What is Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing? Step by step guide
According to a report published in Forbes, majority of Fortune 500 firms rely on Microsoft Azure for seamless security and API.
Not only do these big names depend on Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing for its security features but also because it’s 5 times cheaper than AWS in terms of Windows and SQL server. If you’ve questions about this cloud computing platform, you’re recommended to read this article till the end.
What is Cloud Computing?
Before we deep dive into the intricacies of Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Services, it’s important to stay updated with what exactly is cloud computing. In simplest of terms, cloud computing is computing delivery services over the Internet (often referred as “the cloud”). These computing services range from servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics and intelligence. Cloud computing over the years has gained popularity because it’s faster, flexible and economical. When you avail cloud computing services, you typically pay only for the services that you used. This in turn saves you a lot of operational cost along with helping you run your infra more efficiently.
Cloud computing enables businesses, brands, and companies to employ a computer resource on the Internet. It can be servers, applications or just cloud storage so that you don’t have to spend extra on that computing infrastructure in the house.
What is Microsoft Azure?
In 2010, Microsoft built Azure as a public cloud computing platform that can be used by users to develop, test, implement and manage their applications on Microsoft data centres. Simply put, Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing is a comprehensive solution to be used either as a:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
It can primarily be deployed in various services, ranging from analytics, storage, virtual computing, networking, and much more. Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Services can be used to replace or augment your on-premises servers. As mentioned earlier, leading organizations use this platform to handle their applications on Microsoft Data Centres. These data centres are spread across 54 regions and allow Microsoft to offer varying services across multiple domains, including Compute, Database, Content Delivery, Networking and many more. Why do companies rely on Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform- simply because it’s:
- Faster
- Flexible
- Open
- Reliable
- Economical
Benefits of Microsoft Azure Cloud Services
Azure is super fast, highly flexible and inexpensive with multiple capabilities which makes it the best public cloud offering on the market. It’s a big shift from running your business the conventional way. Here is a detailed explanation of why Microsoft Cloud Services Azure is drawing in attention and allegiance from the biggest of businesses.
Cost With Microsoft Cloud Computing, you save thousands of dollars by cutting down your infrastructural cost. It brings down the monetary expense of purchasing software and hardware, setting up and running on-site data centres, electricity expenditure. Apart from cutting down your infra spending, it also slashes down the hiring cost that businesses pay to hire IT specialists required to manage their operations.
- Performance
The majority of the cloud services, including the Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing, run on a secured network of data centres spread worldwide. These servers are upgraded frequently to the current generation of agile and proficient computing hardware. Compared with a single corporate data centre, it brings in many more advantages, such as lowered network latency for applications and superlative economies of scale.
2. Productivity
There is a lot of racking and stacking in a conventional on-site data centre. Right from hardware setup to software patching to other tedious IT chores, the drill is exhausting. When businesses adopt Cloud Computing Services, it removes the need to follow these exhaustive tasks so that their specialists can focus on the other prominent business goals.
3. Speed
Businesses adopt never-before-seen flexibility when they choose Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform as most of these services are on demand. This gives them the edge to have access to the vast amount of computing resources within minutes, with a few mouse clicks.
4. Security
Microsoft Azure offers a tightened security with a broader set of policies, policies, and controls that saves your data, apps and other infra from potential threats.
5. Reliability
With Azure, data backup, recovery and business continuity are much easier and less costly as availing cloud computing services give businesses the leverage with the mirrored data at multiple sites on Azure’s network.
6. Global scale
One of the major benefits of cloud computing services is unlimited flexibility and elasticity. When speaking in the cloud, it typically means delivering only what is required- the right amount of IT resources as and when needed from any geographic location.
How can Azure Work for your Business?
When you ask industry experts, they describe Azure to be a service platform with unlimited potential and unlimited possibilities. And rightfully so. Businesses swear by the efficiency and productivity parameters of the platform. Let’s see how adopting the Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Services might help your business.
- Increased Backup and Disaster Recovery
Because of the flexibility of augmented site recovery and built-in integration, Azure has become a backup and disaster recovery dream tool for many companies. As it is a cloud-based solution, it allows you to store your data in any language on any operating system from anywhere in the world. It stores three copies of your data at three different locations in the data centre, keeping all your data loss worries at bay.
2. Web and Mobile Apps Development and Hosting
Azure is the one-stop-solution for all your hosting, developing, or managing web or mobile app needs. With high-end features, such as patch management, AutoScale and integration from on-premises apps, it lets you make your apps autonomous and adaptive.
3. Active Directory Supplement and Distribution
Azure integrates with your Active Directory to improve your identity and access competency- giving your DNS a worldwide reach, streamlined management, and strengthened security.
4. Innovative Industry-Specific IoT solutions
Azure works as the perfect platform for businesses that are progressing towards IoT solutions, owing to its scalable, flexible and highly secured features. It lets you connect your devices to the internet with solutions that integrate with your current infra.
Microsoft Azure Services
Microsoft Azure is commonly known as a cloud computing platform with limitless potential and endless capabilities. There is never-ending list of services that Azure offers. However, in this article, we will focus on the prime four services that Azure is widely used for
1. Azure Compute
Azure Compute basically comprises products that are at the development stage. It consists of:
Azure Virtual Machine: An environment that lets the consumer enjoy an analogous experience as that of while using reserved hardware.
Azure Virtual Machine Set: Used to build hundreds and thousands of duplicate virtual machines in a jiffy.
Azure Container Service: Packages that do not require virtual machines and in their place rely on virtual segregation to operate applications that have shared OS kernel. Also, creates a container hosting solution.
Azure Container Registry: Stored and manages container images.
Azure Functions: Allows to run code-on-demand without infrastructure.
Azure Batch: Scales N number of virtual machines at a time.
Azure Service Fabric: A dispersed platform that streamlines the implementation and lifecycle management of a small service-based application.
Azure Cloud Services: Emphasize apps and support Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, .Net, and Ruby.
Azure Mobile App: Builds and hosts backend for any application on mobile.
API Apps: Creates cloud APIs easily.
Azure Search: Fully managed search-as-a-service.
Notification Hubs: Send push notifications to any platform from any backend easily.
Azure Logic Apps: A cloud service that assists you in automating workflows, business processes.
Azure Event Hub: Collection of events that can be stored.
2. Azure Networking
Azure comprises various networks that allow enterprises to securely link to their cloud assets via Azure ExpressRoute. Azure Networking is also used to supervise private virtual networks and, further, generate various virtual networks.
Azure Virtual Network: Fulfills network isolation and segmentation with filters which then direct the traffic. It consists of Azure Connect for easy setup of IP-based and Azure Traffic Manager.
Azure Load Balancer: Stabilizes a load of traffic directed to virtual machines and segregates the peripheral traffic to an alternative virtual machine.
Azure Traffic Manager: Offers load balancing features.
Azure Express Route: This lets you expand the existing network into Microsoft cloud over a remote private connection.
Azure DNS: Translates a website to the IP address.
Content Delivery Network (CDN): Improves content delivery, lets the content stream by using the location of 24 different locations spread across the world.
Azure VPN Gateway: Delivers encrypted traffic across a public connection.
3. Azure Storage
These are storage solutions that are more durable and allow you to build large-scale applications and scale higher if required. It also balances the data based on traffic automatically.
Azure Blob Storage: Follows storage in terms of binary large objects (BLOBs) with blob service. Empowers users with the ability to explain their data by inserting metadata.
Azure Queue Storage: Lets applications converse via the exchange of messages on a queue so that there are no lost or unprocessed messages.
Azure File Storage: Provides file sharing in the cloud using a standard protocol.
Azure Table Storage: Stores semi-structured NoSQL data in the cloud.
4. Azure Database
A secure and reliable relational database service that renders high performance without giving you any infrastructure-related worries. Built on SQL technologies and hosted in Azure and offers fault-tolerant database.
Azure DocumentDB: NoSQL database-as-a-service that offers transactional process over no schema data, rich querying and query processing and transaction semantics; almost identical with relational databases.
Azure Redis Cache: Data structure that implements a key-value database with optional durability.
Still have more questions on Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing? Looking for a reliable industry solution expert to help you with Azure? You’ve come to the right place. Aplhavima is a Microsoft Cloud Services Azure specialist that can guide you through designing and deploying different cloud services to augment your productivity.
