Sean Davis

A new announcement from Microsoft shows how the billing for Azure Service Bus is changing from daily and monthly to hourly billing for standard and premium tiers; thus moving them closer to a usage model that closes the pricing gap between constantly used resources and rarely used resources. One thing I’ve always loved about Microsoft Azure is that as the application evolves Microsoft doesn’t shy away from making it more powerful and cost-effective at the same time. Generally, this is a sliding scale in which you have to compromise. But with Azure, you can have your cake and eat it too.

In case you haven’t had a chance to use Azure Service Bus yet, here’s the skinny. Azure Service Bus is a cloud-based messaging system that enables you to connect to other cloud and on-premise services simplifying integration between components. Azure’s Service Bus is one of the many Platform as a Service (PaaS) services and can be as simple as a single queue or highly complex message workflow with a nearly infinite number of interrelated queues, topics, and subscriptions.

The great news for those that have already been using Service Bus is starting May 1, 2018, you’ll be billed at an hourly rate for Service Bus standard base units and Service Bus premium messaging units. This means you only pay for the number of hours you use rather than being billed daily or monthly whether you use them or not. This equates to even more savings for zero effort.

There is one thing to note, as part of this change, they will be migrating to new GUIDS. If your not familiar with Azure Service Bus GUIDS or want more details on how this will impact your team or application, check out the GUID migration webpage.

For those new to Azure Service Bus, you can learn about this amazing cloud-based messaging service on the overview and pricing webpages.