With more than 200 services and numerous other unmatched benefits, Microsoft Azure is the fastest-growing cloud computing platform which is being adopted by businesses including Fortune 500 companies. It provides a cloud-based alternative to storage and computing to physical hardware and services. The computing service is available to businesses, developers, government agencies, and to anyone else, who wants to build an app, or run an enterprise, without incurring the costs of owning all the hardware, software and other human resources. As the resources are virtual, Azure is not vulnerable to unexpected hardware failures that can result in costly downtimes.

Cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure allows organizations to access and manage cloud services and resources. By accessing the cloud computing network, organizations need not have to own their dedicated servers, storage devices, application security, and developers. Buying all these components individually can be very expensive and risky. All these issues are resolved as these aspects are taken care of by the managed cloud service provider.

Microsoft’s public cloud computing platform Azure provides a range of cloud services, including the below ones:

Computing Services: Virtual machines, service fabric, functions, and cloud services

Networking: Express route, virtual network, Azure CDN, Azure DNS

Storage: Disk storage, file storage, queue storage

Other services offered by Microsoft Azure include:

• Analytics
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Integrations
• Machine Learning (ML)
• DevOps
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Blockchain
• Mixed Reality

Less overhead compared to virtual machines

Azure is flexible, users can create new applications as they go, and up their storage capabilities. Azure has the additional advantage of being fully integrated with all Microsoft products, and complements the existing Microsoft infrastructure. Running virtual machines (VMs) or containers can host infrastructure components, such as Domain Name System (DNS), and Internet Information Services (IIS). Containers are standalone boxes which developers can pack into one software that can be used to work on any operating system or device. These virtual operating systems can be deployed anywhere, thus eliminating issues related to consistency and reliability. Unlike virtual machines, containers can share the same operating system, bins and also libraries. So, these require less overhead, and the users can run two to three times more applications on a single server, compared to a virtual machine.

Microsoft Intune, Azure Stack, and Azure Active Directory

Microsoft Intune can be used to enroll user devices, making it possible to push security policies and mobile apps. Azure offers rapid deployment, and companies can meet all their IT and service requirements without having to maintain the underlying infrastructure. Its capabilities have become increasingly innovative and open over a period of time, with improved support for Linux and open source application stack. Azure Stack is a hybrid cloud computing software solution which is designed to help organizations deliver Azure services from their own datacenter.

Azure Active Directory or Azure AD is a multi-tenant, cloud-based directory that combines core directory services, application access management, and identity protection into a single solution. Azure Search is search-as-a-service cloud solution that provides developers APIs and tools for a rich search experience. Azure Databricks provides an interactive workspace where customers can build data warehouses, and utilize machine learning (ML) and real-time analytics solutions.

Microsoft Azure offers five different types of cloud computing solutions, viz.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Database as a Service (DaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Serverless

Gain access to a unified hub for all applications

Many organizations use Microsoft Azure storage as archive to meet their long-term data retention requirements. Through Azure Portal, users can view and manage all of their applications in one unified hub including reserved virtual machine instances, virtual networks, databases, web apps, storage, and Visual Studio team projects. One can also create and administer servers, monitor their existing infrastructure, and integrate them with Visual Studio Online, to introduce DevOps practices to their workflow.

Microsoft Azure runs on the worldwide network of Microsoft-managed datacenters, and covers more countries and regions than Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud combined. More than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies rely on Microsoft Azure for their cloud computing requirements. Azure provides enterprise-grade SLAs (service level agreements), and round-the-clock health monitoring and tech support to the clients.

Azure primarily uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model that charges based on the usage. However, Azure Cost Management native tool can help you monitor, visualize and optimize your cloud spending. Third-party tools, such as RightScale and Cloudability can be used to efficiently manage Azure resource usage and associated costs.