how to locally develop windows azure apps

I want to develop Windows Azure apps for self learning. But it seems I need to have a paid account from Windows Azure to learn.

1) Is it possible to develop Windows Azure apps locally without connecting their servers? 2) I heard like using VS 2010 we can develop azure apps locally. Is it true? 3) If it is not开发者_高级运维 possible to develop locally, please suggest some cloud computing environments in .NET which allows to develop apps locally.

Thanks in advance.

~JP

You can use the Windows Azure SDK to develop applications locally using Win7, Vista, or Server 2008. However, the SDK only provides a development emululator and its not a "local version" of the hosted Windows Azure service. It will work nicely though for learning the platform.

If you want to expand your learning, there are several offers to get free usage quotas (an allocation of hosted resources for you to use to test deploy your applications).

You can attempt to sign up for an Azure Pass: http://windowsazurepass.com/

Use your MSDN or BizSpark/WebSpark benefits, or register for one of the introductory special offers. Some of these do require a credit card, but will only bill you if you go over your limit. So be sure to fully understand the billing model before deploying anything. :)