Your guide to modern dev/testFinally, agile and efficient cloud dev/test environments that live up to their name

Introduction

01 Your guide to modern dev/test

Agile development and the cloud have brought a new set of expectations, and a new horizon of possibilities. The days of long waiting until servers are provisioned and configured have been replaced with practically instant virtual machine access and pay-as-you-go compute resources.

With virtual development and test environments, your team can redefine the meaning of agile, delivering applications to your customers faster, solving problems as they arise, and increasing the quality and stability of your code.

No matter the size of your team, Microsoft Azure gives you the power and scalability to create a virtual production and test environment that improves your efficiency, making it easier to create applications that hit all your benchmarks and milestones.

This guide covers the essentials to launching a dev/test environment in the cloud, and helps ensure that your QA processes are seamlessly integrated with application development.

The reality of an efficient, modern dev/test environment is well within your grasp. Read on to learn more.

Table of contents

Part one: Exactly what you need, when you need it

Page 4: The building blocks of a dev/test environment Page 6: Keep the main thing the main thingPage 7: Run what you brungPage 8: Manage apps efficiently throughout the life cycle

Part two: Maximize control, minimize waste

Page 10: Focus on the essentialsPage 11: Visual studio advanced features overview

Part three: The advantages of an integrated platform

Page 13: Optimize your development and delivery

Resources

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02 Your guide to modern dev/test

Part one:Exactly what you need, when you need it Get compute, storage, network, and development resources any time, on your terms

The building blocks of a dev/test environment

From compute to storage and network, Azure offers all of the resources to create a dev/test environment that’s up and running in minutes. Whether starting from scratch, or working from the latest version of an existing app, the reusable templates in Azure give you all of the tools to build a virtual machine and get to work in just a few clicks.

• Scale out to thousands of VM instances (or as few as one)• Create private virtual or cross-premises networks• Optimize VM performance with load balancing• Migrate on-premises virtual hard disks to Azure blob storage and attach to

your VM

Part one:Exactly what you need, when you need it

04 Your guide to modern dev/test

Understand Azure Infrastructure services and how to become fully operational in the cloud.

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Part one:Exactly what you need, when you need it

05 Your guide to modern dev/test

Learn how to create and connect to a VM, create an image from a VM and create a cloud-only virtual network.

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Learn more about virtual machines and how to create and configure them, Then see how you can use VMs for more complex, mission-critical roles.

Part 1 | Part 2

The building blocks of a dev/test environment (cont’d)

Keep the main thing the main thing

With Azure, we’ve gone to considerable lengths to simplify the building and managing of dev/test environments, all with one primary goal:

Giving developers more time to code.

Everything else is secondary, so with that in mind, we’ve made it easy to get up and running and work the way you want.

• Create environments with ease, using repeatable, shareable, and configurable templates.

• Move on-premises environments to the cloud and back, with greater speed, less complexity, and minimal cost.

Part one:Exactly what you need, when you need it

06 Your guide to modern dev/test

Ready to get started? • Learn more about creating and using a dev/test

environment in the cloud.

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• Join Corey Sanders as he does quick rundown of all things Azure. In just 5 minutes, you’ll understand what dev/test is all about and how it benefits developers.

Part One (DEV) | Part Two (TEST)

Run what you brung There’s more than one development platform out there. We get that.

Fortunately, Azure supports most any flavor of Linux. The Azure Gallery has several distributions of Linux available for download.

Partial to Red Hat? Azure has you covered.

More of a Debian fan? We’re there, too.

In fact, Azure endorses nearly a dozen different distributions of Linux, and if yours isn’t on the list, you can always use your own image as a template.

Regardless of your preferred OS, you’ll enjoy the same great experience.

Part one:Exactly what you need, when you need it

07 Your guide to modern dev/test

Gain a thorough understanding of Azure services and how you can take advantage of them as a developer.

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See how easy it is to work with Linux virtual machines in the Azure cloud in this demo-rich course.

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Manage apps efficiently throughout the life cycle

In an era of hosted, hybrid, and on-premises deployments, managing an app’s configuration, development, and deployment can present a bit of a challenge.

Azure Resource Manager offers a simpler way to work with the resources in your solution. Deploy, update, or delete all of the resources for your app in a single, coordinated operation.

And the templates in Azure Resource Manager work across testing, staging, and production environments, making it easier to keep apps up and running.

Part one:Exactly what you need, when you need it

Learn how Resource Manager can help you group resources and build and manage applications.

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See how to track all the components of your Azure deployment or complex Azure applications.

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08 Your guide to modern dev/test

Part two:Maximize control, minimize waste Master the tools to stay focused on essentials, not the potentials

Focus on the essentials With virtually limitless compute, storage, and network resources on tap, it’s easy to get distracted by what’s possible, rather than staying within budget and project parameters.

Azure DevTest Lab offers policies and quotas to help rein in design, development, and QA costs and keep things on track. If costs or other factors exceed a predetermined amount, VMs will automatically shut down, ensuring that you don’t blow your budget.

Part two:Maximize control, minimize waste

10 Your guide to modern dev/test

See how you can use Azure DevTest Labs to create environments quickly and define quotas and policies.

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Determine the number and size of virtual machines you’ll need and calculate the most cost-effective way of moving to the cloud.

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Visual Studio advanced features overview Whether you are working on greenfield software development projects or working with legacy code, the advanced features and tools in Visual Studio Enterprise can simplify your efforts. In this training, you will discover ways to use the advanced tools in Visual Studio Enterprise to design and build applications that are ready for modern continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, while developers working with legacy code will be able to easily transform their older applications into modern applications.

Part two:Maximize control, minimize waste

11 Your guide to modern dev/test

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Part three:The advantages of an integrated platformA dev/test environment built for developers, from the cloud up

Optimize your development and delivery

Once an app has shipped, customers expect a perpetual wave of performance updates, feature improvements, and bug fixes. Staying competitive requires that your team work together seamlessly, monitoring the health of your apps, and responding quickly to performance issues and other issues.

Together, Azure and Visual Studio Team Services provide all the tools to monitor the health of your apps, track the progress of features and updates under development, and ensure work stays on schedule.

Part three:The advantages of an integrated platform

13 Your guide to modern dev/test

See how to use today’s powerful application life-cycle management tools in an actual production environment.

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Learn more about how Visual Studio tools for Azure can help you create and manage Azure environments as well as test and debug your cloud apps.

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Part three:The advantages of an integrated platform

Optimize your development and delivery (cont’d)

Learn more about using Visual Studio to troubleshoot and debug applications running as Azure cloud services or on virtual machines.

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Check out the new capabilities in Visual Studio 2015 for developing on the Azure platform.

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14 Your guide to modern dev/test

15 Your guide to modern dev/test

More resources from Microsoft AzureLearn more about the features, tools, and resources that Azure offers to help make development and testing applications easier than ever:

Azure tools in Visual StudioCreate cloud-scale apps spanning IaaS and PaaS; receive free hosting for 10 web apps; and diagnose live apps with world-class debuggers, profilers, and data tools.

Azure DevTest LabsCreate a VM in a few clicks and get going quickly using reusable templates and VMs from pre-created pools.

Cloud Dev/Test Visual white paper (PDF)An overview of dev/test in the cloud and the implications of on-premises, cloud-based, and hybrid environments.

Cloud development and test environmentsQuickly create consistent development and test environments on your terms using the scalable, on-demand infrastructure.

Is Visual Studio 2015 right for you? Visual Studio 2015 is for developers and teams of any size that want to create great software for any device or platform. Check out the list of resources below and start your evaluation today:

Video introduction to Visual Studio Enterprise 2015Watch this brief video to see more about this integrated, end-to-end solution for teams of any size.

Overview of Visual Studio EnterpriseAccess product information, resources, purchasing info, and more.

Microsoft Virtual Academy: Visual Studio Advanced Features OverviewThis five-part video series covers the advanced features and tools in Visual Studio Enterprise that will simplify your efforts every step of the way, from design to release.

Visual Studio Team ServicesShare code, track work, and ship software—for any language, all in a single package.

Pricing info and purchasing optionsFind the right Visual Studio edition for your team.

Download a free trial of Visual Studio Enterprise

16 Your guide to modern dev/test