The new Azure option will enable customers to host their deployments in a private cloud on a Windows Azure Virtual Machine. Scale, supporting virtualization and development tools and speed of deployment are the main advantages of deploying on Azure. A customer can be up and running on a full system within one hour, whereas this used to take as much as three weeks depending on the state of the client infrastructure.
Azure hosting is strictly offered through Microsoft partners (like Rimrock Corporation), and not directly through Microsoft. Pricing is based on database size and support required, with 6 and 12 month payment plans available. We will posting information by the end of the month on our website that more thoroughly explains client infrastructure options. Click the here to see the complexity of the pricing calculations.