What is Windows Azure and How You Can Benefit From it?

Windows Azure is a cloud based platform by Microsoft for developing, deploying and managing applications right from the cloud. Windows Azure is powered by the global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters and is both a Paas (Platform as a Service) and Iaas Infrastructure as a Service . Windows Azure can be used with various programming languages, frameworks and tools for developing web apps, mobile applications, managing Big Data, for storage and backup of data and a lot more.

Benefits Of Using Windows Azure

As evident from the above details, you should by now have a brief idea about what is Windows Azure. Now, let’s explore the various services offered by the cloud platform and their utility for corporate and individual users.

Flexible Development And Testing Environment

Being an MSDN subscriber, you can access the image gallery for different versions of the Windows Server, as well as other Microsoft products like the SQL Server, MS SharePoint Server and others. You can use these server images for making virtual machines for testing out your applications in different environments. Furthermore, you can even deploy your very own customized Windows or Linux images into a multi-zone, SLA production environment and that too in a matter of minutes.

Create And Deploy Mobile Or Web Apps

Windows Azure can be used for making mobile apps and you can store your data to the cloud, as well as provide services which may require authenticating your users and providing push notifications. Similarly, you can develop and deploy web apps, without the need for maintaining your own IT infrastructure, which can save you a lot of money and time on buying, managing, maintaining and configuring hardware and operating systems.

Backup, Recovery And Big Data Solutions

Windows Azure also provides scalable, cloud based backup and recovery solutions for data. You can also use Windows Azure to as a Big Data solution to manage your large chunks of data through Microsoft Excel. For more details, see our post about Big Data Management.

On-Demand Infrastructure

Windows Azure provides cloud based infrastructure that can be adapted to the changing needs of your business. With Windows Azure’s pay-as-you-go approach, you only pay for the amount of space that you need, instead of having to pay for empty storage which you may never use. For more details about the infrastructure services offered by Windows Azure, see the video given below.