Microsoft just released a tool that can connect to your on-premises environment and estimate the cost of running it in Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

You can target an individual physical machine, a Hyper-V or vCenter/ESX host, or a System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) environment.

The tool takes seconds to install and is extremely easy to use. I installed it on my Windows 8.1 domain-joined laptop and pointed it at my lab environment running Hyper-V.

1. Download the beta (here). Note: The beta will expire on 9-1-2014.

2. Follow the installation (next –> next –> done!)

3. Launch the tool and click on Hyper-V

4. Enter the details of your Hyper-V server

Note: I selected ‘Run Once’ to get an immediate cost but I like how the tool allows you to run it over a configurable duration of time so that it can include other factors such as disk and network I/O.

Click Begin Profiling to run the scan.

In my experience, the scan averaged about 120 Kbit/s between my workstation and the server.

5. Click on the virtual machines that you are interested in getting a quote on

6. Click ‘get cost’ in the bottom-right.

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