When you hear the words “Microsoft Cloud” or “Microsoft Azure” do you think of the Microsoft Stack? All apps running .NET and Microsoft Windows Server? It can be. But it does not have to be. Ranging from PHP Websites to full Linux VM’s, Azure has plenty for your business or startup.
This is a round up of a few quick starts to get you up and running on Azure and using open source technologies.
Step 1: CloudDev Camp
To get going a good place to start is with the the CloudDev Camp. This is a few step learning plan that goes over the big areas to use the Azure platform for your startup. There are a bunch of tutorials focused around Microsoft, however, module 7 is a great session on Azure and the Open Source cloud services. Give the full course a look, you can perform many features using services rather than spinning up virtual machines for everything.
Step 2: Deploying Linux VM’s
Once you have the solid foundation of the cloud platform, you can jump right in to getting your envrionment set up. Learn about the offerings that Microsoft has made available for Linux and FreeBSD-based IaaS solutions running in Microsoft Azure. Already setup with Linux or VM’s somewhere else? Learn hou you can migrate your existing Linux-based IaaS solutions from your private cloud to Azure.
Step 3: Open Source DB
Setting up a database is just not the ending but the begining. Learn the performance of how a database is impacted by the performance of the underlying resources. To reach optimal performance, cloud environments require the consideration of several constraints, unlike private datacenters.
Step 4: Networking Fundamentals
Technically this might be step 1 or step 2 (depending upon your solution). At some point you are going to want to learn how to network and commnicate between services and Virtual Machines. This course gets you going.
Step 5: Pick your focus
Now that you have a good fundamentals of what can be set up or consumed on Azure you can now focus on what your app or startup does best.
PHP for Azure
Check out one of the most popular server side scripting languages, the easy-to-learn PHP, which is used in many blogging platforms. Hear about the history of PHP, explore its pros and cons, and take a look at configuration and debugging
Java on Microsoft Azure
Curious about what Microsoft has to offer the Java community? You might be surprised! Join us to explore the latest tools and technologies to help Java developers get in the cloud with Microsoft Azure, like plug-ins for Eclipse and IntelliJ, along with a look at options in Windows and Linux for authentication, security, and continuous integration (CI).
A MongoDB Jump
Wondering what the buzz is all about with NoSQL? If you’re an open source developer and you want to store unstructured data, see why MongoDB, a scalable document-oriented database, is so popular in this arena, plus explore how to use it on Azure. Learn how to set up MongoDB and how to load data in bulk, do simple queries, scale for data with sharding, and much more. Experts Steven Edouard and Rami Sayar show you how easy it is to get up and running, as they explore NoSQL, Documents, Map Reduce, and scaling via C# and Node.js. Check out this course, watch some cool demos, and see if MongoDB is for you!
Building Apps with Node.js
In this course see step-by-step demos and get practical tips and detailed explanations. By the end of the day, you know how to set up Node.js on your Windows machine, develop a web front end with Express, deploy an Express app to Azure, use Socket.IO to add a real-time layer, and bring it all together
MEAN Stack Jump Start
Want to build scalable web apps quickly and easily? Check out the MEAN stack, a collection of technologies (MongoDB, Express, AngularJS, and Node.js) that fit well together to provide a solution that allows for a full-stack JavaScript implementation of web applications. Popular experts Helen Zeng and Steven Edouard walk you through MEAN and create “Chirp,” a Twitter clone. They integrate MongoDB into a REST API with Node.js and Express and then connect that with an AngularJS front end. They even deploy the live app to Microsoft Azure via GitHub. Check out this practical primer on MEAN, and learn to build an end-to-end web app, all using JavaScript.
Mobile Apps to IoT: Connected Devices
With the incredible growth of devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), you know that mobile apps present a huge opportunity. Windows Azure Mobile Services lets you build a back end for your mobile apps in minutes
Migration of AWS to Azure
If you fell in love with Azure (which I am sure you did by now) you might want to move some of your existing VM’s on over. This module does that.
Embrace Open Source Technologies to Accelerate and Scale Solutions
This module focuses on open source technologies on Azure. Walk with engineers through how to best deploy and manage a Linux environment with tools you know and use today. Learn how to use your existing Chef and Puppet configurations and how to scale new ones to massively scale and deploy your solution. Wrap the day with a look at the new capabilities of containerization with Docker.
Exploring Microservices in Docker
Enjoy updating monolithic applications? Probably not! Take an in-depth look at a different way to architect that can help you update your site in milliseconds. Microservices, supported by Microsoft Azure and offered as a service, are highly scalable, resilient, and composable units of deployment for modern applications. Self-contained for fit and purpose, they are a key part of the world of continuous delivery and DevOps.