At PDC 2010, we announced Windows Azure AppFabric Caching – a distributed, in-memory cache for applications running in Windows Azure.

Based on Windows Server AppFabric Caching capabilities, it’s intended to significantly speed up access to data for your Windows Azure applications.

This feature is in CTP now, and should be generally available in 2011. You can find more details here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazureappfabric/archive/2010/10/22/windows-azure-appfabric-ctp-october-release.aspx

At PDC 2010, we announced that the Web role will soon provide full IIS functionality, which enables multiple IIS sites per Web role and the ability to install IIS modules. The full IIS functionality enables developers to get more value out of a Windows Azure instance. Full IIS Support will be generally available to customers later this year.

Please let us know if there are important scenarios that the combination of admin mode + full IIS won’t solve for you.

At PDC 2010 Microsoft announced the Extra Small Instance, which will be priced at $0.05 per compute hour in order to make the process of development, testing and trial easier. This will make it affordable for developers interested in running smaller applications on the platform. A beta of this role will be available before the end of 2010.

Please let us know if this addresses your needs for a more cost effective Azure offering.