Top 10 Labs in the Windows Azure Training Kit You Should TryThe Windows Azure Training Kit (now generally aligned with Microsoft Azure training materials) contains hands-on labs designed to give developers, IT pros, and students practical experience building, deploying, and managing cloud applications. Below are ten standout labs you should try — chosen for their real-world relevance, breadth of concepts covered, and suitability whether you’re new to cloud computing or preparing for certification.
1. Getting Started with Azure: Deploying a Simple Cloud App
This beginner lab walks you through creating a basic cloud application, deploying it to Azure, and understanding the lifecycle of a cloud service. You’ll learn how to configure a web role and worker role, publish the app from Visual Studio, and verify deployment health.
Key takeaways:
- How to create and deploy cloud services from Visual Studio
- Understanding web roles vs. worker roles
- Debugging deployment errors and using the Azure portal for monitoring
2. Building Scalable Web Applications with Azure App Services
This lab focuses on modernizing web applications using Azure App Services. It covers deploying a web app, enabling continuous deployment from Git/GitHub, configuring scaling rules, and adding SSL.
Key takeaways:
- Auto-scaling configuration and deployment slots
- Continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) setup
- Best practices for securing web apps and managing certificates
3. Working with Azure Storage: Blobs, Tables, and Queues
Essential for anyone building cloud-native apps, this lab explores Azure Storage services. You’ll implement blob storage for files, table storage for NoSQL data, and queue storage for decoupled processing.
Key takeaways:
- Storing and retrieving blobs; managing containers
- Designing table entities and querying Table Storage
- Using queues to implement reliable background processing
4. Azure Virtual Machines and Networking Basics
This lab demonstrates how to provision Windows and Linux VMs, configure virtual networks (VNets), subnets, network security groups, and connect VMs securely. It also covers VM scale sets for high availability.
Key takeaways:
- Creating and managing VMs and VM Scale Sets
- Configuring VNets, subnets, and security groups
- Secure remote access (RDP/SSH) and VM extension usage
5. Implementing Identity and Access with Azure Active Directory
A critical lab for security-conscious projects, this walkthrough covers integrating Azure AD for authentication and authorization. You’ll register applications, enable single sign-on (SSO), and use role-based access control (RBAC).
Key takeaways:
- Azure AD app registration and OAuth/OpenID Connect flows
- Configuring RBAC for resources
- Federation and enterprise SSO basics
6. Creating Serverless Apps with Azure Functions
This lab introduces serverless compute with Azure Functions. You’ll write functions triggered by HTTP requests, storage queue messages, and timers. The lab also shows local debugging and deployment strategies.
Key takeaways:
- Authoring and deploying Azure Functions
- Trigger and binding patterns (HTTP, Storage, Event Grid)
- Cost considerations and scaling behavior in serverless environments
7. Working with Azure SQL Database and Cosmos DB
Data options in Azure are diverse. This lab compares relational and NoSQL approaches by having you provision Azure SQL Database and Cosmos DB, perform CRUD operations, and tune performance.
Key takeaways:
- Provisioning and connecting to Azure SQL and Cosmos DB
- Query patterns and indexing in Cosmos DB
- Performance tuning and backup/restore options
8. Monitoring and Diagnostics with Azure Monitor and Log Analytics
Operational excellence requires good observability. This lab teaches configuring Azure Monitor, collecting metrics and logs, creating alerts, and using Log Analytics to query telemetry.
Key takeaways:
- Setting up diagnostic logs and metric alerts
- Writing Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries for Log Analytics
- Creating dashboards and actionable alerting strategies
9. Implementing CI/CD with Azure DevOps
A practical lab that sets up a full CI/CD pipeline using Azure DevOps (or GitHub Actions as a variant). You’ll create build and release pipelines, run automated tests, and deploy to App Services or VMs.
Key takeaways:
- Creating build pipelines and artifact management
- Release pipelines with deployment gates and approvals
- Integration with IaC tools (ARM templates, Bicep)
10. Migrating On-Premises Workloads to Azure
Designed for IT pros planning cloud migrations, this lab covers assessment, choosing right-sized resources, using Azure Migrate, and executing lift-and-shift migrations. Post-migration validation and cost optimization are also covered.
Key takeaways:
- Using Azure Migrate for discovery and assessment
- Strategies: lift-and-shift vs. rearchitecting
- Post-migration validation, tagging, and cost control
How to Get the Most from These Labs
- Use a sandbox subscription (free Azure credits or a sandbox environment) to avoid unexpected costs.
- Follow lab instructions step-by-step, then experiment by changing parameters (scale rules, storage tiers).
- Combine labs into a capstone project: e.g., a web app (App Service) with serverless functions, Cosmos DB, CI/CD pipeline, and monitoring.
- Take notes of CLI/PowerShell commands and ARM/Bicep templates for repeatable deployments.
Recommended Next Steps
- Repeat beginner labs to build confidence, then progress to networking, security, and data labs.
- Prepare for role-based Microsoft certifications (AZ-900, AZ-204, AZ-104) using labs focused on those exam objectives.
- Contribute to or create your own lab scenarios to fill knowledge gaps specific to your projects.
If you want, I can expand any single lab into a full step-by-step tutorial with commands, sample code, and screenshots — tell me which one.
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