Azure Mobile App is one of my favorite essential iOS mobile apps on my iPhone. It helps me perform essential tasks to manage my Azure cloud services on the go!
As a Software Developer creating, learning and developing cloud services in Microsoft Azure, accessing the Azure Portal is part of the routine. Aside from using resources for development, it is important for me to check on the statuses of my subscriptions on my Azure account.
Microsoft Azure have Cost Management features that enable me (the account administrator) to set the spending limit of my cloud resources and send me cost alerts. I like using the Azure Mobile app as an extra add-on. It is comes handy when needed.
Features and Limitations
The mobile app for Microsoft Azure have some good features but it does not have the full capabilities as accessing it via a web browser. It should not be misunderstood as a replacement of the Azure Portal.
Some of the things you can do on the mobile app are viewing important alerts, stopping or enabling your App Services, Azure Virtual Machines, and other existing Azure resources.
On the other hand, there are some limitations on the mobile app. Such limitations include the feature to add new cloud services, new resources, new subscriptions, or new resource groups. But hey who wants to do all those stuff that on mobile? As an Azure Developer or Azure Administrator, working on bigger screen is always better especially when you have to use Azure for development and cloud administration.
The Azure Mobile app (as of date) is not designed to exactly simulate the management of Azure Subscriptions and cloud services like Azure Portal, which is accessed on a web browser. However, I personally consider the app very useful for on-the-go operations and administration. Operational tasks that you need to do last minute or you forgot to do after you logged off your computer. Perhaps, you want to monitor and check on the statuses of your Azure services while you are away from home or office. Or a need to use Microsoft Azure when you have limited and temporary access to a computer.
Benefits of Azure Mobile App
- Check the status of Azure Subscriptions
- Track and monitor the health and status of Azure resources
- Quickly diagnose and fix issues
- Run commands on Cloudshell to manage Azure resources on mobile
- Access via Mobile is secured and encrypted
- Important Alerts or Notifications
Check Status of Your Azure Subscriptions and Resources
Using the Azure Mobile App, you can check the current state of your subscriptions, resource groups and cloud resources in it. You can view the details of your subscriptions, latest activity logs, important alerts, check out your Access Control (IAM) and more.
Track Status of Azure Resources
Since I am monitoring my spending limit for my personal Azure subscriptions, tracking the status of my existing Azure Resources on the go is convenient.
For example, checking the status of Azure Virtual Machines running or not after a demo or Dev/Test development.
Develop and Run Commands on Cloudshell – Azure Bash and Azure Powershell on Mobile
You can manage and develop using Azure Cloudshell – Bash or Powershell regardless if you have the commands by heart or not. The Azure Mobile App allows you to quickly manage the Azure services when necessary via mobile.
You do not need to be an expert in Azure CLI nor Azure Powershell commands because there’s always our superhero command “az help” which helps and gives a list of accepted commands in managing your Azure resources.
Where to Download Azure Mobile App?
It is free to download for both iPhones and Android. There are few ways to download the Azure Mobile App.
- Via Azure’s Website https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/azure-portal/mobile-app/#features
- iOS, just search for Azure in the App Store
- Android, search Azure in Google Play
Demo – On my iPhone
I recorded my iPhone screen while browsing its menu to show how the app looks like on an iOS 😊 Check out the video below.
About Author: Jonah Andersson is a Filipina-Swedish Software Developer who codes full stack system development in C# .NET/NET Core. She currently works as a Software Developer Consultant at Forefront Consulting in Sweden. Jonah is passionate about continuous learning, developing and sharing knowledge about Microsoft Azure cloud technologies. She one of the #AzureHeroes in Sweden. A woman who codes in tech who enjoys writing, advocating gender equality in the tech industry through mentorship and by being role model on her spare time.