Chapter 1. An Introduction to Microsoft Azure Storage Services

Microsoft Azure is an open and secure cloud platform that enables you to build, deploy, and manage applications. With its broad collection of services, it allows you to build with any programming language, tool, or framework, and integrate your cloud-hosted solutions with your existing IT environments.

Azure services fall into three main categories: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), like virtual machines; Software as a Service (SaaS), like Azure SQL; and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions, like Office 365. This is a collection of offerings that engage IT specialists, developers, and business owners.

The platform is globally present through a network of Microsoft-managed datacenters, distributed around 19 remote regions (as of writing), which facilitate redundancy and rapid recovery. It is a self-service platform where you can provision your resources and scale them elastically based on your own business needs.

It supports various programming languages such as .NET, PHP, Java, Node.js, Python, and Ruby. In addition, it supports a variety of data services like relational databases, NoSQL, and Big Data solutions. It also promotes hybrid solutions and allows you to extend your datacenters to the cloud using virtual networks.

Below is a brief classification for the services offered:

Azure also offers management services, like the portal and marketplace, and developer enriching features such as Visual Studio Online and application insights.