Microsoft Azure Documentation-570
Microsoft Azure Documentation-570
Microsoft Azure Documentation-570
B.SANJEEVA
(16AT1A0570)
CERTIFICATE
Date:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
With gratitude,
B.Sanjeeva
(16AT1A0570)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
5. Datacenters…………………………………..............................16
5.1 How to choose the right data center for your application…………18
7. Conclusion……………………………………………………... 21
8. References……………………………………………………... 22
i
. LIST OF FIGURES
2 Types of Cloud 2
ii
ABSTRACT
iii
1. CLOUD COMPUTING – OVERVIEW
The popular trend in today's technology driven world is ‘Cloud Computing’. Cloud computing
can be referred to as the storing and accessing of data over the internet rather than your
computer's hard drive. This means you don't access the data from either your computer's hard
drive or over a dedicated computer network (home or office network). Cloud computing mean
data is stored at a remote place and is synchronized with other web information.
One prominent example of cloud computing is Office 365 which allows users to store,
access, edit their MS Office documents online without installing the actual program on their device.
1. Public.
2. Private.
3. Hybrid.
which is termed as a public cloud. These clouds are accessed through internet by users.
These are open to public and their infrastructure is owned and operated by service
providers as in case of Google and Microsoft.
3. Hybrid Cloud: When two or more clouds are bound together to offer the advantage
of both public and private clouds, they are termed as Hybrid Cloud. Organizations can
use private clouds for sensitive application, while public clouds for non-sensitive
applications. The hybrid clouds provide flexible, scalable and cost-effective solutions
to the organizations.
as per demand.
It allows the user to access the application independent of their location and hardware
configuration.
It simplifies the network and lets the client access the application without buying license
2.1 INTRODUCTION:
Azure was announced in October 2008 and released on 1 February 2010 as Windows Azure
,before being renamed to Microsoft Azure on 25 March 2014. Along with Amazon Web Services
Azure is considered a leader in the IAAS field.
Microsoft Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build,
deploy, and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.
You can build applications using any language, tool, or framework. And you can integrate your
public cloud applications with your existing IT environment.
This definition tells us that Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform, which means you can use it for
running your business applications, services, and workloads in the cloud. But it also includes
some key words that tell us even more:
Open Microsoft Azure provides a set of cloud services that allow you to build and
deploy cloud-based applications using almost any programming language, framework, or
tool.
Flexible Microsoft Azure provides a wide range of cloud services that can let you do
everything from hosting your company’s website to running big SQL databases in the cloud.
It also includes different features that can help deliver high performance and low latency for
cloud - based applications.
Microsoft-managed Microsoft Azure services are currently hosted in several
datacenters spread across the United States, Europe, and Asia. These datacenters are managed
by Microsoft and provide expert global support on a 24x7x365 basis.
Compatible Cloud applications running on Microsoft Azure can easily be
integrated with on-premises IT environments that utilize the Microsoft Windows Server
platform.
It provides both PAAS and IAAS services and supports many different programming
languages, tools and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software
and systems.
GPCET-DEPT OF CSE Page 5
2.2 AZURE AS PAAS (PLATFORM AS A SERVICE)
As the name suggests, a platform is provided to clients to develop and deploy software. The
clients can focus on the application development rather than having to worry about hardware
and infrastructure. It also takes care of most of the operating systems, servers and networking
issues.
Pros
The overall cost is low as the resources are allocated on demand and servers are
automatically updated.
It is less vulnerable as servers are automatically updated and being checked for all known
security issues. The whole process is not visible to developer and thus does not pose a
risk of data breach.
Since new versions of development tools are tested by the Azure team, it becomes easy
for developers to move on to new tools. This also helps the developers to meet the
customer’s demand by quickly adapting to new versions.
Cons
There are portability issues with using PAAS. There can be a different environment at
Azure, thus the application might have to be adapted accordingly.
It is a managed compute service that gives complete control of the operating systems and the
application platform stack to the application developers. It lets the user to access, manage and
monitor the data centers by themselves.
Pros
This is ideal for the application where complete control is required. The virtual machine can be
completely adapted to the requirements of the organization or business.
IAAS facilitates very efficient design time portability. This means application can be
migrated to Windows Azure without rework. All the application dependencies such as
database can also be migrated to Azure.
IAAS allows quick transition of services to clouds, which helps the vendors to offer
services to their clients easily. This also helps the vendors to expand their business by
selling the existing software or services in new markets.
Cons
Since users are given complete control they are tempted to stick to a particular version
for the dependencies of applications. It might become difficult for them to migrate the
application to future versions.
There are many factors which increases the cost of its operation. For example, higher
server maintenance for patching and upgrading software.
There are lots of security risks from unpatched servers. Some companies have well-
defined processes for testing and updating on-premise servers for security vulnerabilities.
These processes need to be extended to the cloud-hosted IAAS VMs to mitigate hacking
risks.
The unpatched servers pose a great security risk. Unlike PAAS, there is no provision of
automatic server patching in IAAS. An unpatched server with sensitive information can
be very vulnerable affecting the entire business of an organization.
Azure Management Portal is an interface to manage the services and infrastructure launched in
2012. All the services and applications are displayed in it and it lets the user manage them.
Getting started
A free trial account can be created on Azure management portal by visiting the following
link - manage.windowsazure.com
The screen that pops up is as shown in the following image. The account can be created using
Once logged in, you will be redirected to the following screen, where there is a
list of services and applications on the left panel.
When you click on a category, its details are displayed on the screen. You can see the
number of applications, virtual machine, mobile services and so on by clicking on
the menu item.
Windows Azure provides businesses with four basic categories of cloud-based services:
1. Compute services
2. Data services
3. Network services
4. App services
1. Compute services
Windows Azure compute services provide the processing power required for cloud
applications to be able to run. Windows Azure currently offers four different compute
services
Web Sites: This service provides you with a managed web environment you can
use to create new websites or migrate your existing business website into the
cloud.
Cloud Services: This service allows you to build and deploy highly available and
almost infinitely scalable applications with low administration costs using
almost any programming language.
Mobile Services: This service provides a turnkey solution for building and
deploying apps and storing data for mobile devices.
2. Data services
Windows Azure data services provide you with different ways of storing, managing,
safeguarding, analyzing, and reporting business data. Windows Azure currently
offers five different data services:
Data Management This service lets you store your business data in SQL
databases, either with dedicated Microsoft SQL Server virtual machines, using
Windows Azure SQL Database, using NoSQL Tables via REST, or using
BLOB storage.
Business Analytics This service enables ease of discovery and data enrichment
using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting and Analysis Services or Microsoft
SharePoint Server running in a virtual machine, Windows Azure SQL Reporting,
the Windows Azure Marketplace, or HDInsight, a Hadoop implementation for
Big Data
Cache This service provides a distributed caching solution that can help speed up
your cloud-based applications and reduce database load.
Backup This service helps you protect your server data offsite by using
automated and manual backups to Windows Azure.
3. Network services
Windows Azure network services provide you with different options for how Windows
Azure applications can be delivered to users and datacenters. Windows Azure currently
offers two different network services:
Virtual Network This service allows you to treat the Windows Azure public
cloud as if it is an extension of your on-premises datacenter.
Traffic Manager This service allows you to route application traffic for the
user who is using the application to Windows Azure datacenters in three ways:
for best performance, in round robin fashion, or using an Active/Passive failover
configuration.
Windows Azure app services provide you with ways of enhancing the performance,
security, discoverability, and integration of your cloud apps that are running. Windows
Azure currently offers seven different app services:
Media Services This service allows you to build workflows for the creation,
management, and distribution of media using the Windows Azure public cloud.
Messaging This consists of two services (Windows Azure Service Bus and
Windows Azure Queue) that allow you to keep your apps connected across your
private cloud environment and the Windows Azure public cloud.
Active Directory This service provides you with identity management and access
control capabilities for your cloud applications.
Windows Azure applications are scaled by creating multiple instances of the application. The
number of instances needed by the application is specified by the developer while hosting the
applications. If traffic is increased or decreased on the website or web application it can be
managed easily by logging in to Windows Azure management portal and specifying the
instances. Load balancing can also be automated which would allow Azure to make the
decision itself as when to assign more resources to application.
Web applications support .net, java, python, php and node.js. Tasks such as scaling and
backups can be easily automated. A new feature called ‘web jobs’ is available, which is a kind of
batch processing service. Web jobs can also be scaled and scheduled. The mobile application
platforms supported are Xamarin iOS, Xamarin Android and IOS. Azure platform is
developed in such a way that developers need to concentrate on only the development part and
need not worry about other technical stuff outside their domain. Thus most of the administrative
work is done by Azure itself.
A marketplace is also set by Azure where its customers can buy applications and services. It is a
platform where customers can search applications and deploy them in an easier way. Azure
marketplace is available in 88 countries at present. An application purchased from the
marketplace can be easily connected to the local development environment by the application
developers. The pricing is done using 5 different models, which includes usage-based and
monthly fee. Some of the applications are even free of charge.
When we think of cloud, we imagine a place with large number of machines in big rooms.
There must be a place where all the data is stored. Microsoft has datacenters all over the world
from where Windows Azure services are managed. Datacenters are divided in regions. The
exact location of these datacenters is not revealed by Microsoft for obvious security reasons.
Following are the 19 listed regions as can also be seen in the image.
1. Central US
2. East US
3. East US 2
4. US Gov Iowa
5. US Gov Virginia
6. North Central US
7. South Central US
8. West US
9. North Europe
17 Australia Southeast
18 Central India
19 South India
Performance: You should select the nearest datacenter to the users of your
application. The performance can be affected by the relative location of the users who
want to access the application. If a user is closer to the datacenter, the performance
will be better.
Cost: The price of hosting the application may also increase or decrease depending upon
the datacenter you choose. Price actually can vary according to the database hosting
location or any other service being used by the application. You should choose the same
location for all the services that are being used by your application. For example,
database or any media service. If they are kept in separate datacenter there will be
charges per transaction, but anything extra won’t be charged if they are kept at the same
datacenter.
Legal Aspect: Laws vary from country to country and restrictions could be enforced in
some regions on what information can be shared and what cannot.
The Microsoft Azure Platform offers a range of businesses flexibility, control, and an
affordable solution for running Web-scale applications. The services reduce tedious and
expensive infrastructure management and planning and are built with security and reliability in
mind, along with the option of a pay-as-you-go model.
Pay as you grow – Match usage needs with the option of pay-as-you-go pricing -
paying for the services you use and reducing the capital costs associated with
purchasing hardware and infrastructure.
Reduce operational costs – Azure reduces the need for up-front technology purchases
and by running applications in the cloud you decrease the need for maintaining on-
premise infrastructure.
Increase business efficiency and agility – by dynamically adding and subtracting
capacity in real time. Azure simplifies maintaining and operating applications by
providing on- demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web and
connected applications.
Build and deploy software quickly and easily by capitalizing on the same personnel,
development tools and investments, and knowledge that already powers your IT
organization.
Easy developer on-ramp to the cloud – Millions of developers worldwide already
use the .NET Framework and the Visual Studio development environment. Utilize
those same skills to create cloud-enabled applications that can be written, tested, and
deployed all from Visual Studio. Azure will support more programming languages and
development environments in the future, such as Eclipse, Ruby, PHP, and Python.
Offers choice –The open architecture gives developers the choice to build web
applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions
offering the best of online and on-premises.
Executing applications in the clouds offer many advantages over the traditional way of running
programs. Firstly, using cloud computing allows rapid service deployment and massive Savings upfront
because not having to invest in infrastructure. Secondly, cloud computing model allows computing
power and storage to scale up with business growth. In addition to this, it’s also easy to dynamically
adjust computing power up or down. As a customer, you end up paying for the actual usage of
resources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Azure
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/