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Microsoft Azure

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Microsoft Azure
Developer(s)Microsoft
Initial release1 February 2010; 14 years ago (2010-02-01)[1]
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, Linux
LicenseClosed source for platform, Open source for client SDKs
Websiteazure.microsoft.com

Microsoft Azure /ˈæʒər/ is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure, created by Microsoft, for building, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed and Microsoft partner hosted datacenters. It provides both PaaS and IaaS services and supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems. Azure was announced in October 2008 and released on 1 February 2010 as Windows Azure, before being renamed to Microsoft Azure on 25 March 2014.[1]

Services

Compute

App services

App Services are platform as a service (PaaS) environment letting developers easily publish and manage web sites.

Websites

High density hosting of websites allows developers to build sites using ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js, or Python and can be deployed using FTP, Git, Mercurial or Team Foundation Server. This feature was announced in preview form in June 2012 at the Meet Microsoft Azure event.[2] Customers can create websites in PHP, ASP.NET, Node.js, or Python, or select from several open source applications from a gallery to deploy. This comprises one aspect of the platform as a service (PaaS) offerings for the Microsoft Azure Platform. It was renamed to Web Apps in April 2015. http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/app-service/web/

WebJobs

These applications can be deployed to a Web App to implement background processing. That can be invoked on a schedule, on demand or can run continuously. The Blob, Table and Queue services can be used to communicate between Web Apps and Web Jobs and to provide state.

Mobile Services
Biztalk Services

Cloud services

Azure network and computes deployment architecture

Cloud Services is a platform as a service (PaaS) environment and can be used to create scalable applications and services. It supports multi-tier architectures and automated deployments. Previously named "Hosted Services", the Cloud Services for Windows Azure comprise one aspect of the PaaS offerings from the Windows Azure Platform. The Cloud Services are containers of hosted applications. These applications can be Internet-facing public web applications (such as web sites and e-commerce solutions) named "Web Roles", or they can be private processing engines for other work, such as processing orders or analyzing data named "Worker Roles".

Developers can write code for Cloud Services in a variety of different programming languages. There are specific software development kits (SDKs) provided by Microsoft for Python, Java, Node.js and .NET.[3] Other languages may have support through Open Source projects. Microsoft published the source code for their client libraries on GitHub.[4]

Virtual machines

Windows Azure virtual machines comprise the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering from Microsoft for their public cloud. Virtual machines enable developers to migrate applications and infrastructure without changing existing code and can run both Windows Server and Linux virtual machines. It was announced in preview form at the Meet Windows Azure event in June 2012.[2] Customers can create virtual machines, of which they have complete control, to run in Microsoft's data centers. As of the preview the virtual machines supported Windows Server 2008 and 2012 operating systems and a few distributions of Linux. The General Availability version of Virtual Machine was released in May 2013.

Big Compute

Batch

Helps run large parallel and high performance computing workloads in the Cloud.

HPC Pack

The high performance computing pack lets developers implement parallel processing.

Scheduler

Scheduler automatically runs previously declared recurring and one-off tasks. "What is Scheduler - Microsoft Azure". Microsoft Azure. Microsoft. Retrieved 11 August 2015.

Remote App

Delivers Windows apps from Azure to run on a variety of devices – Windows, Mac OS X, iOS or Android. Remote applications are run on Windows Server in the Azure cloud, where they’re easier to scale and update. Application users install Remote Desktop clients on their Internet-connected laptop, tablet or phone, and can access applications as if they were running locally. "RemoteApp - Microsoft Azure". Microsoft Azure. Microsoft. Retrieved 11 August 2015.

Storage Services

Storage Services provides REST and SDK APIs for storing and accessing data on the cloud.

Table Service

This service lets programs store structured text in partitioned collections of entities that are accessed by partition key and primary key.

Blob Service

This service lets programs store unstructured text and binary data as blobs that can be accessed by a path.

Queue Service

This service lets programs communicate asynchronously by message using queues.

File Service

This service lets programs store and access data on the cloud using the SMB protocol.

Data management

SQL Database

SQL Database, formerly known as SQL Azure Database, works to create, scale and extend applications into the cloud using Microsoft SQL Server technology. It also integrates with Active Directory and Microsoft System Center and Hadoop.[5]

The Search service provides text search and a subset of [OData]'s structured filters using REST or SDK APIs.

Document DB

DocumentDB is a NoSQL database service that implements a subset of the [SQL] SELECT statement on [JSON] documents.

Redis Cache

A managed implementation of Redis

StorSimple

The StorSimple service manages storage tasks between on-premises devices and cloud storage.

Business Analytics

HDInsight

HDInsight is Microsoft's cloud based Hadoop distribution[6]

Azure Machine Learning

Cloud-based predictive analytics and publishing of APIs on the cloud."Machine Learning - Microsoft Azure". Microsoft Azure. Microsoft. Retrieved 11 August 2015.

Stream Analytics

The Stream Analytics service provides low latency, highly available, scalable complex event processing over streaming data in the cloud."Stream Analytics - Microsoft Azure". Microsoft Azure. Microsoft. Retrieved 11 August 2015.

Data Catalogue

The Data Catalog service is a system of registration and system of discovery for enterprise data sources."Data Catalog Search syntax reference - Microsoft Azure". Microsoft Azure. Microsoft. Retrieved 11 August 2015.

Data Factory

The Data Factory allows developers to build data-driven workflows between their local, cloud-based and internet services with complex data processing logic and little programming. "Data Factory Developer Reference- Microsoft Azure". Microsoft Azure. Microsoft. Retrieved 11082015. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

Identity

Azure Active Directory

Rights Management

Access Control Service

Multi-Factor Authentication

Messaging

Microsoft Azure Service Bus

Media services

A PaaS offering that can be used for encoding, content protection, streaming, and/or analytics.

CDN

A global content delivery network for audio, video, applications, images, and other high-bandwidth files.

Networking

Virtual Network

A hosted Virtual private network

DNS

Azure DNS is a DNS domain hosting service. It provides domain name resolution services using the cloud infrastructure of Microsoft Azure. The Azure DNS services are integrated with other Azure services in terms of APIs, billing, credentials. The Azure DNS service is built up on the highly scalable cloud infrastructure provided by Microsoft Azure. The deployment is Anycast based and the service has a high global footprint to provide faster network resolution. Azure DNS is currently open for public preview.[7]

Express Route

This offering lets you create private connections between Azure datacenters and infrastructure that’s on your premises or in a colocation environment. ExpressRoute connections don't go over the public Internet (sometimes called "dark fiber") and offer more reliability, faster speeds (it's like a leased line), lower latencies (one hop to Azure), and may offer higher security than typical Internet connections. In some cases, using ExpressRoute connections to transfer data between on-premises systems and Azure can also yield significant cost benefits.

Traffic Manager

Integration

Backup

Site Recovery

Developer

Visual Studio Online

Application Insights

Design

Microsoft Azure uses a specialized operating system, called Microsoft Azure, to run its "fabric layer": a cluster hosted at Microsoft's data centers that manages computing and storage resources of the computers and provisions the resources (or a subset of them) to applications running on top of Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Azure has been described as a "cloud layer" on top of a number of Windows Server systems, which use Windows Server 2008 and a customized version of Hyper-V, known as the Microsoft Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services.

Scaling and reliability are controlled by the Microsoft Azure Fabric Controller so the services and environment do not crash if one of the servers crashes within the Microsoft data center and provides the management of the user's web application like memory resources and load balancing.

Azure provides an API built on REST, HTTP, and XML that allows a developer to interact with the services provided by Microsoft Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed class library which encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio, Git, and Eclipse.

History

File:Ray Ozzie PDC2008.jpg
Ray Ozzie announcing Windows Azure at PDC 2008, October 27

October 2008 (PDC LA)

  • Announced the Windows Azure Platform
  • First CTP of Windows Azure

March 2009

  • Announced SQL Azure Relational Database

November 2009

  • Updated Windows Azure CTP
  • Enabled full trust, PHP, Java, CDN CTP and more
  • Announced VM Role, Project Sidney, Pricing and SLAs
  • Project "Dallas" CTP

February 2010

  • Windows Azure Platform commercially available

June 2010

  • Windows Azure Update
  • SQL Azure Update (Service Update 3)[8]
    • 50 GB databases
    • Spatial data support
    • DAC support

October 2010 (PDC)

  • Platform enhancements
    • Windows Azure Virtual Machine Role
    • Role enhancements
    • Admin mode, Startup tasks
    • Full-IIS support
    • Extra Small Instances
  • Windows Azure Connect
    • Access to on-premises resource for cross-premises apps
    • Support for domain-joining VMs
    • Direct role-instance connectivity for easier development
    • Use your existing remote administration tools
  • Improved Dev / IT Pro Experience
    • New Windows Azure Platform Management Portal
    • Multiple users & roles for management
    • Remote Desktop
    • Enhanced Dev Tools
    • PHP development
    • Marketplace

December 2011

  • Traffic manager
  • SQL Azure reporting
  • HPC scheduler

June 2012

  • Websites
  • Virtual machines for Windows and Linux (backed by persistent storage)
  • Python SDK
  • New portal
  • Locally redundant storage
Former Windows Azure logo, 2012-2014

April 2014

  • Windows Azure renamed to Microsoft Azure
  • New beta preview management portal released
  • Azure experiences an outage affecting several customers - "An internal server error has occurred".

July 2014

  • Azure Machine Learning public preview [9]

November 2014

  • Microsoft Azure experiences outage affecting major websites including MSN.com.[10]

September 2015

  • Azure Cloud Switch introduced as a cross-platform Linux distribution.[11]

Data center regions

Some data center regions have servers grouped inside containers, each containing 1800–2500 servers.[12][13] As of 2014, the servers running in China (North) and China (East) are available for customers signed up through 21Vianet only, the local Microsoft Azure operator.[14] Microsoft Azure officially launched its Oceania location on 27 October 2014,[15] the Australia Regions is currently limited to customers with billing addresses in Australia and New Zealand.[16] Pricing, terms and conditions may differ between regions.

The locations of the data centers[17][18] are: Template:Start multicol

North America
  • Central US: Iowa
  • North-central US: Chicago, IL
  • South-central US: San Antonio, TX
  • West US: California
  • East US: Boydton, VA[19]
  • East Canada: Toronto and Quebec City (2016)[20]
South America
  • Brazil: São Paulo State
Europe

Template:Multicol break

Asia
  • China (North): Beijing
  • China (East): Shanghai
  • East Asia: Hong Kong
  • South East Asia: Singapore
  • South Asia: Mumbai, Pune
Japan
  • Japan East: Saitama
  • Japan West: Osaka
Oceania [21][22]
  • Sydney, New South Wales
  • Melbourne, Victoria

Template:Multicol end


The CDN nodes are located in 24 countries.[23][23][24]

As of July 2010, Microsoft had completed 6,000 installations of Azure in Ireland.[25] Executives at Microsoft hoped that this figure would rise to 100,000 installations by 2011.[25]

Construction of the $500 million facility required one million man-hours of work with a peak workforce of around 2,100 workers.[26] The facility, which began operating on 1 July 2009, currently covers 303,000 square feet (2.815 hectares), with 5.4 megawatts of critical power available. Over time, the data center is expandable to a total of 22.2 megawatts of critical power to support future growth.

Privacy

Microsoft has stated that, per the USA Patriot Act, the US government can have access to the data even if the hosted company is not American and the data resides outside the USA.[27] However, Microsoft Azure is compliant with the E.U. Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). To manage privacy and security related concerns, Microsoft has created a Microsoft Azure Trust Center,[28] and Microsoft Azure has several of its services compliant with several compliance programs including ISO 27001:2005 and HIPAA. A full and current listing can be found on the Microsoft Azure Trust Center Compliance page.[29] Of special note, Microsoft Azure has been granted JAB Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) from the U.S. government in accordance with guidelines spelled out under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), a U.S. government program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud services used by the federal government.[30]

Significant outages

Documented Microsoft Azure outages and service disruptions.

Date Cause Notes
2012-02-29 Incorrect code for calculating leap day dates[31]
2012-07-26 Misconfigured network device[32][33]
2013-02-22 Expiry of an SSL certificate[34] Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Video also affected[35]
2013-10-30 Worldwide partial compute outage[36]
2014-11-18 Azure storage upgrade caused reduced capacity across several regions[37] Xbox Live, Windows Store, MSN, Search, Visual Studio Online among others were affected.[38]

As of February 18, 2015 Azure has been available for 99.9459% of the past year.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Windows Azure General Availability". The Official Microsoft Blog. Microsoft. 1 February 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Meet Windows Azure event June 2012". Weblogs.asp.net. 7 June 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Windows Azure Documentation: Get started building cloud applications". Windowsazure.com. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  4. ^ "Azure (Windows Azure) on GitHub". Github.com. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  5. ^ http://www.connx.com/products/azure.html Azure and CONNX
  6. ^ "HDInsight - Microsoft Azure". Microsoft Azure HDInsight. Microsoft. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  7. ^ "DNS | Microsoft Azure". Azure.microsoft.com. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  8. ^ "SQL Azure SU3 is Now Live and Available in 6 Datacenters Worldwide". SQL Azure Team Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  9. ^ "Microsoft Azure Machine Learning combines power of comprehensive machine learning with benefits of cloud". blogs.microsoft.com. 16 June 2014.
  10. ^ "Human Error Caused Microsoft Azure Outage". Cloudwards.net. 20 December 2014.
  11. ^ "Microsoft demonstrates its Linux-based Azure Cloud Switch operating system". ZDNet.com. 18 September 2015.
  12. ^ "Inside Microsoft Azure's data center, one of world's largest". Neowin. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  13. ^ Miller, Rich (23 March 2010). "Video: Building Microsoft's ITPAC Container". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  14. ^ "21Vianet Announces General Availability of Microsoft Azure Services in China". 21Vianet. 21Vianet. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  15. ^ "Microsoft Azure Australia open for business". ZDNet. ZDNet. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  16. ^ "Locations". Microsoft. Microsoft. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  17. ^ "Microsoft Azure Data Center Locations World Wide | Joran Markx". Joranmarkx.wordpress.com. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  18. ^ "Privacy". Microsoft Azure Trust Center. Windowsazure.com. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  19. ^ http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/posts/2013/march/26/microsoft-cloud-scale-data-center-designs.aspx
  20. ^ "Microsoft Canada | Microsoft Cloud Touches Down in Canada". reimagine.microsoft.ca. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  21. ^ Bowers, Toby. "Microsoft Azure expands Downunder". Microsoft Australia Blog. Microsoft.
  22. ^ "Microsoft Azure in Australia Goes Live Today". CloudWedge.com.
  23. ^ a b "UPDATED: 24 Nodes Available Globally for the Microsoft Azure CDN Including New Node in Doha, QT". MSDN Blogs. Microsoft. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  24. ^ "Two New Nodes for the Windows Azure CDN Enhance Service Across Asia". MSDN Blogs. Microsoft. 2 September 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  25. ^ a b Sunday Business Post[dead link]
  26. ^ "Microsoft's new Dublin Data Centre to support demand for online services for business and consumers".
  27. ^ Toor, Amar (30 June 2011). "Microsoft: European cloud data may not be immune to the Patriot Act". Engadget.com. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  28. ^ "Microsoft Azure Trust Center". Windowsazure.com. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  29. ^ "Microsoft Azure Trust Center Compliance". Windowsazure.com. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  30. ^ "FedRAMP Compliant Cloud Systems". cloud.cio.gov. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  31. ^ "Summary of Windows Azure Service Disruption on Feb 29th, 2012". Blogs.msdn.com. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  32. ^ "Windows Azure outage hits Europe". Gigaom.com. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  33. ^ "Microsoft pins Azure outage on network miscue". Gigaom.com. 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  34. ^ Microsoft’s Azure storage service goes down, locking out corporate customers from their data[dead link]
  35. ^ Bishop, Bryan. "Xbox Live and Windows Azure suffering from extended outages". Theverge.com. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  36. ^ "Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud hit by worldwide management interuption". www.pcworld.com. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  37. ^ Zander, Jason. "Update on Azure Storage Service Interruption". Microsoft. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  38. ^ Foley, Mary J. "Microsoft says Storage service performance update brought Azure down". ZD.NET. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  39. ^ Service Status | CloudHarmony

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microsoft_Azure&oldid=683605104"