Q: Will my customers be able to set budget alerts for Usage, Cost and upon Reserved instances?
A: This is our primary target, yes! Yet, we will partially work and release budget alerts based on priorities and requests. Our first priority being budgets based on costs, then usage, and finally reservations.
Q: Are budget alerts available for all pay-per-use subscriptions?
A: For the moment, budget alerts are only available for Azure Subscriptions. We will eventually make available Budget Alerts for all pay-per-use subscriptions and reservations.
Q: What is the difference between budgets and alerts?
A: A budget is a cost, usage or reservation threshold that can trigger - upon user request - subscription cancellation and/or suspension. An alert will trigger a notification based on a crossover of a price on-top of a budget.
Q: In what types of products do budget alerts bring value?
A: Budget alerts bring value to pay-per-use and to reservation types of products. (such as reserved instances)
Q: Are budget alerts expiring or recurring?
A: Budget alerts do not expire. They are recurring thresholds and their life-cycle is automatically being restricted between the subscription's billing cycle.
Q: Do the notifications have the ability to be sent as SMS to the interested recipient?
A: No, at the moment the only notification medium is email. We may introduce SMS notifications at some point in the future though.
Q: Can my customers edit a pre-set budget?
A: Yes, budget thresholds will have the ability to be edited very easily. Alerts will also be able to get edited.
Q: Will my customers be able to view all budget alerts from a specific view all at once?
A: Yes, your customers will be able to view all budget alerts from a sub-tab "Budget Alerts", in the storefront. We will also introduce other interesting statistics such as "Budget Variance".