Microsoft Azure

Deploy SQL Server and SharePoint using images built by Microsoft.

Using images built by the SQL Server team, you can easily provision a SQL Server in minutes. You can create Virtual Machines using free MSDN licenses for fast Dev/Test or deploy complex production applications spanning multiple Azure regions using SQL Server AlwaysOn.

Add SharePoint 2013 and you can deploy your internal or external facing websites in hours, not weeks.

You have lots of choices with extensive open and community solutions

With Azure Virtual Machines, you can deploy a full range of OSs and software solutions, including numerous Linux distributions and Community-driven applications. With Oracle and Ubuntu images available in the Azure gallery along with a large set of community images in VMDepot, the options are nearly limitless. This includes Oracle, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Apache, RabbitMQ, Django, Drupal, Joomla!, LAMP, WordPress, and many more.

Manage your costs with easy scaling and per-minute billing

For fast computational workloads, quick development and testing, or frequent stopping and starting, when deploying Virtual Machines in Azure, you will pay down to the minute. This includes the billing for Windows, Linux, Oracle, SQL Server, and even BizTalk. You can even have the platform AutoScale based upon a schedule or CPU usage of your instances. Our infrastructure and software billing model meets your needs, not ours!

Extend your on-premises environment for dev, test, or production usage in the cloud

With Virtual Networks, you can control and configure all aspects of your networking, including defining the subnets and the preferred DNS IPs. With ExpressRoute, you can choose from a list of critical partnerships to make connectivity even easier that includes AT&T, Verizon, BT, Level 3, and Equinix.

Additionally, load-balancing across multiple instances is included and easy to configure. You can create the load-balancer, add security ACLs to control access and define specific probes to help monitor application health, all within the easy-to-use portal experience.

Automated Monitoring and Analytics

Enable outside-in monitoring to automatically verify your Virtual Machine availability from multiple locations around the world. Monitor the ongoing health of your Virtual Machine directly in the portal.

Create your first Azure Virtual Machine

Creating a Virtual Machine is easy and takes only minutes.

Provide the public facing DNS name for the Virtual Machine, select from our platform supplied list of VM images, enter a user name, password, and the region you want to run it. Click the “Create A Virtual Machine” button and it will be ready in moments.

Create a new Virtual Machine using the Command Line

You can create a Virtual Machine using PowerShell:

Alternatively, you can create a new Ubuntu Virtual Machine using our cross-platform command line interface for Windows, Mac or Linux: