Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a cloud based software that makes it easy to deploy and run virtual machines using Windows Server and Linux. You can start with a trial which I've done using my credit card to verify my identity though I was not charged. I am interested in running cloud software and am currently researching this market for best of breed. At first glance in my Microsoft Azure dashboard everything seems well laid out a easy to use. There's a huge amount of possibilities built into this deceptively simple software. You can build websites using PHP, ASP.NET or Node.js. And deploy use FT, TFS or Git. And utilize SQL Database, CDN, Caching functionality. You can also create a virtual network of machines using Microsoft Azure. Or migrate existing infrastructure and applications into your account without having to change the current code. There is a great amount of value with this platform as a service. The scalability of Microsoft Azure is one of the strongest features and advantages to using a cloud platform. You can grow traffic to your application indefinitely without having to worry about if your server can handle the load. You can enhance your current development a lot too by incorporating structured storage or push notifications and user authentication for examples relatively quick and easily. The reporting capabilities possible with the integration of Hadoop and Microsoft Azure are very powerful. It solves the problem of creating clustered or targeted analytics for structured or complex data that doesn't work well in tables. The buzz around Windows Azure is what drew me to check it out. I've noticed it's growth over the years because there are a lot more resources available than there used to be for it available online. And Microsoft is continually upgrading their platform with new features while it's integrations continue to grow as well. The pricing based on the scaling of your project is important to note as well. It's simply outstanding to know you're only paying for the instances you're using at any one time. Though knowing you can add instances automatically as you're needs change and you require this and never pay for anymore than you need.

There are no standards across cloud PAAS so if you wanted to switch cloud servers in the future for whatever reason it would not be easy. It would take a lot of work to do this. This is not an Azure specific problem but it would be nice for more cross platform as a service portability across the industry. If you over qualify the needs of your business it's possible you would spend way more than necessary. The possibilities of your application deployment such as disk space, data throughput, redundancy and a network of virtual machines with a wide range of options available within each aspect will determine the overall price and each of these options can be optimized. It's not prudent to take this lightly though considering an Azure expert on your team is a costly investment that best well thought out.

It's free to try Microsoft Azure and test some of the features so there's no reason not to check it out. And it's easy to upgrade with no configuration changes required at all to move forward. The possibilities with Microsoft Azure are tremendous and virtually unlimited. The ability to integrate existing infrastructure, to utilize it's massive flexibility, to scale your deployment as you grow allow for amazing opportunities. So far in my research, Azure is near the top of the list as my choice of platform as a service.