What is Microsoft Azure? A Mini-Guide to clear the clutter

What is Microsoft Azure?

You’ve surely heard about Microsoft Azure a lot. It has been the talk of the town. It would be a rare occurrence that you considered switching to the cloud and haven’t heard about Azure yet.  

Microsoft Azure is the second largest but the fastest-growing public, cloud-computing platform. Azure has more than 200 products and cloud services under its umbrella. Any cloud-computing product that could be useful to a business, can be found on the platform. It helps you digitally transform the way your business functions and operates.

Azure provides IaaS, PaaS and SaaS products. It acts as a  development, service management and hosting environment and provides data storage for hosting, managing and scaling web-apps along with computing services.

Simply put, it is an online platform that gives you ready-access to data and helps manage them on cloud.

Starting from the basics themselves. What is Cloud Computing? 

Using the internet to store and access your files, software and other services. It also gives you the flexibility to have extra storage space. It is easier for you to save and recover files when they are on the internet.  

So, where are the files stored when you start accessing your files and software via the cloud?

On the Datacenters which has massive remote servers – (that belong to the vendor), located around the world. In 2018, Microsoft said that Azure was available in 54 regions and that 12 new regions were being developed.

Where can you see the usage of Cloud Computing?

It is because of cloud computing that:

• You are able to stream your favourite web series and videos on the internet
• Gives you access to Machine Learning and Data Analysis
• Create and post blogs
• Data Storage and Backup
• and a lot more

What can you do with Microsoft Azure Cloud Migration? 

• Build Virtual Machines 
• Build Databases 
• You get access to 3rd party software that is tied up with Azure 
• Migrate and host your Apps, Servers, Databases and virtual desktops
• Store massive amounts of data on the cloud

Reasons why you should migrate to Microsoft Azure Cloud- 

• Backup & Disaster Recovery 
• Cutting-edge technology 
• Enhanced safety and security 

• Scalability 
• Cost efficiency (Pay-as-you-go Model) 

The benefits of switching to cloud are

• Improving on application performance 
• Flexibility on the working landscape 
• Increasing cost savings 
• High efficiency 
• No need to buy and maintain hardware/ physical infrastructure 

Disadvantages of Microsoft Azure:

• Massive Learning Curve – requires expertise
• Management can be hectic and time-consuming

How to start using Azure? 

By signing up to Azure’s pay-as-you-go service available in the portal. But if you want to test waters, you can do that by signing up with a free account and you’ll receive a $200 credit to be used up to a period of 30 days. 

What can you do with the $ 200 credit?

You can use your credit to try services that aren’t there on the free list.

Azure Services

Azure Services are bifurcated into 21 categories, which have 600 services

What is Azure Migration Services?

Azure’s own Migration tool that centralizes large-scale migration for servers, databases, applications, and even virtual desktops. It streamlines discovery, assessment and migration for these workloads and extensibility to ISV partner tools that give you choice throughout your migration journey. Finally, you can also track migration progress end-to-end with Azure Migrate Services.

Azure Certifications

Here’s a generic overview of the major Azure Certifications

If you’d like to know more about these certifications, you can visit this page from Microsoft which gives you extensive information.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Azure need you to learn to code?

You don’t need any programming skills for Azure. But you’ll need to know the fundamentals and you can learn more about it on the Microsoft Website or through online resources. But if you are looking forward to going into Developer roles, you would need to learn to code.

How long does it take to learn Azure?

How quickly you’ll be able to learn or grasp depends on your level of expertise and interest in cloud platforms and the basics of Networking. If your grasping power is good and it is your area of interest, you can finish the fundamentals course within a few days too.

Which is the best – AWS or Azure?

Although there can never be a clear cut comparison as the need of every organization is different. Azure may meet all the required needs and at the price for Company A but it might not be the same for Company B. Azure has better hybrid support when compared to AWS, but AWS has better documentation than Azure.

How do you choose between AWS and Azure? How to know which platform is right for you?

You can compare both the platforms on the features and services and their pricing models. Factors like storage, scalability, learning curve, future growth of the platform, support services, pricing, documentation etc. You’ll have to analyse based on these factors and you’ll soon reach an answer.

Should I certify myself in AWS or Azure?

AWS being the first entrant into the market leader amongst all other cloud platforms has more market share and popularity. Azure was launched 4 years after AWS and it is the second-largest cloud platform but also the fastest growing one. According to a research done by Indeed.com, the period between Oct 2015 and Oct 2019, shows that there was a steady increase in Job Seekers for the 3 biggest cloud platforms. But a recent report told a different story where web searches for AWS dropped by 5.5% while job seeker interest for Azure rose by 15.39%.” So the demand is slowly inclining towards Azure.

What can an Azure Solutions Architect do for you?

An Azure Solutions Architect from Infrassist will provide advice and guidance during the design of customer cloud solutions. The architect will help you choose the cloud service of your choice along with other service suggestions. You can expect pre-sales assistance and a strategically planned road map to execute and implement the project. They will be responsible for helping you map out a cloud computing strategy, create policies and it does the decision making for you.

What can an Azure Administrator do for you?

Once the Azure Solutions Architect helps you land on Azure Cloud, the Azure administrator would help you manage Cloud Services that range from Computing, Networking, Storage, Security and many such cloud functionalities within your Microsoft Azure Portal. The admin can help you set up Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Desktops, Load Balancers, Application Gateways, Azure AD DS, Site Recovery & migration, Backup, a hybrid Azure AD Infrastructure and a lot more. 

How can we help you? 

The Professional Services Team at Infrassist works on cloud services and does various projects surrounding Intune MDM/MAM, SharePoint, OneDrive, Autopilot, Power BI, Power Automate and a lot more. We also help set up DLP, enable Tenant Level Features, Identity and Access Management services. We also provide Azure Solutions Architect and an Azure Administrator to help you land on the Azure Cloud Platform and help you explore expansion opportunities.

Upcoming

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Lastly, if you need help with more such IT Solutions, feel free to reach out to us. We’ll be happy to resolve your queries.