Azure Virtual Machines – Overview

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) provide on-demand, scalable computing resources with the flexibility of virtualization. Choose from a wide range of VM sizes, OS images, and configurations to meet the needs of your workloads—whether you’re running development environments, large-scale databases, or high‑performance compute tasks.

Features
Use Cases
Quick Start

Key Features

  • Broad OS support – Windows, Linux, and custom images.
  • Flexible scaling with Virtual Machine Scale Sets.
  • High availability with Availability Zones and Sets.
  • Integrated security—Azure Security Center, Disk Encryption.
  • Choice of pricing models – Pay‑as‑you‑go, Reserved Instances, Spot VMs.

Typical Use Cases

  • Development and testing environments.
  • Enterprise-grade applications and ERP systems.
  • High‑performance computing (HPC) workloads.
  • Big data and analytics platforms.
  • Disaster recovery and backup.

Deploy a VM in 3 Steps

  1. Select an image and size from the Azure Marketplace.
  2. Configure networking, storage, and security settings.
  3. Review and create – your VM will be ready in minutes.
az vm create \
  --resource-group MyResourceGroup \
  --name MyVM \
  --image UbuntuLTS \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys

For detailed instructions, see the Getting Started guide or explore the Pricing page to find the best cost model for your workload.