The Azure cloud platform is more than 200 products and Azure cloud services designed to help you bring new solutions to life—to solve today’s challenges and create the future. Build, run and manage applications across multiple clouds, on-premises and at the edge, with the tools and frameworks of your choice. Microsoft Azure is a recognized leader in both private and public clouds. It’s an open cloud, providing access to over 200 preconfigured services and the choice to use the technologies you want and have already invested in. Azure provides a fully integrated set of IaaS and PaaS capabilities, including technologies like AI and machine learning, analytics, DevOps, internet of things, and security, all of which complement and integrate with on-premises systems
Solutions in Azure
Azure has a variety of Solutions to fulfill every purpose any Technology demands for and much more. Each Solution of Azure has a range of different Services for Industry Specific needs. Azure is most commonly used as a platform for hosting databases in the cloud. Microsoft offers server less relational databases such as Azure SQL and non-relational databases such as NoSQL. In addition, the platform is frequently used for backup and disaster recovery. Many organizations use Azure storage as archive in order to meet their long-term Data retention requirements.
Some most popular Azure Solutions are
1) Azure for Application Development
There are 12 solutions under this category with DevOps, E-Commerce, Internet of Things and Sever less Computing being the most popular ones.
2) Azure for Artificial Intelligence
This is a wide range of services that a developer can use to infuse artificial intelligence, machine learning and cognitive computing capabilities into applications and data sets.
3) Azure for Cloud Migration
This suite of tools helps an organization estimate workload Migration costs and perform the actual migration of workloads from local data centers to the Azure cloud. There are 10 different solutions just for Migrations that Azure offers. Some Solutions under this are SQL Server Migration, Windows Server Migration, SAP on Azure, Linux on Azure and much more.
4) Azure for Data and Analytics
These services provide distributed analytics and storage, as well as features for real-time analytics, big data analytics, data lakes, machine learning (ML), business intelligence (BI), internet of things (IoT) data streams and data warehousing.
5) Azure for Storage
This category of services provides scalable cloud storage for structured and unstructured data. It also supports big data projects, persistent storage and archival storage. Whether it is images, audio, video, logs, configuration files, or sensor data from an IoT array, data needs to be stored in a way that can be easily accessible for analysis purposes, and Azure Storage provides options for each one of these possible use cases. Azure Queue, Azure Blob, Azure Table and Azure Files are the types of storage Azure offers.
6) Azure for Security and Governance
These products provide capabilities to identify and respond to cloud security threats, as well as manage encryption keys and other sensitive assets. Some Solutions under this are Azure Governance, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Azure Confidential Computing and Azure Network Security.
To ensure availability, Microsoft has Azure data centers located around the world. As of January 2020, Microsoft Azure cloud services are available in 55 regions, spread across 140 countries. Unfortunately, not all services are available in all regions. Therefore, Azure users must ensure that workload and data storage locations comply with all prevailing compliance requirements or other legislation.
Benefits of Azure over On-Premises datacenters
1) It’s much Faster than on-premise solutions
When it comes to deployment speed and speed of scalability, Azure is well ahead of on premise. With an on-premise solution, if you want to expand operations or optimize workloads, you need new hardware, software updates and a team to implement them. Of course, that’s also assuming you have enough cooling capacity, power and physical storage space.
2) Azure VM makes you more productive and agile
One of the most powerful features in Azure is Azure VM (Virtual Machines). It allows you to create your own customized virtual machines within seconds by defining an operating system, language, and workload. This is something that is not possible with on-premise, as you need multiple machines for multiple operating systems.
3) Azure is cheaper than on-premise solutions
With Azure, you don’t have to invest in new machines, infrastructure, or replace aging servers. You also don’t need to make space for infrastructure and servers.
Azure, offers flexible expenditure, which means:
- You pay according to your needs.
- You pay more to get more.
- You save on energy, space, and cooling costs.
4) Azure is more Secure than on-premise solutions
Active Directory is a multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. It allows IT admins to give employees single sign-on (SSO) access to multiple cloud SaaS applications like SharePoint, Office 365 and more.
In addition, it offers an extensive suite of identity management services which include:
- Device registration.
- Multi-factor authentication.
- Role-based access control.
- Self-service group management.
- Application usage monitoring.
These services keep your business secure, ensuring only relevant users have access to your most sensitive information.
5) Azure isn’t just a storage, it’s a business tool
Azure is not just about easy access to data, security and cloud-based storage – it offers much more to businesses. It offers a complete delivery pipeline to organizations, which include:
- Source control
- Unit testing
- Integration testing
- Delivery
- Live tools and applications
Azure is recommended not only because it is popular, but because it makes sense for your business. It has better security features and offers greater speed, reliability and scalability compared to on-premise solutions. No only that, but it’s cheaper as well.
Managed Services Providers for Azure
Microsoft Azure offers numerous cloud-based solutions for your business. With IaaS, PaaS and SaaS offerings, Azure can provide solutions to fit a variety of business needs. Microsoft has continuously improved their service offerings since Azure launched in 2010. As Azure has increased in feature offerings and overall reach across the business world, supporting companies have sprung up to help business manage Azure effectively. Going to an outside expert with Azure best practices, precise skills, and extra industry certifications is one of the smartest business decisions you can make.
Using a Partner
When deciding on Azure, there are other management options than running it yourself. Some companies have no trouble managing Azure and devote entire departments to this task. But for many companies, this isn’t possible. Finding Azure talent can pose problems, let alone trying to develop a team that can cover Azure’s range of services. This is where a azure managed service provider can help. In the simplest terms, they take over the daily management and upkeep of your Azure systems (no matter the size or scope) while working closely in your requirements and helping future cloud planning.
Why use a managed service provider?
Azure is a multifaceted, flexible, and powerful system. This also means it’s a system that can be complex to use if you’re not intimately familiar. Even if you have the knowledge to manage your own system, you may not have the time to do so. Every hour spent managing your Azure systems is an hour that cannot be used for your company’s core business operations.
This is why a azure managed service provider is so valuable. They oversee and manage your Azure system to your specifications allowing you to focus on more pressing matters. By working with a skilled partner, you gain access to experienced and certified engineers without the need to interview and hire new employees. They come with years of industry experience, Microsoft best practices, and work in Azure every day.
A azure managed service provider ensures your company is using your Azure systems to your fullest potential.
Our Azure CoE with more than 600+ Azure certified cloud experts experienced in Azure tools such as Azure Compute, Azure Site Recovery, Azure Active Directory, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Managed Storage, Azure Sentinel, Azure Security Center, Azure ATP. Alif’s in-house computing, networking, storage, migration, and security tools ensure seamless migration and Azure managed services. This not only reduces the operational expenditure of enterprises but even increases the in-house workforce efficiency. Azure cloud services from Alif enhances collaboration between workforce, and the vendors with a 360-degree view of all tasks and processes.