The new Windows Azure Trial accounts and MSDN Accounts are now completely risk-free given the institution of “spending limits”. By default all new trial accounts and newly provisioned MSDN benefits are created with a spending limit of $0. That means that if you exceed the monthly allotments of gratis services, your services will automatically be shut down and your storage placed in read-only mode until the next billing cycle. Then you can redeploy your services and take advantage of that month’s allotment (if any remains).

We do require you to enter a credit card (which helps verify your identity as a legitimate Azure users). But it will not be charged with the new default spending limit.

To see the steps, see Jim O’Neill’s post The New, Improved No-Risk Windows Azure Trial. He shows how you can sign up in just a few steps.

This is courtesy of the December release of Windows Azure has unveiled a new Windows Azure site and sign-up experience. In the past, one of the biggest concerns and roadblocks was that you could overspend on your free trial.