Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE

Start building Azure Marketplace Applications with creative flair—no code required

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Save Time & Money

Reach your customers faster and at a much lower cost, start focusing on increasing your ROI instead of technical issues.

Boost Your International Presence

Start targeting your customers in any geography by their native language in minutes.

Use Expertly Designed Templates

Don't start from scratch. There is a quickstart template for any key scenario, and with our conversational AI, you can build anything.

Get Peace of Mind

Stop wasting time chasing down technical issues. Using Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE, your offer is guaranteed to be error-free before you publish.

Why ENSEMBLE?

Most Azure Application publishers spend months to get a listing of their product on the Azure Marketplace and struggle to get any decent ROI in their first year on the Marketplace.

For small ISVs who are not directly sponsored by Microsoft (don't benefit from the GTM motion and the special co-sell love), it has become far more important to decrease the cost of building and maintaining an Azure Application. A faster time-to-market—and lower maintenance overhead— is more critical than ever before for driving the momentum of marketing and sales efforts.

ENSEMBLE is the only smart AI application you will need for building, end-to-end testing and publishing your application to the Azure Marketplace, on time and under budget.

Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE will help you build and publish your Azure Application in days, not months1.

The quicker you publish, the sooner it will be accessible by millions of Microsoft customers worldwide.

Showcase your premier software products on a global scale TODAY using ENSEMBLE's' smart, automated AI tools for publishing Azure Applications to the Azure Marketplace.

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Maestro Studio Visual Designer

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White­paper


Learn what AI software vendors must know before listing their products on the Azure Marketplace, and effectively navigate and tame the Azure Marketplace publishing process like a pro. Note: Requires a PDF reader.

Azure Marketplace Applications & AI:
5 essential tips you should know
Azure Marketplace Top Plans
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Who is Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE For?

ENSEMBLE is for anyone who is currently spending weeks or months to get their Azure Application published and listed on the Azure Marketplace and wants to focus on accelerating their time-to-market, gaining more traction and boosting their ROI.

Independent Software Vendors

ISVs/GISVs can create Technical Assets (custom UI & pre-built ARM Templates) to publish their software solutions to the Azure Marketplace as Azure Applications (Solution Templates or Managed Apps) or internally to Service Catalog

Managed Service Providers

MSPs can easily and quickly create Technical Assets for the publishing & support of their customers' products as Azure Applications

System Integrators

SIs and GSIs can easily and quickly create Technical Assets so they can build & deploy customers' Azure Applications to the Azure Marketplace

Request a Demo >>

Benefits by Persona

New to Azure? Use Conversational AI

The easiest way to get started in Azure: Enjoy a hands-free experience where you're in control and let Maestro Studio AI build the technical artifacts for you, in seconds! Watch Demo  

You bring:

  • Simply describe your Azure Application's resources and your desired outcome, and let AI do the rest
You get:
  • ARM Template, in seconds, valid & ready to deploy
AND
  • You can choose to have Maestro Studio AI add a UI for you on top of the ARM Template—in seconds—and generate a package you can publish to the Azure Marketplace

First-time Publisher

You bring:

  • Your newly published VM image
You get:
  • Ready to publish in MINUTES!
  • Pre-configured ARM template + UI
OR
You bring:
  • Your ARM Template
You get:
  • Rich UI designer to build YOUR UI

Existing Single-VM Publisher

You bring:

  • Your published VM image
You get:
  • Instant migration to an Azure Application
  • Pre-configured ARM template + UI
  • Ready to publish in MINUTES!
  • Rich UI designer to customize YOUR UI
  • Ownership of YOUR UI & ARM

Existing Azure Application Publisher

You bring:

  • Your Solution Template package, or
  • Your Managed Application package (.zip)
You get:
  • Visual designer to refine your UI
  • Visual expressions designer
  • Automatic validation, on-the-fly
  • Tools to validate and repair
  • End-to-end testing (UI+ARM)
  • Many quickstart templates to use

Key Features



Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE 3 easy steps to get started
Create an Azure Application UI Like a Pro!

Leverage Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE to create a professional looking, interactive User Interface for your line-of-business or AI application in a matter of minutes.

No prior experience needed with the Azure Marketplace's text-based (JSON format) UI definition mechanism.

Using Meastro Studio's visual, no-code designer, a createUiDefinition can be composed from a template, customized, previewed, end-to-end tested and exported to a package for publishing to the Azure Marketplace in a matter of minutes, not weeks or months.

Watch demo >>









Maestro Studio Visual Drag-and-Drop Designer
[Click to watch high-quality video on YouTube]
Visual UI Designer

Design your Azure Managed Application or Solution Template User Interface (createUiDefinition.json) visually with a simple drag-and-drop UI. No more spending hours/days writing JSON scripts manually, line by line.

With Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE, you can use one of the Quickstart templates to quickly design and compose your user interface.










Maestro Studio Visual Epxression Designer
[Click to watch high-quality video on YouTube]
Visual Expression Designer

ENSEMBLE's visual Expression Designer will help you add magic to the UX of your Azure Application offer. Say goodbye to boring static templates. You can make your UI interactive by visually adding powerful expressions on your UI elements. These expressions can dynamically change the values or visibility of the elements, based on user input or other conditions.

Compose ARM expressions visually and increase productivity by taking advantage of the real-time validation and the AI-driven Just-in-Time (JIT) evaluation of expressions even before previewing in the Azure Portal.

This makes expression creation a productive, frustration-free experience while filling in a big gap left by current tools (like VS Code & arm-ttk) that cannot validate expressions.


The Expression Designer includes all the createUiDefinition functions: Collection Functions, Conversion Functions, Date Functions, Logical Functions, Math Functions, Referencing Functions and String Functions.









Maestro Studio Quickstart Templates
Quickstart Templates

With the built-in Quickstart Templates, there is no need to start from scratch. Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE provides a variety of templates for common Azure Application scenarios.

Templates vary from simple examples of commonly-used ARM & Graph APIs to complete Virtual Machine templates.










Import Azure Application from Package
Import your Azure Application Package

Publishers with an existing Managed Application (or Solution Template) offer can easily import their .zip package or use the Azure App picker to import straight from the Azure Marketplace if your .zip file is not handy.

Once imported, the UI can be updated and end-to-end tested with its ARM template.

Watch demo >>









Automatic Preview
Automatic Preview

Turn on the "Auto-preview" feature for real-time preview of any changes made to the createUiDefinition or ARM Template.

Within a couple of seconds, the preview gets rendered and made ready for testing and verifying.










Import any createUiDefinition.json
Import any createUiDefinition.json

In addition to importing an existing Azure Application (containing createUiDefinition.json, mainTemplate.json & viewDefinition.json) from a .zip package, an individual createUiDefinition can be imported from a file, a URL (for example a GitHub repo), or simply from the clipboard.










Export Azure Application Package
Export Azure Application Package

At the click of a button, publishers can package their UI, ARM template & View Definition into a .zip package ready for publishing to the Azure Marketplace.

An embedded Partner Center view enables quick upload (or drag-and-drop) of a package to the Plan's Technical Details.

Watch demo >>









Preview in Service Catalog
Preview in Service Catalog

Previewing a Managed Application in Service Catalog allows validation of the offer before actually having to go through the workflow of publishing it to Staging.

The key benefit is being able to iterate quickly and productively, especially when validating the View Definition of a Managed Application.

Watch demo >>









API Studio REST API Editor
REST API Editor

With API Studio, the built-in API editor, ARM & Graph APIs (or any REST APIs) can be tested and verified before using in the ArmApiControl or the GraphApiControl in a UI definition.

This tool makes using those 2 powerful controls super simple with drag-and-drop available for many API samples so you can start using working controls and expressions immediately.

Watch demo >>









User Interface Dark Mode
Dark Mode

Maestro Studio provides a full dark-mode experience that covers the entire IDE.

You can also choose from pre-defined themes on this page or further customize themes & colors from the Settings page.




The following is a comparison of the current process for authoring createUiDefinition.json (CUID) files vs. using Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE:

Current Process

Multiple tools needed

At least 3 tools are needed: a JSON editor, validation script(s) and the Create UI Definition sandbox, in addition to constantly browsing through the online documentation.

Technical Skills Needed

The best IDEs (e.g. VS Code, VS 2022) still require manual editing of JSON files. Intellisense is based on createUiDefinition's JSON schemas, which are incomplete & outdated.

Slow - Extremely Time-Consuming

Based on our personal experience and on feedback from current publishers, the average length of time it takes to code, test and package createUiDefinition.json files, is about 3-6 months!

"Create UI Definition" Sandbox to preview UI

The CUID sandbox's error messages for mistakes in the JSON, especially expressions, can be very cryptic and hard to troubleshoot to decipher where the root cause is.

Validation Scripts

Once done editing JSON files, it is required to run PowerShell validation scripts (arm-ttk) to ensure compliance with the Azure Marketplace's recommended best practices. arm-ttk does not validate expressions and fails or produces incorrect output when analyzing non-trivial CUID or ARM Template JSON files.

Error-prone

Outdated JSON schemas coupled with the archaic nature of editing JSON mean that even well-formed JSON files can still result in errors when previewing in the CUID sandbox.

Documentation, documentation, documentation

It is extremely difficult to go about composing CUID files without relying heavily on the CUID documentation, especially when composing expressions.

What about ARM Templates?

You still need to create the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates that orchestrate the deployment—not an easy process.

Using ENSEMBLE

AI-driven

Using Maestro Studio AI embedded in Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE, you can leverage Conversational AI to describe what your solution needs to look like in Azure and let Maestro Studio AI generate the technical artifacts (ARM, UI definition)—completely hands-free.

Only One Tool Needed

Use Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE's no-code, drag-and-drop IDE to compose, edit, test, preview and package createUiDefinition.json files for Managed Application or Solution Template offers.

No Technical Skills Needed

No prior experience with the JSON format is needed; just drag-and-drop and type text where needed. The IDE validates in real-time against up-to-date rules.

Fast Productivity Booster

It will take minutes when using our Quickstart templates. It is likely that much more time will be spent on the non-technical artifacts of the Marketplace offer.

Auto-Preview in Real-Time as changes are made

A special CUID sandbox is embedded in Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE along with an auto-preview feature to allow viewing the results of any changes made on-the-fly, in real-time. The preview shows exactly how the UI will look in the Azure Marketplace.

Built-in, real-time validation

Validation starts the second a CUID file is imported or created from an existing template. There is no need to remember to do it after the fact or run any tools. The CUID validation test cases that arm-ttk implements are automatically included in ENSEMBLE.

Error-free

ENSEMBLE ensures that your CUID file is always valid, even at the embedded expression level, using real-time validation and just-in-time (JIT) evaluation of expressions.

End-to-end testing

ENSEMBLE enables end-to-end testing of the custom UI + ARM template before publishing to the Azure Marketplace.

Built-in documentation

While unlikely to be needed, Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE contains a version of the CUID docs with annotations of some UI controls and functions that have undocumented behaviors. There is also documentation of currently undocumented UI functions.

Built-in multilingual support

The built-in Language Extension enables turning any Azure Application multilingual in minutes.

Import Existing createUiDefinition

ENSEMBLE imports existing createUiDefinition files and builds a visual representation of them in the Designer 'on the fly'. Current single-VM publishers can lift-and-shift their VM from Azure's stock, non-customizable single-VM UI into an Azure Application with a UI that they own and can easily customize.

Powerful Visual Expressions Designer

ENSEMBLE's Visual Expressions Designer allows creating UI expressions easily without having to remember the syntax or do trial-and-error.

ARM API Utility for Testing ARM APIs

ENSEMBLE is equipped with a powerful API tool for composing ARM and MS Graph APIs. It comes with many built-in API templates and allows dragging and dropping API definitions as ARM API Controls.

Preview in "Service Catalog"

ENSEMBLE provides a real-time preview of a Managed Application's UI and ARM Template changes directly in Service Catalog. This allows for much faster iterations than the slow turnaround time of publishing to staging (preview).

Work offline

Because the designer is drag-n-drop with built-in on-the-fly UI validations, and just-in-time evaluation and validation of UI expressions, one can still be productive even if completely disconnected from the internet.

Create an unlimited number of Azure Applications

There are no restrictions or limits on how many Azure Applications you can create. Build as many as you want or need.

... and many more features

ENSEMBLE includes many other features, like importing CUID files from a file, a URL (GitHub for example), or the clipboard straight into the design canvas. Links to popular Azure templates published by Microsoft on GitHub are included to allow single-click import into the designer.

Plus best-in-class technical support

We know that some ENSEMBLE users might need additional help, specifically in building or customizing their ARM Templates, and we offer that help as part of our technical support.

Got ARM Templates?

You can bring your own ARM Templates and end-to-end test them with the CUID or you can use the built-in ARM Templates provided with every ENSEMBLE template.

Want to see Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE in action? Book a demo today or watch our demos on our YouTube channel.

Is your Azure Application multilingual?

With Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE, you can turn your current Azure Application multilingual in minutes!


Learn How

Maestro Studio Multilingual Apps

Frequently Asked Questions

Click on any question below to expand it and see the related answer.

Absolutely! You can customize your VM offer from the Azure Marketplace using Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE.

ENSEMBLE allows you to visually customize the UI for your VM offer. You can lift-and-shift your VM from Azure’s stock UI into an Azure Application with a UI that you own and can easily modify. You can do that in three easy steps:

  1. Choose the appropriate Quickstart template from the Single VM Publisher section under Quickstart Templates.
  2. Choose your VM image from the VM Image Picker window.
  3. Preview and Publish.

And you’re done! This whole exercise takes a couple of minutes, max.

Many ISVs seem to be led to believe that everyone should be publishing their solution to the Azure Marketplace as a SaaS offer. Unfortunately, this is an illusion. The fact is that Azure Applications are the backbone of anything that is built on Azure, including SaaS. Let's find out how, shall we?

If you have ever used the Azure Portal to create a resource, a VM for example, then you've certainly used an Azure Application. In this case, it would have very likely been a first-party Azure Application, developed by Microsoft.

The same mechanism that Microsoft uses to build first-party Azure Applications (VM, networking, storage, and other resources) is available to Azure Marketplace publishers, allowing them to build customized solutions that utilize various first-party Azure resources and integrate them together to provide a complete custom solution, your own Azure Application!

Many ISVs cannot publish their software solution as a SaaS offer (because not everything can be a SaaS offer). For example, Cisco offer their network appliances as Azure Applications that customers can deploy in their own subscriptions, just like they do with a first-party Microsoft resource. These kind of solutions, and many others that have similar requirements, usually cannot be sold as SaaS running in Cisco's Azure account (or tenant), at least not without a unnecessary effort to re-architect them. So, the bottom line is that customers have to have them running in their own account.

Unfortunately, the low-code framework Microsoft provides for building Azure Applications is based on creating text files formatted as JSON which require special expertise to create, test and manage since there are no good editors (other than generic JSON editors, like Visual Studio Code) that can understand Azure's JSON structure. That's why it takes, on average, between 3 and 6 months to get an Azure Application listed on the Azure Marketplace. And the majority of that time is spent on the technical assets1 (those JSON files) rather than on the other aspects of creating an Azure Application offer.

Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE reduces the time to create and publish an Azure Application down to hours (or days for some large applications) by providing an easy-to-use product that requires no special experience for building, end-to-end testing and publishing of Azure Applications on time and under budget.

1  It is worth mentioning that the JSON format is not really the biggest obstacle. To make Azure Applications interactive (a powerful feature of the low-code framework) requires utilizing expressions. Expressions combine one or more functions (similar to Excel functions) to perform actions based on certain conditions, or to just perform calculations or some massaging of input data.

Expressions involving non-trivial logic can become difficult and frustrating to manage. The most frustrating issue is what we call parentheses hell, where you lose track of the number of parenthesis and miss some. ENSEMBLE solves this problem using its built-in static analyzer to ensure every expression is evaluated and corrected where needed.

Yes, for sure! No one wants to be known as the CrowdStrike of the Azure Marketplace.

Based on our analysis of the thousands of published Azure Application offers in the Azure Marketplace1, we've noticed that 1 in 8 offers has a logic error in the technical assets.

While logic errors in Azure Applications might not have the same impact as the CrowdStrike logic error that caused a global outage, they do tend to cause unexpected issues and sometimes exhibit non-deterministic behavior that is difficult to troubleshoot. Afterall, they impact the logic of the application.

ENSEMBLE's built-in static analysis pinpoints logic errors so they're easy to fix. See this video for a real example from the Marketplace and how to fix it.
Logic Error Screenshot

1  Using ENSEMBLE's built-in Azure Application picker which allows you to select any Azure Application offer that is live in the Azure Marketplace and load its technical assets into ENSEMBLE's Design Canvas.

Yes! Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE allows you to import your Azure Application’s technical assets from a .zip file. Remember, all Azure applications must include two files in the root folder of a .zip archive: an ARM template (mainTemplate.json) and the UI definition (createUiDefinition.json). ENSEMBLE will import all technical assets from the .zip file, including the optional View Definition file, (viewDefinition.json), for Managed Apps.

Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE simplifies this process, making it easier for ISVs, MSPs, and SIs to create custom UIs for Azure Applications.

No problem! Just import your offer in production from the Marketplace directly into ENSEMBLE.

To import your Azure Marketplace offer into Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE, use ENSEMBLE’s Azure Marketplace Picker Dialog, use it to filter and select your specific offer and plan. Then, click a button to automatically import and visually render it into ENSEMBLE's visual designer. You can get to the Azure Marketplace Picker Dialog from the Import from Azure Markeplace Quickstart Template or from the Import from Marketplace icon on the top Menu bar of the UI.

Watch this short YouTube video for a quick walkthrough of this simple process.  

Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE can significantly enhance your Azure Application’s UI by simplifying expression handling and troubleshooting. Here’s how:

  1. Visual Expressions: Ensemble provides a visual expression editor that allows you to create and manage expressions without writing code. You can bind UI elements to data sources (like changes in other elements or results from an ARM API call), perform calculations, and create dynamic behavior—all visually.
  2. Troubleshooting Made Easy: ENSEMBLE’s visual approach makes it simpler to identify issues in your expressions. You can see the flow of data and easily debug any errors directly within the designer.
  3. Reusable Expressions: ENSEMBLE lets you create reusable expressions that can be shared across different UI elements. This promotes consistency and reduces redundancy.

Feel free to explore these features and transform your bland UI into an engaging and dynamic experience!

Yes, Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE enables end-to-end testing.

ENSEMBLE enables end-to-end testing of the custom UI + ARM template before publishing to the Azure Marketplace.

A special CreateUiDefinition (CUID) sandbox is embedded in Maestro Studio ENSEMBLE along with an auto-preview feature to allow viewing the results of any changes made on-the-fly, in real-time. The preview shows exactly how the UI will look in the Azure Marketplace.

Validation starts the second a CUID file is imported or created from an existing template. There is no need to remember to do it after the fact or run any tools. The CUID validation test cases that arm-ttk implements are automatically included in ENSEMBLE.

ENSEMBLE ensures that your CUID file is always valid, even at the embedded expression level, using real-time validation, static analysis and just-in-time (JIT) evaluation of expressions.