Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers.
It provides software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.
We need to create a Microsoft Azure account to start using the Azure services.
Microsoft Azure allows creating a free account that comes with a credit of 200$ (Rs. 13,300) which can be used for 30 days. The account provides many of the popular services for free for the first 12 months.
If you do not already have a Microsoft account, create one by visiting the Microsoft account site.
You can use your email ID or get an email ID from Microsoft to create the account. You will also require a credit card and PAN ID for verification. The card is not charged until any purchases or upgrades are made.
Account Sign-Up
To create your free trial account, follow the steps given below :
1. Go to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/ and click on FREE ACCOUNT or Start free which are highlighted in the image below.
2. You will be redirected to a page with the following URL : https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/free/
Click on Start Free which is highlighted in the image below.
3. If you do not already have a Microsoft account, click on Create a new Microsoft account as highlighted in the image below. You need to provide your email ID or create a new Microsoft ID to continue with the signup process.
4. On Sign Up, you will be taken to a page where you will have to fill in a few details before you can complete the Sign Up for Azure. The next step is to fill up few details required for the account creation.
5. Once you click on the Sign Up button, you will be taken to the dashboard of your Azure account. It may take some time for it to open for the first time since Azure will set up your environment.
6. If you look at the notifications, you will see the 200$ (Rs. 13,300) credit that you will have for 30 days.
7. Now that you have created your Azure account, you can start using it to create your applications and deploy them.
AZURE DASHBOARD
The Azure dashboard looks like the below after the initial account signup and login. The dashboard can be customized as you wish. The Azure dashboard customization will be covered in a separate section. In the initial Azure dashboard, the resource is free and so it display as ‘No resource to display’.
Once we keep adding the resource to the account, the dashboard will look something like below.
This can be further customized according to our need.