Which Azure VM to choose to provide a formal training with Hands-on Labs ?

 

Dispite I am using MS Azure all the time, I have to think about money when providing a formal training with hands-on Labs, when dealing with 20 trainees willing to have their own Azure VM to play with.

This is a short post to share my wonderings :

For a given size of a VM, would the cost be impacted by the version of the Windows OS ??

So let us consider a A2 Basic VM size, with the 3 following OS version :

1. Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1,
2. Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter,
3. Windows Server 2016 CTP3

According to you,

• which one would be the most expensive ?? (the recent version ??).
• Which one is the cheapest ? (the CTP, i.e. Beta version ??)

The answer is : Take whatever you feal like !

For a formal training with Hands-On Labs, I’ll go for :

• A2 Basic VM size (2 cores, 3.5 GB, 4 data disks)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
• On : During the day (8.30 am to 6.00 pm), for 5 days

(Note : Prices below are in Euros and based on an MSDN subscription)