Sign up for a one-month free trial with $200 of credit (the cost at the time I was
writing this) at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/. This is a great way to
learn Microsoft Azure for free.
As an organization, pre-buy a certain amount of Azure spending as part of an
Enterprise Agreement, which provides a discount for Azure services in addition to
access to the Enterprise Portal that enables departments and accounts to be
created in a delegated model and also provides great insight into the billing of
services.
Pay as you go for services by using a credit card or other agreement.Once you have a subscription, you manage Microsoft Azure via
https://portal.azure.com. Through this portal, you can perform nearly every aspect of
Microsoft Azure management. Previously, you had to supply a credit card number
even if you had included Microsoft Azure credit, but Microsoft removed this
requirement and instead will now simply shut down your services if you run out of
credit. If you want to remove the spending limit, this can be done via the account page
by using a credit card, but it does mean you could be billed if you go over the included
credit amount.
When you first connect to the portal, you will be presented with the dashboard that
shows basic information about the health of the various Azure regions, which can be
selected for more information. From the navigation menu on the left of the portal, you
can view existing resources and create new ones. The portal is highly configurable,
enabling tiles to be added to the dashboard and tiles resized as required. To see basic
information about the subscription, choose Browse ➢ Subscriptions from the
navigation menu. Select your subscription, and a new blade (a vertical pane made up
of lenses with specific aspects of information) will be displayed with information
about the subscription, including how Azure spending has been consumed, estimated
future spending, and the amount left, as shown in Figure 12.4.