For several years, many of us who were involved with working in Azure from the early days, were concerned that Microsoft had bet the farm and could possibly lose it all. They may well have bet the farm, but more and more it’s extremely clear that there is zero likelihood of them losing the farm. In fact, it’s looking more and more like, while using farming analogies, they’re turning into an agro-corp. Azure is taking off.

You need to start working on adding Azure knowledge to your skill set. If you have access to an MSDN license, getting into Azure is easy because of the credits available. However, not everyone works for a company that provides MSDN or has purchased a license. In that case, getting into Azure, just for testing and learning could be expensive (I frequently “spend” $150/month with my MSDN credits). However, Microsoft is very serious about getting everyone moved into this space. They’ve launched a new free program called IT Pro Cloud Essentials. Not only does it give you Azure credit, but you also get access to O365, another set of skills and understanding you need to acquire.

If cost was one of the reasons you were choosing to not explore Azure, time to give that one up. Explore the offering and then get your learn on.

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