When we took over Cerebrata from Red Gate back in 2016, one thing I mentioned at that time was that we want our users to manage their Azure resources on a platform of their choice.
Soon after taking over, we started working on a new tool – Cerebrata. Like Azure Management Studio, Cerebrata is also a desktop tool for managing Azure resources but it is cross-platform i.e. it will run on Windows, Mac and Linux. Today it has support for managing Azure Subscriptions, Storage, Cosmos DB, Redis Cache, Search and Service Bus. Support for more Azure services will be added shortly.
For past two years, we have invested considerable amount of time and energy in building Cerebrata. Cerebrata was made commercially available in the middle of last year and hundreds of Azure developers are already using Cerebrata on a daily basis for managing their Azure resources.
From features perspective, I believe we are at a junction where most of the things you could do with Azure Management Studio can be done with Cerebrata and then some more. There are still some feature gaps between the products but we are diligently working on filling those gaps.
With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that we are deprecating Azure Management Studio and replacing it with Cerebrata. I would request you to start using Cerebrata for managing your Azure resources.
Rest of this blog post will be feature comparison, licensing changes, and free upgrade from Azure Management Studio to Cerebrata and more.
Feature Comparison
Let’s first talk about feature comparison between the two products. Following table summarizes key feature differences:
| Cerebrata | Azure Management Studio | |
| Platform | Windows, Mac & Linux | Windows Only |
| Supported Azure Services | Azure Subscription, Storage, Cosmos DB, Redis Cache, Search and Service Bus. | Storage, Cloud Services, Virtual Machines, and Service Bus. |
We have created a more detailed feature comparison matrix on our website that you can see here.
2 Computer Restriction
One of the most common complaint of our users with Azure Management Studio is the limitation of 2 computers on which a license key would work simultaneously. I am pleased to inform you that we are removing this restriction with Cerebrata. You can use Cerebrata on as many computers as you would like without having the need to deactivate the license key as long as you sign in using the same credentials (Microsoft or Work/School account) you used while activating your Cerebrata subscription. In fact, we will only ask you for the subscription activation key just once. Once your subscription is activated, you don’t need that key anymore.
Subscription Based Pricing Model
With Cerebrata we have changed the pricing model. Cerebrata is offered as a subscription based product. You can purchase either an yearly subscription or a monthly subscription depending on your requirements at a convenient price. Furthermore you can cancel your subscription anytime.
You can learn more about Cerebrata pricing here.
Free Upgrade
I am pleased to inform that we’re offering free upgrade to all Azure Management Studio users with a valid license key. You’re eligible for a complimentary subscription of Cerebrata. The duration of your complimentary subscription will depend on when you purchased a license key for Azure Management Studio. Following table summarizes that:
| License Purchase Date | Complimentary Subscription Duration |
| On or after January 1, 2018 | 1 Year |
| Between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017 | 6 Months |
| Before January 1, 2017 | 3 Months |
You can activate your complimentary subscription by simply using your Azure Management Studio license key when asked for activating your subscription in Cerebrata.
Please note that if you’re running Azure Management Studio, it will continue to work. There has been no change regarding that.
Getting Started with Cerebrata
Getting started with Cerebrata is very simple. Simply download the installer for your platform from our website and install it on your machine. When the application is run for the first time, it will ask you to sign up/sign in. You can use either your Work/School account or Personal Microsoft account.
If you are using your Work/School account then Cerebrata can also fetch Azure Subscriptions your account is associated with so that you can manage them right away. You can always connect to other Azure Subscriptions later on.
Closing
I would humbly request to give Cerebrata a try for 15 days free trial. If there are any questions or feedback about Cerebrata or about the deprecation of Azure Management Studio, please reach out to the support support@cerebrata.com directly.