Microsoft has announced that they are killing off the classic Azure management portal (https://manage.windowsazure.com) on January 8th.
If you are using this portal, the old/classic Azure Management Portal …
… then it’s time to switch to this portal, the Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com) …
This change should not come as a surprise. The Azure Portal has been around for several years (without checking, I think the preview started at the last TechEd North America, 4 years ago), and has been fully GA and functional for quite a while now. Also, it’s been years since new features were added to the classic Management Portal, whereas the Azure Portal is not only where new features are added, it’s also the admin interface for Azure, Azure AD, Azure Information Protection, Intune, and more. It’s also a lot easier to use and the only place where you can deploy & manage Resource Manager (ARM) resources.
In addition, Microsoft has been turning off parts of the old Management Portal over time. Storage accounts and Azure AD have been wound down (also at short notice), so the clock has been ticking for a while.
People who don’t read blogs, ignore tech news, and social media (most techies, to be frank) will see a notification, “Classic Portal Retirement Notice!” in the top of the classic portal, that they can expand:
So stop clinging to the past – join us where things are easier, there is more functionality, and there’s actually a future.
EDIT: Just to be clear, you do not need to do a classic-to-ARM migration to use the Azure Portal. The Azure Portal supports both classic and ARM resources. But I’d still recommend migrating from classic to ARM (MS already did this for you in PaaS) so you can avail of the features that Azure IaaS in ARM can offer.
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I do like Azure however I miss the old management portal – it was very user friendly and easy to navigate. The current (not so new anymore) portal is still confusing to navigate and is easy to make mistakes.
I think it is time to move on. The old portal was incredible restrictive, looking back on it. When I ran Azure training in the Classic days, I basically ran a PowerShell class. Today, I can focus on resources.