Service Eases Use of Azure VMs for Dev and Test

Azure DevTest Labs, a free service that became generally available in May 2016, can help teams organize and optimize the use of Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Virtual Machines (VMs) for development and test purposes. The service could make Azure a viable cost- and time-saving alternative for teams using on-premises labs, and it could improve practices for teams that have already adopted Azure for development and test processes. However, VMs and other Azure resources used through DevTest Labs incur costs at their normal rates, and individual user Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Azure credits cannot be combined to apply to DevTest Labs.

Labs Organize, Simplify Routine VM Creation

The use of Azure for development and test purposes has been one of the hosted offering’s primary propositions since its debut. The viability of leveraging Azure in this way has increased as Azure’s services and capabilities have expanded, particularly when IaaS VMs were added in 2013. Using Azure can reduce or eliminate the costs of on-premises lab hardware, software, and maintenance; cut development and test time by speeding environment deployments; and give teams access to greater hardware scalability than could be made available internally.