There are more than 600 services on Microsoft Azure, and if your business doesn’t use any of them, you could be missing out.
Azure, first announced in 2008 under the codename “Project Red Dog,” provides software, platforms, and infrastructure as services known as SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
The cloud computing service is used for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers. The question is, which services could benefit your business right now?
To whet your appetite for what’s possible, take a look at these clever options, which could save your business, time, money, and embarrassing mistakes.
Build websites
There are many ways developers are able to create a website within Azure.
Options include deploying an ASP.NET web application using Visual Studio or an Express Node.js web application deployed using the command line.
You can also deploy and configure a Laravel web app through the command line.
Alternatively, create a Python web application with MySQL deployed using Visual Studio or a new Java web application running on Tomcat or Jetty.
Azure supports WordPress, Umbraco, Joomla!, Drupal, Windows, and Linux platforms giving you the option to build, deploy and manage web apps with built-in auto-scale and load balancing.
Real-time analytics
Analytics is an essential part of today’s business. Azure offers real-time analytics, meaning that you can base decisions on the most up to date data. Bringing all of your data into one place can also make the analysis of information from different streams much easier.
Management
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) brings together separate resources such as a server and database and allows them to be managed under one umbrella.
The framework allows for higher levels of automation, which can help save time and avoid errors. For example, you can schedule repetitive admin tasks to automatically take place at certain intervals, making them more reliable and much less time consuming.
For those experienced in Azure but yet to venture into the possibilities of ARM, you can invest in azure resource manager training to get you up to speed.
Machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a process of analyzing huge amounts of data. Algorithms are able to find patterns from information gathered from clicks, words, and pictures.
Platforms such as Facebook, for instance, use machine learning to gather data from what you are watching, commenting on, and buying, which then enables it to guess what you want to see, do or buy next.
Azure ML allows users to quickly create their own ML services using intuitive tools, which make the framework accessible to anyone regardless of their level of skill.
Internet of Things
Azure IoT Hub brings together your Internet of Things assets to be managed in one place. It also includes security and operating systems along with data and analytics to help businesses to build, deploy, and manage IoT applications.
These are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the capabilities of Microsoft Azure, and if you’re not quite ready to commit to full cloud migration for your business right now, it’s certainly an idea worth investigating.