Tag: Pricing

It was only back in November that we noticed, at work, that the average Azure month had shrunk to 732 hours, the average length of a month in a leap year.

It appears that Azure has moved a little closer to the sun, because the average Azure month has just shrunk to 730 hours.

Where does 730 come from? Let’s do the math:

1. 730 hours * 12 months = 8760 hours in a year.
2. 8760 hours / 24 hours = 365 days in a year.

So 730 hours in an average Azure month is based on a year of 365 days. And how said pricing the cloud was hard?

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If you found this information useful, then imagine what 2 days of training might mean to you. I’m delivering a 2-day course in Amsterdam on April 19-20, teaching newbies and experienced Azure admins about Azure Infrastructure. There’ll be lots of in-depth information, covering the foundations, best practices, troubleshooting, and advanced configurations. You can learn more here.

Did you know that the average month in Azure is 732 hours long? And that when you ask an Azure pricing tool for a monthly cost, it takes the hourly cost and multiplies it by 732 … and that used to be 744!

Since I started working with Microsoft Azure, I’ve been using 744 hours as the average month in the Azure universe. That was because that’s what Microsoft used.

Only this week my colleague saw that Microsoft had switched to using 732 hours. I was puzzled so we checked, confirmed, and opened Excel to do some maths.

Let’s analyse 744 hours first:

744 (hours per month) * 12 months = 8928 hours per year.

8928 hours per year / 365 days = 24.46 hours.

Hmm. Let’s allow for a leap year:

8928 hours per year / 366 days = 24.39 hours.

OK. Let’s forget 744 hours and go with 732.

732 (hours per month) * 12 months = 8784 hours per year.

8784 hours per year / 365 days = 24.066 hours.

Not quite even. Let’s go with a leap year:

8784 hours per year / 365 days = 24 hours exactly.

Sooo ….

732 hours is the average length of a month in a leap year.

Azure’s monthly pricing is based on the average month in a leap year.

Was This Post Useful?

If you found this information useful, then imagine what 2 days of training might mean to you. I’m delivering a 2-day course in Amsterdam on April 19-20, teaching newbies and experienced Azure admins about Azure Infrastructure. There’ll be lots of in-depth information, covering the foundations, best practices, troubleshooting, and advanced configurations. You can learn more here.