What other GUI ways to manage Azure cloud services except Management Portal are there?

3
votes

Microsoft promises to discontinue the old (Silverlight) Management Portal "this summer" so we now have to use the new (HTML 5) portal.

I personally and several people I've talked to find the new portal awful because it doesn't provide as fine control as the old one did. We find it so bad that maybe even consider writing our own tools.

Yes, I'm well aware about cmdlets, Management API, but I'd prefer something with GUI more or less like the old portal.

What other ways are there to manage Azure cloud services that provide GUI and fine control?

2
azure
would you give an example of what exact feature you are missing in the new portal (beside CDN/Traffic Manager/Azure Connect)? – astaykov
@astaykov: It's not about features, it's about how data is represented - deployment name is on one tab, instances status is on another, most of the "dashboard" tab is occupied with charts that I never need but the deployment name is somewhere on the middle right. I can go on and on for ages, but it's not about the features. – sharptooth
Well, your base statement is the new portal awful because it doesn't provide as fine control as the old one did. I have to strongly disagree with that statement. IMO, in terms of features, new portal is as rich as the old one. You are talking about data representation, rather than fine control. However I have to agree that I would like to see all deployment summary on same page where Instances status is. But just the deployment name is not really I would look for. Rather I would look for the cloud service name, which is always shown. – astaykov
@astaykov: Whatever, I already have enough people who agree with me, we just need a better solution. – sharptooth

2 Answers

3
votes

Do take a look at Cerebrata tools especially Azure Management Studio: http://www.cerebrata.com.

2
votes

If you aren't ready for all the features of Azure Management Studio then try the free Blob manipulation tool, Azure Explorer, which is robust and very easy to use:

http://www.cerebrata.com/labs/azure-explorer

(Short video review here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO7g7XCDEIg)

For what it's worth, I think the Azure team have done a really excellent job with the Portal, including just the right amount of functionality for the majority of users.