Whenever I teach cloud technologies, I emphasize practical applications, even for the newest students. This really helps the topic come alive and allows the students to engage the material in a more realistic way.

As it turns out, a few of my friends reached out to me about Azure resources for learners, so, I thought I’d just jot down a few resources here.

Azure for students

So, a simple search online should point you here:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/students/

One of the first questions that come up is “Am I worthy eligible?”, which is helpfully answered in the FAQ:

Azure for Students is available only to students who meet the following requirements. You must affirm that you are age 18 or older and attend an accredited, degree-granting two-year or four-year educational institution where you’re a full-time student in a STEM-related field. You must verify your academic status through your organization’s email address . This offer is not available for use in a massive open online course (MOOC) or in other professional trainings from for-profit organizations. The Azure for Students offer is limited to one per eligible student, is non-transferable, and cannot be combined with any other offers unless otherwise permitted by Microsoft. Azure for Students has a limited supply of activations and the offer is available only while supplies last. Each region has a limited number of Azure for Students offers available, and your geographical location may run out of supplies while the offer is still available in other regions. Microsoft may terminate this offer at our sole discretion. Other restrictions may apply.

Azure for faculty

Now, if you’re an educator, teaching assistant or other faculty, you can sign up for open source content - I’ve used this, it’s legit and the github repo is very active! As well as get a free Azure account for doing demos and showing how the stuff works.

Just plain old free Azure stuff

If you aren’t enrolled anywhere and just want to learn Azure stuff, there are also a lot of free-levels that you can use to get started.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/

When you access this option, they’ll ask for a credit card number - this is for verification, they won’t charge you automatically unless you choose to upgrade. You have to choose to upgrade, it’s not going to sneak up on you.

Some azure services have levels that are always free, like Azure App Services, Azure Functions and Azure Kubernetes Service. There are others that are free for the first 12 months of usage. You can check out the full list here (scroll down).

So, there you go, get out there, get started, have fun!