Sign-Up for Microsoft Azure without Using a Credit Card ($0 Subscription)

Article Update:  Customers are encourage to manage there Azure Active Directory using the new management portal which has no requirement for you to have an Azure Consumption Based Subscription to access the AAD Blade. You can access the new blade using the Link in the Office 365 Admin Portal which has been updated or via this Direct Link: https://aad.portal.azure.com/

*note* We recently made a change to the logic behind obtaining a $0 subscription so that even if you have a Trial 1st Party Service you can now obtain a $0 Subscription. I have been posting quite a lot recently around the benefits of Windows Azure Active Directory outside of the features you see if your just using one of Microsoft's Enterprise Cloud Services and we are seeing quite often now organizations are starting to look into the benefits of the extra FREE features they get with Azure Active Directory on-top of what they use for the Enterprise Cloud Service they pay for on a monthly basis be that Office 365, Dynamics CRM or Intune. We recently announced the availability of $0 subscriptions which are available for organizations that use what we call 1st Party Subscription which is any of the following services:

• Office 365
• CRM Online
• Intune
• RMS Online

In order to be eligible for a $0 subscription on Microsoft Azure you need to ensure that you have a PAID or TRIAL subscription in any of the above enterprise cloud services. I will now go through the process you need to walk through in order to get a $0 Microsoft Azure Subscription which will allow you to adopt the FREE features that you have with Windows Azure Active Directory, furthermore this will also allow you to trial the Azure Active Directory Premium offering for 90 Days before then potentially purchasing AAD Premium. The great thing about this as I said is that you do not need to have a Credit Card at hand in order to get this subscription which will hopefully {I'm sure of it} allow many more of you to benefit from the extra FREE services you get as part of having a AAD Tenant which you currently utilize on any of Microsoft's Enterprise Cloud Platform. I would really encourage you to try out the Azure Active Directory Premium for 90 days but furthermore I would definitely encourage you to look at your current 3rd Party Cloud Applications such as Salesforce, Workday, Concur, DocuSign, Google Apps, Box, ServiceNow, Dropbox, and more and take advantage of using Azure Active Directory as your Cloud Identity Provider for many SaaS applications. More Information around using Azure Active Directory for Cloud Applications can be found here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dn308590.aspx In order to do the following you need to:

1. Be a Company Admin [Global Administrator] on your Existing Enterprise Service i.e. Office 365, Intune, CRM Online, RMS Online.
2. The Enterprise Service your using must have a PAID or TRIAL Subscription that utilizes Azure Active Directory.

update: Microsoft Recently added a Link into the Microsoft Office 365 Administration Portal (portal.office.com) if you login as an Admin Account Select Admin > Azure AD this will automatically sign you up for a $0 Subscription providing you have a PAID Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Intune Subscription. You then need to follow these steps:

Activate Microsoft Azure $0 Subscription

1. Launch your preferred browser [Internet Explorer] :-)
2. Type in the following URL into the Address Bar: https://account.windowsazure.com/signup?offer=MS-AZR-0110P and select Sign In with your Organizational Account located on the left hand side.
3. Sign-In with your organizational account [Tenant Admin / Global Administrator] that you use for your Enterprise Cloud Service
4. Once you have signed in you will then be shown the Azure Active Directory Registration Page which will look like this:
5. ensure that you complete all of the fields, and go through the mobile verification where you will receive a code via SMS or via Telephone depending on which option you choose. once this has been verified you can then go ahead and select Sign Up.
6. You will then be directed to the account.windowsazure.com page where you will see your Access to Azure Active Directory $0 subscription.
7. If you then browse to https://manage.windowsazure.com and sign-in using your Company Administrator {Global Administrator} account you will then be shown the welcome screen as shown below:
8. step through the wizard, then you can select Azure Active Directory node from the left hand side, drill into your directory and then select the Licences tab. From here you will then be able to trial Azure Active Directory Premium.
   
9. You will now be able to return to this page to configure your Azure Active Directory Premium features, or manage any of the extra FREE features which you get as part of Azure Active Directory. The URL for reference is as follows: https://manage.windowsazure.com.

Add Additional Administrators to $0 Subscription

You might be part of a company where by you need multiple people to manage your Azure Subscription and so you need to add them as Co-Administrators to the Subscription. In order to do this you need to do the following:

1. Login to manage.windowsazure.com with your organizational account Company Administrator {Global Administrator} that you used to perform the above action.
2. Go to Settings > Administrators
3. Select Add at the bottom of the screen, where you will be prompted to enter the e-mail address of the user you wish to add. NOTE: If the user that your going to add has also enabled there account to be a Microsoft Account (MSA) you will have the option to choose which account you want to add. It is recommended that you use the organizational account but in some scenarios you may wish to add there Microsoft Account. The two different options look like the following:

   Account Type	Description
   	Select this option if you want to add the Microsoft Account for this user as a Co-Administrator
   	Select this option if you want to add the Organization Account for this user as a Co-Administrator {Recommended}

4. You then need to go and click on the tick which will then go ahead and add the account specified as a co-administrator. the screen should then look something like the following:

THATS IT! you are done and you will now be able to take advantage of the extra FREE features you get when using Azure Active Directory for an Enterprise Cloud Application or/ if you want to try out the awesome features available as part of Azure Active Directory Premium. You can find out more information about what you get between the different tiers of Azure Active Directory here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn532272.aspx If you have any questions please be sure to reach out to me. Thanks, James.