Azure Cloud Hosting Monthly Cost

[thegeektech]

I apologize for posting in the wrong category, but it appears that without a cloud hosted account, I can't post in the appropriate category.

I'm wondering what the monthly cost would be to host a 3CX PBX for 192 simultaneous users would run in the Azure Cloud. Currently the educational institution is only using Azure Cloud for backup and is on the minimal educational plan. While the institution currently runs it on on-premises servers, the institution uses Asure for daily backups. I believe that the institution would not consider local PBX hosting., so that leaves Azure as the next logical option since Asure is the disaster recovery option for local hosting should the institution's data center go down.

I'm wondering if anyone is running 400 3CX users on an Asure Cloud PBX with normal daily peaks of 80 simultaneous users who could share their Azure Cloud hosting cost experience?

 

[SweetAction]

Following 3CX recommended guidance, a PBX of this size would be roughly $700/mo

You can drop it to ~$600/mo depending on your need for call recording.

 

[VoIPTools]

I will offer another perspective. Azure has to be, by orders of magnitude, the most expensive hosting platform on the planet, and certainly the most complicated to administer.

I feel pretty strongly that "the next logical option" should be to evaluate additional hosting companies rather than simply following the pattern set by others. You may receive special educational discounts that make the cost of Azure more palatable, but I would suggest investigating other options as well.

We moved from Azure to Amazon primarily for financial reasons, but the ease of administration and much better performance were also important considerations. Both platforms are reliable but something drastic would have to change for me to ever go back to Azure.

 

[thegeektech]

I appreciate the information and advice. I was pretty sure that Azure would be the most expensive hosting but had no idea of the potential cost. Working within the institution until last week has given me a strong sense of the culture. I know the decision maker and his biases. From my research, even using Azure will provide a 50% cost savings and when you add in the collaboration that 3CX offers, it would be possible to save the institution $60K per year while improving communications. I feel that is enough to get my foot in the door so I can continue to help the institution. The goal is to provide a road map to increasing services while reducing costs at an institution that has not increase IT spending for the past 4 years.

 

[VoIPTools]

Unfortunately, politics and biases are always part of the calculus. That said, nobody here is going to throw stones at you for choosing to recommend Azure. It's a solid platform and may be the right choice for an institution that has already made the decision to invest in Azure -- training, culture, applications, etc.