Microsoft Azure is now popularly known as Windows Azure, the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft for building, managing, and deploying applications and services across the Microsoft data center network. It offers IaaS and PaaS services and supports various programming languages, frameworks, and tools, including Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.
Characteristics
Azure is Microsoft’s cloud application platform. As recently as 2012, Azure introduced the following features:
• Websites allow developers to build the sites using PHP, ASP.NET, Python, or Node.js, and can be distributed using Git, FTP, or Mercurial Server.
• Virtual machines allow developers to travel from the infrastructure without changing the code, so they can run Linux and Windows Server machines. Cloud services also support automated deployments and multi-tier scenarios. The Microsoft platform service is used to build extensive applications and services.
data management
SQL Database, formerly known as SQL Azure Database, works to scale and extend applications in the cloud by using SQL server technology.
media services
Paas can be used for content protection, encryption, and streaming or analytics. The Microsoft Azure platform offers an API based on HTTP, REST and XML that allows the developer to connect with the services offered by Azure. In addition, it also integrates with Git, Eclipse, and Microsoft Visual Studio. It also provides the managed library class that embodies the functions of connecting to the services.
Other services
websites
Help in website hosting. Customers build sites in ASP.NET, PHP, Python, or Node.js, and can also select from several open source applications available in the gallery to deploy. This is one aspect of the Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings for Azure.
Virtual machines
Azure Virtual Machines consist of Infrastructure as a Service provided by Microsoft to the public cloud. As a preview, these machines supported Windows Server 2008 and 2012 systems and Linux distributors. Customers can also create Virtual Machines, which have control to run the Data Centers.
cloud services
Cloud computing services are the containers for hosted applications. The applications are usually public web applications, such as e-commerce solutions or websites. Developers write code, mainly for cloud services, in different programming languages. They can also be used in private processing engines for other jobs, such as order processing or data analysis. However, Microsoft launches some of the SDKs for Java, Python, and .NET. The other languages supported through the open source projects.
Implementation
Azure uses the specialized operating system known as Microsoft Azure to run the “fabric layer”, which is hosted in Microsoft data centers, which manages the computing and storage resources of the computers and the provisioning of resources for the application. which runs on the Azur. Reliability and scaling are controlled by Azure Fabric Controller. Microsoft Azure is described as the “cloud layer” in server systems using Windows Server 2008 and also the customized version of Hyper-V, popularly known as Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services. Therefore, the environment and services do not fail if the server fails within the data center and offers management of the user’s web application, such as load balancing and memory resources.
Privacy
Microsoft Azure has declared, in accordance with the USA Patriot Act, that the US government has access to data even if the hosted company is non-US and the data resides outside of the US. Azure complies with the EU data protection directive. To manage security and privacy concerns, Microsoft has created the Microsoft Trust Center.