The new Microsoft Azure portal was announced today at Build 2014, and I immediately headed over to check it out at https://portal.azure.com. I love it! The home page is clean and nicely laid out, very similar to the Windows Start page with live tiles that dynamically update, and give you different options when you click on them:
Clicking on the links on the left open up more features and functions:
As you drill down, more dashboards and functions open up along the right, allowing you to view the status of your Azure properties:
Clicking on the Gallery (bottom left on the home page) allows you to browse all of the available options and quickly provision them. Since the portal is still in preview, you have to return to the existing Azure portal to actually provision a new server or service, but it’s a great indicator of what is coming.
This guy is my favorite so far 
I’m loving these changes – I’m a big fan of software and user interfaces that are clean and beautiful, and the new Azure portal definitely is both of these.
Alongside of these announcements, changes to the Windows 8.1 interface are in the works – the start page continues to get better and better, and I’m going to be hitting that download as soon as it’s available on April 8th.
It’s a good day to be a fanboy!
+Jeremy Dahl
Master & CmdR 