What is Microsoft Azure?

Before we understand what Microsoft, Azure is, lets attempt to understand the jargons used by individuals who love ‘Cloud Computing’ 😊

Jargon	Meaning
Cloud	A network of many physical servers each running a different function.
Cloud Service	A service is available on the cloud. Three types of cloud services are IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service)
Cloud Computing	Storing your data in servers that isn’t physically located in your organization but in datacenters provided by trusted companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon. In the time before the ‘Cloud’ existed, organizations/individuals would store data in their hard disks that were available within the same building or another building connected over the LAN. In the case of cloud computing, data is uploaded to the servers located in another physical location, over the internet.
Cloud Service Provider	An organization that provides cloud services to customers Eg :- Microsoft , Amazon , Google are cloud service providers
Public Cloud	The resources are rented by customers from the cloud service provider (Microsoft, Amazon etc.). The customer utilizes shared resources that is allocated and then de-allocated based on the demands and needs of the customer. The services (infrastructure, VMs etc.) are accessed over the internet.
Private Cloud	The difference between a public and a private cloud is that, companies own the resources that they have rented. From a pricing standpoint, this option would be more expensive. A private cloud is when the infrastructure is maintained on a private network.
Hybrid Cloud	As the name suggests, the hybrid cloud is a combination of both the public and the private cloud. This allows services owned by organizations to move between public and the private cloud. This option is being mostly used by organizations.
IaaS	Infrastructure as a Service. The infrastructure portion of your business environment is handled by a cloud service provider. This includes:- Virtualization Servers Storage Networking
PaaS	Platform as a Service. The infrastructure portion of your business environment is handled by a cloud service provider. This includes :- Runtime Middleware OS (Operating System)
SaaS	Software as a Service. The software portion of your business environment is handled by a cloud service provider. This includes all the applications that is used by your organization.

Types of cloud deployment

Types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

So now, what is Azure?

It is the cloud platform that Microsoft provides to rent out space for your Infrastructure, Platform or software!