Are you working with Java and want to know where to start on Microsoft Azure? Are you already on Azure but want to take you Java applications to the next level?

We have good news for you! Microsoft Azure has developed numerous resources just for Java developers who want to work with the Cloud. Here’s a full list of what we currently have to offer:

Java Developer Tools

Check out the Azure SDK for Java for accessing Azure cloud services.  The SDK runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.  It’s Open Source and available on GitHub.

Eclipse developers can use the Azure toolkit for Eclipse to build and publish Eclipse projects to Azure Cloud Services from Eclipse clients on Windows, Mac or Linux. The highlights of the March 2015 release are here.

Microsoft Virtual Academy has published a course just for Java developers – Java on Microsoft Azure. The course highlights a sample Java app that runs on Tomcat and shows you how to access several Azure services from Java – specifically Access Control, Blob Service , Media Services, Queue Services, Service Bus Queues , SQL Database and Table Service.

If you want to work with Azure services using Java, here’s a great primer blog post by Brady Gaster on Getting Started with Azure Management Libraries for Java, and a related Channel 9 Video.

If you’re working with IntelliJ IDEA and/or Android Studio, the MS Open Tech Tools plugin for Microsoft services provides Azure integration between Android apps, Office 365, Azure Mobile Services, and Azure Storage. You can also publish your Java apps form IntelliJ IDEA to Azure Cloud services.

Continuous Integration Tools for Azure

If you work with Jenkins you can provision and manage Azure Virtual Machines as Jenkins slaves with The Jenkins Slave Plugin for Azure. You can also deploy build artifacts to Cloud storage using the Azure Storage plugin for Jenkins.

If you prefer Hudson, we have you covered as well, with the Hudson Azure Slave plugin and the Azure Storage Plugin for Hudson.

If you manage builds and deployments with Apache Ant, the latest release of the Azure toolkit for Eclipse also enables the ability for command-line deployment to the Azure cloud outside of Eclipse. For more details on this feature check out this blog post.

Get started fast with Linux Virtual Machine Images on Linux and Windows

VM Depot is an open source repository of Linux images that run on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines. There are a number of Java-based VM Images to get you started.

We also have Virtual machines preconfigured with popular JDKs and Java-based Web Application Servers, including WebSphere, WebLogic, JDK6, JDK7 and JDK8.

Java Web Sites on Azure are now called Java Apps

Java-enabled Web Apps can be used to deploy Java running on Tomcat or Jetty on Azure – here’s a blog post about running Hudson on Web sites, for example. (Note that Java Websites are now called Java apps).   And here’s a post on Creating a Website that runs on Azure Using the Azure SDK for Java.

Reactive Programming on Azure

For Reactive programmers, TypeSafe has extended the Reactive Maps Activator template to Azure, and check out this Tutorial on using the Play Framework with Azure, and here’s a page on Reactive Programming at Microsoft.

Easily add Analytics and Telemetry to Java Apps with the Application Insights SDK

Azure Application Insights (currently in preview) gives developers a detailed view of application availability, performance and usage, aggregated and displayed in an easy-to-use portal.  Java Web applications can be integrated using the Java SDK for Application Insights, and the SDK is open source on GitHub.

Manage Java Builds and Teams with Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online

Microsoft doesn’t have an active Java IDE, but we can support Java projects in other useful ways. Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online can help Java development teams with free tools (free for up to 5 users) for planning, source control, collaboration, build, test and deployment.   You can still use your favorite IDE, such as Eclipse, build technologies such as Ant or Maven, source control systems such as Git and community integrations with tools such as Jenkins. See this blog post for the announcement details and have a look at our new Java page on Visual Studio Online with resources for Java developers to get the most out of Visual Studio Online.

Documentation, tips and tricks

The Java Dev Center includes documentation on all the Java APIS we have for Microsoft Azure cloud services, plus tips and tricks for Java Devs in general. Additional Java Development Guidance can be found here.

If you prefer JavaDocs, here are the JavaDocs for Azure, Azure Storage, DocumentDB, and Application Insights.

Using Java on Azure? Let us know how it’s going!

If you’re using Java on Azure, we want to hear from you about how you’re using it! Please let us know if you have a project that may be a useful reference case for others.  The Best channels to share feedback are the comments section below, and through the MSDN Forums or Stack Overflow.