What is Microsoft Azure?

Azure is a set of Microsoft solutions, developed to offer technological support to enterprises and businesses of different sizes and segments. Check out in this post the main aspects and possible applications for this service. 

In this post, you will learn about:

What is Azure?
What are the main services of Azure?
How much does its implementation cost?
Where to learn more about Azure?

What is Azure?

To talk about the possibilities and tools of Azure, we need to understand the context of today's world, where technology is a high priority in companies of all existing business segments. Whether in industry, commerce, health, services, the military or even governments, there is increasing investment in technologies to reduce costs, maximize gains, improve processes, among others.  

In this sense, it is natural that the technology giants offer technological support solutions for organizations. Google owns the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon has the Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft owns the Azure. 

In practice, all these services offer migration to the cloud, an increasingly important practice for the digital transformation of companies, which consists of running a company's applications and systems without the need to use its own servers and processing, representing, in many cases, sometimes at a lower operating cost.

Of course, for this to happen in a safe and organized way, there are several services and guidelines linked to these solutions. It is also worth mentioning that an operation will not always be entirely operated in the cloud, as there are hybrid systems (but that is a topic for another post). 

Azure, therefore, can be considered a hub of several services (each with its own characteristics) developed to optimize business processes, encompassing not only cloud hosting but Business intelligence and even Artificial Intelligence! 

What are the main services of Azure?

As already mentioned, there are many services and products that are part of the Azure hub (and there are many, more than 200, what can be checked here). However, the main and most used are: 

Storage and backup 
Through redundancy of backup copies in several data centers around the world, Microsoft guarantees the integrity of the organization's files, even in cases of possible natural disasters. Therefore, it is a good option for storing sensitive company information.
 

Virtual Machines and Cloud Applications
Azure allows the hiring of processing resources to create so-called virtual machines, allowing teams to have access to computers with different configurations, without the need to purchase physical hardware. In addition to the virtual “hardware”, it is possible to use various applications (ie software) from the cloud, without the need to install any program on the user's machine. This is the case with emails, office, calendars and several other applications provided by Microsoft.
 

Network Management 
When migrating to the cloud or virtualizing the operation of a company, there must be an efficient management of the behavior of these networks. For this reason, Azure has a powerful management system, capable of performing maintenance, analyzing processes and verifying security from the same dashboard. 

Integrations and development
One of the main strengths of Azure is the possibility of “talking” with other solutions from Microsoft itself. An example of this is the possibility of using Azure together with Power Apps, for example, which is a powerful tool capable of creating fully customized applications according to the user's needs.  

In this sense, the same occurs with Power BI, Microsoft's own BI tool, where it is possible to make several database integrations and other elements.

Speaking of Power BI… did you know we have an entire post about this amazing platform? Access by clicking here. 

Databases 
When we talk about SQL databases, there is practically a consensus among developers that Microsoft, in general, offers one of the best services and this is no different with Azure. Thanks to the very well-structured system and great compatibility, with Azure it is possible to manage and migrate SQL databases in a simple and intuitive way.
 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Many experts say that the future of computing is linked to these two elements, which allow a platform to make extremely refined analyzes from diverse data, always aiming at the best insights for decision making, among others. Such tools allow the system to “learn” to act autonomously, making the best decisions, based on interactions with users and information provided by professionals. THE Azure Synapse Analytics is an example of this type of technology offered by the platform. 

It is important to note that there are several other services available on Azure, related to DevOps, Integrations, Calculations, Security and much more!

Image Source: datashift

How much does its implementation cost?

Azure operational costs are designed and scaled based on usage. As we are talking about a service that offers a wide range of applications and services, it is difficult to establish a value for the implementation, since each company has specific needs. There are free Azure solutions (with some limitations) that can perfectly suit some business models. It is worth remembering that in addition to the platform itself, a professional or specialist team will be needed to assist in the implementation and maintenance of this platform. stack (it is us fa VFR Tech are experts at this!) 
 
Na official page of Microsoft, we can understand how Azure pricing and billing system works. 

Where to learn more about Azure? 

What we saw here is just the tip of the iceberg. Azure is a widely used tool and certainly extremely valued in the technology market in general. If you are interested in learning more about this incredible platform, Microsoft's own website offers content free and quality for your first steps in Azure. There you can even prepare for official Azure certifications. 
 
Also, soon we will have a video about one of these certifications, the AZ-900, then sign up in the newsletter and stay tuned for news.