Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Types of Azure Cloud
3.
SAAS
4.
PAAS
5.
IAAS
6.
Services offered by Azure
6.1.
Storage and Databases
6.2.
App Development Tools and Services
6.3.
Containers and Container Services
7.
Advantages
8.
Disadvantages
9.
FAQs
10.
Key takeaways
Last Updated: Jun 26, 2024
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Microsoft Azure

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Introduction

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and web portal that lets you access and manage Microsoft's cloud services and resources. Depending on your needs, these services and resources include storing and altering your data. All you need is an active internet connection and the ability to log on to the Azure portal to access these resources and services.

Microsoft launched Azure in 2010 to provide cloud services that allowed customers to design, test, deploy, and manage their applications on Microsoft's data centres. These data centres are located in 54 different countries throughout the world. Microsoft provides services in various areas, including computing, database, content delivery, networking, etc.

Azure is a fast, versatile, and cost-effective platform with the finest public cloud price and features available.

Types of Azure Cloud

There are primarily three types of clouds in Azure:

  1. SAAS
  2. PAAS
  3. IAAS

SAAS

Software as a Service (SaaS) is software that is hosted and controlled centrally. For all clients, a single version of the program is utilised. Multiple instances can be scaled out. This enables you to achieve the greatest results in all places. A monthly or annual membership is required to use the program. Microsoft Exchange, Office, and Dynamics are all available as SaaS.

PAAS

PaaS stands for Platform as a Service, and it consists of an operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web services. Developers and application vendors utilise this Azure service.

As its name implies, this platform is supplied to the customer to develop and deploy software. One of Azure's fundamental principles allows clients to focus on application development rather than hardware and infrastructure. It also looks after difficulties with operating systems, networking, and servers.

IAAS

The core cloud platform layer is IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). IT administrators utilise this Azure service for processing, storage, networks, and other basic computer functions. It's one of the Azure features that enable customers to run whatever program they want.

 

Services offered by Azure

Here's a quick rundown of the different services offered by Azure:

Storage and Databases

Azure was created to store massive volumes of data, both structured and unstructured. Azure Blobs (for unstructured data, such as serving images, documents, and video streams directly to a browser); Azure Files (cloud-based file shares accessible via SMB protocols); Azure Queues (for messaging between application components); and Azure Tables (a NoSQL store for structured data) are among the native Azure Storage services.

Azure SQL Database is a completely managed solution for transferring SQL Server databases that can be used as Managed Instances to migrate on-premises workloads or installed from scratch to provide SQL database as a service.

Then there's Azure Cosmos DB, which is Microsoft's major bet on big data. It's a "fully managed, globally distributed, horizontally scalable in storage and throughput, multi-model database service backed by extensive SLAs [service level agreements]," according to Microsoft.

App Development Tools and Services

Beginning with the Visual Studio development environment, which is available in several editions (including preview releases) on Windows Server and Windows 10 Enterprise N virtual machines, developers of desktop and mobile apps have a complete set of tools for creating and delivering their apps.

Azure supports a wide range of third-party DevOps solutions for sharing code, managing processes, deploying applications, monitoring performance and use, and Visual Studio Team Services and Azure DevOps. Jenkins, for example, may be used to develop apps in the cloud and deliver them directly to Azure. Provision and set up infrastructure with Terraform or Ansible, then manage it with Chef Automate.

Containers and Container Services

Containers are standardised, enclosed environments for running programs in a safe, high-availability, and scalable manner. Container images may be easily deployed and scaled using Azure's marketplace. The Kubernetes container orchestration service, accessible on Azure as Azure Kubernetes Service, is the industry standard for managing containerised workloads (AKS).

Advantages

  • Azure has a huge number of data centres that are constantly increasing. This implies that your services and apps will be more accessible to users. It also implies that certain regulatory criteria for cloud computing in some countries are more likely to be satisfied.
  • Since Microsoft has supported on-premises clients for more than 40 years, they have a robust hybrid cloud solution to help all of their current customers migrate to the cloud. They also integrate well with other tools and technologies, including Visual Studio, Active Directory, and File Storage.

Disadvantages

  • Since Azure tries to please everyone in the cloud computing world, certain services fall between the cracks. This might imply that your new data analytics service, which relies on a certain Azure function, would lag behind when the feature is phased out.
  • The various new services that Azure will strive to stay up with every single trend in cloud computing can be intimidating. The trick is to concentrate just on the ones you require for your endeavour.

FAQs

  1. Is Microsoft Office available as a SaaS?
    Yes, Microsoft Office is available as a SaaS.
     
  2. Which Azure service is utilised for processing, storage, networks, and other basic computer functions?
    IT administrators utilise PaaS for processing, storage, networks, and other basic computer functions.
     
  3. What are Containers?
    Containers are standardised, enclosed environments for running programs in a safe, high-availability, and scalable manner.

Key takeaways

In this article, we have extensively discussed Microsoft Azure, the types of Azure Cloud and the various services offered by Azure.

We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge regarding Microsoft Azure. If you want to learn more, check out our articles on Code studio.

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