This chapter will introduce you to Azure. If you have never worked with Azure before, the interface might seem a bit daunting. Azure, however, is actually not all that complicated and is a tremendous benefit to any developer. In this chapter, we will have a look at doing the following:
- Creating a database in Azure for testing
- Creating a web application and hosting on Azure
- Using virtual machines on Azure
Azure allows developers to be more productive. It is a series of cloud services that developers can use to build apps, protect data, and provide high availability to your applications irrespective of what you are building. Mobile apps, enterprise apps, web, internet of things (IoT)… all are welcome on Azure.
You can create apps with .NET, JavaScript, PHP, Node.js, Python, and even run Linux containers. Azure also allows you to only pay for what you actually use, allowing you to easily scale as your needs grow.