Microsoft Azure

Key Features and Services of Azure

1. Compute

   • Virtual Machines (VMs): Provides scalable computing capacity in the cloud, suitable for a wide range of workloads.
   • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Managed Kubernetes container orchestration service for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications.
   • Azure Functions: Serverless compute service that allows developers to run event-triggered code without provisioning or managing infrastructure.

2. Storage

   • Azure Blob Storage: Object storage service for storing and serving large amounts of unstructured data.
   • Azure Files: Managed file shares in the cloud that can be accessed via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.
   • Azure Disk Storage: Persistent, high-performance block storage for VMs.

3. Networking

   • Azure Virtual Network (VNet): Isolated and customizable network environment where Azure resources can securely communicate with each other.
   • Azure Load Balancer: Distributes incoming traffic across multiple VMs to ensure high availability and scalability.
   • Azure VPN Gateway: Provides secure, encrypted connections between on-premises networks and Azure Virtual Networks.

4. Databases

   • Azure SQL Database: Fully managed relational database service based on Microsoft SQL Server.
   • Azure Cosmos DB: Globally distributed, multi-model database service designed for low-latency and scalable applications.
   • Azure Database for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB: Fully managed database services for open-source databases.

5. AI and Machine Learning

   • Azure Machine Learning: Cloud-based platform for building, training, and deploying machine learning models.
   • Azure Cognitive Services: Pre-built AI models that developers can easily integrate into their applications for vision, speech, language, and decision capabilities.

6. Developer Tools

   • Azure DevOps: Services for agile planning, continuous integration, and continuous delivery (CI/CD) to enable collaboration between development and operations teams.
   • Azure SDKs and APIs: Libraries and APIs for integrating Azure services into applications built using various programming languages and frameworks.

7. Security and Identity

   • Azure Active Directory (Azure AD): Cloud-based identity and access management service for controlling access to applications and resources.
   • Azure Security Center: Unified security management system that provides advanced threat protection across hybrid cloud workloads.
   • Azure Key Vault: Securely store and manage sensitive information such as keys, passwords, and certificates.

8. Internet of Things (IoT)

   • Azure IoT Hub: Managed service for bi-directional communication between IoT devices and Azure cloud.
   • Azure IoT Central: Fully managed IoT software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for quickly building and managing IoT applications.

9. Analytics and Big Data

   • Azure Synapse Analytics: Unified analytics platform for data integration, enterprise data warehousing, and big data analytics.
   • Azure HDInsight: Fully managed cloud service for big data analytics that supports popular open-source frameworks such as Hadoop, Spark, Hive, and HBase.

10. Hybrid and Multi-Cloud

    • Azure Arc: Extends Azure management and services to any infrastructure, including on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments.
    • Azure Stack: Azure services and capabilities on-premises to enable hybrid cloud scenarios and edge computing.