Internet usage is at its peak during this decade. Many fields function primarily over the internet. Application developers and program developers form a big part of this group. These people spend a lot of time and resources on their work. Luckily, cloud computing has made things easier for them. With the help of cloud computing, everything can be done in one place. Microsoft Azure is one of the best cloud computing services. What do we mean by cloud computing? What is Microsoft Azure for students? Let us find out the answers to all our questions.
What is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft is a big company in the world of technology. It provides a number of services and products. Thus, it has a reputation and a successful legacy. The company came up with the idea of Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Azure for students is a platform that provides cloud computing services to internet users. Microsoft released it in the year 2010, in the month of February. Other famous cloud computing services were already running for years by then. Hence, this was a surprising move by Microsoft. However, Microsoft Azure soon became popular and rose in its ranks. It is now a frontrunner in the area of cloud computing.
What is cloud computing?
Before we understand “what is Microsoft Azure?” let us understand the meaning of cloud computing. Cloud computing is a collection of computer resources that are available for use over the internet. These are online data centers. People can work on their data without having to actively manage the system. Thus, it is a handy resource for everyone. There are different resources available according to everyone’s requirements. It includes application development, data computing, and data storage. Apart from these, there are many other resources available. Working on cloud computing is convenient and efficient. Therefore, most companies now manage their data through cloud computing services.
Microsoft Azure for students
As we have seen, Microsoft Azure for students is a cloud computing service. It is popularly known as Azure. People can create, manage, and store applications using Azure. Additionally, there are many other services available on this platform. It is a global platform. Thus, it is used by individuals and companies all over the world. Despite its late launch, it has become one of the best cloud computing platforms. In fact, most of the top companies use Azure for their cloud computing requirements. Another remarkable feature is that its centers are spread all over. It is available in around 54 areas across all continents.
What makes Azure so desirable? There are various reasons. Firstly, it is a public platform. Thus, anyone with the internet can access it. Secondly, it offers diverse tools and services. It is useful for software developers, large organizations, as well as e-commerce companies. There are more than 20 categories of services in Azure. Additionally, it also hosts third-party services on its platform. Finally, it is economically viable. Azure only charges the user for the services they use. Thus, it is cost-effective. Once users subscribe to Microsoft Azure, they only get billed for the services they used.
Features of Microsoft Azure
What is Microsoft Azure for students capable of providing? The list is long and impressive. At the basic level, Azure provides four types of cloud computing. The first type is infrastructure as a service. It is also known as IaaS. Next comes the platform as a service, also known as PaaS. A third type is a software as a service. It is also referred to as SaaS. The final type is serverless. Virtual machines, backup and storage, database, and application development are the most common services. If we sort them into categories, we can understand each service properly. Thus, let us check out the different services on Azure.
Compute
Microsoft Azure for students is a cloud “computing” service. Compute is the set of resources that help in developing and managing applications. There are different categories in the compute section in Azure. We have Virtual machines, Cloud service, Service fabric, and Batch. We also have Virtual machine scale sets and Functions. Using Virtual machines, we can create servers like Linux and Windows. With Cloud service, we can deploy applications. Virtual machine scale sets are an interesting feature. Using it, we can deploy identical virtual machines. We can also do auto-scaling. Using Batch, we can schedule workloads on different virtual machines.
Mobile
Microsoft Azure provides the platform to develop and manage mobile applications. Mobile Apps help us to deploy mobile services. App developers can design apps for different platforms. They can design applications for iOS, Windows, and Android. They can also manage the notifications from Azure. Further, they can also perform back-end functions of the applications. Thus, it is very useful for managing mobile applications.
Web
Microsoft Azure also provides a platform for developing web applications and interfaces. Web Apps help us to deploy web services. It provides tools to create webpages. Azure helps in formatting and optimizing web applications. Further, it can create different functions like navigation, search, and notification for the web application. To wrap it up, it provides a platform to create a web application with all its features. Thus, developers can include every aspect of a web application with the help of Microsoft Azure.
With APIs, we can add special features to our applications. We can inter-link Mobile Apps, Web Apps, APIs, and Logic Apps. This is convenient for application development. With Media Services, we can deploy media management applications on the cloud. We also have CDN which stands for Content Distribution Network. With CDN, we can deliver high bandwidth content delivery. We can deliver content across different geographical regions. CDN improves the performance and quality of content for the users.
Storage
This is one of the most attractive features of Microsoft Azure. Azure provides storage for structured as well as unstructured data. There are different options and categories. Companies can select their plan depending upon the data size and their requirements. They can scale up or scale down their plan according to their changing needs. Thus, cloud storage as per demand is what makes Microsoft Azure appealing to big companies.
The options in Storage include Blob, Table, Queue, File, and Backup. It also includes Site Recovery, Data Lake Store, and StorSimple. One can store unstructured data using Blob. Similarly, one can create tables in the cloud using Table. The Queue is a unique option. People can post messages in the cloud using Queue. Additionally, they can follow the message thread and read the messages. People can use File to create shared files on the cloud. In this way, different Storage services provide different features.
Analytics
Microsoft Azure is also a platform for data analysis. Thus, let us check the different features available. There is HD Insight, Machine Learning, and Cognitive Services. We also have Data Lake Analytics and Stream Analytics. HD Insight is a cloud distribution made available on Microsoft Azure. Using Machine Learning, we can deploy a predictive analytics model on the cloud. In Cognitive services, there are different APIs. Some of them include facial recognition and speech recognition. We can include these in our own applications. Thus, it will make our applications more interactive.
Using Stream Analytics, we can analyze the stream of events on a real-time basis. We can take action on the basis of this information. With Data Lake Analytics, we can analyze data on a hyper-scale.
Network
We can create a virtual network using Microsoft Azure. There are different features available in the Network section of Azure. These include Load Balancer, VNet, Application Gateway, Traffic Manager, and Express Route. It also includes VPN and DNS features. We can create a virtual network on Microsoft Azure. This network has its own IP address. Load Balancer provides high-availability solutions. Application Gateway is even more efficient than Load Balancer. Using the Application Gateway, you can deliver high-availability solutions. With Traffic Manager, you can route the traffic between different data centers. All these features perform the same function. However, they function in different capacities.
Security
Now, we move on to the Security feature in Microsoft Azure. In Security, we have Azure AD, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure B2C, and Azure MFA. Azure AD is a Microsoft multi-talent cloud base directory. Additionally, it is also an identity management service. We can sync our on-premises active directory with Azure AD. Using the Key Vault, we can streamline the key management process. We can securely store our keys using this. Most experts recommend using Azure AD and Key Vault while using Microsoft Azure. These are very secure platforms. In the Security Center, we can set policies and see recommendations. Further, it identifies threats. As a result, we can manage these in the Security Center.
Azure B2C is a cloud identity management system for mobile and web applications. We can manage the identities of all users by using Azure B2C. Additionally, Microsoft offers two-factor authentication in the form of Azure MFA. It is in-demand as it is more secure.
Databases
Companies can create and manage their databases on Azure. Due to its vast range of functions, it is a versatile platform. Hence, most big companies prefer Microsoft Azure. According to some research, a majority of the top companies use Azure as their cloud computing service. It is reliable, efficient, and economical.
In databases, we have Redis Cache, Data Factory, and Cosmos DB. Additionally, we have SQL DB, SQL DW, and SQL SD. SQL DB is having a SQL database on the cloud. Similarly, SQL DW is having a SQL data warehouse on the cloud. With SQL SD, you can migrate data without changing the application. Cosmos DB is a recent concept. Using Cosmos DB, you can deploy a globally distributed database. With the help of Data Factory, you can extract data from a source and transform it. Thus, these are the database services available on Microsoft Azure.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
In EAI, we have Service Bus, Biztalk Services, and Logic Apps. Service Bus includes subscriptions, topics, and cues. Biztalk Services is a flagship product of Microsoft. They are offering this service on the cloud. With Logic apps, you can build workflows. Therefore, it has a lot of potential.
Internet of Things
In this section, we have IoT Hub, Event Hubs, and Notification Hubs. With IoT Hub, we can register a device. We can also obtain the data from the device and store it. Event Hubs is a subset of IoT Hub. We can store events and process them on a large scale. Finally, with the help of Notification Hubs, we can send notifications to different devices.
Monitoring
In Monitoring, we have Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Advisor, Application Insights, and Automation. With Azure Monitor, we can monitor all diagnostic logs, activities, and metrics. Thus, it is useful for basic monitoring. We can monitor all Azure services in the same place using Azure Monitor. Using Log Analytics, we can get the data or logs for different sources. We can pull data from different data sources. Afterward, we can apply analytics to it. The Advisor is an interesting feature of Microsoft Azure. It will advise you on how to minimize your Azure costs. Further, it will give you insights on how you use different applications on Azure. With Automation, you can automate different Azure tasks. Thus, it will make things easier for you.
Tools
There are a number of tools available in Microsoft Azure. It is a very attractive feature of Azure. Thus, it gives Azure an edge over its competitors. Some of the tools are Visual Studio, Azure PowerShell, and REST APIs. We can develop different kinds of apps using Visual Studio. With Azure PowerShell, you can manage the different Azure services that you use. ARM templates help you deploy the same configuration multiple times. Storage explorer and Emulator help you to maintain the Azure storage.
Final Thoughts
Microsoft provides a large scale of services in Microsoft Azure. What is Microsoft Azure for students? It is a vast platform. There is a high range of services and features available on Microsoft Azure. This makes it one of the most popular cloud computing platforms. Thus, most people prefer using Microsoft Azure to avail of different cloud computing services.