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Azure is a cloud computing platform that can provide everything a business needs to run all or part of its computing operations virtually—including servers, storage, databases, networking, analytics and more.
Traditionally, the only option available to companies was to build and manage the physical hardware needed for computing, including servers, disk storage and Ethernet switches. But today, companies can use a public cloud computing platform like Azure, which purchases and maintains all the computing hardware. This means companies can effectively “rent” hardware resources as needed.
You can pick and choose among Azure’s services to get the support needed for your business operations—namely building, deploying, and managing applications. And because you’re renting the computing resources, you don’t have the costs and inefficiencies (like a dedicated IT department) associated with the physical hardware that naturally goes along with those activities. Many companies today are choosing to use some combination of cloud computing and on-premise datacenters. Some are even utilizing multiple cloud computing services depending on their needs and requirements.
Below are some key concepts/definitions around Azure.
Regions Azure is a global cloud platform which is available across various regions around the world. When you request a service, application, or VM in Azure, you are first asked to specify a region. The selected region represents datacenter where your application runs.
Datacenter In Azure, you can deploy your applications into a variety of data centers around the globe. So, it is advisable to select a region which is closer to most of your customers. It helps you to reduce latency in network requests.
Azure portal The Azure portal is a web-based application which can be used to create, manage and remove Azure resource and services. It is located at https://portal.azure.com.
Resources Azure resource is an individual computer, networking data or app hosting services which charged individually. Some common resources are virtual machines( VM), storage account, or SQL databases.
Resource groups An Azure resource group is a container which holds related resource for an Azure solution. It may include every resource or just resource which you wants to manage.
Resource Manager templates It is a JSON which defines one or more resource to deploy to a resource group. It also establishes dependencies between deployed resources.
Automation: Azure allows you to automate the process of creating, managing and deleting resource by using PowerShell or the Azure command-line Interface(CLI).
Azure PowerShell PowerShell is a set of modules that offer cmdlets to manage Azure. In most cases, you are allowed to use, the cmdlets command for the same tasks which you are performing in the Azure portal.
Azure command-line interface(CLI) The Azure CLI is a tool that you can use to create, manage, and remove Azure resources from the command line.
REST APIs Azure is built on a set of REST APIs help you perform the same operation that you do in Azure portal Ul. It allows your Azure resources and apps to be manipulated via any third party software application.
Businesses of all sizes find value in using the public cloud, and many of them are choosing Azure. In fact, Azure is used by 85% of Fortune 500 companies.
Azure is also appealing to many small and medium sized businesses. One reason for this is that it helps SMBs avoid huge capital outlays for equipment; it also removes the burden of upgrades and maintenance, as smaller organizations may not have in-house experts readily available to provide support. And because Azure makes it easy to add or remove computing resources in minutes as compared to hours (or days!), it provides increased flexibility that businesses simply wouldn’t have with a traditional on-premise datacenter.
A recent survey from Information Technology Intelligence Consulting showed that 79% of corporations require a minimum of 99.99% uptime for “mission-critical hardware, operating systems and main line of business applications.” The survey data also showed that 81% of businesses (across 47 vertical markets) estimate the average hourly cost of downtime exceeds $300,000. One-third of responding companies indicated that just a single hour of downtime could cost anywhere from $1 million to over $5 million. Is it any wonder that most businesses are making disaster recovery a high priority while looking for easier ways to implement it?
With Azure, your business gains a strong disaster recovery solution—one that also comes with a more affordable price tag than those associated with traditional computing environments. With Azure, you get access to:
- Multiple datacenters for data storage, which allows you to deploy a cloud service to different locations around the world.
- Azure Site Recovery, a service that helps ensure your critical business applications stay online during an outage or disruption by replicating those workloads from a primary site to a secondary location.
- Azure Traffic Manager, which automates network routing to different locations (predetermined by you) in case of a region-specific failure.
- 3x data replication, which means all the data you store in Azure is copied three times, either to a single or a secondary datacenter.
With the cloud, you can virtually expand your resource base, and quickly decrease it when you’re done. Plus, you’re only paying for the resources you need and not wasting money when they’re not being used.
Azure has tools built in that monitor and analyze your utilization of cloud resources, which can help you determine benefits from decreasing or adjusting your computing environment. And if a change is warranted, you can make it in seconds.
Traditionally, on-premise computing environments don’t have a lot of room for development and testing. That often means companies have to purchase new hardware/software for development purposes, or push off development tasks until they have sufficient room in the system. The result is decreased productivity, fewer innovations and higher costs.
Azure, on the other hand, is the perfect place for development! Since you’re only paying for the resources you need (known as utility computing), developers can easily build out all possible scenarios and run through testing without having to purchase new equipment. On top of that, developers gain immediate access to a variety of templates, services and solutions, helping reduce the time it takes to bring new innovations to market.
Azure DevOps features include:
• Microsoft’s Visual Studio Team Services (free for up to five users), which is a set of services that support collaboration among development teams. This feature allows teams to organize work items and manage source code, among other things.
• Easy integration of other traditional DevOps tools, including Jenkins, Chef, Terraform and Ansible.
• Azure DevTest Labs, which is a service that helps developers and QA teams to quickly create cost-efficient test environments in Azure.
One of the greatest benefits of Azure (or any public cloud platform) is its cost-efficiency. There are three primary reasons Azure is so practical when it comes to cost:
• You won’t have to make the large initial investment associated with building an on-premise or remote datacenter. Cloud computing also eliminates the need to buy additional software for development or increased workloads down the road. You won’t need to purchase replacement hardware (as most computing hardware has an average lifecycle of 2-3 years).
• You’ll avoid the costs associated with service calls and warranty renewals.
• You won’t have to pay for any resources other than those you need, as Azure bills per second used, rounded down to the last minute. Take a look at Azure’s pricing page for more details.
These Microsoft Azure features are essential to gaining maximum cost savings:
• Azure Cost Management is a SaaS solution designed specifically for organizations employing a multi-cloud strategy. It provides the ability to monitor, allocate and optimize use of the cloud. (Cloud spend is the number one concern for organizations, in part because of the complexity of cloud pricing and billing. In fact, a 2017 report found that users have wasted an estimated $10 billion of cloud spend—so this tool is of great value!)
• Azure Reserved VM Instances (RIs) let you reserve virtual machines (a simulation of a physical machine) on a one- or three-year term. Purchasing a reservation gives you a discount on running VMs, which saves you money. It also gives you some degree of price predictability for budgeting purposes.
• Azure pricing calculator is a tool that helps you figure out what you will be paying for Azure setup. You can adjust the variables to see how they would impact cost, from computing and networking to databases, analytics and developer tools. Compare these numbers to what you’re paying for on-premises and you can begin calculating ROI. (Here’s a resource with information about how enterprises are calculating cloud ROI.)
Azure’s cloud computing service gives IT departments access to a huge number of resources they wouldn’t normally have with an on-premises datacenter. For instance, many forward-thinking companies are looking to apply machine learning and automation to their data analysis to enable better decision-making. Using Azure, you can easily incorporate those capabilities into your systems—no data science expertise or costly resources needed. Or, you may want to deploy a Linux server, which, in a traditional computing environment, requires a series of rules to get up and running. This can take anywhere from several hours to a few days to complete. But with Azure, you can set up your Linux server in less than five minutes.
To improve your business agility, look for these features in Azure:
• Azure Quickstart Templates help you deploy hundreds of Azure resources quickly and consistently, every time.
• Azure Marketplace, the app store of Azure’s datacenter applications, makes it easy to find, try and deploy any cloud software you want, on the fly. The Marketplace is one of my favorite parts of Azure, because it’s easy to navigate and has so many software options.
• Azure Machine Learning Services and Azure AI Platform help you build artificial intelligence applications.
BINPIPE aims to simplify learning for those who are looking to make a foothold in the industry. Write to me at [email protected] if you are looking for tailor-made training sessions. For self-study resources look around in this repository, the Binpipe Blog and Youtube Channel.
📒 Maintainer: Prasanjit Singh | www.binpipe.org
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