One of the recent buzz words in the industry is the public “Cloud” and everybody (or probably most everybody) is looking to migrate their On-Premise Applications to the Cloud, especially to our beloved Microsoft platform, Azure.
Below are the advantages of migrating the Applications to the Cloud:
Now, the question to most of the developers or IT Professionals is “Where and how do I start playing around with Azure?" The answer is by creating an Azure Subscription.
What you can do with an Azure Subscription
Below are just a few of the most common and basic things that you can do once you have your Azure Subscription ready from your favorite Browsers. Yes, I repeat, right from your Browser in just a few minutes (or probably in hours), which was not at all possible in the non-cloud environment:
There are multiple ways for getting Free Credits which we can use. Below are a few of the most popular ones that any individual with a valid Microsoft account can get.
Let’s discuss how to enable them.
Visual Studio Dev Essentials
This is the most useful one. We just need to create an account in
www.VisualStudio.com and sign-in with your account. On the home page of
www.visualstudio.com, you will see the snapshot shown below:
![]()
Click the “Join now” button and you will be asked to update your profile. Visual Studio Dev Essentials program provides you with several benefits, as shown below:
Our current focus is on Azure. Hence, activate the Azure benefits by clicking the “
Activate” button, shown in the snapshot given below:
![]()
Click the “Accept” button and you will be prompted to accept the terms and conditions of the program, as shown below:
![]()
Clic the “Accept” button, which will open up a popup that displays the few details of the benefits, as shown below:
![]()
Read the “Terms & Conditions” by clicking “Terms & Conditions” and click “Confirm” button.
You will now be prompted to provide all your personal, contact, and Credit/Debit Card information, as shown below:
![]()
Please provide all the details. It might deduct $1 to check if your card is valid. If I am not wrong, this $1 will be credited back to your account later.
It will also send you an OTP to check the authenticity of your mobile number and you need to validate the OTP.
Once you provide all the required details, your subscription is created for you and you will find the snapshot, shown below:
![]()
After a minute or so, you will see the snapshot, shown below:
![]()
Now, click "Start managing my service”, shown in the above snapshot and you will be taken to the Dashboard page of your Subscription.
That’s it. You can start playing around with Azure.
Note
With “Microsoft Dev essentials, you will get a credit of $25 per month, which is quite enough for performing “Proof-of-Concepts.”
IT Pro Cloud Essentials
This is another program by Microsoft, targeting IT Cloud Professionals. Using this program, you can get $100 per month for three months. Below are the steps to enable the benefit.
Navigate to
www.itprocloudessentials.com and click "Join Now” button, as shown in the screenshot, given below:
![]()
It will ask you for the login, using your Microsoft account, as shown below:
![]()
Once you click “Sign In”, you will be redirected to a page where you will need to update your profile details, as shown below:
![]()
Click “Register” to get registered with the program and you will be taken to the Dashboard page, as shown below:
![]()
In the left hand section, click “Cloud Services” and you will see multiple benefits in the right hand side. You need to click “Get Your Code” button, as shown below in the “Microsoft Azure Pass” section.
If you are lucky enough, you will get the code, otherwise, you will see a message saying that, "This offer is so popular it is temporarily out of stock, not to worry though, we are working hard to replenish it. Please check back again soon."
![]()
If you get the code, you will be taken to another page, where you need to just paste the Offer Code and you will be taken to the Subscription Dashboard page, where you can start creating the Azure resources.
Free Azure Credits of $200 per month
Navigate to the
link and click “Start Now”.
![]()
It will prompt you for the credentials. If you are already logged in, you will be taken to the page where you need to provide your valid contact details and card details, as shown below.
![]()
This is valid only for one month.
Azure Promo Pass of $100 Worth
The other way is via Azure Vidya Peeth. Navigate to this
link and click “Write to us”, as shown in the screenshot, given below: