What is Azure?

 6 minutes

Azure is a continually expanding set of cloud services that help your organization meet
your current and future business challenges. Azure gives you the freedom to build,
manage, and deploy applications on a massive global network using your favorite tools
and frameworks.

What does Azure offer?

With help from Azure, you have everything you need to build your next great solution.
The following table lists several of the benefits that Azure provides, so you can easily
invent with purpose.

Be ready for the future: Continuous innovation from Microsoft supports your development
today and your product visions for tomorrow.

Build on your terms: You have choices. With a commitment to open source, and support for all
languages and frameworks, build how you want and deploy where you want to.

Operate hybrid seamlessly: On-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge--we'll meet you where
you are. Integrate and manage your environments with tools and services designed for a hybrid
cloud solution.
Trust your cloud: Get security from the ground up, backed by a team of experts, and proactive
compliance trusted by enterprises, governments, and startups.

What can I do with Azure?

Azure provides more than 100 services that enable you to do everything from running
your existing applications on virtual machines to exploring new software paradigms,
such as intelligent bots and mixed reality.

Many teams start exploring the cloud by moving their existing applications to virtual
machines that run in Azure. Migrating your existing apps to virtual machines is a good
start, but the cloud is much more than a different place to run your virtual machines.

For example, Azure provides AI and machine-learning services that can naturally
communicate with your users through vision, hearing, and speech. It also provides
storage solutions that dynamically grow to accommodate massive amounts of data.
Azure services enable solutions that aren't feasible without the power of the cloud.

How does Azure work?

What is the Azure portal?

The Azure portal is a web-based, unified console that provides an alternative to
command-line tools. With the Azure portal, you can manage your Azure subscription by
using a graphical user interface. You can:
  Build, manage, and monitor everything from simple web apps to complex cloud
deployments.
 Create custom dashboards for an organized view of resources.
 Configure accessibility options for an optimal experience.

The Azure portal is designed for resiliency and continuous availability. It maintains a
presence in every Azure datacenter. This configuration makes the Azure portal resilient
to individual datacenter failures and avoids network slowdowns by being close to users.
The Azure portal updates continuously and requires no downtime for maintenance
activities.
What is Azure Marketplace?
Azure Marketplace helps connect users with Microsoft partners, independent software
vendors, and startups that are offering their solutions and services, which are optimized
to run on Azure. Azure Marketplace customers can find, try, purchase, and provision
applications and services from hundreds of leading service providers. All solutions and
services are certified to run on Azure.
The solution catalog spans several industry categories such as open-source container
platforms, virtual machine images, databases, application build and deployment
software, developer tools, threat detection, and blockchain. Using Azure Marketplace,
you can provision end-to-end solutions quickly and reliably, hosted in your own Azure
environment. At the time of writing, there are more than 8,000 listings.
Azure Marketplace is designed for IT pros and cloud developers interested in
commercial and IT software. Microsoft partners also use it as a launch point for all joint
go-to-market activities.

Tour of Azure services

 11 minutes

Azure can help you tackle tough business challenges. You bring your requirements,
creativity, and favorite software development tools. Azure brings a massive global
infrastructure that's always available for you to build your applications on.

Let's take a quick tour of the high-level services Azure offers.

Azure overview

Azure services
Here's a big-picture view of the available services and features in Azure.
Let's take a closer look at the most commonly used categories:

 Compute
 Networking
 Storage
 Mobile
 Databases
 Web
 Internet of Things (IoT)
 Big data
 AI
 DevOps

Compute

Compute services are often one of the primary reasons why companies move to the
Azure platform. Azure provides a range of options for hosting applications and services.
Here are some examples of compute services in Azure.

Service name Service function

Azure Virtual Machines Windows or Linux virtual machines (VMs) hosted in Azure.
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets Scaling for Windows or Linux VMs hosted in Azure.
Azure Kubernetes Service Cluster management for VMs that run containerized services.
Azure Service Fabric Distributed systems platform that runs in Azure or on-premises.
Azure Batch Managed service for parallel and high-performance computing applica
Azure Container Instances Containerized apps run on Azure without provisioning servers or VMs
Azure Functions An event-driven, serverless compute service.

Networking

Linking compute resources and providing access to applications is the key function of
Azure networking. Networking functionality in Azure includes a range of options to
connect the outside world to services and features in the global Azure datacenters.

Here are some examples of networking services in Azure.

Service name Service function
Azure Virtual Network Connects VMs to incoming virtual private network (VPN) connections.
Azure Load Balancer Balances inbound and outbound connections to applications or service end
Azure Application Gateway Optimizes app server farm delivery while increasing application security.
Azure VPN Gateway Accesses Azure Virtual Networks through high-performance VPN gateway
Azure DNS Provides ultra-fast DNS responses and ultra-high domain availability.
Azure Content Delivery Network Delivers high-bandwidth content to customers globally.
Azure DDoS Protection Protects Azure-hosted applications from distributed denial of service (DDO
Azure Traffic Manager Distributes network traffic across Azure regions worldwide.
Azure ExpressRoute Connects to Azure over high-bandwidth dedicated secure connections.
Azure Network Watcher Monitors and diagnoses network issues by using scenario-based analysis.
Azure Firewall Implements high-security, high-availability firewall with unlimited scalabi
Azure Virtual WAN Creates a unified wide area network (WAN) that connects local and remote

Storage

Azure provides four main types of storage services.

Service name Service function

Azure Blob Storage service for very large objects, such as video files or bitmaps.
storage
Azure File File shares that can be accessed and managed like a file server.
storage
Azure Queue A data store for queuing and reliably delivering messages between applications.
storage
Azure Table Table storage is a service that stores non-relational structured data (also known as structured No
storage cloud, providing a key/attribute store with a schemaless design..

These services all share several common characteristics:

 Durable and highly available with redundancy and replication.

 Secure through automatic encryption and role-based access control.
 Scalable with virtually unlimited storage.
 Managed, handling maintenance and any critical problems for you.
 Accessible from anywhere in the world over HTTP or HTTPS.
Mobile

With Azure, developers can create mobile back-end services for iOS, Android, and
Windows apps quickly and easily. Features that used to take time and increase project
risks, such as adding corporate sign-in and then connecting to on-premises resources
such as SAP, Oracle, SQL Server, and SharePoint, are now simple to include.

Other features of this service include:

 Offline data synchronization.

 Connectivity to on-premises data.
 Broadcasting push notifications.
 Autoscaling to match business needs.

Databases

Azure provides multiple database services to store a wide variety of data types and
volumes. And with global connectivity, this data is available to users instantly.

Service name Service function

Azure Cosmos DB Globally distributed database that supports NoSQL options.
Azure SQL Database Fully managed relational database with auto-scale, integral intelligence, an
Azure Database for MySQL Fully managed and scalable MySQL relational database with high availab
Azure Database for PostgreSQL Fully managed and scalable PostgreSQL relational database with high ava
SQL Server on Azure Virtual Service that hosts enterprise SQL Server apps in the cloud.
Machines
Azure Synapse Analytics Fully managed data warehouse with integral security at every level of scal
Azure Database Migration Service Service that migrates databases to the cloud with no application code chan
Azure Cache for Redis Fully managed service caches frequently used and static data to reduce da
latency.
Azure Database for MariaDB Fully managed and scalable MariaDB relational database with high availa

Web

Having a great web experience is critical in today's business world. Azure includes first-
class support to build and host web apps and HTTP-based web services. The following
Azure services are focused on web hosting.
Service name Description
Azure App Service Quickly create powerful cloud web-based apps.
Azure Notification Hubs Send push notifications to any platform from any back end.
Azure API Management Publish APIs to developers, partners, and employees securely and
Azure Cognitive Search Deploy this fully managed search as a service.
Web Apps feature of Azure App Service Create and deploy mission-critical web apps at scale.
Azure SignalR Service Add real-time web functionalities easily.

IoT

People are able to access more information than ever before. Personal digital assistants
led to smartphones, and now there are smart watches, smart thermostats, and even
smart refrigerators. Personal computers used to be the norm. Now the internet allows
any item that's online-capable to access valuable information. This ability for devices to
garner and then relay information for data analysis is referred to as IoT.

Many services can assist and drive end-to-end solutions for IoT on Azure.

Service Description
name
IoT Central Fully managed global IoT software as a service (SaaS) solution that makes it easy to connect, monito
assets at scale.
Azure IoT Messaging hub that provides secure communications between and monitoring of millions of IoT dev
Hub
IoT Edge Fully managed service that allows data analysis models to be pushed directly onto IoT devices, whic
react quickly to state changes without needing to consult cloud-based AI models.

Big data

Data comes in all formats and sizes. When we talk about big data, we're referring
to large volumes of data. Data from weather systems, communications systems,
genomic research, imaging platforms, and many other scenarios generate hundreds of
gigabytes of data. This amount of data makes it hard to analyze and make decisions. It's
often so large that traditional forms of processing and analysis are no longer
appropriate.
Open-source cluster technologies have been developed to deal with these large data
sets. Azure supports a broad range of technologies and services to provide big data and
analytic solutions.

Service name Description

Azure Synapse Run analytics at a massive scale by using a cloud-based enterprise data warehouse that takes
Analytics massively parallel processing to run complex queries quickly across petabytes of data.
Azure HDInsight Process massive amounts of data with managed clusters of Hadoop clusters in the cloud.
Azure Databricks Integrate this collaborative Apache Spark-based analytics service with other big data services

AI

AI, in the context of cloud computing, is based around a broad range of services, the
core of which is machine learning. Machine learning is a data science technique that
allows computers to use existing data to forecast future behaviors, outcomes, and
trends. Using machine learning, computers learn without being explicitly programmed.

Forecasts or predictions from machine learning can make apps and devices smarter. For
example, when you shop online, machine learning helps recommend other products you
might like based on what you've purchased. Or when your credit card is swiped,
machine learning compares the transaction to a database of transactions and helps
detect fraud. And when your robot vacuum cleaner vacuums a room, machine learning
helps it decide whether the job is done.

Here are some of the most common AI and machine learning service types in Azure.

Service name Description

Azure Machine Cloud-based environment you can use to develop, train, test, deploy, manage, and track mach
Learning Service It can auto-generate a model and auto-tune it for you. It will let you start training on your loc
scale out to the cloud.
Azure ML Studio Collaborative visual workspace where you can build, test, and deploy machine learning solut
machine learning algorithms and data-handling modules.

A closely related set of products are the cognitive services. You can use these prebuilt
APIs in your applications to solve complex problems.
Service name Description
Vision Use image-processing algorithms to smartly identify, caption, index, and moderate you
Speech Convert spoken audio into text, use voice for verification, or add speaker recognition to
Knowledge mapping Map complex information and data to solve tasks such as intelligent recommendations a
Bing Search Add Bing Search APIs to your apps and harness the ability to comb billions of webpage
and news with a single API call.
Natural Language Allow your apps to process natural language with prebuilt scripts, evaluate sentiment, a
processing recognize what users want.

DevOps

DevOps brings together people, processes, and technology by automating software

delivery to provide continuous value to your users. With Azure DevOps, you can
create build and release pipelines that provide continuous integration, delivery, and
deployment for your applications. You can integrate repositories and application tests,
perform application monitoring, and work with build artifacts. You can also work with
and backlog items for tracking, automate infrastructure deployment, and integrate a
range of third-party tools and services such as Jenkins and Chef. All of these functions
and many more are closely integrated with Azure to allow for consistent, repeatable
deployments for your applications to provide streamlined build and release processes.

Service name Description

Azure Use development collaboration tools such as high-performance pipelines, free private Git reposito
DevOps Kanban boards, and extensive automated and cloud-based load testing. Formerly known as Visual
Services.
Azure Quickly create on-demand Windows and Linux environments to test or demo applications directly
DevTest Labs pipelines.

Get started with Azure accounts

 2 minutes

To create and use Azure services, you need an Azure subscription. When you're
completing Learn modules, most of the time a temporary subscription is created for
you, which runs in an environment called the Learn sandbox. When you're working with
your own applications and business needs, you need to create an Azure account, and a
subscription will be created for you. After you've created an Azure account, you're free
to create additional subscriptions. For example, your company might use a single Azure
account for your business and separate subscriptions for development, marketing, and
sales departments. After you've created an Azure subscription, you can start creating
Azure resources within each subscription.

If you're new to Azure, you can sign up for a free account on the Azure website to start
exploring at no cost to you. When you're ready, you can choose to upgrade your free
account. You can create a new subscription that enables you to start paying for Azure
services you need to use that are beyond the limits of a free account.

Create an Azure account

You can purchase Azure access directly from Microsoft by signing up on the Azure
website or through a Microsoft representative. You can also purchase Azure access
through a Microsoft partner. Cloud Solution Provider partners offer a range of complete
managed-cloud solutions for Azure.
For more information on how to create an Azure account, see the Create an Azure
account learning module.

What is the Azure free account?

The Azure free account includes:

 Free access to popular Azure products for 12 months.

 A credit to spend for the first 30 days.
 Access to more than 25 products that are always free.

The Azure free account is an excellent way for new users to get started and explore. To
sign up, you need a phone number, a credit card, and a Microsoft or GitHub account.
The credit card information is used for identity verification only. You won't be charged
for any services until you upgrade to a paid subscription.

What is the Learn sandbox?

Many of the Learn exercises use a technology called the sandbox, which creates a
temporary subscription that's added to your Azure account. This temporary subscription
allows you to create Azure resources for the duration of a Learn module. Learn
automatically cleans up the temporary resources for you after you've completed the
module.

When you're completing a Learn module, you're welcome to use your personal
subscription to complete the exercises in a module. The sandbox is the preferred
method to use though, because it allows you to create and test Azure resources at no
cost to you.

Case study introduction

 2 minutes

Throughout the Azure Fundamentals learning paths, we'll work with Tailwind Traders, a
fictitious home improvement retailer. It operates retail hardware stores across the globe
and online.
Tailwind Traders currently manages an on-premises datacenter that hosts the company's
retail website. The datacenter also stores all of the data and streaming video for its
applications. The IT department is currently responsible for all of the management tasks
for its computing hardware and software. For example, let's suppose that you work as an
IT specialist for the company's IT department. Your IT team handles the procurement
process to buy new hardware, installs and configures software, and deploys everything
throughout the datacenter.

These management responsibilities create some obstacles for delivering your

applications to your users in a timely fashion. As an IT pro, you realize it would be
advantageous to have servers, storage, databases, and other services immediately
available when you develop and deploy applications. You want to easily start a new
server or add services to your solutions.
In the other units of this learning module, you've learned about some of the cloud-
based services that Tailwind Traders can use to address its technology challenges. With
that in mind, the services that are available through Azure can help Tailwind Traders
conduct its business more efficiently.

As you complete the various modules in the Azure Fundamentals learning paths, we'll
analyze the challenges that Tailwind Traders is facing. You'll see how you can use Azure
services to address each of the issues as they arise. After you've completed each of the
modules, the knowledge that you gained from resolving the hypothetical challenges
that the fictional Tailwind Traders company encountered should benefit you in your
real-world environments.

Check your knowledge

1. 

Which of the following statements is not true about cloud computing?

IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS are examples of cloud computing service models.

Cloud computing resources are usually limited to specific geographic regions.

Cloud computing typically decreases your operating expenses.

Three cloud computing deployment models are public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid
cloud.
2. 

True or false: You need to purchase an Azure account before you can use any Azure
resources.

False

True
3. 

True or false: In an IaaS environment, the cloud tenant is responsible for routine
hardware maintenance.

True

False