A subscription is a logical container for your resources and users, which you have to manage while using the Microsoft Azure cloud solution.
Getting a subscription differs depending on the option you choose. By default, you have two types of subscription available—open subscriptions, where you pay for usage, and prepaid ones, which guarantee a certain level of available resources and confidence when it comes to cloud costs.
In general, we have the following open subscriptions (usage-based):
- Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG)
- Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)
Then there's a subscription with an agreed minimum spend:
- Enterprise Agreement (EA)
Depending on the subscription type, once you reach its spending limit (if there is any), you may either end up with blocked resources or your subscription may automatically convert to PAYG. To obtain most subscriptions, all you need is access to a browser and possibly a credit card. The process may differ for more advanced subscriptions (such as CSP or EA), which will require coming to an agreement with a vendor. All of the required steps will be described in this chapter in the following sections.
There is also one more difference regarding the three mentioned subscription types when it comes to payments. In general, your choice may reflect a legal requirement or your company's business model:
- With PAYG, you are billed monthly for all of the resources you used during the billing period (which is one month). Once the billing period ends, an invoice is generated for you with a summary. This summary may help you to understand the bill and analyze the cost. Note that an invoice is usually not issued from the country you live in or where your company is registered.
- With EA, you are committed to spending on Azure a minimum value that you agreed upon. If you spend less, there is no way to restore lost credits.
- With CSP, you will be able to contact a local reseller to be charged by their company. It is a much easier way to pay for cloud resources from a financial and legal point as you are working with a company that is co-located with yours and they are responsible for charging you, not Microsoft directly.
Getting started directly relies on the option you have selected as the processes are quite different. The easiest option requires you only to provide a debit or credit card number, and the most complicated will require you to come to an agreement with Microsoft, so you have agreed on the monetary commitments and your benefits.