Using virtual machines on Azure

A virtual machine (VM) is indispensable to developers. I have a few myself that I use for my personal use and to try out new software. The technology behind it is quite incredible as it virtualizes a specific environment for you to accurately test your applications against. At my previous employer, we would create VMs of certain client environments in order to test application deployment and basically to see whether the application works correctly.

With Azure, developers have so many choices when deciding on a specific VM platform. You can spin up virtually (pun intended) any type of VM you need. If you want to test out the new Visual Studio, you can. A new version of Windows? You can bet there will be a VM on Azure for that. Want to play around with Linux and WordPress a bit? No problem. Azure does it all and it is incredibly easy to set up.

Consider the alternative. If VMs weren't there and you wanted to test an application on an OS such as Windows 10, you...