Stop 10 · Cloud Platforms (AWS / GCP / Azure)Topics · 5/11

Azure Fundamentals (Overview)

In short

If a company already runs on Microsoft 365, Windows and Active Directory, its cloud is often Azure. Its core services map neatly to AWS and GCP once you learn its layout.

Microsoft's cloud platform, dominant in enterprises already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem — Virtual Machines, Blob Storage, Virtual Networks, and Azure AD map conceptually to AWS/GCP equivalents.

The mascot swipes the same ID badge to open several doors along an office corridor.

Think of it like this

One office badge for every door

In a big office, one ID badge opens your floor, the canteen and the meeting rooms, because everything trusts the same badge system. Azure feels like that: Microsoft Entra ID is the badge, and every service checks it before letting you in.

Watch it happen

How Azure organises resources

Entra ID tenant

Subscription

rg-shop-dev

rg-shop-prod

Virtual machine

Storage account

Virtual network

1/4The tenant is your organisation's identity directory in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).

The big ideas

What you need to know

Familiar building blocks

Virtual Machines, Blob Storage, Virtual Networks and AKS match EC2, S3, VPC and EKS.

Resource groups

Group by app and environment. Permissions and cost reports can be scoped to a resource group.

Entra ID everywhere

Sign-in, RBAC roles and app identities all come from Entra ID, which also runs Microsoft 365 logins.

Managed identities

Like AWS roles: Azure gives your app an identity so it can reach other services without stored passwords.

See it in code

Walk through the code

bash

1az login2az group create --name rg-shop-dev --location centralindia3az vm create --resource-group rg-shop-dev --name web-1 \4  --image Ubuntu2404 --size Standard_B1s --generate-ssh-keys5az storage account create -g rg-shop-dev -n riyanotes2026 --sku Standard_LRS6# Delete everything in one go when you're done7az group delete --name rg-shop-dev --yes

1/4Sign in, then create a resource group in the Central India region (Pune).

Storage account names must be 3 to 24 lowercase letters and numbers, unique across Azure. Check free credit and pricing terms before creating VMs.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Throwing every resource into one resource group called 'default'.

Do this instead

Use one group per app and environment, so permissions, costs and cleanup stay clear.

Oops

Running az group delete without double-checking the name.

Do this instead

It deletes everything inside. Run az resource list -g <name> -o table first, and lock important groups.

Your mission

Build and bin a resource group

~30 min

Quick check

In Azure, what happens when you delete a resource group?

Go deeper

1Explore Azure's free tier and compare its console layout to AWS's.
2Map Azure's core services to their AWS equivalents (Virtual Machines ≈ EC2, Blob Storage ≈ S3).
3Learn why Azure is often the default choice for large enterprises already using Microsoft 365/Active Directory.