Reply to: Azure

[woohoo]

Office 365 bit is easy, just go to the admin page on the office365 and change the assigned license from your current to one of the E3 licenses from the MPN. you can find the license key for the 5 E3 licenses in https://partners.microsoft.com > Orders&Benefits > view License keys > Microsoft Online services. don't forget to cancel your old sub.

Great info thanks - will try that this afternoon.

I did manage to get azure support to sort it after complaining on twitter about lack of support.

[sal]

Thanks for the info. I've raised a ticket on Azure, followed some other steps and I now have two accounts on Azure with the same email address. Unfortunately, the wrong one has azure credit - £75 a month!

Waiting for a reply but the priority has been downgraded from two hour support to 24 hour support. If it all works will be a fantastic deal. I also have a office 365 using the same email that I pay for so hopefully can replace that also.

All of their portals are utter tulip. While making my MPN account I managed associate one of my MS accounts with someone elses company as an admin, couldn't disassociate without passing it to someone else, the support was useless, so i just created a dummy account, transferred the ownership of the stargnergs MPN account to it and left it at that.

Office 365 bit is easy, just go to the admin page on the office365 and change the assigned license from your current to one of the E3 licenses from the MPN. you can find the license key for the 5 E3 licenses in https://partners.microsoft.com > Orders&Benefits > view License keys > Microsoft Online services. don't forget to cancel your old sub.

[woohoo]

They are hopeless. You can contact the customer service via chat and they will point you to the right place to raise a proper ticket. then someone will manually add your sub to the desired Azure account.

BTW with the Action Pack you have 3 MSDN Pro subs each eligible for for another £65/month Azure credits or so, but can't be pooled and can't be used for "production" stuff legally.

Thanks for the info. I've raised a ticket on Azure, followed some other steps and I now have two accounts on Azure with the same email address. Unfortunately, the wrong one has azure credit - £75 a month!

Waiting for a reply but the priority has been downgraded from two hour support to 24 hour support. If it all works will be a fantastic deal. I also have a office 365 using the same email that I pay for so hopefully can replace that also.

[sal]

UPDATE. I remember now why i hate ms websites. I can't see anyway of associating my azure account with my partner account even though they share the same email address. In fact because they share the same email address it may even stop you doing this, I watched a 5 min vid from MS on how to associate a new email with an organisation followed the steps and yep its already associated. But Azure is telling me it cant apply the offer because my login is not a ms partner.

FFS microsoft pages just break all over the place.

UPDATE2. Just typed everything out on the MS Forum for Azure, then told MS believes my post was spam and then redirects me to a spam forum. Lost the post!

They are hopeless. You can contact the customer service via chat and they will point you to the right place to raise a proper ticket. then someone will manually add your sub to the desired Azure account.

BTW with the Action Pack you have 3 MSDN Pro subs each eligible for for another £65/month Azure credits or so, but can't be pooled and can't be used for "production" stuff legally.

[mrdo]

You could add a knowledge of azure storage to your CV.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/storage/

We use a standard azure sql database for generic relational data but we now store files in blob storage, log and audit data in table storage and we make a lot of use of queues. We then have PowerBI pointing at all of the above for reporting.

It's useful to know when and when not to use traditional sql storage and also how to query these new storage types.

Not sure of any of these courses would help:

https://openedx.microsoft.com/

I was initially sceptical of the benefit of all of these but now find it incredibly flexible and useful - the only problem is trying to keep up with all of the new developments on the platform.

Hope this helps.

[LondonManc]

I thought you just needed Excel and you were sorted?

Personally, no. I don't work for a consultancy where they seem to work in stages - sales and PMO get the PowerPoint Licence, analysts get Word and developers get Access and Excel.

[GrumpyContractor]

I thought you just needed Excel and you were sorted?

Excel is for M3-driving marketing analysts.

Multiplan is for real men.

...or perhaps I'm showing my age

[northernladuk]

Fair comment, although company policy also dictates actual practice too, such as the meeting required to discuss the implications of putting company data in the cloud if it's not been done before (data security team tin hat brigade).

Also if I've got immediate access to onsite server with SQL Server installed, I'm up and running immediately at no cost.

I thought you just needed Excel and you were sorted?

[woohoo]

I already have an Azure account, if i manage to signup with the same email (which im trying to do now but MS won't let me submit), will the action pack benefit for Azure transfer automatically?

Also, does anyone have a valid 50% off action pack code.

FYI found this code that still works.
ACTIONPACKCLOUDFIRST

UPDATE. I remember now why i hate ms websites. I can't see anyway of associating my azure account with my partner account even though they share the same email address. In fact because they share the same email address it may even stop you doing this, I watched a 5 min vid from MS on how to associate a new email with an organisation followed the steps and yep its already associated. But Azure is telling me it cant apply the offer because my login is not a ms partner.

FFS microsoft pages just break all over the place.

UPDATE2. Just typed everything out on the MS Forum for Azure, then told MS believes my post was spam and then redirects me to a spam forum. Lost the post!

[woohoo]

Better yet, if you are working with MS tech get an Action pack for £165/year (with 50% off code:ACTIONPACK2017) which gives you a plethora of benefits one of which is £65/month Azure credit. Unlike the MSDN this and the other benefits can be legally used for actual "production" stuff for YourCo

If you are using Office365 you should also consider the Action pack as it comes with 5 Office365 E3 licenses (the price of the sub is about that of a single E3 license)

I already have an Azure account, if i manage to signup with the same email (which im trying to do now but MS won't let me submit), will the action pack benefit for Azure transfer automatically?

Also, does anyone have a valid 50% off action pack code.

FYI found this code that still works.
ACTIONPACKCLOUDFIRST

[GrumpyContractor]

Fair comment, although company policy also dictates actual practice too, such as the meeting required to discuss the implications of putting company data in the cloud if it's not been done before (data security team tin hat brigade).

Yep, data governance is a hot topic and rightly so. We tend to use open data for POCs.

Also if I've got immediate access to onsite server with SQL Server installed, I'm up and running immediately at no cost.

how the other half live!

[LondonManc]

Agreed, it varies.

From experience, for purely a technical feasibility piece:

Azure cost: £37 for a two week period

Cost to replicate performance with on site hardware (as none was immediately available): £100k+?

Fair comment, although company policy also dictates actual practice too, such as the meeting required to discuss the implications of putting company data in the cloud if it's not been done before (data security team tin hat brigade).

Also if I've got immediate access to onsite server with SQL Server installed, I'm up and running immediately at no cost.

[GrumpyContractor]

Agreed, it varies.

From experience, for purely a technical feasibility piece:

Azure cost: £37 for a two week period

Cost to replicate performance with on site hardware (as none was immediately available): £100k+?

[LondonManc]

For me the benefits of the Azure platform is cost, speed and scale.

I can develop a technical POC, test it, change it, delete it all cheaper and quicker than attempting to commission something on site.

hell, I could probably do all that in less time than it would take to just get access to an old shed at Client Co....

Surely that depends on your position within the company?

If you've got a good Perm BI Team Lead, they'll enable you to deliver whatever you want. Having had everything from drown in red tape to being given full access and install media for three servers to get the thing fixed and get something better in place longer term, I'd say it varies.

[GrumpyContractor]

For me the benefits of the Azure platform is cost, speed and scale.

I can develop a technical POC, test it, change it, delete it all cheaper and quicker than attempting to commission something on site.

hell, I could probably do all that in less time than it would take to just get access to an old shed at Client Co....