Azure Solution Accelerators
A comparison which is made quite commonly is saying that Azure is like a big box of Legos. But most of us often immediately add that the difference is that the manual isn’t included. Those who played with the blocks know that assembly manuals provided by the legendary toymaker are excellent. I have always been in great awe of the danish designers’ work.
The lack of a manual can be a significant challenge when it comes to public cloud adoption. Especially for less experienced users, it can limit the spectrum of possibilities and applications which they see. Thankfully we have a resource available which can provide valuable inspiration — Solution Accelerators.
Azure Solution Accelerators aren’t exact manuals, but they get pretty close. They guide through or provide the possibility of deploying an example solution which helps with an industry-specific challenge. The depth of information varies, but some even contain both the definition and configuration of Azure Resources and the source code for applications which get deployed. Despite not being production-ready, they give a lot of inspiration about how different servicer can be put to use when solving a particular problem.
The most popular solution accelerators, which you might have even already seen out in the wild, are focused on IoT applications. You can find pretty good documentation for them here:
I, personally, got some useful tips and trick from the Connected Factory accelerator. But there is more, albeit, the other ones are not that easy to find if you’re not explicitly looking for them.
A good example can be Azure FarmBeats which started as a research project regarding the use of AI and IoT in agriculture. Recently, after four and a half years of work, the initiative transitioned to a public preview of a product, which is available in the marketplace. Despite being intended as a solid starting point for customers or partners to build more complex solutions upon, out of the box, it provides some impressive capabilities.
Even if you’re not working with that specific industry, nor interested in applying artificial intelligence, it’s a compelling case to look into. You can find the project description here:
and deploy it from here:
I wasn’t able to find other accelerators as advanced as FarmBeats, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t out there. Even the one I showcased above is something that I would consider a hidden gem of Azure, which probably stays under the radar of most cloud enthusiasts.
Other solutions despite not being as extensive, are also worth looking into. If you’d like to explore what is out there, a good starting point for that is the following Microsoft Docs page:
Please, however, be mindful that it is not (yet?) a nicely structured catalogue of solutions and examples. It does take some digging through, and you will be taken to other websites and portals. Nonetheless, I do believe that it’s a great source of inspiration.
