How Microsoft is making sure you get more out of Azure

It’s already designed to help productivity, and we have some tips, via the Microsoft Ignite conference, on how to boost that productivity. None of these involve paid add-ons, and they’re available to every user out-of-the-box.

Azure’s home page

Microsoft just simplified it to make it more focused on user experience – your user experience. Recent programs now auto-populate at you use the product, so there’s no set list of features decided by Microsoft – it’s all based on what you use the most often. It gets better and more customized the more you use it, and you don’t even have to be proactive about organizing it, it’s all done for you. And at the same time, there’s a static set of resources on the bottom part of the home page, for consistency.

Service information cards

These are the boxes that show up when you hover your cursor over something. For example, when you hover over someone’s name in Outlook – without clicking – it shows you their name/email/position/your latest correspondence with them. Think that same idea, but with your resources in Azure, giving you quick access to common tasks and relevant in-context information.

Global portal search

Azure’s search function is now streamlined, so you can be sure you never lose progress in a task. It allows you to search across all your lists of services, all the instances of your services, offers in the marketplace, documentation and research groups. And no matter where you are in Azure, the global search bar is always right there at the top.

Easy navigation between multiple accounts

All with just one click. Many Azure users have multiple accounts, whether it be a work account and a personal account – or more if you’re contracted. But you can now instantly switch between the two, while the two stay tailored to what you do in each separate account.

Utilizing patterns

Azure can do. A. Lot. But to keep things from getting overwhelming, if you just learn a few basic rules, you can apply them across all of Azure.

Streamlined browsing

It’s now faster and “way more functional,” according to Leon Welicki, Partner Group PM Manager, who delivered this presentation on Azure at Ignite. All your instances are in one place, and now, you can customize what that looks like by easily adding instances right to your list and adjusting the columns as you see fit. You can also quickly export anything you see on your screen. When it comes to filtering and sorting – there are no catches. You know how sometimes you’re in a piece of software and you KNOW what you’re looking for is there but can’t find it? The new browsing system uses more than just basic keywords to help you easily pinpoint the resources you’re looking for

Resource graph explorer

A more advanced tool, this gives you full control of all your Azure data, your subscriptions, resources, etc. Azure offers a fully integrated user experience to let you access the graph explorer right inside the portal. When you find relevant data, you can export it, share it, or pin it for future use.

Create your own dashboards

You can create private dashboards that you can either use for your own functionality or share with others. And you can make/use multiple at one time.