What is Azure? What is Azure used for? ( Microsoft Azure )

What is Azure?  What is Azure used for? (Microsoft Azure)

Have you ever heard a term called Cloud Computing? If you have heard then you must also know what are the platforms which provide these kind of services. While many people are aware of it but for some people it will be a new term. If you don't know then don't worry. In this article you will get complete information about Cloud Computing and Platforms which provides these services.


Today we'll be talking about one of the fastest growing and second largest cloud computing platform in the market right now. I'm talking about Microsoft Azure. So What is Azure? What is Azure used for? ( Microsoft Azure ). If you don't know anything about it then keep on reading this article. Even if you are aware of it just read it for a little more information.


Cloud Computing is nothing but a process in which software and hardwares are used to deliver service over a network. Google Gmail is an example of Cloud Computing Provider. Now to use these Cloud Service you need some platform so that you can operate. This Platform is provided by Microsoft Azure. Apart from it there are more platforms such as Amazon Web Services( AWS ) and Google Cloud Platform ( GCP ).


What generally happens is that you just upload data and applications on virtual or private servers of Cloud Computing Providers. After that anyone can access these facilities from any worldwide locations with the help of any device and internet connections. 


So I thought that why you people should not be given complete information about What is Azure? What Azure is used for? ( Microsoft Azure ). So let us know every thing in detail. So lets start today's intresting article on Azure.

Table of Contents :

• Why Cloud Computing ?

• What is Cloud Computing ?

• What is Azure(Microsoft Azure) ?

• What are the Services provided by Azure ( Microsoft Azure )? 

• What are the uses of Azure ( Microsoft Azure)?

• Conclusion

Why Cloud Computing ?

The first question which arises is, Why should you be intrestes in Cloud Computing?

Now let's say you have an idea for a revolutionary application. An idea that takes both the boxes when it comes to good applications. One it has great user experience and two it will be highly profitable. Now for it to be successful you'll have to release it on the Internet. People need to use it. They need to spread the word and then it'll become truly famous.


However for that you're gonna need servers, storage, developers a dedicated network and application security to ensure your application works the way it does. Now these are a lot of components and that's where the problem lies. There are two major disadvantages to this approach :-

1.) The initial setup is very expensive and risky which means this requires a huge amount of capital upfront to ensure that it works properly


2.) The downside is if your application does not become famous or it doesn't return as much as you expect it to you're probably not going to get the money back which means it provides a huge amount of risk and then.

On the flipside if it does become famous your number of users have increased which means that you'll have to buy more servers and storage systems to keep up with your demand and this problem can be solved with the help of cloud computing now that you know why you should be interested in cloud computing let's go into the details of what exactly is

What is Cloud Computing ?

Cloud Computing is a platform that gives you access to a number of computing resources. This is possible with the help of the internet. As a user all you need to do is, go to a cloud service provider through your laptop or your computer through the internet of course, connect to that cloud service provider, and then there you go. You have access to computing resources. Computing resources may include you know serverless computing, virtual machines, storage and so much more. Let's get in little deeper. 


Basically these cloud service providers actually have massive data centers. In these data centers what you have are hundreds of servers also included are storage systems and mainly several organizations critical components. So these are very secure safe locations where a large amount of data is stored. Hence, the name Data Centers. It is to these data centers that users actually connect to collect their data or use it. So actually the users can access any type of service which is based on their requirement. 


Now like I told you there's a number of services the user can use. For Example, 

1.) If you want a notification every time someone sends your message or 

2.) Once you get an email you need a copy of it created 


For all of this there are services and most importantly almost every cloud service provider has this option where users only pay for the service that they use. There's no
charge upfront when they tell you that you need to pay X amount of money so that you can use our services. You're only paying for the amount of time that you're using these services. 


Cloud Computing is used for a wide variety of reasons :-

1.) There's machine learning and data analysis: There are services that analyze your data and tell you how you can work with this data better


2.) There's data storage and backup 


3.) Streaming media content: For Example, Did you know that the shows that you watch on Netflix actually all of them are on the cloud. So you're connected to the Internet and you browse through Netflix and you get access to the videos. These are possible with thehelp of cloud service providers.


4.) There's creating and testing applications 


5.) Automating software delivery which is a component in DevOps


6.) And hosting blogs and applications

What is Azure (Microsoft Azure)?

So, what's the big cloud service provider (Microsoft Azure) all about ?

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform. It's basically an online portal through which you can access and manage resources and services. Resources and services are nothing but you know you can store your data and you can transform the data using services that Microsoft provides. All you need is the internet and being able to connect to the Azure portal then you get access to all of the resources and the services.

Microsoft Azure

Here are some things that you need to know about Azure. It was launched in February 1st 2010 which is significantly later then when AWS was launched. It's free to start and has a pay per use model which means like I said before you need to pay for the services you use through Azure. 80% of Fortune 500 companies use Azure services. It is one of the most important selling points for Azure. It simply means that most of the bigger companies of the world actually recommend using Azure. 


Since Azure supports to wide variety of programming languages like C#, Node.js, Java and so much more. Another important selling point of Azure is the amount of data centers it has across the world. It's important for a cloud service provider to have many data centers around the world because it means that they can provide their services to a wider audience. At present Azure is available in 60+ regions which is more than any cloud service provider has at the moment. 

What are the Services provided by Azure (Microsoft Azure) ? 

Let's talk about the Services Provided by Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft Azure Services have 18 categories and more than 200 services. So we clearly can't go through all of them. It has services that cover compute, machine learning, integration, management tools, identity, DevOps, web and so much more. You're going to have a hard time trying to find a domain that Azure doesn't cover and if it doesn't cover it now you can be certain they're working on it as you are reading this.

• Azure Services - Compute Services

1.) Virtual Machine: With this service what you're getting to do is to create a virtual machine of Linux or Windows operating system. It's easily configurable you can add RAM you can decrease RAM you can add storage remove it. All of it is possible in a matter of seconds.



2.) Cloud Service: With this you can create a application within the cloud. All of the work after you deploy it i.e. after deploying the application,  is taken care of by Azure. It  includes things like provisioning the application, low balancing, ensuring that the application is in good health and all of the other things are handled by Azure.


3.) Service Fabric: With Service Fabric the process of developing a micro service is greatly simplified. You might be wondering what exactly is a micro service? A micro service is basically an application that consists of smaller applications coupled together.


4.) Functions: You can create applications in any programming language that you want. Another very important part is that you don't have to worry about any hardware components. You don't have to worry about how much storage you require or how much RAM you require. All of that is taking care of by Azure. All you need is to provide the code to Azure and it will execute it and you don't have to worry about anything else. 

• Azure Services - Networking Services

 1.) CDN or Content Delivery Network: The Azure CDN service is basically for delivering web content to users. This content is of high bandwidth and can be transferred or can be delivered to any person across the world. These are actually a network of servers that are placed in strategic positions across the world so that the customers can obtain this data as fast as possible.

2.) Express Route: With this you can actually connect your On Premises network on to the Microsoft cloud or any of the services that you want through a private connection. So the only communication that happens is between your on premises network and the service that you want.

3.) Virtual Network: With virtual network you can have any of the Azure services communicate with each other in a secure manner in a private manner.

4.) Azure DNS: Azure DNS is a hosting service which allows you to host their DNS or domain name system domains in Azure so you can host your application using Azure DNS.

• Azure Services - Storage Services

1.) Disk Storage: With this storage you're given a cost-effective option of choosing HDD or solid-state drives to go along with your virtual machines based on your requirements.


2.) Blob Storage: This is actually optimized to ensure that they can store massive amounts of unstructured data which can include text or even binary data.


3.) File Storage: It is a managed file storage and can be accessible by the SMB protocol or the Server Message Block Protocol. 


4.) Queue Storage: Wth Queue Storage you can provide durable message queuing for an extremely large workload. The most important part is that this can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

What are the uses of Microsoft Azure? 

Now we will be knowing some uses of Microsoft Azure :-

1.) Azure can be used for application development. It could be any application, mostly web applications


2.) You can test the application and see how well it works


3.) You can host the application on the Internet


4.) You can create virtual machines like I mentioned before with the service. You can create these virtual machines according to you  of any size or RAM that you want 


5.) You can integrate in sync features


6.) You can collect and store Matrices. For Example, how the data works? how the current data is? how you can improve upon it? All of that is possible with these services.



7.) Virtual Hard Drives which is an extension of the virtual machines where these services are able to provide you a large amount of storage where data can be stored

Conclusion

Let's have a look at what we've learned so far in this article. We learned about, What is Azure? What is Azure used for? ( Microsoft Azure ). What is Cloud Computing ? What are the Services of Azure ? I hope you have understood them properly. It has always been my practise to provide complete information on this topic to my readers so that they don't have to search for any further information on internet.


It will also save their time and they will get all the information at a single place. If you have any question regarding this article or you want some modification in it, then tell us by bcommenting below.


I hope you have liked this article on What is Azure? What is Azure used for? ( Microsoft Azure ). If you liked it then share it with your friends, relatives on social sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. So that it will benefit all. Keep visiting and Thanks for Reading.