Subscribing to Microsoft Visual Studio Professional for 1 year is a great option for anyone considering putting time into Azure as a learning platform. The annual subscription for Visual Studio is $539 and includes $50 in Azure credits. Let that sink in for a second. Microsoft is giving away $600 ($50 x 12 months) worth of Azure for $539. Most people experimenting with Azure will run up a bill in excess of $50 per month at some point as their skill and curiosity grows.

Visual Studio subscriptions are a re-branding of the MSDN subscriptions of the past. The subscriptions are offered in both Professional ($539 per year) and Enterprise ($2,999 per year). The Enterprise version comes with all the features of Professional in a addition to several other bells and whistles. As it relates to Azure, however, buying the $3,000 a year Enterprise version isn't such a cut and dry prospect. Enterprise entitles subscription holders to $150 a month in Azure credit for a yearly savings of $1,800. This is nice, but there's still another $1,200 of yearly value a customer has to find in the remaining features. An Enterprise subscription isn't as easy to recommend to a person who is only concerned with learning Azure.

The Professional subscription is a decent offer even if you don't use Visual Studio. Microsoft is practically giving away Visual Studio at this price as the Azure credits total more then the subscription. Add in other features such as 3 month full subscriptions to LinkedIn Learning, PluralSight, Datacamp, and Xamarin University, and the value grows. A full 6 month subscription to Opsgility is provided. Even if you don't consume content from all of those providers, there's plenty there of interest and use to furthering one's career. Also included are licenses for local software such as Windows Server, SQL Server, and TFS. All included, it's a really compelling offer.

Reference Links

Visual Studio Pricing - https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing/

PluralSight Pricing - https://www.pluralsight.com/pricing

LinkedIn Learning - https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/71919/linkedin-learning-subscription-overview?lang=en

DataCamp Pricing - https://www.datacamp.com/pricing

Xamarin University pricing - https://www.thurrott.com/dev/108173/xamarin-university-now-offers-monthly-payment-option

Opsgility pricing - https://www.skillmeup.com/pricing