This post is to provide customer who are considering / has decided Windows Azure for Dev / Test environment.
Windows Azure’s Values for Different Stakeholders in Dev / Test Scenario
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Application sponsor |
BUIT/ Developers |
Central IT/ Infrastructure Ops |
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Faster time to market |
Faster infrastructure provisioning and rollout times on Windows Azure enable your application teams to make changes faster |
Instantly provision any amount of test/development resources, when you need them |
Allow your users to self-provision based on a set of policies and rules that you set upfront |
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Lower cost |
Minimize your investment and pay only for what you use on Windows Azure for testing and development |
Only pay for what you use with metered charge-back for all resources on the public cloud |
Free up on-premises DC capacity by moving test/development to Windows Azure |
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Less risk |
Minimize your upfront investment using Windows Azure, with the option to expand rapidly as required |
Moving test/dev to Windows Azure gives you access to capacity when you need it, while complying with governance policies set by central IT |
Get back control over your IT environment, while giving your end-users the same benefits as public cloud / infrastructure ownership |
The Solution
How’s the solution going to look like for Dev Test? Well, it could be as simple as spinning up a VM and manage it from on-premise by the developer, like you can see in below Solution 1. Or it might be more advanced as shown in Solution 2, which involving Virtual Network: Site to Site VPN.
Solution 1 – Simple
Solution 2 – Advanced
Get Started Resources
Here’re are some of the on-boarding guide for you go get started dev / test in Windows Azure:
Creating and preparing Infrastructure Services
- Create a Virtual Network for Site-to-Site Cross-Premises Connectivity
- Add a Virtual Machine to a Virtual Network
- How to Capture an Image of a Virtual Machine Running Windows Server
- Creating and Uploading a Virtual Hard Disk that Contains the Windows Server Operating System
Managing Infrastructure Services via Scripting
- Get Started with Windows Azure Cmdlets
- Manage Virtual Machines Using Windows Azure Cmdlets
- Manage Images and Disks Using Windows Azure Cmdlets
A recording session that’s worth to be checked out: Building Your Lab, Dev, and Test Scenarios in Windows Azure Infrastucture Services (IaaS)
Hope this helps.