faxg / AzureTechEventQuickstartGuide

Infopages to get started with Azure at Tech events (Hackathons, workshops etc.)

Swiss Tech Event - Azure Quickstart Guide

This is a template repository, see the different branches for the actual event-specific pages.

Event Overview

• Event page:
• Schedule:
• Challenges:

Your Microsoft contacts

Getting Started with Microsoft Azure

If you want to get the best Developer experience, you'll need to following:

• GitHub account (https://github.com)
• Microsoft Azure account (https://portal.azure.com)

You can also log-in to Azure using your existing GitHub account

It's best to use your private e-mail for the accounts, e.g. not your work or university e-mail, as this could lead to some problems with free Azure Credits etc.

Never used Azure before? We recommend: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/azure-architecture-fundamentals/

Hint: If English is not your first language, try changing /en-us/ to /de-de/ (for example). Works for most *.microsoft.com pages, including docs and learn tutorials.

Get Free Azure Credits (Azure Passes)

We provide 100$ / 90-days free credits, so that you can use Azure for free on your prototype. These "Azure Passes" come in the form of promo codes and need to be redeemed on a special website. Afterwards you should get a "Azure Sponsored Subscription" in your account.

Important: You only need ONE per team.

• Go to: https://aka.ms/HSLUDevSecOps/AzurePasses

• Copy the voucher code and then click “=> Get on board with Azure”

• You will get forwarded to the website https://www.microsoftazurepass.com/

• Click “Start” and follow the process

• Double-check you are using the right Microsoft account, in case you have multiple.

• The process should forward to the Azure Portal after a few minutes. You should now be able to find the sponsored Subscription.

Essential Links

• Azure Web Portal: https://portal.azure.com

• Microsoft Docs (tech docs): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/

• Microsoft Learn (Tutorials etc): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/

• Azure Charts (with links to docs): https://azurecharts.com/links

• Azure Developer Guide (PDF, 140 pages): https://aka.ms/HSLUDevSecOps/Guide

• Channel9 (Video and live events): https://channel9.msdn.com/

• Microsoft Developer @ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MicrosoftDeveloper

• Microsoft Certifications: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/

  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/azure-fundamentals/
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/azure-data-fundamentals/
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/azure-ai-fundamentals/
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/security-compliance-and-identity-fundamentals/

• StackOverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/azure

Choose your Azure Services

Depending on what technology and frameworks you want to use, here're some recommendations to get started.

Documentation Overview (all services): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/?product=featured

Web Apps and APIs

• Azure App Service: Azure App Service enables you to build and host web apps, mobile back ends, and RESTful APIs in the programming language of your choice without managing infrastructure.

  • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/
  • Learn module: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/host-a-web-app-with-azure-app-service/

• Azure Static Web Apps: allows you to build modern web applications that automatically publish to the web as your code changes. Full-stack development combining Frontend (React, Angular, Vue, ...), Serverless Backend API using Azure Functions (NodeJS, Python, C#,...) and GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline.

  • Video: https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Docs-Azure/Building-and-Deploying-a-Static-Web-App/
  • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/static-web-apps/overview
  • Learning Path: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/azure-static-web-apps/

• Azure Functions (Serverless): You can use Functions to build web APIs, respond to database changes, process IoT streams, manage message queues, and more.

  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/

Note: we recommend using GitHub Actions as CI/CD pipeline. Learn more here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/github-actions-cd/

Databases and Storage

Azure Database services: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/?product=databases

• Azure Blob storage: Store unstructured objects, e.g. images, documents etc): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/

• Azure Cosmos DB: Fast NoSQL database, multiple APIs e.g. Gremlin (Graph), SQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Table Storage

  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/

Machine Learning and Data Science

Solutions for Advanced Data Analysis with Python, MLOps etc.

• Azure Machine Learning: Train, test deploy your Machine Learning Models

• ML Studio: https://ml.azue.com

• Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/

• Azure Databricks: Unified Analytics Platform. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/

Cognitive Services and A.I.

These are APIs and Cloud tools you can use for building intelligent aplications.

• Azure Applied AI Services

  • Form Recognizer: Extract text from forms and documents

    • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/applied-ai-services/form-recognizer/

  • Azure Cognitive Search: Build semanticly enriched, searchable document databases

    • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/

• Azure Cognitive Services Vision, Language, Speech

  • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/

  • Computer Vision: OCR, Object detection, Image classification, Spatial Analysis ...

    • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/computer-vision/

  • Language Service: Text Analytics / Natural Language Processing, Text Classification, Translation, Language detection ...

    • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/language-service/
    • Language Studio: https://language.azure.com/

  • Speech Service: Speech-to-Text / Text-to-Speech, Translation, Transcription, Voice Assistants, Intent recognition...

• Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/speech-service

  • Speech Studio : https://speech.microsoft.com/

• Azure Maps : Maps, Search, Routing, Traffic, Weather, Time Zones, Geolocation, Geofencing, Map Data, Creator, and Spatial Operations

  • Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/

Azure SDKs and REST API

Most Azure Servies have SDK support for common languages (Python, JavaScript, C#, ...)

• Python:
  • SDK API Browser: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/python/api/?view=azure-python
• JavaScript / Node
  • SDK API Browser: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/?view=azure-node-latest