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Microsoft Azure in Action
Unlock the full power of Microsoft Azure for creating, deploying, and managing applications. Quickly get up to speed with foundational cloud concepts, and start building Azure apps and architectures using modern best practices.
In Microsoft Azure in Action you will learn how
• Create and deploy efficient cloud applications
• Efficiently store, manage, and retrieve data
• Command-line control with PowerShell and Azure CLI
• Set up blob storage, create VMs, and manage serverless apps
• Secure your infrastructure with built-in Azure features
• Optimize performance for Azure services such as App Services and virtual machines
Microsoft Azure in Action puts you on the fast-track to creating and managing applications using Microsoft’s powerful cloud platform. You’ll dive into the foundational pillars of Azure—compute, networking, and storage—that form the basis of the platform. This practical guide quickly gets your hands dirty building real applications and services, while witty writing and fascinating examples help keep your interest and make learning a genuine pleasure!
About the technology
Microsoft Azure is the fastest growing cloud platform in the world, with huge demand from both enterprises and startups alike. Its scalability and elasticity keeps costs low. It’s huge array of built-in tools and services help developers stay focused on features instead of constant infrastructure fine tuning.
About the book
Microsoft Azure in Action teaches you to put the premier cloud computing service to work building real apps and services. Its lighthearted tone keeps dry technical details from becoming boring. Aimed at developers who are familiar with some cloud basics, this straight-to-the-point guide explains both the how and the why of each Azure service.
Author and Azure expert Lars Klint guides you from the fundamentals of Azure through to DevOps, security, performance enhancement, and architecture decisions. Throughout, you’ll tinker with example applications and hands-on serverless tasks, including a useful photo resizing tool. By the time you’re done, you’ll be ready to untether yourself from on-prem servers and make the leap to the Azure cloud!
About the reader
For software developers with some experience with a scripting language such as PowerShell.
About the author
Lars Klint works as an Azure instructor with A Cloud Guru. He’s an author, trainer, Microsoft MVP, community leader, Azure expert, and classic car collector. He has been a part of the software development community for over 20 years and co-organizes the DDD Melbourne community conference, as well as other developer events with Microsoft. He has spoken at numerous technical events around the world and is also an expert in Australian Outback Internet.
In Microsoft Azure in Action you will learn how
• Create and deploy efficient cloud applications
• Efficiently store, manage, and retrieve data
• Command-line control with PowerShell and Azure CLI
• Set up blob storage, create VMs, and manage serverless apps
• Secure your infrastructure with built-in Azure features
• Optimize performance for Azure services such as App Services and virtual machines
Microsoft Azure in Action puts you on the fast-track to creating and managing applications using Microsoft’s powerful cloud platform. You’ll dive into the foundational pillars of Azure—compute, networking, and storage—that form the basis of the platform. This practical guide quickly gets your hands dirty building real applications and services, while witty writing and fascinating examples help keep your interest and make learning a genuine pleasure!
About the technology
Microsoft Azure is the fastest growing cloud platform in the world, with huge demand from both enterprises and startups alike. Its scalability and elasticity keeps costs low. It’s huge array of built-in tools and services help developers stay focused on features instead of constant infrastructure fine tuning.
About the book
Microsoft Azure in Action teaches you to put the premier cloud computing service to work building real apps and services. Its lighthearted tone keeps dry technical details from becoming boring. Aimed at developers who are familiar with some cloud basics, this straight-to-the-point guide explains both the how and the why of each Azure service.
Author and Azure expert Lars Klint guides you from the fundamentals of Azure through to DevOps, security, performance enhancement, and architecture decisions. Throughout, you’ll tinker with example applications and hands-on serverless tasks, including a useful photo resizing tool. By the time you’re done, you’ll be ready to untether yourself from on-prem servers and make the leap to the Azure cloud!
About the reader
For software developers with some experience with a scripting language such as PowerShell.
About the author
Lars Klint works as an Azure instructor with A Cloud Guru. He’s an author, trainer, Microsoft MVP, community leader, Azure expert, and classic car collector. He has been a part of the software development community for over 20 years and co-organizes the DDD Melbourne community conference, as well as other developer events with Microsoft. He has spoken at numerous technical events around the world and is also an expert in Australian Outback Internet.
368 pages, Paperback
Published November 18, 2025
3 people are currently reading
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 20, 2025
All that you need to know when working with Azure.
December 21, 2025
Among the Azure books I’ve read, my favourite is Learn Azure in a Month of Lunches by Iain Foulds, which I read during the Covid lockdown. I enjoyed it because it has all the ingredients I expect in a good technical book. It doesn’t force the reader to read between the lines and is well supported by clear illustrations and screenshots. I liked it so much that I now use it as a benchmark to rate other technical books.
I started reading Microsoft Azure in Action (2025) by Lars Klint to catch up on newer services and features and to see how they can be applied to real-world scenarios. Written by a Microsoft Azure MVP from Australia, the book is a practical, hands-on guide designed to help developers and engineers navigate the vast landscape of Microsoft’s cloud platform.
The book avoids dry academic jargon and instead adopts a real, field-proven, and human approach. It indeed feels like learning from a colleague who has "been there, tried that." There are plenty of helpful tips from the trenches along the way. For example, the author advises readers not to blindly accept default values in Azure wizards, as these choices can affect an entire project later on. Leaving network access methods at their defaults, for instance, can result in storage endpoints being publicly accessible. Guidance such as "You can never change the name of the admin user once set on Azure SQL Server, so tread carefully" is particularly useful for avoiding operational pitfalls. He warns against giving AI Foundry too many permissions, "unless you want AI Foundry rummaging through your archives like a caffeine-fueled intern" in the chapter on Azure AI.
While you can easily follow along with a laptop to try out what you read, the clearly labelled screenshots also allow the book to be read independently without losing context.
The book covers around 36 core Azure services and their key features (out of the 200+ services available on the Azure platform) across 11 chapters including a very timely one on new features in Azure AI. It is structured into three parts: starting with foundational concepts, moving into core infrastructure such as networking and virtual machines, and finishing with modern application development using serverless technologies and databases like Azure Cosmos DB.
By using relatable scenarios such as an underground bookstore and a clothing store running a traditional on-premises setup, the author makes complex cloud architecture concepts feel approachable and even fun.
The writing is engaging and uses clever metaphors. For instance, Azure Monitor is described as "the stethoscope, heart rate monitor, and nervous system for your Azure resources." The tone is conversational and sometimes deliberately casual, making an otherwise serious subject feel light-hearted. At one point, the author compares multiple virtual networks that need to communicate to “teenagers on the phone, discussing the latest pop music all night long.”
Occasionally, the casualness went a bit too far making some the humour feel forced, particularly the repeated references to "yak shaving" (a term for getting lost in endless prerequisite tasks)) but that may just be a matter of personal taste.
While Learn Azure in a Month of Lunches remains my favourite, Microsoft Azure in Action is one I’ll keep going back to for quick reference.
I started reading Microsoft Azure in Action (2025) by Lars Klint to catch up on newer services and features and to see how they can be applied to real-world scenarios. Written by a Microsoft Azure MVP from Australia, the book is a practical, hands-on guide designed to help developers and engineers navigate the vast landscape of Microsoft’s cloud platform.
The book avoids dry academic jargon and instead adopts a real, field-proven, and human approach. It indeed feels like learning from a colleague who has "been there, tried that." There are plenty of helpful tips from the trenches along the way. For example, the author advises readers not to blindly accept default values in Azure wizards, as these choices can affect an entire project later on. Leaving network access methods at their defaults, for instance, can result in storage endpoints being publicly accessible. Guidance such as "You can never change the name of the admin user once set on Azure SQL Server, so tread carefully" is particularly useful for avoiding operational pitfalls. He warns against giving AI Foundry too many permissions, "unless you want AI Foundry rummaging through your archives like a caffeine-fueled intern" in the chapter on Azure AI.
While you can easily follow along with a laptop to try out what you read, the clearly labelled screenshots also allow the book to be read independently without losing context.
The book covers around 36 core Azure services and their key features (out of the 200+ services available on the Azure platform) across 11 chapters including a very timely one on new features in Azure AI. It is structured into three parts: starting with foundational concepts, moving into core infrastructure such as networking and virtual machines, and finishing with modern application development using serverless technologies and databases like Azure Cosmos DB.
By using relatable scenarios such as an underground bookstore and a clothing store running a traditional on-premises setup, the author makes complex cloud architecture concepts feel approachable and even fun.
The writing is engaging and uses clever metaphors. For instance, Azure Monitor is described as "the stethoscope, heart rate monitor, and nervous system for your Azure resources." The tone is conversational and sometimes deliberately casual, making an otherwise serious subject feel light-hearted. At one point, the author compares multiple virtual networks that need to communicate to “teenagers on the phone, discussing the latest pop music all night long.”
Occasionally, the casualness went a bit too far making some the humour feel forced, particularly the repeated references to "yak shaving" (a term for getting lost in endless prerequisite tasks)) but that may just be a matter of personal taste.
While Learn Azure in a Month of Lunches remains my favourite, Microsoft Azure in Action is one I’ll keep going back to for quick reference.
November 19, 2025
Been following Lars for a long time and happy to see his book now live. Azure's a big beast, and if there's someone to guide you from a novice to an employable skilled engineer, this is the guy to look for, a MVP, trainer and long-time speaker for community events.
Manning's reviewers did an amazing job, the chapter summaries and the index are very useful as reference when studying for the Azure certifications. Key aspects such as security are covered in great detail with examples that make sense and code to get you started. Cost management is key to cloud usage so Lars adds advice on pricing gotchas in every chapter. Less screenshots, more insights. Get this book by your side and you'll quickly feel confident to build and experiment with cloud infrastructure and development.
Manning's reviewers did an amazing job, the chapter summaries and the index are very useful as reference when studying for the Azure certifications. Key aspects such as security are covered in great detail with examples that make sense and code to get you started. Cost management is key to cloud usage so Lars adds advice on pricing gotchas in every chapter. Less screenshots, more insights. Get this book by your side and you'll quickly feel confident to build and experiment with cloud infrastructure and development.
November 21, 2025
I read this book in one sitting, as if it were a novel! Even though I have many years of experience in cloud and non-cloud development, I found this book extremely comprehensive, full of useful insights and examples, and, above all, applicable to everyday work! The author has certainly succeeded in making this technology accessible to those approaching it for the first time by providing a broad and solid foundation. This book is also highly recommended for those already working with these technologies and need a quick and comprehensive resource without getting lost in pointless and incomplete internet searches. A highly recommended book to keep on your desk, always close at hand!
November 22, 2025
This is an awesome book to learn Microsoft Azure with, and here is why I believe it's a five stars book:
- It's very hands-on oriented: while the necessary concepts and theories are clearly presented, the book is practice oriented and will really teach you what you need to know in order to efficiently build and deploy apps on Azure.
- Great examples awaits you there, you may even capitalize on them for your own projects.
- The writing style is very pleasant and the content right on point.
- After reading the book and practicing the labs you will be ready to use Microsoft Azure for your professional projects.
- It's very hands-on oriented: while the necessary concepts and theories are clearly presented, the book is practice oriented and will really teach you what you need to know in order to efficiently build and deploy apps on Azure.
- Great examples awaits you there, you may even capitalize on them for your own projects.
- The writing style is very pleasant and the content right on point.
- After reading the book and practicing the labs you will be ready to use Microsoft Azure for your professional projects.
November 28, 2025
This book offers a very practical, easy-to-follow introduction to Azure. It demonstrates concepts through both the Azure CLI and the Portal, and covers core IaaS topics like VMs, Networking, and Storage. It also dives into key PaaS services including Cosmos DB, Azure Functions, Serverless, API Gateway, and Azure SQL, while giving a clear overview of security tools like Entra ID, Key Vault, and Defender. With Azure AI services included too, it provides a well-rounded starting point—great for new learners or those preparing for AZ-104 or AZ-204.
November 27, 2025
When you want to reach the clouds, you will have to learn how to fly.
This book is an excellent starter for your first trips into the Microsoft Cloud platform. With valuable real world scenarios, Lars demonstrates in easy and understandable small pieces, how these can be built up like Lego® bricks for your first cloud solutions and starts your hopefully long journey in viable small steps.
This book is an excellent starter for your first trips into the Microsoft Cloud platform. With valuable real world scenarios, Lars demonstrates in easy and understandable small pieces, how these can be built up like Lego® bricks for your first cloud solutions and starts your hopefully long journey in viable small steps.
December 11, 2025
The book is incredible, not just for beginners, because it offers tips and advice that someone with experience could find valuable.
Also, it's great for someone who uses other cloud providers like AWS, which is my case.
Also, it's great for someone who uses other cloud providers like AWS, which is my case.
November 22, 2025
Azure in Action is a very good reference for anyone starting in Azure to quickly grasp the concepts and apply in deploying infrastructure in Azure. I highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews