How can you automate the deployment of Azure resources?

Automating the deployment of Azure resources is most effectively achieved using Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. ARM templates are declarative JSON files that define the infrastructure and configuration for your Azure resources. This approach allows you to specify the desired state of your cloud environment, making it possible to deploy and manage resources consistently and repeatably.

Using ARM templates offers several advantages. For instance, you can version control the templates, enabling easy rollbacks and history tracking. ARM templates also support parameters, which can be used to customize deployments without changing the template itself, promoting reusability across different environments like development, testing, and production.

Although writing scripts in a text file could be a means of automating certain tasks, it generally lacks the structure, idempotency, and ease of maintenance provided by ARM templates. Similarly, manual configuration is inefficient and prone to human error. Third-party deployment tools can complement Azure's native services, but using ARM templates is generally the standard approach recommended by Microsoft for deploying resources within Azure, due to their integration and support for Azure's infrastructure management.