In many cases, you can easily provision resources in the web-based Azure portal. If you’re never going to repeat the deployment process, then by all means use the interface in the Azure portal. It doesn’t always make sense to invest the time in automated deployments. However, ARM templates are really helpful if you’re interested in achieving repeatability, improving accuracy, achieving consistency between environments, and reducing manual effort.
Use ARM templates if you intend to:
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Include the configuration of Azure resources in source control (“Infrastructure as Code”), and/or
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Repeat the deployment process numerous times, and/or
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Automate deployments, and/or
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Employ continuous integration techniques, and/or
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Utilize DevOps principles and practices, and/or
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Repeatedly utilize testing infrastructure then de-provision it when finished
Melissa walks through an example of deploying a website with backing database, along with various configuration changes.