- Purpose: On-demand, scalable computing resources in the cloud.
- Key Capabilities:
- Wide range of VM sizes, regions, and OS options (Windows, Linux).
- Support for custom images and templates.
- Integration with Virtual Networks, storage, and other Azure services.
- Typical Use Cases:
- Lift-and-shift of existing applications to the cloud.
- Development and testing environments.
- Host custom software and workloads.
- Purpose: Automatically scale virtual machines to handle demand changes.
- Key Capabilities:
- Automatic VM provisioning and de-provisioning.
- Load balancing integrations.
- Uniform or flexible orchestration modes.
- Typical Use Cases:
- Large-scale compute clusters.
- Stateless web tiers with variable traffic.
- Big data and containerized workloads.
- Purpose: Fully managed platform for building, deploying, and scaling web apps and APIs.
- Key Capabilities:
- Supports multiple languages and frameworks (e.g., .NET, Node.js, Python, Java).
- Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD).
- Built-in autoscaling, monitoring, and security features.
- Typical Use Cases:
- Enterprise web applications
- RESTful API hosting
- Minimal management overhead for web deployments
- Purpose: Managed Kubernetes service to run containerized applications at scale.
- Key Capabilities:
- Automated provisioning and cluster management.
- Integration with Azure Container Registry (ACR) for container images.
- Autoscaling, rolling updates, and built-in monitoring.
- Typical Use Cases:
- Microservices-based architectures.
- Container orchestration for development and production.
- Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies (with Azure Arc).
- Purpose: Provide Windows 10/11 desktops and apps in the cloud.
- Key Capabilities:
- Multi-session Windows 10/11 environment.
- Optimizations for Microsoft 365 Apps.
- Integration with Azure Active Directory (Microsoft Entra ID).
- Typical Use Cases:
- Remote work scenarios.
- Secure access to corporate desktops and applications.
- Disaster recovery for on-premises desktop environments.
- Purpose: Serverless compute platform for event-driven, on-demand code execution.
- Key Capabilities:
- Pay-per-execution billing model (consumption plan).
- Triggers and bindings to integrate with other Azure services.
- Built-in scaling and managed infrastructure.
- Typical Use Cases:
- Real-time file processing
- IoT data processing
- Webhooks and microservices
- Purpose: Run containers without managing servers or clusters.
- Key Capabilities:
- Fast, isolated compute for containerized workloads.
- Per-second billing.
- Integrates with Virtual Networks for secure deployments.
- Typical Use Cases:
- Batch processing
- Test and development containers
- Event-driven container workloads
- Purpose: Large-scale parallel and high-performance computing (HPC) in the cloud.
- Key Capabilities:
- Automatically manage and scale compute nodes.
- Integration with Azure Storage for input/output data.
- Supports Docker containers and common HPC frameworks.
- Typical Use Cases:
- Rendering 3D images or simulations
- Financial risk modeling
- Genomic and scientific research
