What is Azure Cloud?

In a nutshell: What is Azure Cloud?

The Microsoft Azure Cloud is a comprehensive cloud platform that offers organizations and private individuals various services for their work. Storage space and computing power, databases, software for data management and data analysis as well as other infrastructures and services are part of Azure Cloud.

 

If companies want to save themselves the financial and organizational effort of having their own infrastructure and software, the Azure Cloud is a comprehensive solution. It can also supplement a local infrastructure to create a hybrid infrastructure.

 

Overview of the services and products included in Azure

The Azure Cloud comprises over 200 services and products. These include compact offerings for small companies as well as comprehensive solutions for large global corporations. The range of Azure services is therefore enormous. The scalability of the services is always guaranteed.

 

Azure technologies can be used to implement hybrid infrastructures as well as pure cloud infrastructures. This gives companies with a need for storage and computing capacity access to the scalable resources of the Microsoft infrastructure. Among other things, Microsoft Cloud Storage can be used to store data from big data projects.

 

Microsoft provides appropriate tools for migrating data from your own data centers to the Azure Cloud. The migrated data can be comprehensively processed using the numerous services and products in the Azure Cloud.

 

For example, the Microsoft Cloud supports data engineering by providing the data warehouses that are essential for engineering. Data analysis services are also part of the Azure Cloud.

 

The offerings included in Microsoft Azure can be summarized as follows:

 

• Software as a Service (SaaS): Provision of directly usable software for users
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Setting up a virtual infrastructure with networks, servers, storage, etc.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): middleware solutions such as databases

 

Several tenants can be defined in the Azure Cloud. Compared to the Microsoft 365 tenant [internal link to glossary entry], this has the major advantage that the accounts and user access to the cloud no longer have to be managed under a central account. Instead, the management of access rights is distributed across several shoulders in the company.

 

In the Azure Cloud, several so-called subscriptions can be created within a tenant. In this way, certain areas such as development and production can be completely separated. The Microsoft 365 tenant [internal link to glossary entry] is usually in the same corporate environment as the Azure subscriptions, which greatly simplifies administration.

 

Advantages and possibilities of the Azure cloud solution

• Access to computing power
• Simulation of different operating systems
• Scalable storage capacities
• Use of the latest technologies
• Various applications for recording, monitoring and analyzing data
• Databases for different data models

 

Access to computing power and simulation of various operating systems

Instead of operating their own data centers, companies access Azure services. Thanks to the virtual machines (VMs for short) included in Microsoft Azure, other operating systems (iOS and Linux) can be used remotely on end devices with Windows operating systems. This provides flexibility in everyday working life and simplifies work.

 

Scalable storage capacities

Companies of any size and with any amount of data can obtain the storage capacity they need from Microsoft Azure without having their own IT landscape. They can adapt this to their needs. As they grow, companies do not have to buy their own hard disks, but can automatically obtain the storage they need via the Azure cloud services.

 

Use of the latest technologies

The cloud technologies used in Microsoft Azure are state-of-the-art. Users of the cloud are able to work with artificial intelligence (AI), various blockchain solutions, containers for the efficient execution of different workloads and various development tools, among other things. Cloud technologies such as these eliminate the need to invest in tools from other providers.

 

Various applications for recording, monitoring and analyzing data

Real-time analyses, big data and smart data, machine learning, business intelligence: Microsoft also provides a range of services for collecting, monitoring and analyzing data in its Azure Cloud. Companies can book them as required.

 

Databases for different data models

Microsoft Azure provides users with customized solutions for various data models. On the one hand, this includes services with SQL functionalities: Thanks to the corresponding Azure service, companies can create a database for relational or other data models without needing their own SQL server.

 

NoSQL functionalities, in which data is stored flexibly in contrast to the SQL schema, are also part of the Azure Cloud database offering.

 

Further benefits and services

The range of benefits and services offered by the Microsoft Azure Cloud could go on and on. As this would go beyond the scope of this glossary entry, we would like to focus on two selected points.

 

First of all, it is important for us to look at the many Azure services from the perspective of IT specialists. Cloud computing brings considerable added value for developers in companies. IT specialists are responsible for creating the right cloud environment for the company.

 

Developers benefit from the many possibilities that the Azure Cloud offers them in their day-to-day tasks:

 

• DevOps for the development of applications for working on projects and general collaboration in teams
• Several services for expanding your own applications with artificial intelligence, machine learning and cognitive computing
• Presentation of various information in the form of mixed reality and 3D
• Tools for the development of web applications and API management
• Cyber security solutions

 

With the help of the Azure Cloud, developers can develop individual solutions for companies or access and use the ready-made Azure services. This makes it easier for IT specialists to master the current challenges without having to expand their own IT infrastructure extensively.

 

Apart from the great benefits of Microsoft Azure, we would like to highlight our services in this area. As experts in digital transformation, we at innobit advise organizations of all sizes individually in all IT matters. In addition to consulting, we also take care of the implementation of various services.

 

A key factor in the long-term efficient use of Microsoft Azure is cost optimization. As already mentioned, the Azure Cloud offers the option of appointing multiple tenants. This feature allows the distribution of costs within the company to be managed more efficiently. Billing is usually based on the pay-as-you-go model according to actual usage or, if the duration of use is known, a fixed contingent can be booked more cost-effectively for some services. This rarely results in pure cost savings - the focus is on the flexibility and use of services that could not be realized in a traditional infrastructure.

 

As experts for the Microsoft Azure Cloud, we are happy to support you in the efficient use of the platform in your company. This includes cost optimization and further optimization of existing clouds as well as setting up completely new clouds. Contact our experts if you have any questions or are interested in Microsoft Azure!

 

 

Disadvantages and challenges of the Azure Cloud

A sticking point in cloud computing is data protection: to what extent can the protection of data stored on the servers of a third-party cloud provider be guaranteed? Storing data in the Azure infrastructure can actually be problematic for some industries. For example, patient data may not be stored in the cloud in some countries.

 

In certain cases, a hybrid cloud solution can be set up. The data that cannot be stored in the cloud is then stored on a separate server and therefore on-premises [internal link to glossary entry]. Service providers like us determine the exact situation in the individual consultation with a company.

 

Apart from the industry-specific particularities, the data protection standards for professional cloud services such as the Microsoft Azure Cloud are generally very high. They are usually even higher than required.

 

• Microsoft Azure certification guarantees GDPR compliance.
• Microsoft Azure cloud services are certified in accordance with the ISO/IEC 27701 standard, which entails even more comprehensive data protection than the GDPR.
• Microsoft also offers compliance services [internal link to glossary entry] and in this way promotes legal compliance beyond data protection.
• Microsoft has additional certifications for certain industries (e.g. medicine, finance) in order to meet the higher national requirements of EU countries as a cloud solution provider.

 

For some companies, it is relevant to know whether the platform services they use are hosted nationally or internationally. Microsoft provides information about product availability by region on its website.

 

Microsoft's certifications, cloud services and information make a comprehensive contribution to data protection and compliance, meaning that the Microsoft Azure platform can be viewed positively in this respect.

 

Now to a potential challenge: for companies pursuing multi-cloud strategies, it is difficult to harmonize the various cloud solutions. Those who only use the Microsoft Azure Cloud, for example, can combine it with their own software via APIs with little effort. However, it becomes difficult as soon as even a single cloud is used by another provider. This is because they have different APIs to coordinate the cloud architecture and cloud services.

 

Users who are not technically proficient sometimes have problems simply migrating data to the new cloud. If you now consider that one of these users wants to implement a multi-cloud strategy, they will face almost insurmountable hurdles.

 

To implement a multi-cloud strategy, users should therefore always work with a service provider that has sufficient knowledge and third-party tools to coordinate different cloud platforms.

 

Conclusion: Investment in growth and long-term flexibility

Clouds are very important for growth, flexibility, security and other relevant aspects of managing a company. Accordingly, there are many cloud solutions on the market. However, not all of them offer such high standards and such a wide range of tools and services as Microsoft's Azure Cloud.

 

By using the Azure Cloud, companies save resources and benefit from a holistic platform that they can easily combine with their existing programs.