What is Microsoft Azure Cloud?
Last updated on October 12, 2022
Microsoft Azure cloud is the flagship cloud computing platform by Microsoft. It offers a wide array of services to build and manage highly available enterprise solutions with all the performance and scale that the cloud has to offer. Azure is one of several products bundled under Microsoft cloud services, which span over a global network of data centers managed by Microsoft. Originating from a tech giant with remarkable legacy and reputation, its offerings are already in tune with the industry.
Types of Cloud Computing Offered by Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure offers four (4) types of cloud computing, namely:
- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Microsoft manages your entire IT infrastructure for you.
- Platform as a service (PaaS): enables your developers and other users to access the hardware and software they need to create their own applications from Microsoft Azure.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): enables your users to access Microsoft web applications such as Microsoft Office, and other web applications from other developers, that are offered on the Azure marketplace.
- Serverless: you deploy your applications on the Microsoft Azure cloud, and you only pay for the bandwidth usage of your customers.
If you are new to the Microsoft Azure cloud, some popular services are free to use for the first 12 months while another 40+ services are free to use forever. Programs that are free for the first year include Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Migrate, Load Balancer, Azure Files, Managed Disks, Encoding and Streaming Media Services, SQL Database, Virtual Machines for both Linux and Windows, and VPN Gateway. The always free services include Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), Azure Cosmos DB, Azure DevOps, Azure Kubernetes Service, Database Migration Service, Machine Learning, and Security Center.
When you get a subscription to Microsoft Azure, you get access to all free and paid services. After 12 months, free popular services transition to on a pay-as-you-go basis, meaning you only pay for your actual usage. Substantial discounts are available if you opt for fixed-term contracts rather than pay-as-you-go pricing. You also get discounted rates when using Azure services for development and testing.
As a new subscriber, Microsoft will also give you $200 in credit that you can use to avail yourself of paid services. You need to use the free credit in the first 30 days, otherwise you will forfeit it.
Microsoft Azure Cloud Customer Support Options
Microsoft Azure offers 5 different customer support options:
- Basic: available for all Azure customers. It includes 24/7 access to self-help resources and a best practice guide for migrating your infrastructure and/or applications to Azure. You also get notifications from Azure in cases of scheduled downtime.
- Developer: available for your trial and non-production environments. It includes everything in Basic plus access to email support during business hours and third-party software support.
- Standard: best for your production environment, as it includes everything in basic support plus 24/7 access to telephone and email support.
- Professional Direct: best for your business-critical applications, as it includes everything in standard support plus architectural and operations support from experts, access to the Support API, and training.
- Premier: best for the entire enterprise, as it includes end-to-end managed support for all Microsoft technologies in your organization.
The Different Services Offered
Microsoft Azure encompasses some 200 products and services classified into 18 categories, including the essential ones such as:
- Compute: enables organizations to transfer and scale your essential computing workloads to the Microsoft Azure cloud. It includes essential services such as SQL Server on Azure virtual machines (VM), which is part of the Azure SQL family of databases; Linux and Windows virtual machines; Azure functions for deploying your applications to the cloud; App Service, which enables cross-platform applications development; and Azure Virtual Desktop, which enables remote desktop access from anywhere.
- Networking: connects your cloud and on-premises infrastructure. It includes services such as Application Gateway for your web front ends, Azure DDoS Protection to protect your infrastructure from distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), VPN Gateway for your virtual private networks, Traffic Manager for more efficient management of your incoming traffic, and Web Application Firewall to protect your web applications from external threats.
- Storage: enables organizations to scale storage to their needs. It includes Azure Backup for built-in backup management, Azure Files for sharing files over the cloud, Azure Blob Storage for large data files, and Azure Disk Storage for secure block storage.
Other categories include:
- AI and machine learning
- Containers
- Databases
- Developer tools
- Management and governance
- Security
- Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
Benefits of flying with Azure cloud
Among the many benefits of the Microsoft Azure cloud are:
- Wider coverage, as it has more global regions than any other cloud provider. This fast-growing global footprint adds wings to businesses for providing their services and ensuring high performance to customers regardless of location.
- Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings to power your businesses.
- Fast and reliable deployments for virtual desktop solutions.
- Straightforward migration of on-premises VMs and physical machines to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform using the Azure site recovery service, adding to the confidence of businesses moving to the cloud.
- Per-minute billing that gives an unbeatable price for performance.
- On the security front, the Microsoft Azure cloud has more compliance certifications than any other cloud provider.
- Due to its geographically decentralized infrastructure, it offers good disaster recovery options.
- An existing relationship with Microsoft can bring additional benefits as enterprises with a single agreement can enjoy the various benefits that Azure presents to its customers.
Challenges with Azure
Like other cloud providers, transitioning to the Microsoft Azure cloud has its challenges, including:
- A fair share of dependencies. Although deploying a VM to the cloud is more manageable than ever before, these dependencies can still impact your move to a cloud-based infrastructure.
- With deployment or migration comes the responsibility of running and operating the resources. Implementing virtualization with a cloud provider may be much more complicated than doing the same in your in-house data center.
While not void of challenges, the vast benefits can outweigh the risk of migration of on-premises VMs or physical machines to the Microsoft Azure cloud.
How Parallels® RAS empowers Azure Cloud Capability
Parallels® RAS has a robust integration with the Microsoft Azure cloud. By creating a Parallels RAS infrastructure on the Azure cloud, organizations can efficiently deliver virtual desktops and applications to any device in any location. With Azure integrated features like automated configuration wizards and pre-built virtual machine templates, organizations can configure and deploy Parallels RAS solutions into Azure in less than 30 minutes. It is so much less complicated for users to securely access virtualization apps and desktops using Parallels RAS while underlying user data safely resides in the Azure cloud. Moreover, Parallels RAS supports hybrid deployment between on-premises and Microsoft Azure-based resources. Parallels RAS’s cost-effective virtualization solution combined with Microsoft Azure’s pay-for-use model ensures rapid resource provisioning and lower total cost of ownership.
Grab a free 30-day trial and check the Parallels RAS solution on the cloud!