You might be leaving $100 on the table. Every. Single. Month.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Microsoft offers a whopping $100 in free credit to some of its Office 365 subscribers. Use it to try out all sorts of cool cloud stuff. Whether you’re a developer, a data scientist, an IT professional, or just someone who loves to tinker, Azure has something for you. And if you need some extra guidance, our consulting firm is always happy to lend a hand. Or a shoulder to cry on. Whatever works.
In this blog post, we’ll show you how to set up your free subscription. We’ll also give you some ideas for how to spend your credit and offer some tips for keeping track of your usage and costs. Let’s get started!
Need some help setting up and managing your Azure subscription?
Our devops experts are here to lend a hand. We’ll guide you through the process and make sure you get the most out of your free credit. Don’t be shy, give us a shout today and let’s get you Azure-ready!
Setting up your free Azure subscription
Getting started with Azure is easy. Simply follow these steps:
- Visit the Azure homepage and click the “Free account” button.
- Sign in with your Microsoft account, or create a new one if you don’t already have one.
- Provide your contact and billing information and read and accept the terms of service.
- Once your account is set up, you’ll be taken to the Azure portal, where you can start exploring and creating resources.
- To make the most of your free credit, be sure to activate it as soon as possible. You can do this by going to the “Billing” section of the portal and following the prompts to apply your credit. You can also opt out of spending limits to ensure that you can fully utilize your credit.
Examples of what you can do with your free Azure credit
With $100 in free credit, you have plenty of opportunities to try out Azure resources and see what works best for your business. Some ideas to consider include:
- Setting up a virtual machine: Azure Virtual Machines lets you create and manage all sorts of virtualized environments, from Windows and Linux servers to custom-built VMs. With your free credit, you can spin up a VM and test out different configurations until you find the perfect fit.
- Creating a web app or a mobile app: Azure App Service makes it super easy to build, deploy, and scale web and mobile apps. Use your free credit to create an app and give it a test drive, or even launch it for real users.
- Analyzing data with Azure Machine Learning: Azure Machine Learning is a wicked-cool tool for analyzing and predicting outcomes based on data. Use your free credit to set up a machine learning model and play around with different algorithms and data sets.
- Storing and backing up data with Azure Storage: Azure Storage offers a bunch of options for storing and backing up data, like blobs, files, tables, and queues. With your free credit, you can try out different storage options and see which one works best for your needs.
- Monitoring and managing resources with Azure Monitor: Azure Monitor helps you keep an eye on the performance and availability of your resources, and sends you alerts when things go wrong. Use your free credit to set up monitoring and test out different alerting options.
Tips for managing your free Azure credit
Alright, so you’ve got your free Azure subscription and you want to make the most of that sweet, sweet free credit. Here are some tips to help you keep track of your spending and plan your usage:
- Use the Azure portal to view your current usage and charges, and get a breakdown of your costs by resource.
- Set up alerts to notify you when you are approaching your credit limit, so you can adjust your usage
And if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by all the options and want some help optimizing your usage and costs, our devops consultants are here for you. These guys are experts at managing Azure subscriptions and maximizing ROI. Give us a shout and let’s chat about how we can help you get the most out of your free credit.