Azure Updates: Cost optimization; Traffic Analytics; Monitor

Microsoft issued new insights on how to optimize costs in Azure. Customers commonly want to forecast, manage, monitor, and optimize cloud costs. To achieve this, Microsoft has streamlined Azure purchasing with the Microsoft Customer Agreement, which applies across Azure.com, sales by Microsoft representatives, and partners. As a result, Azure services are priced in US dollars everywhere in the world, with Thomson Reuters benchmark rates captured at the end of the previous month and implemented on the first day of the next calendar month. Customers interested in checking rates can follow a three-step process in the Customer Agreement overview, or contact a partner or Microsoft rep directly.

Additionally, customers can login to their account and leverage the pricing calculator. The team wrote:

Cost management begins with accurate estimates. Azure's pricing calculator helps you estimate the costs for your upcoming Azure projects, while Azure Cost Management and Billing brings the ability to set budgets, automate alerts, allocate cost, forecast spend, and integrate your cloud spending data with your internal telemetry using consumption APIs. Watch this product demo to learn more about the full breadth of capabilities available through Azure Cost Management and Billing. Azure Advisor closes the loop by providing actionable recommendations to optimize your deployments with the new Azure Advisor Score.  

In geographic updates, HDInsight supports the new West US 3 region and Virtual Desktop is available in Azure China Cloud. Among general updates, Monitor Agent and Data Collection Rules supports direct proxies ...