Microsoft Azure Capacity Blocks


Pixel art style cloud above data center buildings with digital data streams connecting them
Digital cloud linking to a modern data center in a pixel art style.

A new addition, Azure Capacity Blocks (ACB):

“allow Customers to purchase a fixed duration block of capacity for a specific Microsoft Azure resource in a specified region, with a scheduled start date in the future.”

They can range from 1 day to 6 months, they are fully paid for upfront, and cannot be cancelled or refunded. Unused portions of ACBs will not be refunded either. Once the term ends, customers “will be evicted from the applicable capacity, and Microsoft will stop Customer’s use of the applicable Microsoft Azure Services.”

When I initially looked, there was a Learn site for this new release but I cannot find it now. Not sure if it’s been removed or I (and ChatGPT) just aren’t looking in the right place all of a sudden 🤔

This new offering must be related to the capacity issues that Microsoft have been having in their Azure datacentres – will it help prevent that from reoccuring?

Microsoft Azure Reservation Changes


Photo by Kate Graur on Pexels.com

Microsoft have revealed that the previously announced end of Azure Compute Reservation exchanges has been postponed “until further notice“. They say:

You may continue exchanging your compute reservations for different instance series and regions until we notify you again, which will be at least 6 months in advance. In addition, any compute reservations purchased during this extended grace period will retain the right to one more exchange after the grace period ends.”

You can see the Microsoft page here – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/reservations/exchange-and-refund-azure-reservations