def __init__(self, args):
        self._args = args
        self._cloud_environment = None
        self._compute_client = None
        self._resource_client = None
        self._network_client = None

        self.debug = False
        if args.debug:
            self.debug = True

        self.credentials = self._get_credentials(args)
        if not self.credentials:
            self.fail("Failed to get credentials. Either pass as parameters, set environment variables, "
                      "or define a profile in ~/.azure/credentials.")

        # if cloud_environment specified, look up/build Cloud object
        raw_cloud_env = self.credentials.get('cloud_environment')
        if not raw_cloud_env:
            self._cloud_environment = azure_cloud.AZURE_PUBLIC_CLOUD  # SDK default
        else:
            # try to look up "well-known" values via the name attribute on azure_cloud members
            all_clouds = [x[1] for x in inspect.getmembers(azure_cloud) if isinstance(x[1], azure_cloud.Cloud)]
            matched_clouds = [x for x in all_clouds if x.name == raw_cloud_env]
            if len(matched_clouds) == 1:
                self._cloud_environment = matched_clouds[0]
            elif len(matched_clouds) > 1:
                self.fail("Azure SDK failure: more than one cloud matched for cloud_environment name '{0}'".format(raw_cloud_env))
            else:
                if not urlparse.urlparse(raw_cloud_env).scheme:
                    self.fail("cloud_environment must be an endpoint discovery URL or one of {0}".format([x.name for x in all_clouds]))
                try:
                    self._cloud_environment = azure_cloud.get_cloud_from_metadata_endpoint(raw_cloud_env)
                except Exception as e:
                    self.fail("cloud_environment {0} could not be resolved: {1}".format(raw_cloud_env, e.message))

        if self.credentials.get('subscription_id', None) is None:
            self.fail("Credentials did not include a subscription_id value.")
        self.log("setting subscription_id")
        self.subscription_id = self.credentials['subscription_id']

        if self.credentials.get('client_id') is not None and \
           self.credentials.get('secret') is not None and \
           self.credentials.get('tenant') is not None:
            self.azure_credentials = ServicePrincipalCredentials(client_id=self.credentials['client_id'],
                                                                 secret=self.credentials['secret'],
                                                                 tenant=self.credentials['tenant'],
                                                                 cloud_environment=self._cloud_environment)
        elif self.credentials.get('ad_user') is not None and self.credentials.get('password') is not None:
            tenant = self.credentials.get('tenant')
            if not tenant:
                tenant = 'common'
            self.azure_credentials = UserPassCredentials(self.credentials['ad_user'],
                                                         self.credentials['password'],
                                                         tenant=tenant,
                                                         cloud_environment=self._cloud_environment)
        else:
            self.fail("Failed to authenticate with provided credentials. Some attributes were missing. "
                      "Credentials must include client_id, secret and tenant or ad_user and password.")