Microsoft Azure Explained: What It Is and Why It Matters

Imagine diving into a world where the sky's the limit—literally!?

That's Microsoft Azure for you, often hailed for its "limitless potential" and "unbounded opportunities." But let's get real: what can Azure?actually?do for your business?

This newsletter will cover the four amazing ways Azure can supercharge your business and touch on the immediate perks you can gain right away.

What is Azure?

At its core, 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). These tools are your golden ticket to?a realm of?analytics, virtual computing, storage, networking, and so much more. Whether you're looking to bid farewell to your on-premise servers or just give them a little boost, Azure can help with that.

Here are some quick facts about Azure:

Microsoft Azure?– IaaS, PaaS?and SaaS

• Flexible?– Move compute resources up and down as needed
• Open?– Supports almost any OS, language, tool, or framework
• Reliable?– 99.95% availability SLA and 24×7 tech support
• Global?– Data housed in geo-synchronous data centers
• Economical?– Only pay for what you use

The pricing and capabilities of Azure make it the best public cloud offering on the market. Now, let's examine how you can leverage it.

1. Enhance and Implement Backup and Disaster Recovery

Azure is a?backup and disaster recovery?dream tool. Why? Because of its?flexibility, advanced site recovery,?and?built-in integration.

As a?cloud-based solution, Azure is innately?flexible?–?it can back up your data in any language, on any operating system, and from any location. Plus, you can define the frequency and extent of your backup schedule, whether daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

Tape backup has a time and place but limited abilities as a stand-alone backup and disaster recovery solution. Azure?site recovery?can enhance your tape backup with offsite replication, minimal onsite maintenance, up to ninety-nine years of data retention,?minimal or?no capital investment,?and?minimal operational costs. Azure backup stores three copies of your data in three different locations in the data center and then another three copies in a remote Azure data center, so you never have to worry about losing data.

If you're in a Windows virtual environment, Azure's?built-in?integration?for additional backup will be a quick and painless solution. Azure site recovery integrates with System Center and HyperV architectures,?creating a robust and seamless cohesion between them.

2. Host and Develop Web and Mobile Apps

Whether you're looking for a platform for hosting, developing, or managing a web or mobile app, Azure makes those apps autonomous and adaptive with?patch management, AutoScale,?and?integration?for on-premise apps.

With?Automatic patch management?for your virtual machines, you can spend less time managing your infrastructure and focus on improving your apps. Azure also comes with continuous deployment support, which allows you to streamline ongoing code updates.

AutoScale?is a feature built into Azure Web Apps that automatically adjusts your resources based on customer web traffic. Thus, you have the resources you need when traffic is high and save money outside of peak times.

You can seamlessly?link?your web app to an on-premise app?through Azure. Connecting apps in both locations lets both employees and partners?securely?access?resources inside your firewall—resources that would otherwise be difficult to access externally.

3. Distribute and Supplement Active Directory

Azure can integrate with your Active Directory to supplement your identity and access capabilities—this gives your DNS a?global reach, centralized management,?and?robust security.

With Azure, you can?globally distribute?an Active Directory environment that is direct connect enabled. No other cloud provider can extend your domain controller's reach and consolidate AD management like Azure.

If you have multiple locations or use on-premise?apps?or cloud apps like Microsoft 365, Active Directory integration with Azure will be the?central tool for managing and maintaining access to all these tools.

Azure also enables multi-factor authentication, adding a new layer of?security?to your data and applications with zero hassle for your users. You can also easily implement single sign-on for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS cloud apps.

4. Innovate with IoT Industry Solutions

Microsoft Azure's scalability, flexibility, and security make it the perfect resource for companies moving toward IoT solutions. You can connect your devices to the cloud using solutions that integrate with your existing infrastructure and start collecting new data about your company.

Within the?Azure IoT Hub, you can monitor and manage billions of devices and gain insights to help you make better business decisions, improve customer experiences, reduce complexity, lower costs, and speed up development.

Azure's enhanced security is a huge asset for IoT solutions, which traditionally have security gaps that hackers can exploit. Other benefits include remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, and analytics.

Getting started is easy with?Azure?IoT solution accelerators?-?preconfigured templates customizable to your needs.

How will you use Azure?

These four services are just a glimpse of what Azure can do for your environment. In addition to Microsoft’s defined services, it is full of cloud computing potential that you can utilize in almost any way imaginable.

If you’re ready to try out one of these services, you can get your feet wet with a trial and $200 in Azure credits. You can also use the pricing calculator to get an idea of the cost.

Itching for more Azure content? We have a blog that can help with that: https://ccbtechnology.com/microsoft-azure-vs-traditional-infrastructure/