Azure cost tip: have consistent regions
Quick tip: pay attention at your Country/Region settings when using a database or a hosted service.
We know that database transactions are free if database and the service are in the same Azure data center.
However, having a database with Country/Region set to West Europe and a Worker Role (which uses this database) with its Country/Region set to Anywhere Europe which polls periodically the database still leads to access costs.
And if you add in the mix a storage account with Country/Region set to Anywhere Europe, don’t be surprised that you’ll have in the bill a lot of consumed units.
Conclusion: be consistent and specific when choosing Country/Region. Making all “Anywhere Europe” will be consistent but not specific and you’ll have additional costs. But if you make all “West Europe” or “North Europe” you’re safer.
Happy cloud saving!