Microsoft announced significant updates to Azure OpenAI Service, designed to help its 60,000+ customers manage AI deployments more efficiently and cost-effectively. The introduction of self-service Provisioned deployments aims to make quota and deployment processes more agile, faster to market, and more economical.
One of the key updates is the introduction of hourly pricing for Provisioned Throughput Units (PTUs), allowing users to create deployments for as little as an hour at a flat hourly rate of $2 per unit per hour. This is ideal for testing scenarios or transitional periods without any long-term commitment.
Additionally, Microsoft now offers monthly and yearly Azure reservations for Provisioned deployments, providing significant cost savings for production environments with steady request volumes. Customers can save up to 82% or 85%, respectively, over hourly rates.
Customer success stories, such as Visier Solutions, highlight the tangible benefits of these updates, including improved response times, enhanced stability, and lower latency.
By simplifying deployment processes and cost management, Microsoft aims to empower more customers to leverage the power of Azure OpenAI Service to build their own generative AI applications.
