Introduction
Microsoft released Azure under the name “Windows Azure” in 2010. It was later renamed to “Microsoft Azure” in 2014.
Azure is a cloud computing service by Microsoft which is widely used for building, testing, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of data centers that are managed by Microsoft.
It provides Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Microsoft Azure supports many programming languages, and tools and frameworks. It supports tools and frameworks from Microsoft, as well as from third-party software and systems.
Azure provides a wide range of products and services for
- Computing (Virtual Machines, App Services, etc.)
Provision Windows and Linux virtual machines in seconds; create powerful cloud apps for web and mobile; etc. - Networking (Virtual Networks, Application Gateways, etc.)
Host your DNS domain in Azure; route incoming traffic for high performance and availability; etc. - Storage (Blob Storage, Data Lake Storage, etc.)
Durable, highly available and scalable cloud storage; simple and reliable server backup to the cloud; etc. - Databases (SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, etc.)
Manage reliable SQL database as a service; power applications with high throughput, low latency data access; etc. - Data + Analytics (Machine Learning, HDInsight, etc.)
Provision cloud Hadoop, R Server, Storm Clusters; open and elastic AI development spanning the cloud and edge; etc. - AI + Cognitive Services (Azure Bot Services, Computer Vision API, etc.)
Intelligent, serverless bot service that scales on demand; add smart API capabilities to enable contextual interactions; etc. - Internet of Things (IoT Hub, Stream Analytics, etc.) and many more.
Connect, monitor and control billions of IoT devices; explore and analyze time series data; etc.
Azure is a trusted name in the market with customers such as BMW, Rolls Royce, Heineken, AccuWeather and many more.
Why Azure?
Azure is productive for Developers
Azure helps get apps to the market faster. Azure integrated tools such as mobile DevOps, serverless computing etc. , support productivity.
Azure provides many well-known tools and open source technologies that give developers the freedom to develop using what they are familiar with.
Azure supports a range of operating systems, programming languages, frameworks, databases, and devices.
Azure is the only consistent Hybrid cloud
Azure is a hybrid cloud.
Azure allows connecting data and apps in the cloud and on-premises for maximum portability and value from existing investments.
It provides hybrid consistency in application development, management and security, and identity management across the data platforms.
For building intelligent apps
Use Azure to create data-driven, intelligent apps. From image recognition to bot services, take advantage of Azure data services and artificial intelligence to create new experiences-that scale-and support deep learning, HPC simulations and real-time analytics on any shape and size of data.
Azure Region Coverage
You can achieve global scale on a worldwide network of Microsoft-managed datacentres across 42 announced regions.
Azure has more regions than any other cloud service provider.
Pay-As-You-Go
Azure provides a pay-as-you-go subscription where there are no minimums or commitments; you pay only for what you use. You can also cancel the subscription at any time.
Azure Free Trial Account
Azure provides a free trial account on sign-up.
To sign-up with Azure and starting your free trial, refer the topic Microsoft Azure Free-Account Sign-Up in the Getting Started section of Microsoft Azure.
