Hey everyone! I'm looking to create some automation scripts, but I definitely don't want to test them out on my company's environment. Is there a way I can set up a free test environment in Azure? I'm particularly interested in testing Azure AD, Defender, Purview, and DLP functionalities. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
5 Answers
If you're a part of a consultancy or MSP, you could purchase customer success packs. They usually give you about €2000 in credits for around €900.
You might want to consider signing up for an M365 developer subscription. It can really help with testing those Azure services you're interested in.
You can just sign up for the M365 Dev Program using a personal Outlook account. It gives you 25 free E5 licenses, which is perfect for testing automation scripts. I've set up a separate 'sandbox' stack for my experiments, so it doesn't mess with my actual client work. Just remember to use it occasionally to keep the subscription active.
One option is to create a personal Azure subscription. If it's your first time, you usually get around $200 in free credits, plus access to various services. This can serve as a safe sandbox environment until you're ready for the Pay-as-you-Go model. If you have a student email, you could also benefit from Azure for Students, which offers additional free services without needing a credit card. Plus, check with your employer. If they're a Microsoft partner, they might provide monthly Azure credits. So, reaching out to your Azure admin could be worthwhile.
Good call! Make sure to check the Visual Studio Benefits too, you might find some extra credit there.
Just a heads up, many of those services you mentioned, except Defender, fall under O365 or Entra services. A developer subscription for O365 could be the way to go.
That's a great tip about the student benefits! I'll definitely look into that.