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What is Azure Data Factory?

Azure Data Factory is a fully managed, serverless data integration solution that helps organizations ingest data from a variety of data sources. If the data source is multi-cloud, on-premises, or provided by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers, Azure Data Factory connects to all of them at no additional licensing cost. We can copy data between different data stores using copy activity.
For example, Azure Data Factory helps us to connect to the business applications available with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and marketing and advertising data sources like Salesforce, Google AdWords, and more.

Feature of ADF

On-premises Data Access:

The Self-hosted integration runtime feature provided by Microsoft in Azure data factory enables organizations to migrate their data between on-premises and cloud data sources. The installation of a self-hosted integration runtime requires a virtual machine or on-premises machine in a private network.

Code-free Data Flow:

Azure Data Factory allows any developer to expedite the development of data transformations with code-free data flows. With the help of ADF Studio, any developer can design data transformations without writing the code.

Data Cleaning and transformation:

With the help of Azure Data Factory, we can clean and transform our data using Azure Databricks Notebook. Azure data factory provides data movement and transformation activities (copy activity, lookup, stored procedure, HD insight, and more) which provides more flexibility.

CI/CD and Publish:

CI/CD in Azure Data Factory means migrating their Azure Data Factory assets as data flows, pipelines, linked services, and more from one environment (development, test, production) to another environment.

Monitor:

ADF has built-in support for monitoring the pipeline with the help of Azure Monitor, PowerShell, API, Azure Monitor logs, and health panels on the Azure portal. The execution of the different pipelines can be easily monitored through the user interface in the monitor section & we can set up alerts as well (linked to Azure Monitor) if anything fails.

Large collection of data collectors:

Azure data factory comes with built-in 85 plus data connectors to import data from various external sources. Even if there isn’t a pre-built Azure Data Factory data connector, we can use the generic connectors (HTTP, OData, REST, and HTTP) to work with any data store.

Consumption-based pricing:

Unlike on-premises data integration tools, which generally require a large upfront investment, Azure Data Factory offers us pay-as-you-go pricing.

Data Factory presents a seamless solution for integrating cloud data with on-premises data, distinguishing itself through its user-friendly interface while retaining the capacity to handle intricate data transformations and enrichments. Its hallmark features include scalable operations, high availability, and cost-effectiveness. Presently, this service stands as a foundational component in the construction of data platforms and the execution of machine learning initiatives.

IFI Techsolutions specializes in leveraging Azure Data Factory, boasting extensive hands-on experience in deploying Data Factory setups for a diverse array of clients and use cases. Our team possesses a profound comprehension of ADF concepts coupled with a track record of delivering comprehensive end-to-end implementations. We stand prepared to assist organizations in harnessing the full potential of Azure Data Factory to meet their unique data integration needs effectively.

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What is a Virtual Machine?

A virtual machine (VM) is a virtual environment that works like a computer within a computer. It is called virtual because it is implemented in software on top of a real hardware platform and operating system.

A virtual machine (VM) is a virtual environment that functions as a virtual computer system with its own CPU, memory, network interface, and storage, created on a physical hardware system. A Software called a hypervisor separates the machine’s resources from the hardware and provisions them appropriately so they can be used by the Virtual Machine.

Difference between Virtual Machine and Azure Virtual Machine

Even though both of them are Virtual Machines it is just that Azure Virtual Machine is a VM provisioned on the resources (CPU, Memory, Disk) provided by Azure Cloud enhancing your productivity and making the workloads highly scalable which can be scaled on the fly, optimizing the cost, enhancing the security and much more.

Whereas the other one is usually provisioned on-premises or could also be on a local/personal system, increasing the maintenance work, making it less scalable, and thereby impacting productivity.

Following are the topics that would be covered in this blog

• Creating Virtual Machines
• State of VM & Temporary Disks
• Encryption of Disks
• Types of Disks
• Availability Sets & Availability Zones
• Custom Script Extensions, Cloud-Init & Run Services
• Confidential Computing & Azure Dedicated Host
• Virtual Machine Scale Set
• Proximity placement

Creating Azure Virtual Machine

Following are the steps involved in provisioning a Virtual Machine

1. Create an Azure Cloud account
2. Under Services, select Virtual machines.
3. On the Virtual machines page, select Create and then Virtual machine.
4. In the create a virtual machine page under the Basics tab, inside Project details, make sure the correct subscription is selected.
5. And then choose to create a new resource group or select an existing resource group from the dropdown.
6. Provide the credentials
7. Further, select an image (OS), size (CPU and Memory capacity), and then the disks.
8. Once these steps are followed the resource can be reviewed and provisioned.

For Reference

The core components of the VM include

• OS disks
• Data disks
• Public IP
• Virtual Network & Subnet

State of VM & Temporary Disks

The state of a Virtual Machine refers to either

• Started/Running or
• Stopped/Deallocated

Apart from the OS and data disks that are attached to the Virtual Machines, a temporary disk is also attached to the VM that varies according to the size of the VM.

As the disk is temporary unlike the Data and OS disks which are permanent the data in it is also of the same type and depends on the state of the VM, when the machine is in the running state or is restarted the data in the temporary VM remains as it is but when the state of the VM changes to stopped/deallocated the data is erased from the temporary disk attached.

One more component of the Virtual Machine which is the Public IP address and one amongst the 2 types offered varies according to the state of the VM. The 2 types are as follows –

• Dynamic — This type of IP changes after restart /deallocation of the VM
• Static — This type of IP remains static (does not change) even after the VM is restarted or stopped

Encryption of Disks

Azure Disk Encryption helps protect and safeguard your data to meet your organizational security and compliance commitments. This is amongst the security services offered by the Azure cloud for securing the data in the disks.

The disks encryption can be performed on managed disks for both OS and data disks usually by default the Server Side Encryption with Platform managed keys (SSE with PMK) but there is also an option to use customer-managed keys using Key Vault.

For Encrypting the disks after provisioning needs to be detached or the VM to which it has been attached should be in the deallocated state.

Following are the steps included for encrypting the disk with customer managed keys.

• Set up your Azure Key Vault
• Add an Azure RBAC role to the Key Vault
• Set up your disk encryption set

Types of Disks

There are 2 different types of disks categorization in the disks that are offered by Azure they are as follows

• Managed disks
• Unmanaged disks

The key differences between the two are

1. In unmanaged disks, the underlying infrastructure is the storage account, and to ensure high availability the user needs to create a storage account accordingly. Whereas in managed disks it is managed by Microsoft and is replicated in multiple places providing high availability.
2. For creating different disks such as Standard HDD or Premium SSD as an unmanaged disk the storage accounts should be created accordingly which works for Gen1 Machines.
3. In unmanaged disks, you only pay for what you use unlike in managed disks you are charged for the complete disk which has been allocated.

Availability Sets & Availability Zones

Availability Sets takes the virtual machine and configures multiple copies of it. Each copy is isolated within a separate physical server, compute rack, storage units and network switches within a single datacentre within an Azure Region.

When you create your virtual machine you can specify the Availability Set, you can’t change it or move it in or out of an Availability Set after creation. If you wanted to make changes you would need to start again and recreate the virtual machine. And Availability Sets only apply to virtual machines, they can’t be used for any other type of resource within Azure.

Using an Availability Set takes your acceptable downtime to around 22minutes a month. Which is a vast improvement over the single virtual machine deployment.

Each underpinning physical resource will be tagged to a specific fault domain in the Azure back-end. Each fault domain might share the same rack, network, and power source. When you add more than one VM to the availability set, the Azure platform ensures that VMs are spread across different fault domain.

The fault domain can protect your applications in the following scenarios.

• unplanned hardware maintenance.
• unexpected downtime.

Like the fault domain, each physical server is tagged with specific update domains. Azure performs maintenance on only one specific update domain at the time. This could be updating the host machines with the latest patches or fixing the vulnerability.

You get the default fault domain as 5 and it can be increased up to 20.

• Virtual machines get update domains automatically once they are put inside the availability set.
• All virtual machines within that update domain will reboot together.
• Only one update domain would be updated at the time.

The next level of availability for your virtual machines within Azure is Availability Zones. With Availability Zones utilized your acceptable downtime a month moves to less than 5 minutes as you’ve got a 99.99% SLA.

With Availability Zones, you are starting to use zone-aware services. Your workload will be spread out across the different zones that make up an Azure region.

An Azure region is made up of multiple datacenters and each zone is made up of one or more datacenters. Each datacenter is equipped with independent power, cooling and networking.

Custom Script Extensions, Cloud-Init & Run Services

The Custom Script Extension downloads and runs scripts on Azure virtual machines (VMs). This extension is useful for post-deployment configuration, software installation, or any other configuration or management task. You can download scripts from Azure Storage or GitHub, or provide them to the Azure portal at extension runtime.

The custom script extension has a time limit of 90 minutes post which the tasks specified fail. Also, there shouldn’t be any inclusion of reboot command statements as it will cause problems with other extensions that are being installed, and the extension won’t continue after the reboot.

Cloud-init is a widely used approach to customize a Linux VM as it boots for the first time. You can use cloud-init to install packages and write files, or to configure users and security. Because cloud-init is called during the initial boot process, there are no additional steps or required agents to apply your configuration.

it also works across distributions. For example, you don’t use apt-get install or yum install to install a package. Instead, you can define a list of packages to install. cloud-init automatically uses the native package management tool for the distro you select.

Run service for Azure VMs is used to execute commands. After you choose the command, select Run to run the script. After the script finishes, it returns the output and any errors in the output window.

Confidential Computing & Azure Dedicated Host

Azure Confidential Computing is a feature that allows you to isolate sensitive data when it is being processed in the cloud.

This feature is available for your virtual machines. In Confidential computing , a part of the CPU’s hardware is reserved for the portion of code and data in your application. This portion is known as an enclave.

There is a special series of virtual machines which support confidential computing. This is the DCsv2-Series

Azure Dedicated Hosts service provides physical servers to host virtual machines. The physical server is dedicate to the Azure subscription.

The benefits of Azure Dedicated Hosts is that no other virtual machines from any other customers would be placed on the physical server. You can also control the maintenance events that are initiated on the Azure platform.

Here the users are charged per dedicated host. This is irrespective of the number of virtual machines running on the physical server.

Virtual Machine Scale Set

Azure virtual machine scale sets let you create and manage a group of load balanced VMs. The number of VM instances can automatically increase or decrease in response to demand or a defined schedule. Scale sets provide the following key benefits:

• Easy to create and manage multiple VMs
• Provides high availability and application resiliency by distributing VMs across availability zones or fault domains
• Allows your application to automatically scale as resource demand changes
• Works at large-scale
• Scale sets support up to 1,000 VM instances for standard marketplace images and custom images through the Azure Compute Gallery (formerly known as Shared Image Gallery). If you create a scale set using a managed image, the limit is 600 VM instances.
• For the best performance with production workloads, it is recommended to use Azure Managed Disks.

Proximity placement

Placing VMs in a single region reduces the physical distance between the instances. Placing them within a single availability zone will also bring them physically closer together. However, as the Azure footprint grows, a single availability zone may span multiple physical data centers, which may result in a network latency impacting your application.

To get VMs as close as possible, achieving the lowest possible latency, you should deploy them within a proximity placement group.

A proximity placement group is a logical grouping used to make sure that Azure compute resources are physically located close to each other. Proximity placement groups are useful for workloads where low latency is a requirement.

• Low latency between stand-alone VMs.
• Low Latency between VMs in a single availability set or a virtual machine scale set.
• Low latency between stand-alone VMs, VMs in multiple Availability Sets, or multiple scale sets. You can have multiple compute resources in a single placement group to bring together a multi-tiered application.
• Low latency between multiple application tiers using different hardware types. For example, running the backend using M-series in an availability set and the front end on a D-series instance, in a scale set, in a single proximity placement group.

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/

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The post 10 Reasons Why Azure Is Better Than AWS first appeared on IFI Techsolutions.

What is Azure?

Both AWS and Azure are developing cloud providers that help businesses and consumers by offering a wide range of services and the best practices available.

In terms of networking, on-demand processing, cloud data storage, and cost, the AWS and Azure cloud platforms are essentially quite comparable. In addition to more than a hundred other features, both provide flexible auto-scaling, self-service resource provisioning, a pay-per-use pricing approach, b security information and event management (SIEM) solutions, and big data analytics tools.

But the nuances really do matter. There is a little selection asymmetry between AWS and Azure in terms of underlying technology and capabilities. More integrated frameworks, SDKs, and APIs for machine learning and AI development are available through Azure. Although AWS offers fewer pre-built tools, its integrations with open-source technology are simpler.

In this article, we contrast the salient features of both cloud computing platforms and describe situations in which Azure Cloud outperforms AWS (and vice versa).

What is AWS?

The necessity for Amazon to manage its own infrastructure more effectively within the company gave rise to the concept for AWS Cloud Technology and Services. Understanding that a large number of businesses outside of Amazon’s own operations could benefit from cloud computing services, the company’s executives created and introduced AWS as a strategic business unit. As a result of this project, which sought to provide scalable and dependable cloud services, AWS rose to prominence in the cloud computing market.

AWS Service Portfolio

AWS provides a wide range of services that let companies innovate, grow, and change their operations for a variety of use cases and industries.

Some examples include:

Amazon EC2: gives consumers access to cloud-based instances, or scalable virtual servers. Because these instances come in a variety of instance kinds, users can customise their computing resources to meet their unique requirements.

AWS Lambda:An autonomous infrastructure management service for serverless computing that lets users run code in response to events without having to create or manage servers.

Amazon S3:a scalable object storage system that can be used to store and retrieve any volume of data from any location on the internet.

Amazon SageMaker:Machine learning model creation, training, and implementation infrastructure is provided by Amazon SageMaker, a fully managed service. With built-in support for Jupyter notebooks, automated model tuning, and deployment scaling, it streamlines the machine learning workflow and helps data scientists and developers create high-quality models fast and effectively.

What is Azure?

Project Red Dog, an internal Microsoft project, gave rise to Microsoft Azure, which was first introduced as Windows Azure in 2010. Its goal was to create a cloud computing platform that could take on AWS. Our course will teach you more about Azure Architecture and Services, and our Azure setup guide will help you get going.

The platform was created to use Microsoft’s extensive worldwide network of data centres to deliver scalable computing resources and services, such as virtual machines, storage, and databases.

Azure has developed over time into a comprehensive cloud platform that supports a wide range of company and developer needs globally by providing infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS) solutions.

Azure Integration with Microsoft Products

Azure is easily integrated with the entire Microsoft ecosystem, which includes Office 365, Windows Server, Active Directory, and Microsoft 365. This facilitates the setup of hybrid cloud environments and enables companies to grow into the cloud while retaining their existing Microsoft technology investments.

Additionally, the platform supports popular development tools like GitHub and Visual Studio, which improves developer productivity by enabling more efficient methods for managing and deploying applications.

These widely used and integrated tools are part of Azure’s environment, offering developers extensive capabilities and familiar workflows for efficiently creating and administering cloud-based applications.

Azure vs AWS Comparison Table

Below are the lists of points, Describe the Comparison Between Azure vs AWS

Big data analytics ToolsAzure Synapse Analytics: Integrated analytics service that combines big data and data warehousing Azure HDInsight: A cloud-based service for deploying popular open-source frameworks Azure Stream Analytics: A real-time data streaming service Azure Data Factory: Data integration serviceAmazon Athena: SQL-based Queuing service Amazon Elastic MapReduce(EMR): A managed Hadoop framework Amazon Elasticsearch Service for managing Elasticsearch clusters Amazon Kinesis: Real-time data analytics AWS Glue: Serverless data integration serviceMachine Learning & AI servicesAzure Machine Learning: An ecosystem of tools and services for building, training,and deploying ML/DL models Azure Cognitive Services: Provides access to APIs for building intelligent applications Azure OpenAI Service: Access to OpenAI generative AI models Azure Bot Service: Chatbot and virtual assistant development platform Azure AI Speech: SDK for creating voice-enabled apps Azure AI Translator: Real- time translation across 100 languages.Amazon SageMaker: Managed service for building, training, and deploying ML/DL Models Amazon Polly: A text-to-speech service Amazon Rekognition: A service for adding image and video analysis features to Applications Amazon Textract: Optical character recognition serviceSecurity & IAM ServicesAzure Security Center: A unified infrastructure security management system Microsoft Entra (former Azure AD): IAM service Microsoft Sentinel: Security analytics and threat intelligence tool Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Cloud workload protection solution Azure DDoS Protection service Azure Web Application Firewall: Provides centralized protection of web applications through traffic filtering Azure Key Vault: A secure secrets store for tokens, passwords, certificates, and API keys Azure Policy: Helps enforce organizational standards and assess compliance at scale Microsoft Purview: Data discovery and governance serviceAWS Identity and Access Management service Amazon GuardDuty: Intelligent threat detection AWS Security Hub for security data aggregation and monitoring AWS Shield: DDoS protection Amazon Macie: Data discovery service AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) for filtering web traffic AWS CloudHSM: A cloud-based hardware security module that facilitates encryption key generation and usage

	Azure	AWS
Compute	For computing purpose Azure uses virtual machines and to scale for large extent uses virtual machine scale sets and for software management, in Docker container it uses Container Service (AKS) and uses Container Registry for Docker container registry.	AWS uses Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) as a primary solution for scalable computing and for management of software container with Docker or Kubernetes it uses ECS (EC2 Container service) and uses EC2 container registry.
Storage	Azure uses Storage Block blob for storage which are comprised of blocks and uploads large blobs efficiently. It uses Storage cool and storage archive for archiving data.	AWS uses S3 (Simple storage service) and it provides lots of documentation and tutorials. It offers Archive storage by a Glacier, data archive and S3 Infrequent access (IA)
Networking	Azure uses a virtual network for networking or content delivery and uses a VPN gateway for cross-premises connectivity. For load balancing during content delivery, it manages with load balancer and application gateway	AWS uses a virtual private cloud for networking and uses an API gateway for cross-premises connectivity. AWS uses Elastic load balancing for load balance during networking.
Deploying Apps	Azure has multiple app deployment tools such as Cloud Services, Container Service, Functions, Batch, App Services etc.	AWS offers similar solutions with Elastic Beanstalk, Batch, Lambda, Container Service etc. But it doesn’t have many features on app hosting side.
Database	Relational databases: Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL Non-relational databases: Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for MariaDB, Azure Cache for Redis.	Relational databases: Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS, Amazon RDS for Db2, and Amazon RDS on VMware Non-relational databases: Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon MemoryDB for Redis, Amazon Neptune, Amazon Keyspaces, Amazon Timestream.

Azure vs AWS: Summary

Amazon Web Services started out as a pure cloud play used mainly by smaller firms and developers, focused on (among other things) Linux and a variety of databases. They could easily log on and deploy a full tool set. AWS has grown this early tool set at a breathless rate – it adds tools and features, for so many functions, so often that even close AWS watchers can hardly keep up. If you want a mega-powerful platform that handles virtually any cloud function – without regard for operating system – AWS is your choice.

However, if you are a Microsoft shop and heavily invested in the Microsoft way, from Windows to Active Directory to SQL Server and Visual Studio, then Azure is clearly your best choice. Furthermore, Microsoft – unlike AWS – has deep roots in the enterprise. It understands business customers. As such, Microsoft invested in a hybrid cloud, knowing the businesses with traditional data center would move some but not all of their on-premises resources to the cloud. Microsoft’s Azure cloud migration services can make migrating on-prem to Azure simple, and often with no modification.

Choosing the right Cloud vendor

It is a very important decision for enterprises to select the right cloud vendor. Azure offers hybrid solution, PaaS, and an array of other beneficial features, which are important for any Cloud strategy today. Numerous enterprises have witnessed accelerated business growth by migrating to Azure. As a result, Azure comes to the fore as a considerably better choice compared to AWS.

Interested in Microsoft Azure, Let’s CONNECT!

The post Azure vs AWS first appeared on IFI Techsolutions.

What is Azure?

Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing platform—with solutions including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) that can be used for services such as analytics, virtual computing, storage, networking, and much more. Azure provides an ever-expanding array of products and services designed to meet all your business needs through one convenient, easy to manage platform.

What can Microsoft Azure Do?

Microsoft maintains a growing directory of Azure services, with more being added all the time. All the elements necessary to build a virtual network and deliver services or applications to a global audience are available, including:

1. Compute – It is used to process data on the cloud by making use of powerful processors which serve multiple instances at a time.
   • Virtual Machines
   • VM Scale Sets
   • Azure Container Instances
   • Azure Kubernetes Service
   • Azure Container Registry
   • Functions
   • Batch
   • Service Fabric
2. Storage Services – The storage as the name suggests is used to store data in the cloud with the ability to scale as and when required. This data can be stored anywhere.
   • Blob Storage
   • Queue Storage
   • File Storage
   • Table Storage
3. Database – The database domain is used to provide reliable relational and non-relational database instances managed by Azure.
   • Azure SQL Database
   • Azure Database for MySQL
   • Azure Database for PostgreSQL
   • Azure Database for MariaDB
   • Azure Cosmos DB
   • Azure Cache for Redis
4. Networking – It includes services which provide a variety of networking features such as security, faster access, etc.
   • Virtual Network
   • Load Balancer
   • Application Gateway
   • Azure DNS
   • Content Delivery Network
   • VPN Gateway
   • Traffic Manager
   • Express Route
5. Developer Tools – It includes services which provide services that ease the ability to code for an organization. For example, it eases the teams to share code, track work, and ship software.
   • Azure DevOps
   • Application Insights
   • API Management
6. Management and Monitoring Tools – It includes services which can be used to manage and monitor your Azure instances.
   • Microsoft Azure Portal
   • Azure Resource Manager
   • Automation
7. Enterprise Integration – Services that bring functionalities like seamlessly integrating the enterprise and the cloud.
   • Service Bus
   • SQL Server Stretch Database
8. Security and Identity – It includes services for user authentication or limiting access to a certain set of audience on your Azure resources.
   • Key Vault
   • Azure Active Directory
   • Azure AD B2C
   • Azure AD Domain Services
   • Multi-Factor Authentication
9. Web and Mobile Apps –These are mainly used to create web apps or mobile apps for any platform and any device.
   • Web Apps
   • Mobile Apps
   • API Apps
   • Logic Apps
   • Notification Hubs
   • Event Hubs
   • Azure Search

Is Azure relevent to me?

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.

Why Azure is the right choice?

It’s been said that the on-premise data center has no future. Like mainframes and dial-up modems before them, self-hosted data centers are becoming obsolete, being replaced by increasingly available and affordable cloud solutions.

Here are some quick facts about Azure:

1. Productive – Reduce marketing cycles by delivering features faster with more than 150 end-to-end services
2. Hybrid – Develop and deploy where you want, with the only consistent hybrid cloud on the market. Extend Azure on-premises with Azure Stack.
3. Intelligent – Create intelligent apps using powerful data and artificial intelligence services.
4. Trusted – Join startups, governments and 95 percent of Fortune 500 businesses who run on the Microsoft Cloud today. 90+ compliance offerings – the largest portfolio in the industry.
5. Flexible -Move to compute resources up and down as and when needed
6. Open – Supported by almost any OS, language, tool, or framework
7. Reliable – 99.995% availability SLA and 24×7 tech support
8. Global – Data housed in geo-synchronous data centers 54 global Azure regions—more than any cloud provider
9. Economical – Only pay for what you use by Pay as You Go Model

Azure is a fast, flexible, and affordable platform and its pricing and capabilities make it the best public cloud offering on the market

Popular questions about Azure

Is Azure secure?

Yes, security and privacy are built into the Azure platform. Microsoft is committed to the highest levels of trust, transparency, standards conformance and regulatory compliance with the most comprehensive set of compliance offerings of any cloud service provider.

How can Azure help if I outsource my IT?

Azure offers solution partners that can help deploy and manage your existing solutions, as well as offer ready-made or custom solutions for you. Plus, you can find an experienced managed service partner or have your existing outsourcing partner to become an Azure partner.

What other customers are using Azure?

90% of Fortune 500 companies trust their business to run on the Microsoft Cloud and are doing amazing things with it.

Is it only for Windows apps and services?

No. Azure supports open source technologies, so you can use the tools and technologies you prefer. Run virtually any application using your data source, with your operating system, on your device. With Azure, you have choices.

Will Azure really save me money?

With no upfront cost, you only pay for what you use. Azure provides flexible purchasing and pricing options for all your cloud scenarios, such as the Azure Hybrid Benefit and offers extensive tools to help manage your cloud spend.

Will Azure work for my industry?

Azure provides solutions for all industries. Bring together cloud services and products tailored for your industry to help meet your specific needs and drive innovation.

How does Azure compare to other clouds?

Azure is the only consistent hybrid cloud, has more regions than any cloud provider, delivers unparalleled developer productivity and offers more comprehensive compliance coverage—including meeting the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Can I try Azure services?

If you’re ready to try out one of these services, you can get your feet wet with a trial and $300 in Azure credits. You can also get an idea of cost by using the pricing calculator. If you have questions about other ways you could use Azure or need help implementing a service, talk to one of our Cloud Experts and we’ll help you plan and implement the right tools to meet your needs.

Choosing The Right Cloud Vendor

It is a very important decision for enterprises to select the right cloud vendor. Azure offers hybrid solution, PaaS, and an array of other beneficial features, which are important for any Cloud strategy today.

Interested in Microsoft Azure, Let’s CONNECT!

The post What is Azure? first appeared on IFI Techsolutions.