Microsoft has been working hard at opening up and embracing open source technologies lately, especially to bolster its cloud platform, Azure. Now they are letting you try some of those technologies in the Azure environment through a program called “Super Human“, announces on the Microsoft Openness blog .
The program consists of a series of “labs”, or hands-on environments for a specific platform, where you can participate in and complete “challenges” to gain experience in working with said platform. All these platforms are plugged into Azure for data, and they are also part of the Azure Marketplace collection of cloud-based applications. Anyone who completes a lab will get, in addition to the knowledge, the choice between a Crazyflie 2.0 mini drone, or an Azure Pass to try out Microsoft’s cloud platform for free.
Currently, there are three featured labs for industry-leading open source platforms that deal with big data, infrastructure automation and app containerization respectively: Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP), Chef, and Docker. From the descriptions, you definitely need some experience to be able to complete the challenges, so those with the necessary chops are welcome to participate. Besides the featured options, there are also labs for KEMP and Barracuda, which you can check out on the Azure Marketplace website.
