .
Azure 2 day Foundation Hands on Labs
MELBOURNE
Date: 18-19th June 2012
Time: 9am – 5pm
Location: Microsoft Office Melbourne 4 Freshwater Place, Southbank Melbourne
SYDNEY
Date: 28th - 29th June 2012
Time: 9am – 5pm
Location: Microsoft Office Sydney 1 Epping Rd North Ryde
BRISBANE
Date: 21st – 22nd June 2012
Time: 9am – 5pm
Location: Microsoft Office Brisbane Level 28, 400 George St Brisbane