Background
When developing on the Sitecore Platform using Azure Search, the cloud-based service behaves differently, and so it is best to develop against an actual search service to ensure that you uncover any unexpected behavior before pushing to a higher environment that is using Azure Search.
I put together a quick patch file that updates the Sitecore Index names, allowing your development team to share a Azure Search service.
Simply set the environment variable and drop this file in the "Include/zzz" folder.
Note: There is a platform dependency on the "sitecore_marketingdefinitions_master" and "sitecore_marketingdefinitions_web" naming so those 2 indexes are excluded from the patch.
In a development environment, we can live with sharing these indexes.
Update: Kudos to John Rappel for suggesting to use a variable to make the implementation simple.
In a development environment, we can live with sharing these indexes.
Update: Kudos to John Rappel for suggesting to use a variable to make the implementation simple.