In this video blog, we are about to cover Azure Subscriptions which includes:
- What is Azure?
- Azure Subscriptions
- Getting An Azure Subscription
- Microsoft Azure Subscription Types
- How Can Azure Subscriptions Help Us Scale Your Environment?
- FAQs
What is Azure?
The Azure cloud platform includes more than 200 products and cloud services designed to help you bring new solutions to life to solve today’s problems and build tomorrow. Build, run, and manage applications across multiple clouds on-premises and at the edge using the tools and frameworks of your choice.
One of the biggest benefits of the cloud is that its services can be used as a subscription, just like Netflix. And the idea behind subscription-based Cloud accounts is that you have the flexibility of paying as per your resource requirements and usage.
Azure includes several different tiers of subscriptions and plans that can be molded to suit a large variety of customers.
Azure Subscriptions
Azure Subscriptions are a logical unit of Azure services that are linked to an Azure account. In order to take advantage of Azure’s cloud-based services, you must have a subscription as it serves as a single billing unit for Azure resources used in that account.
- An Azure subscription is linked to a single account, the one that was used to create the subscription and is used for billing purposes. Within the subscription, resources can be provisioned as instances of the many Azure products and services.
- You can have more than one subscription, often for billing purposes, since each subscription generates its own set of billing reports and invoices.
- The person who creates an Azure subscription becomes the global administrator for that subscription and has full access to every aspect of that subscription hence separate subscriptions can also be a way to create a division of responsibility for Azure services.
Check out: Microsoft Azure provides governance features and services
Getting An Azure Subscription
Azure Subscriptions can be obtained from Microsoft in a variety of ways:
- Enterprise Agreement: Enterprise customers can make a bulk purchase of subscriptions with an upfront monetary commitment and consume services throughout the year.
- Resellers: Provide a simple, flexible way for medium to large businesses to purchase Azure cloud services.
- Partners: They can design and implement your Azure cloud solution for you.
- Personal Free Account: This is the type of account used by most individuals, Microsoft provides free credits for a limited time so that Companies and/or individuals can try out their services.
Also Check: Our blog post on Azure Resource Group. Click here
Azure Subscriptions Types
Microsoft offers different types of subscriptions tailored to fulfill all types of requirements.
- Free: A free subscription can be created with an email account and a credit card that includes 200$ credit for the first 30 days and free limited access for 12 months when converted to a pay-as-you-go subscription.
- Pay-As-You-Go: Generates a monthly charge depending on the amount of Cloud resources used.
- Enterprise: A single Enterprise agreement is made for bulk purchases of subscriptions, with discounts for new licenses and Software Assurance – targetted at enterprise scale – Organisations.
- Student: These subscriptions include 100$ for 12 months, this subscription can be activated without a credit card however student verification is required.
Also Read: Capex vs Opex, to know the major differences between them.
How Can Azure Subscriptions Help Us Scale Your Environment?
Organizations often use multiple Azure subscriptions to get around the single subscription limit. There are many ways to use resources efficiently.
After you create the initial subscription, we can create additional subscriptions based on your organization’s model to connect to your environment. Before you start scaling subscribers, consider the following:
- Subscription limits imposed by some sources. If your subscription has limited resources, you must create an additional subscription.
- Consider management, transition, operations, innovation and security as company goals.
- There are many ways to help people decide to set up and create multiple Azure subscriptions.
Here are some examples:
- Job Segregation: As new job is added to the cloud, you can split the list by production using the job separation rule and the controls are not created.
- Application Categories: Records can be classified based on access restrictions, business needs, data security concerns, or regulatory requirements. Subscriptions can be classified according to whether they are a primary liability, a regulatory restriction, or part of the product price offered.
- Job Title: List by job title, such as Finance, Sales, or IT Support.
- Business Units: Posts can be separated by business unit or even by profit and loss using the management structure.
- Geographical Regions: If your company has a global presence, you can separate names and accounts by region.
- Azure Subscriptions: Change Azure Active Directory to new Azure Active Directory
Azure AD is tied to all Azure subscriptions. If you have multiple subscriptions, you may want to move some subscriptions to a different Azure AD. Because modifying the registry can cause downtime, you may want to consider other options such as rebuilding resources and copying files to the target registry or using multiple directories.
We will also notify you in advance of any new Azure services and associated fees available to the Azure platform. We only pay when we use the new service. We are responsible for any taxes that may occur as a result of receiving free service.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many subscriptions can an Azure account have?
A single user can belong to a maximum of 500 Azure AD tenants as a member or a guest. A single user can create a maximum of 200 directories. You can add no more than 5,000 managed domain names.
Does Azure subscription expire?
At the end of 30 days, Azure disables your subscription. Your subscription is disabled to protect you from accidentally incurring charges for usage beyond the credit and free services included with your subscription. To continue using Azure services, you must upgrade your subscription.
Can I create two subscriptions for an Azure account?
Organizations can have multiple subscriptions for Microsoft's cloud offerings. Figure 1 shows a single organization that has multiple Microsoft 365 subscriptions, a Dynamics 365 subscription, and multiple Azure subscriptions.
Can an Azure subscription have multiple administrators?
Sign in to the Azure portal as the Service Administrator or a Co-Administrator. Open Subscriptions and select a subscription. Co-Administrators can only be assigned at the subscription scope. Click Access control (IAM).
Related/References
- [AZ-900] Microsoft Azure Certification Fundamental Exam: Everything You Must Know
- Learn how to create a Free Microsoft Azure Trial Account
- [AZ-900] Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Topic 1.1 Overview & Benefits
- [AZ-900] Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: Topic 1.2 CapEx vs OpEx Model
- [AZ-900] Microsoft Azure Core Services: Compute, Network, Storage & Database
Next Task For You
Begin your journey toward Mastering Azure Cloud and landing high-paying jobs. Just click on the register now button on the below image to register for a Free Class on Mastering Azure Cloud: How to Build In-Demand Skills and Land High-Paying Jobs. This class will help you understand better, so you can choose the right career path and get a higher paying job.
Mark says
What are the costings of the 4 subscription types: Free, Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise, and Student?
Jayesh Pandey says
Hi Mark,
Thnaks for the commenting,
Please check these 4 types of Subscription & costing,
1. Free: A free subscription can be created with an email account and a credit card that includes 200$ credit for the first 30 days.
2. Pay-As-You-Go: Generates a monthly charge depending on the amount of Cloud resources used. that means you have to pay for what resource you use.
3. Enterprise: A single Enterprise agreement is made for bulk purchases of subscriptions, with discounts for new licenses and Software Assurance – targetted at enterprise scale – Organisations.
4. Student: These subscriptions include 100$ for 12 months, this subscription can be activated without a credit card however student verification is required.
Hope this helps,
Thanks and Regards
Jayesh Pandey
Team K21 Academy
Shwetali says
If I need azure subscription only for storing backups and recovering them, Which kind of subscription will be okay for this purpose?
I only need to use rsvaults and backupvaults etc.
Rahul Dangayach says
Hi Shwetali,
There are three main types of subscriptions available, free, pay-as-you-go, and member offers.
If you want to use the services for your production environment, then go for a pay-as-you-go subscription.
For members offers subscriptions please check: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/legal/offer-details/
Hope this helps.
Thanks and Regards
Rahul Dangayach
Team K21 Academy