Sixty-five percent of developers say it’s too complicated and time-consuming to get dev-test resources.* It doesn’t have to be.

This blog series will provide guidance on setting up dev-test environments with the help of the Microsoft cloud so that you can get the most out of dev-test in minutes—not hours or days.

As part of your hybrid cloud environment for testing, Azure helps you set up a SharePoint farm you can use to develop SharePoint applications, test for capacity and performance, or create an IT pro proof-of-concept configuration for learning and experimentation prior to deploying SharePoint in production. Azure makes it easy to host this configuration in a way that mimics a hybrid cloud configuration relative to your location on the Internet (see our previous blog entry for resources to help you set up a hybrid cloud environment for testing).

You can quickly deploy and administer a SharePoint farm that is transparently connected to a simplified and isolated on-premises network. Follow these step-by-step instructions to set up a SharePoint intranet farm in a hybrid cloud for testing. When complete, Azure hosts a simple, two-tier SharePoint farm that’s a great starting point for developing and testing applications. You can easily expand this configuration to include additional servers, providing capacity and capabilities that map more closely to your existing or desired production SharePoint farm.

If you don’t have a spare public IP address and virtualization server to host the simulated on-premises network, you can set up a simulated hybrid cloud for testing prior to adding the virtual machines for the SharePoint farm.

Look for the next post in the Dev-Test Starts with IT series about setting up a LOB application in a hybrid cloud for testing.

Start a free Azure trial.
Learn more about dev-test on Azure.

*Source: Business Case for Test Environment Management Whitepaper, Cognizant