I’ve wanted to really understand Microsoft’s cloud stack for a while, but reading docs and watching tutorials only gets you so far. Things are always shifting: product name changes, services getting folded into one another, best practices evolve. Before long, everything you just learned is out of date.
So I decided to stop reading about it and start doing. I’m building this homelab as my sandbox where I can try, break, rebuild, and finally, understand what works (and why).
Initial Setup
I’m starting small and expanding from there.
At first, I was excited to learn about Microsoft’s free developer sandbox, but that’s been limited to certain accounts I don’t qualify for. The next best option (and the cheapest entry point) is a single-user Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription ($22/mo, but worth it for my purposes). That unlocks Intune for device and app management, and Entra ID for identity and conditional access. More than enough to get started.
For my initial devices, I’ll be managing two Windows 11 VMs, an old iPhone, and a MacBook Air M1. That should give me a good mix of ecosystems to enroll and experiment with.
Figure 1: My VM host with AMD 5600 and 32 GB RAM
What’s Next
From here, I’ll start with device enrollment, move into policies, test software deployment, and play with conditional access. Along the way I’ll share what works, what breaks, and what I learn.