Microsoft Azure explained simply
If a company wants to continue to operate successfully in the future, there is really no way around the cloud. The competitive advantages that can be gained from it are too diverse and serious. Microsoft Azure is the cloud service from Microsoft. In the following article, we have summarized everything that belongs to this product and where Azure is already in use.
Azure - the cloud service from Microsoft
Microsoft Azure is the cloud platform of the IT giant Microsoft and has been available to customers around the world since 2010. Microsoft Azure is primarily aimed at developers who use it to develop new apps and run them either internally or externally. The service scores points above all for its high resilience and reliability, which is ensured by extensively maintained servers around the world.
With Azure, Microsoft offers its customers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), as well as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. Applications do not necessarily have to be developed and run in a Windows environment with Azure, but can also be run with Linux servers. Among the best-known Microsoft Azure applications are SQL Azure and AppFabric.
These services are included in Azure
As already mentioned, Microsoft Azure, unlike other providers such as AWS, is primarily aimed at developers and not at end users of cloud services. Therefore, it is not surprising that most Azure services are either designed for development itself or for increased integration or security of applications.
These are some of Azure's most popular and important services:
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
- Azure Functions
- Azure Communication Services
- Azure Arc
- Azure Synapse Analytics
- GitHub for Auzure
The most important products in detail
Microservices and the associated use of containers are currently one of the most important trends in the IT industry. After all, microservices allow companies to reduce their own risk while increasing user experience, update cycle, scalability and availability. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) facilitates and automates the deployment of these containers to a large extent.
Azure Functions supports the organization of complex computer applications. In this way, comprehensive cloud structures can also be maintained and optimized locally. Azure Synapse Analytics allows users to access an unlimited analytics service from a unified interface for data integration, data warehousing and Big Data analytics, among other things.
Azure Arc enables enterprises and development teams to easily create hybrid and multi-cloud structures and then leverage them. In the end, Arc empowers users to integrate all cloud and edge computing services in their own structure with Azure. This makes administration incredibly effective and much simpler, and all Azure services can be utilized at any point in one's network.
Azure Communication Services makes it clear why it can make sense to access a Microsoft cloud. This is because the service for the seamless integration of various means of communication and end devices also includes the fact that users can integrate Microsoft Teams into their own cloud. Here, the fees for video, phone and chat services are calculated based on the actual use of these services.
However, the services mentioned here are only a small section of the comprehensive Azure offering. In total, Azure customers can access more than 200 different products and applications. A very clear advantage that Azure has over the competition is the seamless and uncomplicated connection of other Microsoft services to its own cloud structure.
Microsoft Azure is already being used here
Azure is already being used in a variety of different global projects and companies. For example, eBay uses Azure to make eBay's highly customized environment more cost-effective, easily scalable and more available. Boeing also uses Microsoft Azure to collect and analyze as much flight data as possible and then use it profitably.
Even one of Microsoft's hardware competitors, Samsung, is using Azure to optimize its own smart TV offerings. This is mainly because Samsung wants to offer its own smart TV services everywhere in the world and is accessing Microsoft's superior infrastructure to do so. BMW now uses Azure in almost all areas of the company. Especially in the area of production, the car manufacturer uses the Microsoft service to optimize processes and gain new insights.
The most important competitors
Internationally, there are now thousands of cloud and cloud computing providers. Few of them, however, can match Microsoft Azure's service offering, both in terms of infrastructure and services. In fact, only four companies or products are real competition for Azure: Amazon AWS, IBM, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud.
The offerings from Azure, IBM, Google and Alibaba Cloud are very similar, and many of the services you find with one provider are also available from the competition. Amazon AWS stands out in that it is the global market leader - and by a margin that should not be underestimated. Amazon is often one step ahead of the competition (so far), especially when it comes to the availability of infrastructure, but also to innovations in new services.