E-book Series

Windows Server
on Azure
The ultimate guide
 September Table of contents 2
2020

You’re running a lot of your business on

Windows Server today—mission-critical
apps, Active Directory, Domain Name
Servers, not to mention virtual machines
and storage.

For more than 20 years, Windows Server

has been the operating system of choice
for enterprise workloads.

Contents

Introduction 3

01 / Cloud computing drives transformational change 4

02 / Azure: best cloud for Windows Server shops 7

03 / Understand the new IT cost model 9

04 / Azure and Windows Server: industry-leading security 11

05 / Tap into Azure services for innovation 14

06 / What to do first: migrate or extend? 16

07 / Trust Azure for your mission-critical applications and data 22

08 / Getting started 24

Resources 26
 Introduction 3

Give your This guide shows you how you can use
your Windows Server expertise to give

organization
your organization a boost in the age of
cloud computing, addressing these topics

a boost in the
and others:

• Why move to the cloud?

age of cloud • What are some ways to use Azure

computing
for Windows Server workloads?

• What about security?

• Who else is doing this?

• How do I get started?

Become a cloud expert

A free e-book, Enterprise Cloud Strategy,
details how the move to the cloud
effects all aspects of an organization,
with sections focused on IT architects,
administrators, and developers. Topics
include: how to build capability within
IT, cloud security and governance, new
application models, and cloud architecture.
 Cloud computing drives 4
transformational change

01 / Cloud adoption is on the rise as

businesses today face market and supply
chain disruptions unlike any they’ve faced
in the past and turn to the cloud for the

Cloud scale, flexibility, and security they need

to keep up. As a result, IT is emerging as

computing drives an important enabler of business success

(2020 IDC report: Addressing Enterprise

transformational
Cloud Priorities with Microsoft Azure).
As an IT professional, you have the

change
opportunity to grow and leverage
your existing skill sets by architecting,
migrating, and managing software in
the cloud.

You can master this shift to the cloud by

tapping into a broad range of training,
technology, and tools from Microsoft.
This document will guide you to the
resources available from Microsoft and
its partners to understand Microsoft
Azure capabilities and the opportunities
now available for data centers heavily
invested in Windows Server.
The rising demand for a trusted,
secure hybrid cloud
The public cloud is a Cloud providers need to Most trust Microsoft to understand
major IT investment. understand their customers’ their business and industry.
industry-specific needs.

60% 81% 90%

60% of enterprise IT 81% of IT decision makers believe it is 90% of IT decision makers who
infrastructure spending will be very important for their cloud provider hold the previous belief, also
allocated to public cloud.1 to have a deep understanding of their feel Microsoft understands the
industry-specific business needs.1 business needs of their industry.1

Start with a strategy • What is our short-term and long-term

roadmap for moving to the cloud?
The transformation to cloud computing is
a great opportunity for IT pros to evolve • What is my personal roadmap for
and meet the changes in the modern building the necessary cloud skills?
workforce, to protect workloads with
unmatched security, innovate anywhere • Should we use a certified Azure
with seamless hybrid capabilities, and to partner? If so, which one?
migrate to cloud infrastructures that can
• What servers, applications, and data
be trusted to run a business.
should stay in the data center and
what should be cloud-based?
But digital transformation is not
something to jump into blindly. There’s • How can we continue to derive
a broad range of business, financial, and the maximum benefit from
technology challenges to consider first. existing investments?
Some questions to ask include:
• How do we want to design future
• What benefits (e.g. agility, cost savings, solutions to best leverage the cloud?
scalability) are we expecting from the
1
International Data Corporation, Addressing Enterprise Cloud Priorities
cloud and how do we prioritize them? with Microsoft Azure, June 2020. https://azure.microsoft.com/resourc-
es/idc-report-addressing-enterprise-cloud-priorities-with-micro-
soft-azure/
 Cloud computing drives 6
transformational change

Bringing others along

Cloud strategy development is an evolutionary process in most enterprises. It requires
coordination among a variety of stakeholders including IT professionals, developers, compliance
experts, procurement, and security.

Part of moving to the cloud is understanding the technology, but you also have to consider
business and organizational impacts. Typical stages organizations go through include:

Stage Impact

Cloud aware IT staff is aware of broad cloud trends.

Cloud IT organization begins to learn about various cloud services such as Software
experimentation as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service.

Opportunistic cloud IT organization begins to actively migrate workloads to the

cloud to meet new business requirements.

Cloud first Default assumption is that cloud services will fulfill the majority of the computing needs.

Think about your own organization

Where are you along this evolutionary journey? IT staff members may feel anxious about their
roles and positions as they realize that a different set of skills is needed for the support of cloud
solutions. But agile employees who explore and learn new cloud technologies need not fear.
Current skills are still important as you manage a hybrid cloud environment. By adding new skills
to manage compute, storage and networking in the cloud, IT can lead the adoption of cloud
services and help the organization understand and embrace changes in the industry.
 Azure: best cloud for 7
Windows Server shops

02 / You probably already have a significant

investment in Microsoft technology
within your datacenter: Windows Server,
as well as Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint

Azure: best cloud or Dynamics. You might use Active

Directory for authentication, certificate

for Windows management, file server, and other pivotal

IT functions as well as System Center to

Server shops
simplify configuration and operations
management.

Choosing the right path to the cloud

for your Windows Servers
For people focused on understanding how
Azure impacts and integrates with current
Windows Server implementations, take
a look at the Windows Server on Azure
section of the Azure website.

There’s no single cloud adoption path

that works for every organization, but the
main implementation stages are similar
for all organizations and industries. For
more help in defining your organization’s
strategy for success in the cloud, reference
the Cloud Adoption Framework section
of the Azure website.
 Azure: best cloud for 8
Windows Server shops

Azure runs You’ll still have one place to go to for

support, and you can even leverage your

on Windows
Windows Server licenses in Azure.

Server, so it’s
But maybe your datacenter is more
heterogeneous. You may have virtualized
software workloads hosted on both
easy to move Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware virtual
machines. Or maybe Oracle and MySQL
workloads to are operating alongside Microsoft SQL
Server and other applications running

Microsoft’s cloud on Linux. It doesn’t matter, because all

these and other computing and database

platform and use environments can also be integrated with

or migrated to Azure using a consistent

existing skills, set of tools and services.

familiar tools,
Azure is also the only consistent hybrid
cloud. You can connect data and apps

and established
on premises to those in the cloud—for
maximum portability and value from

procedures.
existing investments. Azure offers hybrid
consistency in application development,
management and security, identity
management, and across the data
platform. This means your organization is
free to decide what computing resources
stay in-house and what moves to the
cloud. Plus, you can use many of your
existing Windows skills and add “cloud
administrator” to your list of proficiencies.
 Understand the new IT cost model 9

03 / Any cloud strategy should involve an

analysis of cost-benefit tradeoffs and
return on investment. Moving to the
cloud upends traditional IT economics.

Understand Computers were treated like any other

capital expense: typically, a one-time

the new IT purchase followed by several years of

depreciation. As enterprises grew, more

cost model
capital would be spent on building new
datacenters and even more computers.

With cloud computing, enterprises pay for

what they use, introducing a subscription-
based operating expense model. Services
essentially become metered by usage,
meaning the more you use the more
you’re charged. The OpEx model is more
flexible and more predictable over time.
To help manage costs, Microsoft provides
several calculators and capacity planning
tools. Azure Cost Management (also
known as Cloudyn) enables you to track
cloud usage and expenditures for your
Azure resources and other cloud providers.
With Azure Cost Management, you can
use assessment guidance to determine
your right-sized Azure resources as you
move, then continually optimize cloud
spends after you move.

Shortcut to savings
Want to know how much Azure will cost?
Are you curious about the total cost of
ownership? Cost and TCO calculators, plus
related pricing details and information
about the Azure Hybrid Benefit, can be
found on the Azure pricing page.
 Understand the new IT cost model 10

Save on Azure VMs with your • Boost savings to 82 percent when

Windows Server licenses you also reserve the Azure virtual
machine instances for one-
Okay, so the cloud transfers many costs
year or three-year terms.
to an OpEx-based, pay-as-you-use
subscription model. But what about To help you understand the extent of the
existing Windows Server licenses? With savings, use this online calculator.
the Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can use
existing Windows Server licenses with Azure Virtual Machines give you the
Software Assurance to save on virtual flexibility of virtualization for a wide range
machines in Azure. For each Windows of computing solutions with support
Server license, Microsoft will cover the for Linux, Windows Server, SQL Server,
cost of the operating system on up to Oracle, IBM, SAP and more. Select from
two virtual machines in Azure, while a wide variety of virtual machine sizes.
you pay only base compute costs. If you Most instances include load-balancing
are running Datacenter Edition, you can and autoscaling free of charge.
continue to use the license on-premises
while you add two virtual machines in
Azure at a discount. (If you use Standard
Edition licenses, on the other hand, you Build next-generation security
can use each license only in one place— operations with cloud and AI
either on-premises or in Azure). If you
See and stop threats before they cause
cannot upgrade on-premises servers
harm, with security information event
before end of support, get peace of mind
management (SIEM) reinvented for a
by buying Extended Security Updates for modern world. Azure Sentinel is your
your servers running Windows Server or birds-eye view across the enterprise,
SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2. Learn more putting decades of cloud intelligence
about Extended Security Updates here. and security experience to work.

Make your threat detection and response

Whether you want to enable a hybrid cloud
smarter and faster with artificial
model or move completely to the cloud, you
intelligence (AI), eliminate security
can maximize the value of existing licenses infrastructure setup and maintenance,
to make Azure the most cost-effective cloud and elastically scale to meet your security
for Windows Server workloads. needs—while reducing IT costs. For more
information, take a look at the Azure
• Save up to 40 percent on Azure virtual Sentinel section of the Azure website.
machines with Azure Hybrid Benefit.
 Azure and Windows Server— 11
industry-leading security

04 / Microsoft spends more than $1 billion

each year on cyber security to keep
workloads safe. Azure offers a secure
platform for your cloud workloads,

Azure and providing industry-leading security

intelligence, multi-layer threat discovery

Windows Server: and defense, encryption, multi-factor

authentication, and a strong network of

industry-leading
integrated partner solutions. These easy-
to-deploy, built-in protections maximize

security
security, reduce complexity, and free up
operations team resources for more
critical functions.
 Azure and Windows Server— 12
industry-leading security

Windows Server also includes multiple • If you want to simplify complex and
layers of security built right into the distributed environments across
operating system to protect workloads on-premises, edge, and multicloud,
whether you run them on-premises or you can use Azure Arc to enable
in a cloud environment. And when you deployment of Azure services
run Windows Server VMs or containers on anywhere and to extend Azure
Azure, you get unique security advantages management to any infrastructure.
that are not available on competitors
lacking Azure’s Hyper-V host. Using Azure Security Center
the Windows Server capabilities, you Turn on Azure Security Center to quickly
can enable unique, extra layers of strengthen your security posture and
isolation for applications running in protect against threats. When you activate
Azure virtual machines: Security Center, a monitoring agent
is deployed automatically into Azure
• Use Device Guard to protect virtual machines. For on-premises VMs,
software running in kernel and you manually deploy the agent. Security
user mode on your Azure VMs. Center begins assessing the security state
of all your VMs, networks, applications,
• Beginning with Windows Server
and data.
version 1709, Azure VMs offer
unique security features to protect
Microsoft analytics engines analyze the
applications that run in Windows or
data and machine learning synthesizes
Linux containers with Hyper-V isolation,
it. Then, Security Center provides
ideal for multitenant environments.
recommendations and threat alerts for
• Quickly build, deploy, and scale web protecting your workloads. You’ll know
apps and APIs on your terms with right away if there’s been an attack or
Azure App Service, a fully managed anomalous activity.
platform that handles over 40 billion
Aggregate your security information in
requests per day. Work with .NET,
an Azure Monitor workspace for big data
.NET Core, Node.js, Java, Python or
querying capabilities. Alternatively, you
php, in containers or running on
can query your data through REST APIs,
Windows or Linux to meet rigorous,
PowerShell cmdlets, or integration with
enterprise-grade performance, security,
an existing SIEM, such as Azure Sentinel.
and compliance requirements.
 Azure and Windows Server— 13
industry-leading security

Additionally, Azure Security Center Confidential computing

helps you: While data is traditionally encrypted at
rest and in transit, confidential computing
• Understand the security state across
protects your data while it’s being
workloads. Manage security on-
processed. Integrated across disks, storage,
premises, Azure, and other cloud
and SQL, Azure confidential computing:
platforms—in one console. Built-in
dashboards provide instant insights • Encrypts data while in use
into potential security issues.
• Enables new scenarios like secure
• Extend advanced threat protection block-chain or multi-party
to your workloads. Continuously machine learning
monitor the security of your
machines, and networks across • Safeguards keys and other secrets
hybrid environments using hundreds using HSMs
of built-in security assessments.
 Tap into Azure services for innovation 14

05 / Beyond efficiency and reliability, extending

the datacenter to the cloud provides an
opportunity to enhance and extend IT
offerings. Most organizations begin with

Tap into Azure small steps: quickly start up some VMs on

Azure for DevTest, migrate simple workloads,

services for develop some cloud-aware apps.

innovation
But with Azure’s comprehensive set of
cloud services, much more is possible.
Find everything from new storage and
security capabilities to support for the
Internet of Things, machine learning, data
analytics, and artificial intelligence. Choose
to implement what you need, when you
need it. Start small and expand your Azure
footprint as expertise grows and business
needs dictate. Find what you need in the
table on the next page.

The fast track to app innovation

Have an idea for a new cloud app but
don’t want to reinvent the wheel? Find
the right Azure services to kick your
development process into high gear.

Use what you need when you need it

While the list of available Azure services
may seem overwhelming, remember
that you and your organization have the
freedom to select which services you
want to use and pay for, and this usage
can always be adjusted as needs change.
Details on the services can be found on
the Azure services pages. Additionally,
reference Azure Advisor for built-in best
practice recommendations.
 Tap into Azure services for innovation 15

Azure services

Category Services

Compute Virtual Machines, VM Scale Sets, Batch, Service Fabric, Containers, and more

Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Azure DNS, Content Delivery

Networking
Network, Azure DDoS Protection, and more

Storage Blob, Queue, File, Disk, Data Lake, StorSimple, Backup, Site Recovery

Mobile Apps, API Management, Media Services, Notification

Web and mobile
Hubs, Streaming, Content Protection, and more

Containers Container Registry and Instances, Azure Container Service, Container Instances, Batch, App Service

SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL and PostgresSQL,

Databases
Data Warehouse, Stretch Database, and more

Stream Analytics, Data Lake Analytics, Power BI Embedded, Log

Data and analytics
Analytics, Customer Speech Service, and more

AI and cognitive Machine Learning, Bot Service, Cognitive Services, Computer Vision API, Speech Services, and more
services

Internet of IoT Hub and Edge, Time Series Insights, Stream Analytics, Notification and Event Hubs, and more
Things (IoT)

Enterprise Service Bus, StorSimple, SQL Server Stretch Database, Data

integration Catalog, Data Factory, Event Grid, and more

Security and Key Vault, Security Center, Azure Active Directory, Active Directory
identity B2C and Domain Services, Multi-Factor Authentication

Developer tools Visual Studio Team Services, Azure DevTest Labs, Application Insights, API Management, HockeyApp

Monitoring and Azure portal, Azure mobile app, Resource Manager, Automation,
management Scheduler, Service Health, and more
 What to do first: migrate or extend? 16

06 / Azure allows IT to quickly create and

configure new Windows Server virtual
machines. With the proper tools and
procedures, you can easily set up

What to do thousands of servers (VMs) in the cloud

in minutes, compared to the weeks it

first: migrate typically takes to set up on-premises

servers. Also, with data centers in 19

or extend?
regions around the world, Azure achieves
99.95 percent availability, along with 24/7
support and constant health monitoring.
 What to do first: migrate or extend? 17

Of course, just having a lot of VMs on

Azure isn’t worth much if you don’t migrate Azure Migration Program
applications on them. To ensure the success
of your organization’s adoption of Azure, Microsoft can help you save money and
it’s important to consider the need of your simplify your move to the cloud through

business and the requirements of your the Azure Migration Program. Bring your
workloads to Azure with confidence,
applications. You’ll need to determine:
supported with best-practice guidance

• Which apps can you “lift and and direct access to Azure engineers, tools,
and subsidized partner services.
shift” directly to the cloud?
With the Azure Migration Program, you can:
• Which apps benefit from
integrating with Azure services? • Count on a proven methodology

• Pay less with cost-effective offers

• Which apps require a transformation
• Gain new skills with
or re-architecting? technical courses

• Get free Azure migration tools

Based on the analysis of your operating
systems and applications, you have a • Access in-depth assistance with
FastTrack for Azure engineering
number of options:
• Receive support from
• Migrate the applications and specialized partners
data to the Azure platform

• Extend existing on-premises

Windows Server environments to
the cloud with new Azure services

• Modernize legacy applications for

the cloud. Move applications into
containers, re-architect applications
using microservices architectures or
rewrite using Azure PaaS services.

If you’re building a cloud plan, begin by

getting an inventory of all on-premises
workloads and then decide on a strategy.
 What to do first: migrate or extend? 18

Build your cloud plan

Commodity workloads

I am ready to move Rewrite as cloud-native apps Azure PaaS Services

these apps to Azure
Lift and modernize Containers and microservices

Lift and shift Azure IaaS virtual machines

New cloud-native apps Azure Stack

I need to keep these
apps on-premises
Existing apps Upgrade to Windows Server 2016

Migrate and modernize workloads should migrate first. To make

things even easier, Microsoft allows you to
To assure a successful migration, it’s
try Azure for free. You can set up your own
important to fully evaluate your current
“sandbox” to experiment with Azure free
datacenter environment using a discovery
for 12 months. Deployment guides and
process. Some of the questions you’ll want
technical whitepapers, based on hundreds of
to ask include:
real-life migrations, will walk you through the
• Which applications can migrate process, so you can experience a successful
to Azure and which should first migration and build from that.
remain on-premises?
Azure Storage Migration Service
• What about the services applications
depend on? Can they be split across The Azure Storage Migration Service makes it
on-premises and the cloud? easier to migrate storage to Windows Server
or to Azure. If you have a server (or multiple
• What will the impact be on the network? servers) that you want to migrate to newer
hardware or virtual machines, Storage
Migration Service can help you:
• What databases do the
applications depend on and • Inventory multiple servers and their data

where should they be located? • Rapidly transfer files, file shares,

and security configuration
• How will a migration to Azure from the source servers
impact budgeting and costs? • Optionally take over the identity of the
source servers so users and apps don’t
To minimize the risk of migration, Microsoft need to change to access existing data

provides several comprehensive tools for • Manage one or multiple migrations from
doing the initial discovery and assessment the Windows Admin Center user interface

of your environment, and prioritizing what

 What to do first: migrate or extend? 19

Use cases
Capstone Mining uses Azure Site Recovery to migrate existing apps to the cloud with just a few clicks,
ensuring a seamless experience for end users. The service has become the backbone for the company’s
disaster recovery strategy as well, which is also performed with minimal disruption to business operations.

With help from Azure Backup and Site Recovery, Capstone Mining was able to back up data
and implement a disaster recovery strategy to avoid costly business interruption. On average,
businesses who use these services see a 66 percent reduction in average data recovery time,
achieve 76 percent faster backups, and improve the efficiency of their IT teams by 51 percent.2

The table on this page lists some of the ways Capstone and other organizations have used the
Azure services to migrate workloads, applications, virtual machines, and data to Azure.
For more information about migration to Azure, see https://azure.microsoft.com/migration/.

Use cases

Discover: Catalog existing To understand what, when, and how applications should be moved,
applications; identify it’s important to create a complete catalog of applications managed
migration candidates. by IT. Use Azure Migrate or other tools to assess current computing
environment, identify what can be moved, and understand costs.

Discover: Catalog current data Use Data Migration Assistant to catalog the existing data environment, identify
environment prior to migration. compatibility issues, and suggest performance and reliability improvements.

Migrate: Shift VMs and Azure Site Recovery offers one-click failover and replication of applications
workloads to Azure. and workloads from Windows Server, Linux and VMware machines.
Automation reduces time and complexity of migration tasks.

Migrate: Shift data and Database Migration Service migrates existing on-premises SQL Server,
databases to Azure. Oracle, and MySQL databases to Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database
Managed Instance or SQL Server on Azure virtual machines.

Modernize: Lift and shift Improve your DevOps operations for your dev/test/production environment.
existing .NET applications Make your application cloud DevOps-ready. Containers remove friction
by optimizing deployments caused by application dependencies when you deploy in multiple stages.
with Windows containers.

Optimize: Manage Azure Cost Management (also known as Cloudyn) provides granular, real-
your cloud spend with time visibility into cloud consumption, cost, and performance.
transparency and accuracy.

2
IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, "Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup Are Helping Improve Business Operations," June 2019.
https://azure.microsoft.com/resources/azure-site-recovery-and-azure-backup-are-helping-improve-business-operations/
 What to do first: migrate or extend? 20

Extend your on-premises

environment to Azure with
seamless hybrid capabilities
Many organizations will choose to
remain hybrid, retaining their current
datacenter environment while shifting
some functions to the cloud. But even
these on-premises workloads can benefit
by extending capabilities using Azure
services. This might include integrating
more robust high-availability and disaster
recovery, high-performance cloud storage,
and hybrid identity and management
capabilities. Typically this can be done
without touching a line of code. The table
below lists some of the ways organizations
have used the Azure services to extend
the capabilities of their existing in-house
Windows Server environment. More
information about extending Windows
Server using Azure services can be found
on the Azure services web page.
 What to do first: migrate or extend? 21

Use cases How Microsoft Azure helps How organizations benefit

Assure business Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery increase Reduce disaster recovery infrastructure
continuity and compliance, reduce complexity, and lower costs. by paying for only the compute, storage,
data protection. They replicate on-premises virtual machines to and network needed in Azure with
Azure and orchestrates failover and failback. software as a service–no need to purchase
hardware. Onboard faster, because
the capability is built into Azure.

Manage a diverse System Center simplifies deployment, Gain visibility into the health,
hybrid cloud configuration, management, and monitoring performance, and utilization of
environment. of your infrastructure and virtualized your applications, workloads, and
datacenter. Use Azure monitoring and infrastructure. Proactively find and fix
analytics to collect, correlate, and search issues before they impact your users.
your systems and application data across
Azure and on-premises servers.

Quickly establish Use Azure Virtual machines to simplify Give your developers freedom and speed
dev and test and speed the process of running a dev- to develop in Azure, then deploy where
environments. test environment. Spin up as many virtual needed. Choose Linux or Unix. Use your
machines as you need, network them, own virtual machine image or download
and allocate to your developers. a certified pre-configured image. Use
your preferred coding language natively.

Extend on-premises With Azure File Sync (in preview), you can Leverage Azure as centralized storage
file servers to deliver consistent file share performance for for less frequently used file server
the cloud. users whether they work locally or remotely. data while turning your local Windows
server into a high-performance cache
for frequently used file data.

Unite identity and Use Azure Active Directory to manage users Enable single sign-on to simplify access
access management and secure access to on-premises and cloud to thousands of cloud applications across
across on-premises information. Extend Active Directory and any multiple devices. Protect sensitive data
directory and Azure. other on-premises directory to Azure AD. and apps with multi-factor authentication.

Archive on-premises Azure Blob storage stores from hundreds Cloud snapshots provide off-site
data to Azure. to billions of objects in hot, cool, or archive data protection. With cloud storage,
tiers, depending on how often data access is no secondary datacenter is needed.
needed. Use StorSimple to automatically archive Reduce capacity purchases and
inactive primary data from on-premises to infrastructure maintenance.
the cloud for effortless capacity expansion.
 Trust Azure for your mission-critical 22
applications and data

07 / Your ideal cloud infrastructure should earn

your trust with resilience, scalability, and
cost efficiency.

Trust Azure With Azure, you can simplify app and data
protection with cost-effective (built-in or

for your
third party) backup and disaster recovery
solutions, supported by highly available

mission-critical
infrastructure. You can scale applications
automatically and consistently, without

applications
compromising on performance. You can
efficiently run core applications with a
choice of consumption models, and you
and data can extend your existing on-premises
VMware environments natively to Azure,
ensuring operational continuity.
 Trust Azure for your mission-critical 23
applications and data

Increase business resiliency Run core applications

cost effectively
Azure operates a robust foundation, and
provides additional capabilities for high Free up IT staff time, minimize data center
availability, disaster recovery, and backup infrastructure, and reduce IT labor costs.
purposes. Build and run highly available Scale your IT footprint automatically to
applications on Azure, and implement optimize your costs based on demand.
disaster recovery plans with data residency
and minimal RPO/RTO impact. Deploy Efficiently run core applications on Azure
end-to-end backup and disaster recovery with a choice of consumption models,
solutions that are simple, secure, scalable, unique offers available only on Azure
and can be integrated with your on-premises and a comprehensive set of tools.
environment and third-party tools.

Azure supports your existing data

protection solutions no matter where they
reside, with added remote management
capabilities and minimal maintenance.
If there’s a service disruption or accidental
deletion or corruption of data, you’ll be
able to recover your business services in
a timely and orchestrated manner.

Evolve freely with right-sized,

scalable infrastructure
Azure delivers VM series engineered to
run any workload: compute, memory, disk,
or GPU intensive. Choose from over 700
VM sizes and underlying CPU and GPU
technologies, and take advantage of a
unique range of network capabilities and
robust storage solutions to meet your
needs. Scale your applications automatically
and manage your core applications globally
with 62+ Azure regions and 170+ Network
Points of presence.
 Getting started 24

08 / How you get started with Azure

depends on where your organization
is in your cloud evolution. Are you
just beginning to investigate what’s

Getting out there? Or, are you already moving

datacenter workloads to the cloud or

started developing cloud-native applications?

 Getting started 25

Find all core Azure information—training, Jump right in

documentation, pricing, partners, code Start by launching your first virtual machine
samples, and more—at azure.com. Free on Azure. Or go a little slower and do
documentation and training is available some reading or view videos to get more
for everyone from cloud beginners to acquainted with cloud architectures and the
Azure experts. You can also speed up the Azure environment. The Get started page
entire process by engaging with Microsoft of the Azure website will help you start
partners who have tools and expertise that your exploration in the right place.
help guarantee success.
If you get lost, don’t worry
• Azure Essentials offers a complete
Remember, azure.com serves as the central
set of learning resources to learn point for all of Microsoft’s core Azure
new Azure skills – quickly. Choose information, including documentation,
a topic and watch a short video, training, and code samples.
use hands-on demos and product
trials. Azure Essentials also offers Azure sales specialists are here to help
learning paths by Azure job function Whether you’re evaluating the cloud,
featuring free Pluralsight courses. deploying your first service, or migrating
applications and infrastructure to the
• Try free Azure hands-on learning
cloud, our Azure sales specialists are here
to acquire the cloud skills you
to answer your questions and help you
need at your own pace.
get started.
• Create a free Azure account.
Get started with a credit, and
keep going with free access
to services for 12 months.

And for Windows Server admins, we’ve

created a special page of resources just
for you! Bookmark www.azure.com/
windowsserver and check back often
for resources specific to Window Server
on Azure.
 Resources 26

Resources IT Architect role

Enterprise Cloud Strategy e-book
Azure Virtual Datacenter guidance
Azure Architecture Center
Azure Reference Architecture
Azure Solutions Architect training

IT Admin role
Windows Server on Azure
Azure Learning Paths for all types of IT Pros
Azure Administrator training
Get Started with Azure Virtual Machines
Guides and whitepapers on migration

DevTest role
Azure for developers documentation
Azure languages and frameworks
Azure .NET training
Azure Node.js training
Azure code samples
Get Started with Azure apps

All roles
All core Azure information
Azure pricing calculator
Azure TCO calculator
Azure pricing
Azure services
Azure training
Azure documentation
Azure partners
Azure Essentials
Free Azure account
Azure hands-on learning

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