Cloud services traditionally come with two standard interfaces. There’s either a web-based graphical interface or a command line terminal interface. In most cases users go with both but switching between them mean switching between applications and terminal interfaces, and in some device cases, it’s just not possible.
Well according to the latest blog from Microsoft, the software giant has come up with a solution.
The new Microsoft Azure Cloud Console comes with an integrated workflow, that allows users to build applications on Azure using graphical interface or command line tools. The shell is integrated into the portal so users can quickly drop into a command line experience, while simultaneously viewing their cloud resources in the graphical web interface.
This solves the common problem mentioned above and lets users work with devices like a mobile or tablet or places where command line tools aren’t installed.
This makes developing code a whole lot easier where there’s no switching involved.
The key features of this experience are:
  • Automatic authentication to the command line tools from your existing web login
  • All Azure command line tools, as well as relevant command line utilities pre-installed
  • Personalised, persistent workspace that preserves your code, configuration and activity across cloud shell sessions.
“The terminal is a fully featured experience featuring not only the Azure command line tools, but also standard editors and tools you would expect. Further, the cloud shell preserves context for you,” writes Brendan Burns, Partner Architect in the blog. Moreover, files saved to disk are persisted in Azure’s cloud so users can resume where they left off in the next cloud shell session. Impressively, users need not even be on the same device or network to continue the session.