Microsoft Azure Tutorial: From Beginner to Intermediate

Microsoft Azure can feel like a vast city the first time you visit. You know the destination—cloud apps, scalable VMs, serverless functions—but the streets and rules? Not so clear. This Microsoft Azure tutorial gives you a practical, friendly roadmap from basics to hands-on intermediate skills. You’ll learn key services, cost-aware choices, security basics, and a few real-world tips I’ve picked up after helping teams migrate apps to Azure. Ready? Let’s get you productive.

What is Microsoft Azure and why it matters

At its core, Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform that offers compute, storage, networking, databases, and AI services on demand. It’s used by startups and enterprises alike to deploy apps faster, scale on demand, and reduce ops overhead. For a quick history and overview, see the Microsoft Azure Wikipedia page.

Who should follow this tutorial

This guide targets beginners and intermediate readers who want to build, migrate, or operate cloud workloads. If you’re preparing for an Azure certification, exploring Azure DevOps, or learning to run Azure VMs, you’ll find practical steps and examples here.

Core Azure concepts in plain language

• Subscription – billing boundary and container for resources.
• Resource Group – logical grouping for resources you manage together.
• Virtual Machine (VM) – a server in the cloud.
• Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) – identity and access control.
• App Service – managed platform for web apps (less ops).
• Azure Functions – serverless functions that run in response to events.
• Storage Account – blobs, files, queues for data storage.

Getting started: your first Azure resource (hands-on)

Sign up at the official Azure site (free tier available). From there:

1. Create a subscription (or use free credits).
2. Open the Azure Portal and create a Resource Group.
3. Deploy a Linux VM or an App Service web app—choose the quickstart template.
4. Use the Cloud Shell (browser terminal) to try az CLI commands like az vm list.

Pro tip: Cloud Shell includes both Bash and PowerShell and is handy for following tutorials without local installs.

Common Azure services and when to use them

Compute

• Azure VMs: full control, lift-and-shift scenarios.
• App Service: deploy web apps quickly, use built-in scaling.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): container orchestration at scale.
• Azure Functions: event-driven, pay-per-execution compute.

Storage & Databases

• Blob Storage: files and large objects.
• Azure SQL Database: managed relational database.
• Cosmos DB: globally-distributed, multi-model database.

Networking & Security

• Virtual Network (VNet) and subnets
• Network Security Groups (NSGs) for traffic rules
• Azure Firewall and Azure DDoS Protection

Quick comparison: Azure vs AWS vs GCP

Cost basics and Azure pricing tips

Cloud costs sneak up fast if you’re not careful. Use the Azure Pricing Calculator to estimate costs before you deploy. A few rules I follow:

• Prefer reserved instances for steady-state VMs to save up to 72%.
• Turn off dev/test VMs when not in use.
• Use auto-scaling for web apps to avoid over-provisioning.

Security basics — what to enable first

• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on Azure AD accounts.
• Use role-based access control (RBAC) to limit permissions.
• Enable Azure Security Center recommendations and vulnerability scans.

Deploying an app: simple workflow example

Here’s a typical path I recommend for small projects:

1. Develop locally and containerize with Docker.
2. Push image to Azure Container Registry.
3. Deploy to App Service or AKS depending on scale needs.
4. Set up CI/CD with Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.

Real-world note: I once migrated a legacy .NET app to App Service. Deployment was easier than expected, but the hidden work was cleaning up config and testing identity flows in Azure AD.

Learning path and resources

Start small, build frequently. Microsoft’s official docs and learning paths are excellent for structured study: Azure documentation and learning. For market context and trends, reputable outlets like Forbes or industry reports help—I’ve linked authoritative background sources below.

Tools and commands you’ll use often

• Azure Portal (web UI)
• Azure CLI: az create / az group create
• PowerShell Az module
• ARM templates and Bicep for infra-as-code
• Terraform (third-party infra-as-code)

Troubleshooting checklist

• Check NSGs and firewall rules when connectivity fails.
• Review activity logs and diagnostic settings.
• Confirm service quotas if deployments fail at scale.

Next steps and practical projects

Try one of these to solidify knowledge:

• Host a static website on Blob Storage
• Deploy a simple web API to App Service with CI/CD
• Build an event-driven workflow using Functions and Event Grid

Further reading and official references

Official docs are the go-to for up-to-date commands and limits. See the Azure documentation at Microsoft Learn: Azure docs and quick background on the platform at the Azure Wikipedia page. For pricing and cost best practices, consult the official Azure pricing pages.

Wrap-up and next move

You’ve got a practical map now: what Azure is, core services, cost and security basics, and a few hands-on projects to try. If you want, pick one project above and I’ll outline step-by-step commands and files to get you started.