About azure
Azure is the cloud computing platform from Microsoft that provides a range of tools for all businesses. It is especially powerful in IT-based sectors like software engineering and DevOps, but also helps companies in diverse industries with data analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more.
The service offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) through its online portal. It follows a pay-as-you-go model, whereby subscribers only pay for the resources and services they use.
Its extensive range of cloud services include Azure backup and recovery, which allows for the quick restoration of critical applications; Azure Site Recovery, which replicates workloads to a secondary datacenter; and Azure Traffic Manager, which routes traffic to different locations around the world based on predetermined criteria. The platform also provides a Content Delivery Network to accelerate content delivery by storing data close to users, which reduces latency and improves performance.
Aside from these foundational services, the azure offerings also include compute and storage for applications. For instance, it provides managed file storage with both HDD and SSD options, as well as stable message queueing with the queue storage service. Additionally, azure supports development through a variety of programming languages and frameworks, and it includes tools for application monitoring, log analytics, patching and backup. Its security features include Azure Identity Manager, which manages access and role-based permissions. It also offers Azure Security Center, which helps to protect against common threats with a variety of advanced capabilities.