What Does Azure Do?
Microsoft has a large, well-maintained directory offering Azure services and this is being
added to all the time. Everything you need to build your virtual network is there, along
with everything needed to deliver applications or services:
- Virtual Machines – use any one of the many templates or use your own
machine images to create a Linux or a Microsoft virtual machine in just a few
minutes to host services and apps. - SQL Databases – Azure offers Managed relational databases as a service, with
no limit on how many you use. This equals time and cost savings on software,
hardware and IT experts. - Azure Active Directory Domain – using the technology that powered
Windows Active Directory, this one allows you to manage authentication, group
policy and anything else remotely, making it simple to move your security
structure over to the cloud. - Application Services – Azure makes it simple to create applications that are
compatible with all portable and web platforms and deploy them globally. Azure
WebApps makes it easy to manage the production of applications, testing and
deploying them quickly and there are a series of ready-made APIs for the more
popular cloud services. - Visual Studio Team Services – an Azure add-on, this provides a complete
cloud solution for Application Lifecycle Management, providing developers with
the ability to share code changes, track them, load test and deliver their
applications globally. - Storage – lastly, Azure provides secure data storage that is fully accessible and
competitively priced.