CHAPTER 1 ■ AZURE – A SOLUTIONS DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM
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Azure Account and Subscriptions
In order to start using Azure or develop solutions using Azure services, first we need an
account in Azure. An Azure account can be acquired by many ways; there are various
options available like trial versions, MSDN subscriptions, BizSpark offers, credit card
purchase models, enterprise agreements, and so on.
Leaving those complexities and various options aside, let’s discuss the typical
purchase model of Azure using the credit card, as it is the common method among
individual developers and SMEs. Regardless of the method how you own an Azure
account, the experience is very much the same.
Go to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/ and sign up for a free Azure
account. This book skips the steps of signing up for a new Azure account, since
documenting the experience is very volatile and the specified link will guide you on the
account creation process.
You would submit an email address during the account creation process at some
point; these credentials you used in the sign-up process will become the credentials
of the Azure account administrator; one Azure account can have only one account
administrator.
An Azure account is a collection of Azure subscriptions, and subscriptions are
the workspace of Azure. Creating an Azure account means that you’re creating your first
Azure subscription within the account.
Account administrator automatically becomes the Service administrator of
a subscription. The account administrator is the person who is authorized to access
Account Center (https://account.windowsazure.com/); Account Center is used to
create and manage subscriptions.
Different subscriptions within an Azure account can have different payment
methods. As an example, if one Azure account has two subscriptions then the first
subscription would have a pay-as-you-go model and the second one would have the fixed
amount limitation for monthly use.
Service administrator can create co-administrators, and co-administrators also
can create other co-administrators. One subscription can have more than one co-
administrator. Co-administrators have full access to the Azure services in the subscription
except the permissions to manage the Azure Active Directory (AAD).
Service administrators and co-administrators are known as Subscription Admins
in the new portal. The explicit difference between a service administrator and a co-
administrator in the scope of a subscription is that the service administrator has the
Global Admin role in AAD and the co-administrator has the User role. So, unless
specifically assigned to a Global Admin role, a co-administrator would not have
permissions to manage AAD.
Refer to this example to understand the subscription administrators and their access
level.
Linda signs up for the Azure account, so she becomes the account administrator and
the service administrator of the subscription 1. Later she creates another subscription
(subscription 2) under the same Azure account. She adds Tim as a co-administrator to
subscriptions 1 and 2. She adds Bob as co-administrator to subscription 2. Figure1-1
shows the eventual administrator role assignments.