List of Azure services

Azure Services

This reading includes details of the most commonly used categories of Azure Services:

• Compute

• Web

• Internet of Things (IoT)

• Big data

• AI

• DevOps

• Networking

• Storage

• Mobile

• Databases

Compute

Compute services are often one of the primary reasons why companies move to the Azure platform.
Azure provides a range of options for hosting applications and services. Here are some examples of
compute services in Azure.

Service name Service function

Azure Virtual Machines Windows or Linux virtual machines (VMs) hosted in Azure

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets Scaling for Windows or Linux VMs hosted in Azure

Azure Kubernetes Service Cluster management for VMs that run containerized services

Azure Service Fabric Distributed systems platform that runs in Azure or on-premises

Azure Batch Managed service for parallel and high-performance computing applications

Azure Container Instances Containerized apps run on Azure without provisioning servers or VMs

Azure Functions An event-driven, serverless compute service

Azure Virtual Network Connects VMs to incoming virtual private network (VPN) connections

Azure Load Balancer Balances inbound and outbound connections to applications or service endpoints

Azure Application Gateway Optimizes app server farm delivery while increasing application security

Azure VPN Gateway Accesses Azure Virtual Networks through high-performance VPN gateways

Azure DNS Provides ultra-fast DNS responses and ultra-high domain availability

Azure Content Delivery Network Delivers high-bandwidth content to customers globally

Azure DDoS Protection Protects Azure-hosted applications from distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks

Azure Traffic Manager Distributes network traffic across Azure regions worldwide

Azure ExpressRoute Connects to Azure over high-bandwidth dedicated secure connections

Azure Network Watcher Monitors and diagnoses network issues by using scenario-based analysis

Azure Firewall Implements high-security, high-availability firewall with unlimited scalability

Azure Virtual WAN Creates a unified wide area network (WAN) that connects local and remote sites

Networking

Linking compute resources and providing access to applications is the key function of Azure
networking. Networking functionality in Azure includes a range of options to connect the outside
world to services and features in the global Azure datacenters.

Here are some examples of networking services in Azure.

Storage

Azure provides four main types of storage services.

Service name Service function

Azure Blob storage Storage service for very large objects, such as video files or bitmaps

Azure File storage File shares that can be accessed and managed like a file server

Azure Queue storage A data store for queuing and reliably delivering messages between applications

Azure Table storage A NoSQL store that hosts unstructured data independent of any schema

These services all share several common characteristics:

• Durable and highly available with redundancy and replication.

• Secure through automatic encryption and role-based access control.

• Scalable with virtually unlimited storage.

• Managed, handling maintenance and any critical problems for you.

• Accessible from anywhere in the world over HTTP or HTTPS.

Mobile

With Azure, developers can create mobile back-end services for iOS, Android, and Windows apps
quickly and easily. Features that used to take time and increase project risks, such as adding
 corporate sign-in and then connecting to on-premises resources such as SAP, Oracle, SQL Server, and
SharePoint, are now simple to include.

Other features of this service include:

• Offline data synchronization.

• Connectivity to on-premises data.

• Broadcasting push notifications.

• Autoscaling to match business needs.

Databases

Azure provides multiple database services to store a wide variety of data types and volumes. And
with global connectivity, this data is available to users instantly.

Service name Service function

Azure Cosmos DB Globally distributed database that supports NoSQL options

Azure SQL Database Fully managed relational database with auto-scale, integral intelligence, and robust
security

Azure Database for MySQL Fully managed and scalable MySQL relational database with high availability and security

Azure Database for PostgreSQL Fully managed and scalable PostgreSQL relational database with high availability and
security

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Service that hosts enterprise SQL Server apps in the cloud
Machines

Azure Synapse Analytics Fully managed data warehouse with integral security at every level of scale at no extra
cost

Azure Database Migration Service Service that migrates databases to the cloud with no application code changes

Azure Cache for Redis Fully managed service caches frequently used and static data to reduce data and
application latency

Azure Database for MariaDB Fully managed and scalable MariaDB relational database with high availability and
security

Web

Having a great web experience is critical in today's business world. Azure includes first-class support
to build and host web apps and HTTP-based web services. The following Azure services are focused
on web hosting.

Service name Description

Azure App Service Quickly create powerful cloud web-based apps.

Azure Notification Hubs Send push notifications to any platform from any back end.
Service name Description

Azure API Management Publish APIs to developers, partners, and employees securely and at scale.

Azure Cognitive Search Deploy this fully managed search as a service.

Web Apps feature of Azure App Service Create and deploy mission-critical web apps at scale.

Azure SignalR Service Add real-time web functionalities easily.

IoT

People are able to access more information than ever before. Personal digital assistants led to
smartphones, and now there are smart watches, smart thermostats, and even smart refrigerators.
Personal computers used to be the norm. Now the internet allows any item that's online-capable to
access valuable information. This ability for devices to garner and then relay information for data
analysis is referred to as IoT.

Many services can assist and drive end-to-end solutions for IoT on Azure.

Service Description
name

IoT Central Fully managed global IoT software as a service (SaaS) solution that makes it easy to connect, monitor, and
manage IoT assets at scale

Azure IoT Messaging hub that provides secure communications between and monitoring of millions of IoT devices
Hub

IoT Edge Fully managed service that allows data analysis models to be pushed directly onto IoT devices, which allows them
to react quickly to state changes without needing to consult cloud-based AI models

Big data

Data comes in all formats and sizes. When we talk about big data, we're referring to large volumes of
data. Data from weather systems, communications systems, genomic research, imaging platforms,
and many other scenarios generate hundreds of gigabytes of data. This amount of data makes it hard
to analyze and make decisions. It's often so large that traditional forms of processing and analysis are
no longer appropriate.

Open-source cluster technologies have been developed to deal with these large data sets. Azure
supports a broad range of technologies and services to provide big data and analytic solutions.

Service name Description

Azure Synapse Run analytics at a massive scale by using a cloud-based enterprise data warehouse that takes advantage of
Analytics massively parallel processing to run complex queries quickly across petabytes of data.

Azure HDInsight Process massive amounts of data with managed clusters of Hadoop clusters in the cloud.

Azure Databricks Integrate this collaborative Apache Spark-based analytics service with other big data services in Azure.
 AI

AI, in the context of cloud computing, is based around a broad range of services, the core of which is
machine learning. Machine learning is a data science technique that allows computers to use existing
data to forecast future behaviors, outcomes, and trends. Using machine learning, computers learn
without being explicitly programmed.

Forecasts or predictions from machine learning can make apps and devices smarter. For example,
when you shop online, machine learning helps recommend other products you might like based on
what you've purchased. Or when your credit card is swiped, machine learning compares the
transaction to a database of transactions and helps detect fraud. And when your robot vacuum
cleaner vacuums a room, machine learning helps it decide whether the job is done.

Here are some of the most common AI and machine learning service types in Azure.

Service name Description

Azure Machine Cloud-based environment you can use to develop, train, test, deploy, manage, and track machine learning
Learning Service models. It can auto-generate a model and auto-tune it for you. It will let you start training on your local
machine, and then scale out to the cloud.

Azure Machine Collaborative visual workspace where you can build, test, and deploy machine learning solutions by using
Learning Studio prebuilt machine learning algorithms and data-handling modules.

A closely related set of products are the cognitive services. You can use these prebuilt APIs in your
applications to solve complex problems.

Service name Description

Vision Use image-processing algorithms to smartly identify, caption, index, and moderate your pictures and
videos.

Speech Convert spoken audio into text, use voice for verification, or add speaker recognition to your app.

Knowledge mapping Map complex information and data to solve tasks such as intelligent recommendations and semantic
search.

Bing Search Add Bing Search APIs to your apps and harness the ability to comb billions of webpages, images,
videos, and news with a single API call.

Natural Language Allow your apps to process natural language with pre-built scripts, evaluate sentiment, and learn
processing how to recognize what users want.

DevOps

DevOps brings together people, processes, and technology by automating software delivery to
provide continuous value to your users. With Azure DevOps, you can
create build and release pipelines that provide continuous integration, delivery, and deployment for
your applications. You can integrate repositories and application tests, perform application
monitoring, and work with build artifacts. You can also work with and backlog items for tracking,
automate infrastructure deployment and integrate a range of third-party tools and services such as
Jenkins and Chef. All of these functions and many more are closely integrated with Azure to allow for
consistent, repeatable deployments for your applications to provide streamlined build and release
processes.
Service Description
name

Azure Use development collaboration tools such as high-performance pipelines, free private Git repositories,
DevOps configurable Kanban boards, and extensive automated and cloud-based load testing. Formerly known as Visual
Studio Team Services.

Azure Quickly create on-demand Windows and Linux environments to test or demo applications directly from
DevTest deployment pipelines.
Labs

Mark as completed

Like

Dislike

Report an issue