In today's IT world we can see how technology has taken a 180 ° turn by giving us tools and new technologies that have as a fundamental purpose to scale in organizations, obtain better productivity and allow as administrators we can have practical utilities to carry out the assigned task
One of these technologies that they are taking, and will take on a much greater boom, is cloud computing, whose mission is to offer computer services such as servers, storage , databases , networks , software, intelligence, and much more through Internet which is called the cloud. This with the task of providing users and organizations with a more dynamic innovation, more flexible resources and better scaling of available resources..
When using cloud computing we have features such as:
There are various types of cloud computing within which we highlight:
Public cloud
These are owned by another cloud service provider, which is responsible for administration tasks and thus offers its computing resources, such as servers and storage, over the Internet
Private cloud
These are cloud computing resources which are used exclusively by a company or organization.
Hybrid cloud
This type of cloud combines public and private clouds which are linked using technologies that allow data and applications to be shared between them.
Microsoft Azure is an example of a public cloud and is a platform that we will analyze in detail later. It is important to know a little more about cloud computing because it is the main base of Microsoft Azure, there are several services in the cloud, heard by everyone, such as:
- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
- Platform as a service (PaaS)
- Software as a service (SaaS)
Because Azure is closely linked to the cloud, it is because thanks to this technology we can perform tasks such as:
- Test and create applications
- Create new applications and services
- Store data, create backup copies of it and recover it
- Incorporation of intelligence through modeling
- Manage software on request
With these concepts in mind we will understand a little more what Microsoft Azure is and everything it offers us.
What is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Azure has been developed as a set of various cloud services in order to allow organizations to further deploy their strategies, infrastructure and versatility, which ultimately results in better use of resources. With Azure it will be possible to create, manage and implement applications in a worldwide network using its thousands of available tools and functions.
By using Azure we are segmenting our administration into pillars such as:
Productivity
It allows to reduce business cycles since it provides us with more than 100 comprehensive services within which we find languages ​​such as Node.js, Java and .NET or we can also create development tools for PC or Mac using tools such as Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code
Hybrid
With Microsoft Azure it will be possible to develop multiple solutions and be able to implement them where necessary through the only hybrid cloud available and we have Azure Stack which allows us to extend the use of Azure.
Intelligence
With Azure it will be possible to create intelligent applications using artificial intelligence and solid data services such as Azure Databricks, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Cognitive Services and Azure Bot Service
Reliability
One of the main guarantees when using Azure is its reliability since Azure complies with various international standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 1 and SOC 2, as well as specific standards for each country, including: IRAP in Australia, G-Cloud in the United Kingdom and MTCS in Singapore.
In addition to this, Azure has 54 global regions and is present in 140 countries which makes it the platform that has more regions than another cloud service provider..
Microsoft Azure is compatible with open source technologies, so that it can be used with its desired tools and technologies as we will have technical support for the use of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) in PHP, Linux and Java web application platforms, thus increasing its scope.
One of the most delicate points when using any type of infrastructure, whether in the cloud or not, is security as sensitive information will be handled. In this regard, Microsoft Azure has integrated controls and services which are responsible for monitoring identity, data, networks and applications to ensure the best security options..
In addition to this, we can have continuous protection thanks to the Azure Security Center which has been developed analyzing origins that involve 18,000 million Bing web pages, 400,000 million emails, 1,000 million Windows device updates and 450,000 million authentications each month.
Reliability
Azure security is based on the following aspects:
- Manage identities and access control
- Dynamically manage keys, secrets and certificates
- Get centralized visibility to prevent attacks
1. Microsoft Azure infrastructure
Microsoft Azure has servers in 140 countries distributed in 54 zones, Azure covers aspects such as:
Regions
It is a set of data centers that have been implemented within a perimeter based on latency and that are connected through a dedicated regional network of low latency. Azure offers general availability in 42 regions around the world.
Geographies
It refers to a differentiated market where two or more regions are usually counted and that respects the boundaries of residence of the data and regulatory compliance of each of them.
Availability Zones
They are physically separated locations within an Azure region and each zone consists of one or more data centers coupled with the best available technical and physical resources.
Azure has more than 100 product options, some in only a few regions, which will allow greater flexibility and use of functions and features, some of the products available with Microsoft Azure are:
Azure products available
- Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1
- SQL Server Stretch Database
- Azure Database Migration Service
2. Prices to use Microsoft Azure
Being an application integration service in the cloud Microsoft has established a price range according to the desired configuration and product to use, but we have a free year which will explain how to use it later.
Microsoft Azure has a functionality called Cost Management which allows you to monitor, assign and optimize the costs of each selected product, thanks to this tool it will be possible to perform functions such as:
- Make use of historical data in order to improve the forecasts for the use of resources in the cloud and the expenses corresponding to those resources
- Periodically monitor the consumption of resources in the cloud and cost trends
- Optimize use through virtual machine size adjustment and elimination of inactive resources to improve not only performance but operational expenses
- Improve all organizational audit issues by executing the allocation of cloud costs to the right projects and business units.
Microsoft Azure handles four main cost segments that are:
Developer
It is used for test and non-production environments and costs € 24.46 / month
Standard
This is used for production workload environments and costs € 84.33 / month
Professional Direct
It is in the category of critical business dependence and has a cost of € 843.30 / month
Premier
It is the highest level and therefore Microsoft should be contacted directly for cost issues.
However, Microsoft Azure has a calculator through which it will be possible to have a global idea of ​​the cost we will pay for the use of our product, for example, a virtual machine created with the following characteristics:
- Operating System: Windows
- Instance: 8 GB of RAM, 50 GB on hard disk and a D2 V3 CPU
This machine would have a monthly cost of USD 154.03.
To access the calculator and check an estimated cost we can go to the following link:
Azure Calculator
3. How to register and access the Microsoft Azure platform
Step 1
To start this process we must go to the following link and register with our Microsoft account:
Azure Portal
Once we access there, we must register and indicate a mobile number to which a registration code will be sent and we must enter a credit card number to validate the subscription, from there only one dollar will be charged for verification issues but we will have the account Free for one year. Another important point to keep in mind is that Microsoft Azure gives us USD 200 in credits to be used on the platform.
Step 2
As a first step it will be necessary to assign a storage where the virtual machines will be housed, there we must select in the Subscription field the Free evaluation option, click on Create to continue with the space allocation process and thus be able to use all the functions of Microsoft Azure.
This result can be seen in the PowerShell console displayed at the bottom:
Step 3
Once this process is finished, we will access the Azure environment which offers the following view:
Step 4
From here it will be possible to start the process of creating virtual machines and the use of products. On the left side panel we find all available Azure products. There we can select one of the categories to see what we have created, if it exists, in it:
Step 5
As we mentioned before, there is a function called Cost Management in which it will be possible to visualize the status of the subscriptions, as well as the remaining balance or the cost generated on the basis that projects are created in Azure:
Step 6
In the side panel we find the Monitor option where it will be possible to carry out tasks such as:
- Create new alerts to always be aware of changes
- Manage all records generated in Azure
Step 7
To access a general environment of Microsoft Azure services we can click on the section All services and there we will have all the options of services offered:
Step 8
Azure offers us the option to share our panel, which by default is private, with other users in the selected geographical area, for this, from the panel view, click on the "Share" button located at the top and define in the Right side part details such as the name of the board, the type of subscription and the desired area:
Step 9
This is useful for receiving support from other users. It will be possible to create a custom panel by clicking on the New panel option located at the top and the following will be displayed:
Step 10
There we can add the values ​​that we consider necessary to be managed in Microsoft Azure. From the Configuration option (gear icon), it will be possible to perform actions such as:
- Define a theme for the platform
- Enable logout due to inactivity and more.
Step 11
Microsoft Azure has the integrated functionality of Cloud Shell thanks to which we can carry out all the management actions from the PowerShell console, for this we click on the icon located at the top and so we will access the console:
Step 12
We can see how Microsoft Azure is more than a simple virtualization platform in the cloud, since as administrators we have tools such as:
Azure Monitor
It is a utility that integrates Log Analytics and Application Insights, these are sophisticated tools that allow you to collect and analyze telemetry data in order to maximize the performance and availability of applications and resources in the cloud and local. Using this utility you can perform tasks such as monitoring metrics, log analysis, virtual machines and more.
Azure Security Center
It is a function that facilitates unified security management and advanced threat protection for workloads in the hybrid cloud. Using Security Center, it will be possible to apply security policies on workloads, limit exposure to threats and detect and respond to attacks.
Azure Application Insights
It is a function that maximizes the availability and performance of applications through a broad solution, through which it will be possible to collect, analyze and manage telemetric data both in the cloud and in local environments.
Azure Backup
It is useful for protecting data from local servers, virtual machines, virtualized workloads, SQL Server servers, SharePoint Server servers and more.
Site Recovery
Allows you to manage the recovery of disaster data from Azure virtual machines and virtual machines and local physical servers.
Azure Migrate
It is useful for detecting the integrity of local machines for migration to Azure and offers size and cost options to run Azure virtual machines.
Microsoft Azure is one of the integral solutions that have been developed by Microsoft to facilitate the administration and management tasks of hundreds of products with the best control tools.