Things I would like to see in the free Azure for students

Azure is an awesome service provided by Microsoft. For students there's a free version available through Microsoft's DreamSpark. This version lacks, of course, some of the features for paid users. Actually, the only things that are available, are Web Apps, Application Insights and Team Projects. The Web Apps are locked to the free pricing category, which makes this offer nothing more than a restricted, time-unlimited trial. On this Azure Web App I'll list some things I would like to see in the free Azure for Students.

First of all, would I love to be able to map a custom domain name to my Web App. This is now limited to paying customers with at least the D1 category. The D1 category is nothing more than the free category, with a custom domain. That's just the ability to add a custom domain, without the actual domain, as far as I know. A custom domain is restricted to people with a credit card this way. With a custom domain however a website just looks way more professional, even if it's running on an old laptop. I think every website on Azure deserves it to look professional, it's using professional hosting, isn't it? I really think it would be great to have this in the version for students.

Another thing I would like to see in the Azure DreamSpark offer, are Mobile Srvices. Microsoft advertises it's mobile services on it's Azure App Development page on DreamSpark and links to the Azure Offer page, but with the account you can get through that offer, you can't create a Mobile Service. That seems a little strange to me and I would like to see it added to the offer.

Furthermore I would like SQL Databases to be added to the offer, for the bigger web projects, or just to store things. (That's were it's made for, not?) There is a database available for students: MySQL Database from ClearDB, but it's hidden very well.

I would rather use Microsoft's SQL Databeses if they were available though.

Don't understand me wrong, I really thank Microsoft for being so awesome to give away this stuff, and I don't want to criticize them, but see this as a wishlist. Just stuff I would love to have. That doesn't mean I don't want them to look at this and do something with it, but I see it as a gift if they do. And I would really appreciate if they do.

- Arthur Rump