The Azure platform consists primarily of three parts—Azure execution model, which denotes the areas where you can provide your services and applications in the cloud; Azure Building Blocks; and Azure Data Services, which refers to services that extend the platform to common capabilities and functionalities.

I could actually forgo the description of the platform, because most users only get to see these three parts, but there are still more. Many other services are working under the hood of the platform and ensure its ongoing operation. These services include, for example, Azure Traffic Manager, Azure Load Balancer, and Azure Resource Manager (ARM). All of these services can be customized using various interfaces for your personal needs.

In this chapter, I'll introduce you to ARM in detail, and we will explore the following topics:

• ARM and Azure resource groups
• Azure resource tags
• Azure resource locks
• Working with ARM templates
• Creating your own ARM template