Developer VM's to Dev\Test Pricing

Question

Hello,

We currently run 15 VM's in DS3 V2 series. As part of the cost optimization, we have considered

1) Reserved Instance
2) Auto Turn on \ Turn Off
3) Dev\Test Pricing

The VM's are already installed with VS 2019 editions (not sure which VS version is running). I understand Dev\Test pricing is applicable only to Visual Studio subscribers. If that is the case, I have below questions.

1) Dev\Test Pricing is applicable only to VS Professional and VS Enterprise subscribers and not VS Community Edition? From this link, I see that https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing/ only VS Professional and Enterprise are eligible for Dev\Test pricing.
2) Can the existing VM's which are developer VM's and in Pay as you go subscription be shifted to Dev\Test pricing plans? How?
3) There are 3 options available for Dev\Test pricing. 1) Individual 2) Enterprise Agreement (private business requires 500 users and devices, public 250 users), 3) Teams. We have less than 10 developers. In our case, the option 3 is the option left to switch to Dev\Test pricing plan, correct?

Thanks,
Prasenna

Answer 1

@Prasenna Kannan , Please find the answers to your questions below.

1) Dev\Test Pricing is applicable only to VS Professional and VS Enterprise subscribers and not VS Community Edition? From this link, I see that https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing/ only VS Professional and Enterprise are eligible for Dev\Test pricing.

That's correct. VS Community is a free edition which does not come with any subscription benefits.

2) Can the existing VM's which are developer VM's and in Pay as you go subscription be shifted to Dev\Test pricing plans? How?

Once you have your DevTest enabled Azure subscription, you can move your existing VMs in current subscription to that new subscription by following this guide. Note that you should also include the dependent resources for the VMs.

3) There are 3 options available for Dev\Test pricing. 1) Individual 2) Enterprise Agreement (private business requires 500 users and devices, public 250 users), 3) Teams. We have less than 10 developers. In our case, the option 3 is the option left to switch to Dev\Test pricing plan, correct?

That's correct. You can go for Teams Pay-As-You-Go

Also, to manage VMs for your team more efficiently, I would suggest you to look at the Azure DevTest Labs service.