Introduction - Azure Tutorial

- Welcome to Getting Started with Microsoft Azure where you'll learn all about Microsoft's cloud platform and how you can get started using some of the great services that Azure offers. My name is Jim Cheshire, and I'm going to take you along with me as we explore much of what Azure has to offer. I'm a bestselling author of over a dozen books on various technology subjects, and I create a lot of content on Microsoft Azure, including regular training sessions on O'Reilly's live events platform and video courses that are available in the Microsoft Press Store and LinkedIn Learning. For 25 years, I've worked at Microsoft in various areas, and I now work in the apps and infrastructure business unit. Whether you're watching this video, because you want to advance your career, or simply because you're curious about what Azure has to offer, I'm glad we'll have this chance to spend some time together exploring Azure and cloud computing. Before you get too far into cloud computing, I want you to have a solid foundation, so you'll be equipped to make smart decisions about how you use the cloud. And with that in mind, we'll start off with some general information about cloud computing, including a definition of exactly what we mean by the term cloud computing. We'll talk about some of the powerful and flexible features the cloud offers, and we'll look at different types of cloud services and even different types of clouds. We'll then take a peek under the hood of Azure where we'll learn about things like Azure regions and geographies, and we'll look deep into Azure datacenters. We'll talk about Azure Resource Manager, the underlying technology that handles creating and managing Azure resources. Now, with that solid framework out of the way, we'll look at how you can create and manage Azure resources using the Azure Portal, and we'll even look at how you can customize your experience in the Azure Portal in lots of different ways. We'll then look at using command line tools to work with Azure, including Azure PowerShell and the Azure Command-Line Interface. I'll even show you how you can create and manage Azure resources from your phone or tablet. After that, we'll dig into Azure Virtual Machines. You'll learn how to create a virtual machine in Azure, and you'll see how to configure that VM for network access. You'll also learn how you can add a disk to your VM for more disk space or for faster performance. And you'll learn how you can resize a VM if you need more power. And you'll see how you can access a VM remotely without any special configuration or installing any software. We'll then dig into another popular Azure service, Azure App Service. And here, you'll find out how you can create a website in Azure with just a few clicks, and you'll learn how your Azure website can automatically accommodate varying levels of traffic without encountering any availability issues. You'll learn how you can easily add authentication to your website using existing accounts, such as a Microsoft account, a Google account, a Facebook account, and more. I'll show you how to create backups of your website in case it accidentally gets deleted or if something else bad happens. And I'll even show you how you can automate backups. You'll learn how to use your own domain name with your website, and you'll learn how you can network your website with other Azure resources or with resources on-premises using some really cool networking features of App Service. In Lesson 6, we'll talk about Azure Storage, and you'll learn about how to use Azure Blob Storage to store data for your apps. And you'll learn about how you can do that and control your costs effectively. We'll also look at Microsoft Storage Explorer, a free app that makes it really easy to interact with Azure Storage, and you'll even see how you can give other people access to things you store in Azure Storage. Finally, we'd be completely remiss if we didn't talk about artificial intelligence features of Azure. And I'll explain some things about AI in general, and then, I'll explain all the different AI services available in Azure. I'll even give you some links that take you to some in-depth training directly from Microsoft, so you can get your hands on this exciting new technology. Now, that's a lot to cover, and as we go through all of this, I'll have plenty of demos, so you can see how things are done. Feel free to pause the video as you watch the demos, so you can go through them yourself. And even more importantly, after you watch this video, take the time to explore Azure for yourself and all that it has to offer. We're only scratching the surface in this video, but I will give you some pointers along the way, so that you can continue your learning journey all about Microsoft Azure. So with that out of the way, let's get started with Microsoft Azure.