I’ve been doing a lot of presenting around Azure and Office 365 of late and there is a lack of appreciation that when you sign up for Office 365 you automatically receive a free (limited) Azure account.
The difference between the available versions of Azure can be found here:
Azure AD Editions feature comparison – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/08/azure-ad-editions-feature-comparison.html
How to enable the free version of Azure with Office 365 I have covered here:
Enabling your Office 365 Azure AD – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/01/enabling-your-office-365-azure-ad.html
This free Azure account allows you to perform some basic functions such as:
Configuring an Azure Single Sign On portal – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/02/configuring-azure-sso-portal.html
Enabling self-service password resets in Office 365 – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/02/enabling-self-service-password-resets.html
Using Azure AD B2B sharing with SharePoint Online – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/11/using-azure-ad-b2b-sharing-with.html
The above presentation on Office 365 Azure provides a good overview of what is possible with Azure from Office 365 that most people don’t even realise is available.
The real message is that you need to think of Office 365 and Azure together, especially in the SMB space. You START with Office 365 to get a free Azure tenant AND then you add a paid subscription of Azure and build from there. You DON’T start with Azure first and add Office 365 as that creates two separate tenants. Always, Office 365 first and then Azure but I’ll cover more about that in upcoming pos
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