Finding and evaluating Azure apps should be much easier
Microsoft´s Azure Marketplace is to Azure what the Windows Store is to the client operating system: an online software marketplace, only the Azure version is for buying and selling cloud apps and services from independent software vendors (ISVs) that have been certified by Microsoft to run on Azure.
Over the years, the Marketplac has grown along with the popularity of Azure, and customers got frustrated with its interface due to an increasing number of categories, app types and providers. Finding the apps they wanted became a chore.
So, Microsoft introduced a whole new Azure Marketplace interface designed to make things easier. For starters, the search form now provides search suggestions as you type, just like a search engine would. Results are sorted by relevance and popularity. You can do searches on basic terms and then narrow it down to more specific categories, applications and functions.
For example, if you search for “WordPress,” you will get 20 results, all variations of WordPress with different add-ons, such as secured WordPress for Windows Server or Ubuntu Linux.
There is also a list of major product categories on the left-hand window, including Compute, Storage and Databases. Each presents you with a list of options.
The new product pages make it easier to dig into a product for more detail. The Overview section contains detailed technical documentation and product features, while the Plans + Pricing page contains the different SKUs, pricing options and publisher recommendations.
Another nice new feature is the Test Drive option. It allows you to give the application a test drive, as it were, without even needing an Azure subscription. You can access a Test Drive from the product page or by clicking on Test Drives on the left navigation pane.
The new Azure Marketplace can be found here.
