To build the next great application, you need a solid understanding of the basic resources in Azure. Things like storage and networking may not be the coolest things to look at, but they’re central to much that you run in Azure. Before you can start to get into redundant, multi-instance virtual machines or Azure web apps, it helps to see the available options and management tasks for a single instance. This approach lets you learn about the differences and similarities between the IaaS approach of VMs and the PaaS approach of web apps. Chapters 1-5 explore VMs, web apps, core storage, and virtual networking features.