In this tutorial, we will discuss what is Microsoft Azure? How does Microsoft Azure work? What is it used for and why Microsoft Azure.
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Table of Contents
What is Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is a set of cloud services to help your organization meet your business requirements. By using Azure, users can build, manage and deploy applications using various tools and frameworks.
It is the public cloud computing platform from Microsoft.
Also, learn below Azure tutorials:
- What is the Azure Active Directory and how Azure AD works?
- Microsoft Azure Free Training (Get a free voucher for AZ-900 Certification)
- Azure active directory premium features
- How to Connect to Azure in PowerShell (And Azure AD)
- Which Is Better: Azure or AWS?
- Google Cloud Vs. Azure
The good thing is that Microsoft does continuous innovations in Azure.
You can build solutions with more than 100 services to build, deploy and manage applications in the cloud.
According to a report, 95% of Fortune 500 companies are using Azure for their business.
Microsoft Offers various services like AI + Machine learning, Analytics, Compute, Blockchain, Containers, Databases, the Internet of Things (IoT), Media, Networking, Security, Storage, Web, etc.
Azure previously known as Windows Azure, was created by Microsoft in the year 2010.
It works in both Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
This is a small introduction to what is Azure.
How does Microsoft Azure Works
Let’s discuss here, how does Azure work.
Azure is a subscription-based service. Once the user subscribes for a subscription, users can have access to all the services from the Azure portal.
Azure subscription is also known as Azure Offer. There are various Azure subscription models are available:
Each subscription has various services and benefits. Whatever the subscription, there will be no service downtime for any users.
Azure Cloud Services List
Well, let’s discuss here the list of Microsoft Azure services.
Microsoft Azure provides a number of services. Below are various categories of Microsoft cloud services list
- AI + Machine Learning: Azure provides a machine learning service that empowers developers to build, train, and deploy machine learning models. Also, it provides web app bot, computer vision, Face, Text Analytics, Data science virtual machine – Ubuntu, Data science virtual machine – Windows server 2019, etc.
- Compute: You can create and deploy Virtual machines (VM), batch jobs, Web apps for containers, function Apps, etc.
- Analytics: Azure provides analytics services, Azure HDInsight, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Synapse Analytics, etc.
- Databases: Azure provides various database services like SQL database, Azure Database for MariaDB, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database Migration Services, etc. You can store structured and unstructured data in Azure.
- DevOps: Azure provides DevOps projects, Application insights, etc.
- Internet of Things (IoT): Azure provides IoT services, IoT Central Application, IoT Hub, Time series insights, and IoT Hub device provisioning service.
- Media: Azure provides media service.
- Networking: Azure provides a virtual network, load balancer, application gateway, firewall, virtual WAN, Network security group, connections, etc.
- Storage: Azure Storage is one of the popular services provided by Azure, It provides services like Storage accounts – blob, file, table, queue, Azure data box, backup and site recovery, etc. Read: Azure Storage Tutorial
- Web: Azure provides services to create a web app, logic app, app service plan, app service environment, API management, CDN, media services, azure cognitive search, etc.
What is Microsoft Azure used for
You might be thinking, What is the use of Microsoft Azure?. As Azure provides lots of services, Organizations used lots of popular services of Azure.
- Lots of Organizations use Azure Virtual Machine (VM) for development, testing, and production environments. Microsoft Azure supports Windows as well as Linux virtual machines (VMs) which we can create in just a few minutes.
- A lot of Organizations also use Azure for hosting databases in the cloud. Azure provides SQL relational databases as well as Azure Database for MySQL, SQL Server 2017 enterprise windows server 2016, etc.
- Active Directory is one of the backbones of any organization, lots of companies use Azure active directory domain services to keep users’ information, manage group policy, authentication, etc.
- You can also create, test and deploy web applications in Microsoft Azure. Organizations can also use the storage services of Azure.
Why Microsoft Azure
There is a number of reasons Why Microsoft Azure.
- 7 Key Benefits of Microsoft Azure + Azure for Business
- How to create a user in Azure active directory
Security: Data in the Azure cloud is secure. It provides a secure foundation across physical, infrastructure, and operational security. Microsoft invests lots of money (over a billion dollars) a year in security so that your data and business assets can be protected.
According to Microsoft, Data on the Microsoft Azure platform is usually encrypted in transit, apart from data that moves within customer-controlled networks (such as Azure Virtual Networks and ExpressRoute). It is the responsibility of the customers to encrypt data within a network that he or she controls.
In the Azure cloud, Microsoft does not inspect, approve, or monitor applications that customers deploy to Azure. Even Microsoft does not know what kind of data customers store in Azure.
Also, Microsoft has over 3,500 cybersecurity experts who work on your behalf 24x7x365.
Privacy: In Microsoft azure, your organization owns and controls your own data. It provides flexibility and choice as to you, how you want to store, process, and protect your data with Azure. Microsoft never uses your data for marketing or advertising. No access to customer data, by default.
Azure also complies with many external privacy standards, laws, and regulations, including GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, European Union Model Clauses, HIPAA, HITRUST, FERPA, Japan My Number Act, Canada PIPEDA, Spain LOPD, and Argentina PDPA.
High Availability: With the highest number of data centers (54 as of today) presented around the world, Azure provides high availability.
Cost: Save your organization’s cost, by using the pay-as-you-go pricing model. According to the report, AWS is 5 times more expensive than Azure for Windows and SQL Server. Azure provides, discounted rates for your ongoing development, testing, and no software charges also in Azure VMs.
Pay only for the resources you are using and cancel anytime.
Microsoft Azure Free
Microsoft provides the option to create a free account that you can access for 12 months.
Microsoft Azure Features
Let us discuss a few key features of Azure.
Flexible: You are flexible enough to choose storage options, Virtual machine size, and flexible pricing models with Azure. Choose the based one based on your need.
Disaster Recovery: The good thing is Azure stores your data in different locations across the globe. Even though one location undergoes Natural Disaster, it will not affect the other locations. So ultimately, your data is safe.
Security: Don’t worry, your data is highly secure with Azure.
Global: Data Centers are present in many locations throughout the globe.
Cost-effective model: Good choice for small to large companies with the pay-as-you-go pricing model.
Microsoft Azure regions
According to Microsoft, as of today, its data centers are spread across 58 regions all over the world.
A few Azure data center locations are:
| South India | West Europe |
| Central India | UK South |
| West India | North Europe |
| Southeast Asia | UK West |
| UAE North | France Central |
| Qatar Central | France South |
| Australia Southeast | Canada East |
| Australia Central | Canada Central |
| Australia Central 2 | North Central US |
| Australia East | US DoD East |
| East Asia | East US |
| China East 2 | East US 2 |
| China East | US Giv Virginia |
| Japan West | US DoD Central |
| Japan East | US Gov Lowa |
| Korea South | Central US |
| Korea Central | West US 2 |
| China North 2 | West Central US |
| China North | West US |
| Brazil South | US Giv Arizona |
| South Africa North | South Central US |
| South Africa West | US Gov Texas etc. |
| Switzerland West | |
| Switzerland North | |
| Germany Central | |
| Germany Northeast | |
| Germany North(Public) | |
| Germany West Central (Public) | |
| Norway East | |
| Norway West |
Below are the regions where Microsoft has announced to have Azure data centers very soon.
- UAE Central
- Spain Central
- Israel Central
- Mexico Central
Which companies are using Azure?
There are fortune 500 companies that are using Microsoft Azure:
- Coca Cola
- Adobe
- Heineken
- Boring
- Xerox
- GE
- FedEx
- Metlife
- 3M
- Lufthansa
- Rolls-Royce
- BMW
- Walmart
- Marc Jacobs etc.
Microsoft Azure Competitors
There are lots of popular cloud service providers, who are providing cloud services all over the world.
A few competitors of Microsoft Azure are:
- Google cloud platform
- Amazon Web Services (AWZ)
- IBM Cloud Services
- Rackspace
- VMware
- Oracle Cloud Services
- Salesforce
Is Microsoft Azure good?
Azure provides you with a set of excellent features compare to other cloud provides and is a better choice.
You may like the following Azure tutorials:
- Why is Azure So Expensive? The Areas You Are Neglecting and Their Solutions
- How to add bulk guest users in Azure AD B2B from Azure Portal and PowerShell
- How to Create Azure Free Account (Step by Step tutorial)
- How to create Azure dashboards (Step-by-step guide)
Conclusion
Azure is the most popular cloud computing platform from Microsoft and is a widely used platform by various small to larger or even 500 fortune companies.
As an organization, you can take advantage of 200 Azure services to build various applications.
As an organization, you can save costs by using the pay-as-you-go pricing model which is based on your usages.
This Azure tutorial explains the below points:
- What is Microsoft Azure
- Azure Cloud Services List
- Microsoft Azure Features
- Which companies are using Azure?
- Is Microsoft Azure good?