Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( is a cloud computing platform run by Microsoft, which offers access, management, and development of applications and services through global data centers. It provides a range of capabilities, including software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Microsoft Azure supports many programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.
Microsoft's cloud computing platform, Azure, was introduced at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October 2008 under the codename "Project Red Dog" It was officially launched as Windows Azure in February 2010 and later renamed Microsoft Azure .
Microsoft has been heavily criticized for its negligent cybersecurity practices.
- Virtual machines, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) allowing users to launch general-purpose Microsoft Windows and Linux virtual machines, software as a service (SaaS) as well as preconfigured machine images for popular software packages.[10]Starting in 2022, VMs are powered by Ampere Cloud-native processors.[11]Most users run Linux on Azure, some of the many Linux distributions offered, including Microsoft's own Linux-based Azure Sphere.[12]
- App services, platform as a service (PaaS) environment letting developers easily publish and manage websites.
- Websites, Azure Web Sites allows developers to build sites using ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js, Java, or Python and can be deployed using FTP, Git, Mercurial, Team Foundation Server or uploaded through the user portal. This feature was announced in preview form in June 2012 at the Meet Microsoft Azure event.[13] Customers can create websites in PHP, ASP.NET, Node.js, or Python, or select from several open-source applications from a gallery to deploy. This comprises one aspect of the platform as a service (PaaS) offerings for the Microsoft Azure Platform. It was renamed Web Apps in April 2015.
- WebJobs are applications that can be deployed to an App Service environment to implement background processing that can be invoked on a schedule, on-demand, or run continuously. The Blob, Table and Queue services can be used to communicate between WebApps, XYZ, iOS Software and WebJobs and to provide state.
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) allows you to quickly deploy a production-ready kubernetes cluster in Azure. Azure is responsible for managing the control plane and customers get the flexibility to choose/scale the data place (kubernetes worker nodes).
- In July 2023, the general availability for Watermarking support on Azure Virtual Desktop was announced; an optional protection feature to Screen Capture that acts as a deterrent for data leakage.
- Azure Active Directory Connect is used to synchronize on-premises directories and enable SSO (Single Sign On).
- Azure Active Directory B2C allows the use of consumer identity and access management in the cloud.
