5 Reasons You Should Learn Azure

There is no larger or more looming change in the IT business than in public cloud services. Whether you're an entry-level developer, an established system administrator, or an IT manager, you'll feel the impact of "The Cloud" sooner rather than later! Microsoft Azure offers a scalable and reliable platform that is ready to integrate with your current and future projects.

If you're ready to launch your next system, company, or brilliant idea, here are five reasons why Microsoft Azure makes sense for you. When you're ready to leap, we have plenty of Microsoft Azure training to get you started.

1. Microsoft Azure is One of the Most Used Cloud Services on the Planet

While there are many cloud service offerings, including many you can learn right here at CBT Nuggets, Microsoft Azure is the fastest-growing provider on the market and has a market share second only to Amazon Web Services. Microsoft Azure is a clear choice if you want to keep your skills up-to-date and relevant.

2. No Infrastructure Worries

It's expensive and time-consuming to purchase, build, support, and maintain the hardware required to run even a small software solution. Azure's service offerings take that out of your hands and manage the dirty work for you, right down to billing on a per-user basis. This means you can focus on building awesome web apps that scale up and out and take advantage of a world-class infrastructure without breaking your budget.

3. Use Tools You Already Know

There's no need to learn a new language or tool; Microsoft Azure is seamlessly integrated with the products that Microsoft has offered for years. You can write Azure Websites and manage Azure Virtual Machines from within Visual Studio. At the same time, Azure Active Directory allows you to federate your domain security policies with almost no effort. Of course, Azure SQL Server is based on the wildly popular Microsoft SQL Server.

4. It's an Open-Platform as Well

Just because they integrate with Microsoft's existing products doesn't mean you're limited in using them. Microsoft Azure is a wide-open platform that runs various popular and influential technologies from various vendors. The Azure Marketplace has more than 3,000 different pre-built, click-to-deploy solutions that run the gamut from Hadoop Clusters with HDInsight to LAMP stack farms to node.js-based web servers. Microsoft Azure is an easy landing spot regardless of your technology background.

5. Cloud Skills are in Demand

Whether you're seeking to make your next move in IT or keep up with your contemporaries, knowing the ins and outs of public cloud tools is almost mandatory. IDC predicts that spending on cloud services will grow at six times the expenditure rate in other IT areas. Make sure some of that is spent on YOU.

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