Jan 30

Introduction to Azure


Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure, created by Microsoft. Azure allows for building, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed and Microsoft partner hosted datacenters. 

Microsoft Azure provide the options of PaaS (Platform as a service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) services. Azure was first announced in the October 2008 and release on 1st of February 2010. Initially it was called as Windows Azure and later it was renamed to Microsoft Azure. 

Following are the main data centers for Azure
North America
– Central US: Iowa
– North-central US: Chicago, IL
– South-central US: San Antonio, TX
– West US: California
– East US: Boydton, VA
– East Canada: Toronto and Quebec City
South America
– Brazil: São Paulo State
Europe
– North Europe: Dublin, Ireland
– West Europe: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Asia
– China (North): Beijing
– China (East): Shanghai
– East Asia: Hong Kong
– South East Asia: Singapore
– South Asia: Mumbai, Pune
Japan
– Japan East: Saitama
– Japan West: Osaka
Oceania
– Sydney, New South Wales
– Melbourne, Victoria

Azure Service Model
Useage of Windows Azure resources grouped into a local units of billing called a subscription. Each subscription contain one ore many hosted services within Azure. These hosted services indicate which data center your application is hosted and the DNS prefix that will be used to access your hosted application.

A hosted service can contain up to two deployments
1. Staging Deployment
2. Production Deployment

Each of the deployment provides a DNS name used to access the services. Staging Deployment are assigned with a auto-generated DNS name where Production Deployment assign with a prefix DNS when creating the parent hosted service.

Communicating with Deployments
Once the deployment is completed DNS will be provided in the form of :
[dnsprefix].cloudapp.net 

Users can use this DNS name to access the Azure hosted applications directly.

How to Manage Azure Services?
Primary entry point to manage all Azure services is via the Windows Azure Management Portal. ‘https://portal.azure.com/“

By using the portal you will be able to control all the hosted services related to Azure. 

How to create a Account?
Microsoft provide free trial account for the user to experience the Azure cloud environment and once the account is expired you can move into a selected subscription depending on your requirement. 

Check this info graphics to get a more clear idea about Azure. 

Original Link for higher resolution| Download PDF File 

Please provide your feedback with a comment.
Thank you and Regards,
Tharanga Chandrasekara

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2 comments

    • Anonymous on September 7, 2016 at 8:54 pm
    • #

    I really like the interesting and knowledgeable blog. Very well written. Thanks.
    microsoft cloud solution

    • Unknown on September 7, 2016 at 8:54 pm
    • #

    Glad it helped you.

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