Today i received mail from Microsoft Connect, informing me to upgrate Windows Azure platform CTP accounts. From FEB 1st 2010 onwards, Windows Azure will be going to run in production mode/live and we will be charged for out usages. Hhope this would be informative, so posting in. 

Greetings from the Windows Azure Platform Team!

We are pleased to announce that starting today you can upgrade from your Community Technology Preview (CTP) account(s) of the Windows AzureTM platform (i.e. Windows Azure, SQL Azure and/or Windows Azure platform AppFabric) to a commercial subscription. If you upgrade your CTP account(s) during the month of January 2010, all Windows Azure platform usage incurred during the month will be at no charge.* You also will have visibility during this month to your usage to assist in estimating your future usage charges. In addition, there will be no usage charges for the Windows Azure platform AppFabric service until April, 2010.*

To upgrade you account, you must have a billing location in one of our initial launch countries listed below:

• Austria • France • Italy • Norway • Sweden
• Belgium • Germany • Japan • Portugal • Switzerland
• Canada • Ireland • Netherlands • Singapore • UK
• Denmark • India • New Zealand • Spain • United States
• Finland


You will have until January 31, 2010 to upgrade your CTP account(s). To upgrade your CTP account(s), you will need to go to our offer page and select the offer of your choice. When you purchase the selected offer, you will need to sign in with the same Windows Live ID as that associated with your CTP account(s). Your CTP account(s) automatically will be associated with the first offer you purchase with that Windows Live ID.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you have two Windows Azure projects associated with your Windows Azure CTP account, only the project with the name of “PDC08 CTP” will migrate to your paid subscription. Your other project will not transfer. If you have such an account, you will have until February 1, 2010, to retrieve your data from this second project prior to the project being disabled.

If you wish to purchase a new commercial subscription but NOT upgrade your existing CTP projects, please use a different Windows Live ID than your CTP account(s) when ordering or remove all of your applications and data associated with your CTP account(s) prior to sign up.

If you elect not to upgrade, on February 1, 2010 your CTP account(s) will be disabled and any Windows Azure Storage will be made read-only. SQL Azure CTP accounts will be able to keep using their existing databases but will no longer be able to create new databases. On March 1st, the SQL Azure CTP accounts that have not been upgraded will be deleted. On April 1st, the Windows Azure Storage CTP accounts that have not been upgraded will be deleted. It is important to export your data if you do not plan to upgrade to a production subscription prior to these dates.

If you have any questions regarding the upgrade process, please feel free to contact customer support. If you are participating in the Microsoft Codename &quotDallas” CTP, your service remains in CTP and is not impacted by this announcement.

Thank you for your continued interest in the Windows Azure platform.

Windows Azure Platform Team

Microsoft Corporation


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By Nithin Mohan TK

Technology Enthusiast | .NET Specialist | Blogger | Gadget & Hardware Geek

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