If I were about to get started with Microsoft Azure in 2026

In recent years, Microsoft Azure has grown into one of the most powerful cloud computing platforms. If I were about to get started with Microsoft Azure in the coming year, I’d approach it with a mix of excitement and strategic planning, which is what I want to share in this post.

What is Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure is a collection of services that offers a vast array of services, tools, and resources for developers, IT professionals, and businesses to build scalable, secure, and innovative cloud-based solutions. If you are looking to get started with Microsoft Azure, start from 3 main categories of services: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and its subcategory Serverless – FaaS (Function as a service), and Software as a Service (SaaS). But before getting into that, let’s take a look at the upsides and downsides of Microsoft Azure or should I say, cloud computing in general.

Upsides are more than downsides

Microsoft Azure is a popular choice for many businesses because it offers several benefits compared to other cloud platforms. Here’s a simpler explanation with examples:

Global reach

Microsoft Azure has a vast global reach, with data centers in over 60 regions worldwide ( as time of this blog post is written). This extensive network allows businesses to deploy applications close to their users, ensuring low latency and high performance. Azure operates in multiple geographies around the world.

Azure geography is defined as an area that contains at least one Azure region. An Azure region is an area within a geography that includes one or more data centers. Each Azure region is paired with another region within the same geography to form a regional pair with a few exceptions.

Reliability and Scalability

Azure operates from data centers with multiple backups. This means if you run a website or an app, you can have it running in different locations at the same time. So, if something goes wrong in one place, your website or app can keep working from another location. For example, if a company has an app that is used more during holidays, Azure allows them to increase the resources to handle the extra traffic and then reduce them when it’s quieter, saving money.

Cost-Effective

Azure charges based on what you use. For instance, if you run an online store and expect more visitors during a sale, you can use more resources during that time and pay for only that period. There are no big upfront costs or cancellation fees, making it a budget-friendly option. For more information about Azure pricing, check out their pricing overview page or use the Azure Pricing Calculator to price and configure Azure features for your scenarios. To review and visualize usage and billing information across multiple subscriptions, you can personalize or visualize your billing portal. For additional information on enabling visibility Azure across multiple subscriptions, check out this post from the Azure blog announcing the availability of the Azure Usage and Billing Portal on GitHub.

Seamless Integration with Microsoft Products

If a business already uses Microsoft products like Windows or Office 365, Azure makes it easy to move their work to the cloud. For example, a company using Office 365 can store documents in Azure and access them from anywhere, keeping everything connected and easy to manage.

Supports Various Technologies

Azure works with a wide range of programming languages and tools, not just Microsoft products. For example, a company using Linux servers or Python programming can still use Azure, allowing them to work with the tools they are comfortable with.

A few points to note

Despite many advantages, there are still things to consider :

1. Complex Pricing: Even though Azure can save money, understanding how much you will spend can be confusing, especially if you’re new to cloud services. For example, a business might find it hard to predict costs when using multiple services without proper guidance.
2. Learning Curve: Azure has many services, which can be overwhelming for beginners. For example, a small business trying to move to the cloud might need to spend time learning how to use Azure effectively. So, check out the learning and training section of this blog post for some tips.

It’s not only about Cloud but more

When you think about Azure, it’s important to see that it’s more than just a cloud service. Azure offers smooth integration with Microsoft tools like Copilot, Power Platform, SharePoint, and SQL Server, making it ideal for businesses already using Microsoft products.

However, Azure does more than just store and compute data in the cloud. It supports a wide range of programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including popular third-party systems like SAP.

This flexibility allows companies to build and manage applications that fit their specific needs, whether they use Microsoft technologies or other platforms. Azure also helps businesses innovate and grow by offering advanced services in AI, machine learning, and data analytics. In short, Azure is a powerful platform that supports not just cloud solutions but the entire digital transformation journey.

The Microsoft Azure public cloud platform offers IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS services to organizations worldwide. To understand the different Azure services, I started by learning Microsoft’s basic concepts for designing cloud applications.

Understand Cloud Design Patterns

Starting with Microsoft Azure involves understanding its core services and how they can be applied to your specific needs. Here’s how I would approach getting started with Azure :

Cloud design patterns are useful in cloud-hosted applications. These patterns provide solutions to common problems encountered in cloud applications and are essential for building robust, scalable, and efficient systems. Check out Azure Architecture center and Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF).

Here’s an example of how to apply design patter to understand Azure Services.

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Sharding Pattern: This pattern involves dividing a data store into a set of horizontal partitions or shards. It helps improve scalability and performance by allowing the data to be distributed across multiple servers. Azure SQL Database is an example of a service that can implement the sharding pattern.

Competing Consumers Pattern: This pattern enables multiple consumers to process messages from a single messaging channel concurrently. It optimizes throughput, scalability, and availability by balancing the workload among consumers. Azure’s Message Queue service is an example of where this pattern is applied.

To learn more about Azure Cloud Design Patterns, I recommend this article on the Microsoft Developer Network: Cloud Design Patterns: Prescriptive Architecture Guidance for Cloud Applications.

How Azure Services are structured

Azure Resource Manager and Bicep provide powerful tools for managing and automating Azure resource deployments, making it easier to build, scale, and manage applications in the cloud.

A global house manager – Azure Resource Manager (ARM)

The Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is a key concept in Microsoft Azure. At its core is the Resource Group, a container that holds related resources for an application or service. For example, a resource group might include virtual machines, storage accounts, and virtual networks for a specific project. ARM templates, written in JSON, let you define resources to deploy within a resource group. These templates help automate deployments and manage dependencies effectively.

ARM serves as the main service for deploying and managing Azure resources. It provides a unified management layer to create, update, and delete resources in your Azure account. ARM offers features like access control, locks, and tags to secure and organize resources after deployment. With ARM, you can coordinate the deployment, update, or deletion of multiple resources, ensuring consistency and efficiency in managing your cloud environment.

A newcomer – Bicep

Bicep is a newcomer in recent years, specifically a domain-specific language (DSL) for deploying Azure resources, built as an alternative to writing JSON ARM templates. Bicep simplifies the syntax of ARM templates, making it easier to read and write. While ARM templates can be complex and verbose, Bicep offers a more concise and user-friendly way to define Azure resources. It allows you to focus on the structure of your deployment without worrying about the intricacies of JSON syntax.

Bicep files convert into standard ARM templates, letting you use all ARM features with simpler, more maintainable code. For software development teams, Bicep fits smoothly into the DevOps lifecycle. It makes managing infrastructure as code easier, from code check-in and testing to deployment in Azure.

Understanding Azure IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

Azure offers three main service models:

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. Azure’s IaaS offerings include virtual machines, virtual networks, and storage, allowing you to build and manage your infrastructure in the cloud.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS): Provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without dealing with the underlying infrastructure. Azure’s PaaS offerings include services like Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS): Delivers software applications over the internet, on a subscription basis. Microsoft Office 365 is an example of a SaaS offering from Azure.

Understanding the differences between these models is key to leveraging Azure effectively, as each model provides different levels of control and responsibility.

Azure Offerings Overview

Microsoft Azure offers cloud services to handle various tasks across the IT spectrum. These services fall into several broad categories. Azure provides services for different usage scenarios, allowing you to build custom cloud solutions. With a wide range of services available, you can use Azure’s building blocks to create solutions tailored to your needs. Get an overview of Azure services here.

AI on Microsoft Azure

If you want to build and scale AI in 2025, understanding AI on Microsoft Azure isn’t optional, it’s essential. Azure has evolved from a cloud provider into a full stack AI platform that supports everything from foundation model access to enterprise scale AI operations.

With Azure OpenAI Service, developers can deploy GPT, Codex, and multimodal models with enterprise security and compliance baked in.

But the biggest 2025 upgrade is Microsoft AI Foundry, Microsoft’s unified AI development environment that streamlines data ingestion, model training, governance, and deployment across clouds and edge devices. AI Foundry brings together Azure Machine Learning, Azure AI Studio, Azure Data Factory, and responsible AI tools into one cohesive experience, enabling teams to iterate faster while maintaining control and auditability.

On the infrastructure side, Azure Kubernetes Service now tightly integrates with NVIDIA AI Enterprise stacks for burstable GPU workloads, making production inference and agent orchestration both reliable and cost-efficient. For enterprises and startups alike, Azure has become the economics, governance, and production backbone of modern AI.

Microsoft Azure certifications

If you’re serious about mastering Azure, obtaining a certification is a great way to validate your skills. Microsoft offers several Azure certifications. And in recent years, it has become a very elaborative and thorough learning path:

Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals, Data Fundamentals, and AI Fundamentals: A beginner-level certification that covers the basics of Azure services, cloud concepts, and Azure pricing and support. It’s ideal for anyone new to Azure.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate and DevOps Engineer Expert : This certification is for developers who build and deploy applications on Azure. It covers Azure development tools, services, and application architecture.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate: This certification validates your ability to manage Azure resources, including VMs, storage, and networks. It’s ideal for IT professionals responsible for managing cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert: This certification validates your skills in designing and implementing Azure solutions. It’s ideal for professionals who design and implement complex Azure architectures.

Azure Learning resources

To prepare for Azure certifications and deepen your knowledge of the platform, I recommend the following resources:

• Microsoft Mechanics: A video series that covers the latest in Microsoft technology, including Azure. It’s a great resource for both beginners and advanced users.
• Microsoft Learn & Azure documentation: Microsoft’s official learning platform offers a wide range of free courses and learning paths for Azure. It’s a great place to start your Azure journey. This website also blends the official Azure documentation, where you can find detailed information on all Azure services, including how-to guides, best practices, and API references.
• Azure Blog and Azure Friday: These are excellent resources for staying up to date with the latest Azure news and features. Azure Friday is a video series that covers new Azure features and best practices.
• Microsoft conferences include Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Build, and so on.

Conclusion

Starting with Microsoft Azure opens up exciting opportunities to build scalable and secure cloud solutions. Understanding Azure’s core services, cloud design patterns, and management tools is key to success. Whether you’re a developer, IT professional, or business leader, Azure offers the tools you need. If you’re looking into learning AWS into the new year, check out this post.

With careful planning and ongoing learning, you can fully harness Azure’s potential and make a big impact in your organization. Check out our newsletter and stay tuned for more!