Windows Azure Features and Deployment
Microsoft Azure is now popularly known as Windows Azure, the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft to build, manage, and deploy applications and services across the Microsoft data center network. It offers IaaS and PaaS services and is compatible with various programming languages, frameworks, and tools, including Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.
Features
Azure is Microsoft’s cloud application platform. Recently, in 2012, Azure introduced the following features:
• Websites allow developers to build the sites using PHP, ASP.NET, Python, or Node.js, and can be distributed using Git, FTP, or Mercurial Server.
• Virtual machines allow developers to travel from the infrastructure without changing the code and therefore can run Linux and Windows Server machines. Cloud services also support automated deployments and multi-tier scenarios. The Microsoft platform service is used to create extensive applications and services.
Data management
The SQL database, formerly known as the SQL Azure database, works to scale and extend applications in the cloud by using SQL server technology.
Media services
Paas can be used for content protection, encryption, and transmission or analysis. The Microsoft Azure platform offers an API based on HTTP, REST and XML that allows the developer to connect with the services that Azure offers. Additionally, it also integrates with Git, Eclipse, and Microsoft Visual Studio. It also provides the kind of managed library that embodies service connection functions.
Other services
Websites
Help in hosting websites. Customers create the sites in ASP.NET, PHP, Python, or Node.js and can also select from various open source applications available in the gallery to deploy. It consists of one aspect of Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings for Azure.
Virtual machines
Azure virtual machines consist of Infrastructure as the Service that Microsoft provides to the public cloud. As a preview, these machines supported Windows Server 2008 and 2012 systems and Linux distributors. Customers can also create Virtual Machines, which have control to run the Data Centers.
Cloud services
Cloud computing services are the containers for hosted applications. The applications are usually public web applications, such as e-commerce solutions or websites. Developers write code, mainly for cloud services, in different programming languages. They can also be used in private processing engines for some other work, such as processing orders or analyzing data. However, Microsoft does start some of the software development kits for Java, Python, and NET. The other languages are supported through open source projects.
Implementation
Azure uses the specialized operating system known as Microsoft Azure to run the “fabric layer”, which is hosted in Microsoft data centers, which manages the computing and storage resources of the computers and the provision of the resources for the application. which runs on the Azur. Reliability and scaling are controlled by Azure Fabric Controller. Microsoft Azure is described as the “cloud layer” in server systems that use Windows Server 2008 and also the custom version of Hyper-V, popularly known as Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services. Therefore, the environment and services do not crash if the server fails within the data center and provides user web application management such as load balancing and memory resources.
Privacy
Microsoft Azure has stated that in accordance with the US Patriot Act, the US government has access to the data even though the hosted company is not US and the data resides outside the US. Azure complies with the EU Data Protection Directive. To manage security and privacy concerns, Microsoft has created the Microsoft Trust Center.