Tailored services in the cloud
In the past, when your business’ computing requirement increased you’d find yourself purchasing more physical hardware and perhaps even employing additional staff to manage that hardware. The advent of ‘Cloud Computing’ means that there is now an alternative, as you can pay companies to physically host and manage your company’s IT infrastructure for a fee.
‘The Cloud’ refers to a huge global network of computing infrastructure owned and managed by companies such as Microsoft and Amazon. This computing resource is made available as a product, the cost of which will depend on your requirements. This allows greater flexibility as you pay for the computing power you need rather than having to incur the very fixed costs of acquiring physical infrastructure. It also reduces risks associated with running your own infrastructure such as component failure and physical data loss.
So where does Microsoft Azure come in?
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service featuring hundreds of separate services available for use, all of which are hosted by data centres run by Microsoft.
The services available include SaaS (Software-as-a-Dervice), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service). It is hard to succinctly define what Azure does because the range is so broad, but in essence it is an extremely powerful resource to help your business meet many of the computing challenges it may face. It gives you the ability to develop, manage and use applications on a vast global network using your favourite tools and frameworks.
What are the benefits & advantages?