This article explains how to use the Quote Comparison tool. The Quote Comparison tool allows users with the “Price Estimator” role to compare estimates for both Monthly and any Up-Front charges for the quote.
Overview:
The Quote Comparison tool allows a User to take a Microsoft Online (Pay-As-You-Go) quote from the Azure Pricing Calculator, and using the “Share” function, generate an estimate of both the Monthly and One-Time Charges for:
- Retail Price – Pay-As-You-Go Rates
- Estimated Internal Transfer Charge to the Region – what the Region will be charged for the proposed configuration
- Estimated Floor Price – Estimate of the lowest monthly (or one-time) price that the Region can charge for the proposed configuration
Details:
1. Navigate to Microsoft Azure’s Pricing Calculator and use their tool to generate a quote. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/
Important Note:
You must be logged in to Azure in order to share the Estimate
2. Once you have generated the quote, click the Share button. This generates a URL from the calculator:
Supported Currencies
Please note that the currency you select in Azure’s Quote Comparison tool should be one of the 3 supported currencies in Nebula:
Australian Dollar
Japanese Yen
US Dollar
3. Copy the resulting URL to your clipboard:
4. Click Done:
5. Log in to Nebula and Navigate to the Quote Comparison tile:
6. Click on the ‘Add Quote’ button in the upper right-hand side of the screen:
7. The Add Quote dialog will be displayed. Fill out the dialog with the appropriate information:
- Description – Provide a description of the Quote
- Azure Link – Paste in the Azure Estimate that was copied earlier
- Currency – Select the currency. Can be one of:
- Australian Dollars
- Japanese Yen
- US Dollars
8. Once the dialog has been filled out click Generate:
Note: It may take up to 5 minutes for the quote to be generated.
9. The UI Will display a message indicating that the request to generate a quote was submitted successfully:
10. The UI will display a new line in the Quote Comparison page indicating that the status of the quote is ‘ACCEPTED’:
11. After a few minutes, click the Refresh button. The Status should have changed to ‘SUCCEEDED’:
Important Note regarding FAILED Status:
Occasionally, a quote might display a ‘FAILED’ status. The system will retry the operation a number of times. You can refresh the page every few minutes and the quote may change from ‘FAILED’ to ‘SUCCEEDED’. If the quote remains in a ‘FAILED’ status, please generate a new quote and start the process over.
12. Click on the cog in the Actions column, and select ‘Download’:
13. The system will generate an excel file that you must download to your computer:
14. The file will display various fields:
- Service Type – What are you quoting – Virtual Machines, Storage Accounts, etc..
- Custom Name – Optional User Provided Description of each Service Type (created from the Azure Calculator)
- Region – Azure Region being quoted
- Description – List from Azure of what is being quoted
- SKU(s) – List of SKUs that Azure is outputting from the quote
- Currency – One of USD, AUD, JPY – Each quote will only be in a single currency
- Estimated List Price (Monthly) – The list price under the Microsoft Online Retail pricing offer
- Estimated List Price (One-Time) – Any one-time charges – in general these would only appear if a User quoted a Reserved Instance with an annual payment
- Estimated Internal Transfer Charge (Monthly) – Estimate of what the wholesale charge to the Regional Selling Entity will be – includes any Reserved Instance charges
- Estimated Internal Transfer Charge (One-Time) – Estimate of what the wholesale one-time charge would be to the Regional Selling Entity
- Estimated Floor Price (Monthly) – Lowest monthly price at which the Regional Selling Entity can sell
- Estimated Floor Price (One-Time) – Lowest one-time price at which the Regional Selling Entity can sell
Note on decimal precision stored vs. displayed precision:
When a quote is created in the Azure Calculator, although the pricing is displayed as two decimal points, the actual number populated from the Azure Calculator contains additional decimal points of precision. Nebula does all the calculations using the same level of precision that the original Microsoft quote provides, the System does not do any rounding. The display of the Quote Comparison tool output file shows two decimal points of precision, however, the full decimal precision number is populated in each cell of the output. For example: A line item on the quote may show an Estimated Retail Price (Monthly) of $498.97, however when you click on the spreadsheet cell, the number actually stored is $498.9685, which excel will show as rounded to $498.97.
Availability of past quotes:
Quotes from the past 90 days will be available in the Quote Comparison tool in Nebula. Users are encouraged to download their quotes in a timely manner once they are created in the tool and store them locally.