What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the remote servers on the internet to store, manage and process data rather than a local server or your personal computer.
Store: Store large or small files on the cloud, which you can access on the go!
Manage: Manage your data with optimized databases on the cloud.
Process: With scalable compute power on the cloud, you can process any amount of data in moments!
What is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform created by Microsoft which developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy and manage applications through their global network of datacentres.
Azure Services
Microsoft Azure provides various services that would help you in computing in one way or the other and these services are clubbed into domains. Here are a few notable domains:
- Compute
It is used to process data on the cloud by making use of powerful processors which serve multiple instances at a time. - Storage Services
The storage as the name suggests, is used to store data in the cloud with the ability to scale as and when required. This data can be stored anywhere. - Database
The database domain is used to provide reliable relational and non relational database instances managed by Azure. - Networking
It lets you connect to cloud and on-premise infrastructure and services to get great user experience
Why is Microsoft Azure so widely used?
Azure is growing at a very fast rate and is trying to close the gap between itself and the market leader AWS in the cloud domain. There are some distinct features of Azure that are making it grow so fast in the cloud domain. In this Azure tutorial, we have listed some of the top reasons why Azure is being so widely used even though it is such a late entrant in the cloud domain:
- Azure offers a very good Platform as a Service (PaaS) with excellent tools and building blocks.
- It offers compatibility with .NET programming languages which is a great advantage.
- The security and data protection feature of Azure is second to none in the cloud domain.
- Azure offers excellent hybrid cloud features and easy migration from on-premise to cloud.
- It gives an integrated environment for app development, testing, and deployment in the cloud.
- You can learn Azure without any hassles and successfully set up an Azure cloud infrastructure.
- Azure has enterprise agreements with Windows users making it easy for them to migrate to Azure.
Features of Microsoft Azure
Here, we list some of the top features of Azure that are forcing enterprises of all sizes to move to the Azure cloud infrastructure:
- Azure search can be used to embed search functionality into any custom application.
- Azure ExpressRoute offers a direct connection between Azure data center and your on-premise environment.
- Secure, dedicated access to Redis cache is possible with Azure Redis Cache.
- Azure Batch lets you effortlessly run and execute your applications like an assembly line.
- Azure Data Factory lets you seamlessly work on the on-premise or cloud infrastructure.
- Azure Load Balancer is a cloud-based system that accepts client requests, determines which machines in the set can handle them, and then forwards those requests to the appropriate machines.