Microsoft Azure – Handy Cloud to Operate and Develop In
All-Business Cloud Platform
Microsoft is the second largest cloud provider on the market. Microsoft Azure cloud offers rich PaaS functionality and integrable SaaS products beneficial for:
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SaaS Startups
Achieving faster time to market due to Azure’s compoundable services.
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Small and mid-sized businesses
Getting automated migration and infrastructure construction with Azure’s PaaS services.
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Businesses using Microsoft products in-house
Which then benefit from lift-and-shift migrations of their IT infrastructures to Azure.
Featured Services of Microsoft Azure
Cloud computing
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Azure Functions
Serverless event- and request-triggered computing at scale with declarative access to Azure’s and third-party services.
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Azure CycleCloud
Dynamically scaled computing, networking and caching environment for high-performance data processing.
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Virtual Machine Scale Sets
Centralized management of autoscaled and dynamically balanced virtual machines for large workloads and big data.
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Azure VMware Solution
VMware-compatible service for migration and management of your sets of VMs at scale.
Containerization
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Container Instances
Running scalable isolated containers (ACIs) in Azure’s serverless environment.
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Azure Kubernetes Service
A native Kubernetes orchestration tool integrable with multiple Azure development services.
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Azure Red Hat OpenShift
Running OpenShift container clusters in Azure environment managed by Microsoft and Red Hat.
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Azure Service Fabric
Cross-platform service to arrange and manage containers with on-demand scalability.
Databases
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Azure SQL Database
Building scalable relational databases.
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Azure Cosmos DB
Fast clustered NoSQL database with multi-model sub-DBs deployed in each cluster for horizontal scalability.
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Azure Cache for Redis
Management of distributed Redis server instances yielding low latencies through caching.
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Azure Database for MySQL/ PostgreSQL/MariaDB
Virtualization services to implement scalable databases.
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Azure Database Migration Service
DB migration wizard for automated migration of workloads.
Data storage
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Blob storage
Scalable data management service enabling high-throughput processing of unstructured data for big data applications.
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Azure Data Lake Storage
Secure data lake management platform built around Blob storage and integrated with analytics frameworks.
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Azure Disk Storage
Storage for Azure VMs with a range of options for SSDs and HDDs.
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Azure Files
File share management service supporting the SMB protocol compatible with Windows, Linux and macOS.
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Azure HPC Cache
Caching of on-premises and cloud data for high performance computing tasks.
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Azure Backup
Snapshot backup/recovery tool supporting encryption and prolonged data retention time.
Networking and security
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Virtual Network
Environment ensuring secure and seamless communication among your on-premises and Azure-hosted resources.
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Load Balancer
Optimal distribution of inbound traffic loads according to the defined rules and backend instance performance.
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Azure DNS
Highly available domain hosting ensuring fast DNS queries.
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Azure ExpressRoute
Broadband connection to Azure cloud services bypassing the public internet.
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Content Delivery Network
Global network of edge servers to cache and distribute content at the lowest latencies.
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Azure Active Directory
Identity and access management tool for Microsoft products and apps run in Azure.
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Azure Firewall
Managing security policy and traffic filtering across your entire virtual network.
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Azure DDoS Protection
DDoS monitoring and mitigation tool that learns traffic patterns to tune security policies.
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Web Application Firewall
Firewall service with centralized protection of web apps against such exploits as SQL injections, cross-site scripting, etc.
Implementation of web and mobile applications
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App Service
Full-cycle development of web apps and mobile back ends with built-in SDKs, containerization and orchestration features.
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Visual Studio App Centre
Self-sustained development environment for mobile (Android, iOS) and desktop (macOS, Windows) apps.
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Azure Maps
Geospatial services and SDKs for geographic context in apps.
Integrations

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API Management
Centralized administering of all APIs within hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.
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Service Bus
Message broker supporting multiple protocols for async communication among apps and services.
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Event Grid
HTTP-event routing tool for serverless apps and microservices.
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Azure API for FHIR
Health data management service allowing FHIR-compliant management of protected health data.
DevOps tools
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Azure Pipelines
CI/CD management tool for automated building, testing and deployment of code to containers, virtual machines and Azure Services.
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Azure DevTest Labs
Development and testing environments self-managed by developers within defined quotas and policies.
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Azure Repos
Unlimited Git repositories with internal CI/CD kit and push-pull policy management.
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Azure Boards
Project management environment for planning and tracking development workflows integrable with various third-party extensions.
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Azure Test Plans
QA solution helping create and trace testing scenarios as well as gather and handle user feedback.
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Azure Artifacts
Package management tool enabling multi-type and multi-source package feed in your CI/CD pipelines.
Data processing and analytics
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Power BI Embedded
Scalable analytics solution embedded in Azure-hosted apps at a fixed price.
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HDInsight
Running open-source analytics solutions like Apache Hadoop, Spark, and Kafka in Azure.
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Data Lake Analytics
On-demand big data analysis with tools to optimize reserved computing nodes.
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Azure Stream Analytics
Real-time data analytics for fast-moving streams of cloud and edge data.
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Azure Databricks
Scalable Apache Spark-driven analytics for data at rest and in transit.
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Data Factory
No-code building hybrid ETL/ELT pipelines.
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AI and machine learning
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Azure Machine Learning
Drag-and-drop construction, deployment and management of ML models.
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Text Analytics
Statistical extraction of insights and sentiments from unstructured texts.
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Azure Cognitive Services
AI APIs, templates and domain-specific scenarios for AI deployable on-premises and in the cloud.
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Azure Bot Service
No-code creation of AI bots and virtual assistants plugged into diverse communication channels.
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Bing AI Services
AI-driven search capabilities with the Bing search engine.
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Language Understanding
ML-driven understanding of a human speech for a machine-human communication.
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Computer Vision
Visual data processing engine.
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Custom Vision
Template-driven computer vision models adjusted for specific domains and scenarios.
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Internet of Things
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Azure IoT Central
Powerful IoT platform enabling monitoring and management of an IoT ecosystem.
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Azure IoT solution accelerators
IoT assistant service helping build IoT network based on ready-made domain-specific scenarios.
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Azure IoT Hub
Establishing secure communication between IoT devices and apps.
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Azure Digital Twins
Context-oriented prototyping of scalable IoT spaces and processes for PoC purposes.
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Azure Time Series Insights
Real-time processing and visualization of IoT data.
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Azure Sphere
Hardware and software IoT solution for secure communication of devices.
Blockchain
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Azure Blockchain Service
Codeless creation of blockchain infrastructures at scale.
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Azure Blockchain Workbench
Blockchain app prototyping.
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Common Use Cases for Microsoft Azure
Benefits of Microsoft Azure
Azure migration pays back with:
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Reduced data center footprint and infrastructure costs. |
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Improved scalability and performance of business-critical workloads. |
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Freeing IT staff from infrastructure management for higher-priority tasks. |
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Fast time-to-market with efficient development environments and pluggable native services. |
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Increased volumes and profits from online B2C sales. |
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Reduced efforts for disaster recovery. |