Starting your Azure Subscription

 I was wrong yesterday when I said that we were through setting up our Azure account.  I implied that we had access to resources, but you only have those through a subscription.  So, we need to create a new subscription and associate it with our account.  

1) On the home page, click <start> under the free trial

2) Enter your name, phone number, and click <next>

3) Click on <text me>

4) Type in the code that was sent to your phone and click <verify code>

5) Enter your credit card information and click <next> (they are going to do an authorization but not a charge on the card)

6) Agree to the privacy statement and click <submit>

Now we are done and have access to the Azure resources.

Note: I was a bit disappointed that a credit card was required, but not totally surprised by this.  My goal was to go forward with this using no previously obtained resources, but that is unrealistic and actually untrue.  I am sitting in my apartment with a laptop and internet access.  Last year I could have done this all in a library on a public computer, but I would still need a credit or debit card.  I am not sure if a pre-paid gift card would work, but I will give it a try later on.  I will also see if there is another option that can lower the barrier for entry a bit more.

If you happen to be a student, you can create a free account without a credit card if you use your school email account.  

We still haven't spent any money, but we are leveraging many pre-existing or assumed resources.  I will work on making sure to continue to acknowledge these and try and find ways to further minimize or eliminate them.