Course Overview

In the early days of cloud computing, the “cloud” was mostly a place to park data and spin up virtual machines. Today it is much more. In addition to providing access to traditional storage and compute resources on Linux as well as Windows, Microsoft Azure includes extensive infrastructure options, rich management and analytical tools, and dozens of services to aid developers in building intelligent services and applications. Learn about the various features that Azure has to offer and how to use them to build super-scalable applications in this 3-day, hands-on workshop.

Key Learning Areas

Attendees will acquire first-hand experience using Azure and the services that it offers. You will learn:

  • How to deploy and manage resources using the Azure Portal and the Azure CLI
  • How to host Web sites and Web APIs in the cloud and how to implement continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD)
  • How to use Azure Storage, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Cosmos DB to store data in the cloud
  • How to use Azure Active Directory to secure applications and implement single sign-on
  • How to use Azure Service Bus and other mechanisms to link apps and services with message queues
  • How to deploy and manage containerized workloads in the cloud using the Azure Container Instances and other container services
  • How to write serverless applications using Azure Functions
  • How to use Azure Cognitive Services to build intelligent apps backed by AI and machine learning
  • How to use Azure Machine Learning Studio to build sophisticated machine-learning models
  • How to use these and other services as building blocks for end-to-end solutions

Each course module consists of a lecture followed by a hands-on lab designed to reinforce the principles presented during lecture.

Course Outline

Introduction to Microsoft Azure
Learn what Azure is and what services it offers. Learn about the building blocks of cloud-based apps, and then dive into the Azure Portal and create your first virtual machine (VM).

Azure Web Apps
Learn how to host Web apps and Web services in the cloud using Azure Web Apps, and learn about deployment slots and other features that this service offers.

Azure Storage
Learn how to store data in the cloud by leveraging Azure Storage services such as blob storage. Also learn how to manage these services and how to interact with them using REST APIs and packages that wrap those APIs.

Azure Active Directory
Learn about the identity and access-management services that Azure provides and how to use them to secure your applications and implement single sign-on.

Azure Databases
Learn how to use Azure SQL Database to host relational databases in the cloud and benefit from massive scalability, automatic tuning, geo-replicated backup, automatic threat detection, and more. Also learn about Cosmos DB – Azure’s globally-distributed, multi-model database service – and how you can use it as a data repository for your applications.

Messaging
Messaging is the glue that binds apps and microservices that work together. Learn about the various messaging and queuing services that Azure supports and how to use them to compose cloud-based applications.

Containers
Learn how to use Docker containers to deploy containerized workloads to the cloud and orchestrate their execution. Also learn about the Azure Container Registry (ACR) and Azure Container Instances (ACI).

Azure Functions
Learn how to use Azure Functions to deploy functions written in C#, JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, and other languages to the cloud.

Azure Cognitive Services
Learn about the Computer Vision API and other APIs available in Azure Cognitive Services for building intelligent apps backed by AI and machine learning.

Azure Machine Learning Studio
Learn how to use Azure Machine Learning Studio to build sophisticated machine-learning models, host them in the cloud, and invoke them from client apps.

Prerequisites

This course is for software developers who want to learn how to build cloud-based applications. The hands-on labs involve a lot of coding, most of which is done in C#. In order to work the labs, attendees must have the following:

  • Experience programming in C#
  • Each student must have access to an Azure subscription (Azure Pass, MSDN subscription, free trial, company subscription, etc.)
  • Each student should bring a Windows 10 computer with Visual Studio Community 2019 or higher with the latest updates installed and the .NET Desktop Development, ASP.NET and Web Development, Azure Development, and UWP Development workloads installed. Alternatively, students can create a Visual Studio VM in Azure and connect to it using the Windows Remote Desktop client.
  • The teaching lab or environment must have access to the Internet and must allow student machines to connect via Remote Desktop (port 3389) to remote machines