Organizations all over the world recognize Microsoft Azure as the most trusted Cloud for enterprise and hybrid infrastructure, but how much is this true? If you are looking to build your own data center or migrate from an on-premise environment to a cloud platform, or you are just wondering which is the best cloud for the job, then here’s what you need to know about the key players in the cloud space.

What is Microsoft?

Microsoft has been around since 1980 when it was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The company’s main focus is developing software for computers and mobile devices. The company started as an operating system provider but soon diversified into other fields such as games, entertainment, and productivity tools.

Today, Microsoft has become one of the largest technology companies in the world with a market capitalization of 534 billion USD. The company provides its products under two categories: Business Products (Biz) and Consumer Apps & Devices (CAD). Biz includes Office 365, Intune, System Center, and many more, while CAD includes Windows 10 operating systems, Xbox, Surface Hub, HoloLens, Lumia, Band, and many more.

On top of that, Microsoft also offers a wide array of cloud services including Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online, SQL Server, SharePoint, Power BI, Skype for Business, and many more.

Which are the fundamental Microsoft Cloud Services?

The following are just some of the core services offered by Microsoft:

• Office 365 – this is basically the entire suite of Microsoft Office applications available online. It consists of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and many more. You can access them through any device that supports Microsoft apps, like Android and iOS smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.

• Dynamics 365 – this is the latest version of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which allows you to manage interactions with customers and prospects. With Dynamics 365, you can track customer activities on websites, emails, social media profiles, and call recordings.

• System Center – this is a comprehensive product management solution that helps organizations maintain their servers, networks, and applications.

• Azure – this is Microsoft’s cloud platform that allows users to host applications, store data, and perform tasks without having to worry about hardware configurations.

• Intune – this tool automates IT processes, allowing you to set up policies to control user activity, enforce security standards, and perform remote device management.

• AppSource – this is a marketplace where developers can sell their apps to end users.

• PowerBI – this tool allows businesses to create dashboards and visual reports that present data in simple, easy-to-understand graphs and charts.

• Skype for Business – this is the cloud collaboration and communication application that enables individuals and teams to communicate using voice, video, desktop sharing, file transfers, chats, and presence information.

What is Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure is a Cloud Computing platform that allows you to scale, automate, and secure your business operations. It’s a collection of integrated solutions that can be used in conjunction with each other to provide powerful features that help you reduce costs, boost productivity, improve security, and accelerate time-to-market.

What is a Cloud Computing Service?

Cloud computing is a model of computer resource provisioning and usage in which computational resources are delivered “as a service” over a network rather than purchased and installed locally. In addition, cloud providers offer a shared pool of resources, which are accessed via different types of client devices over a digital connection.

Which are the best cloud computing services?

As of now, there are four major cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and IBM SoftLayer. These cloud services have several common features. For example, they usually allow users to run multiple virtual machines (VMs) in the same physical server. They also allow users to access their VMs remotely.

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) is among the most popular cloud services. Its basic offering is comprised of EC2, S3, SQS, RDS, and Elastic Beanstalk. However, this service offers advanced capabilities too, such as IAM, API Gateway, RDS Postgres, Lambda, and Fargate.

• Google Cloud Platform is another popular cloud service. It comes with GCP Compute Engine, Kubernetes, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, App Engine, and Cloud Run.

• Microsoft Azure stands out because of its flexibility. It lets you pick from a number of preconfigured templates, which contain all the necessary settings. Microsoft uses its own Active Directory (AD) to keep track of user accounts. Other than AD, Microsoft Azure also has support for LDAP, SAML, and OAuth.

• IBM SoftLayer is a relatively new player in the cloud space. It provides a full stack of tools, including VPS hosting, storage, database, load balancing, and networking. Users can also use the API to integrate their applications with the IBM cloud.

Which is the best: Azure or AWS?

This question often arises between Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Both these companies provide cloud services. However, they differ significantly in terms of cost, performance, scalability, and availability. So, which is better? Before choosing one of these cloud computing platforms, take note of the following factors:

• Cost: AWS is cheaper than Azure.

• Scalability: Azure is good at scaling while AWS isn’t.

• Reliability: AWS depends on third parties while Azure does not.

• Availability: availability is better in Azure due to its redundancy.

• Security: Azure has more security measures compared to AWS.

So, have you realized already which is better? Yes, Azure is definitely better.

What are virtual numbers?

If you want to create an account on Azure, we definitely recommend you to purchase a virtual number that can receive a verification SMS message for this platform. Virtual numbers are often used to connect and communicate via the web – and they are cheaper than typical landlines. They are not connected to any physical location, which means that they are anonymous and not traceable.

If you want to protect your online privacy while you bypass text verification on Azure, just use our SMS verification service: Major Phones.

Conclusion

There are plenty of reasons to use Azure instead of Amazon Web Services or any other cloud computing service. However, AWS is still a great option for those who don’t want to spend money upfront. Either way, don’t forget to consider the pros and cons before making a decision. Don’t waste time and sign up now!