Azure 101: Introduction to Cloud Computing and Azure.
What is Microsoft Azure? To understand Azure, we must first explain what cloud computing is.
I write when I experience issues that were rather tough for me to solve or I feel it's something I learned in a complicated way and I'd like to explain them in a much easier way for anyone to understand and not experience what I experienced.
Simply put, cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of services through the internet. These services are databases, storage, servers, software, networking, computing power and other computer resources that are made available for use.
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure created by Microsoft for building, deploying, and managing cloud computing services through a global network of datacenters. With Azure, developers and IT professionals can build, deploy, and manage applications and services on a global network using their preferred language, tools, and frameworks.
Background: an appetizer
You know how everything we do is on the internet? Yes, that's cloud. Have you ever wondered where all your emails, social media posts and messages, iCloud photos and videos, or Google Drive and Google Photos are stored? How you can sign in to your Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/Twitter/Reddit/Discord account on any device and have back all your post contents and uploaded media files even if you are not using the device you created them with. If you've not, you shouldn't be reading this but now that you are reading this, you should wonder about it.
Most people attribute it to the 'internet' but if you really want to understand what cloud computing is, then you'd have to go beyond your rookie understanding of the internet.
If you are reading this on a mobile phone or a laptop, that makes it easier to explain. If not, go get one. Now, create compartments in your brain, you'll need them as you read on.
Scenario one: Now on your device, you have files that you can only access when you pick up your device and open them, yes? They could be pictures, videos, or documents. Let's call those files 'local storage'. Let's assume you want to share those files with someone and you use a storage device such as a USB drive to copy it from your device and hand it over to them.
Scenario two: Suppose you found a Tweet you wanted to share with someone, you wouldn't write out the tweet on paper and hand it to them. You'd either copy the link to the tweet and send it to them, or send it as a direct message on Twitter.
Let's examine the two scenarios. In scenario one, you had those files locally, which means they were stored on your device. In scenario two, you don't know where the tweet is stored but it didn't matter, you could easily share it. In scenario two, each time someone requests those files from you, you would have to hand them the USB drive or copy it again to the drive if you had deleted it.
Scenario two is a manual and tedious process, but scenario one isn't. Let's stop here and store this in one compartment in your brain.
As of 2021, it was said that we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. if you can't imagine what that is, imagine the storage size of your device multiplied by 500 million. Shocking, unimaginable, but that's still not up to 2.5 quintillion bytes. Where does all this data go? How are they processed and how are they stored?
What if I said there were massive places whose sole function is to store and process all this data? Stop and store this in another compartment.
Assume a device has storage of 512 gigabytes, let's call it a server. This device can store data in the form of pictures, documents, or anything so we can say that a server has the storage capacity to hold data. Now, If we wanted to store data of 1 terabyte ( which is equal to 1000 gigabytes ) on that device that has 512 gigabytes, we'll either need another device that has more than 1 terabyte of storage or we'll need more of that device that has 512 gigabytes. Stop and store this in another compartment of your brain.
Cloud Computing
A typical server consists of several storage devices interconnected with each other and connected to the internet. A storage device is typically arranged and stacked in a server rack. Information needed by Apps and software to operate and information we generate are stored on these servers and because the amount of information is large, many servers are needed to store and process them.
To solve this issue, Datacenters ( the massive places I asked you to store in your brain ) are built to securely store large amounts of data. Datacenters house thousands of servers all connected to the internet that process and store data at lightning speeds.
These Servers in the Datacenters are maintained by skilled technicians who make sure the servers are always up and running.
Cloud Computing is made possible because the storage, computing capacity, and other computer resources of these servers can be provided for use to anyone for free or through a pricing model. Take for example, your emails. The data for your email account is probably stored on a server and each time you need them they are demanded through the internet and made available on your device, therefore these servers have to always be available.
Remember all the things I asked you to store in different compartments in your brain? Just like you can store many things in your brain but it's still one brain and you can fetch any when you need to, datacenters connect all these servers together but can act as one. They can analyze thousands of internet requests simultaneously in a second to fetch data, process it, and deliver the result of the request.
From this, we can understand that servers are kept in datacenters and are essentially computers with large storage capacities that are made available through the internet for various purposes, and that cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of server capacities ( their storage, networking, computing capacity, and other resources ) also through the internet to anyone and everyone.
Microsoft Azure.
A cloud service provider is an organization that provides cloud computing services to the public on a pricing model. Any one organization can own and operate a data center and Microsoft is one such. Microsoft maintains datacenters in many regions ( and in fact has more regions globally than any other cloud service provider ) across the world to provide cloud computing services through a platform called Azure. Microsoft Azure was established in 2010 and as of the first quarter of 2022, it had a 21% market share of the total cloud infrastructure services market worldwide, behind AWS which had a 33% market share making it the second-largest cloud service provider worldwide. ( Statista )
Azure global infrastructure is made up of two key components—physical infrastructure and connective network components. The physical component is comprised of 200+ physical datacenters, arranged into regions, and linked by one of the largest interconnected networks on the planet. With the connectivity of the global Azure network, each of the Azure datacenters provides high availability, low latency, scalability, and the latest advancements in cloud infrastructure—all running on the Azure platform. Together, these components keep data entirely within the trusted Microsoft network and IP traffic never enters the public internet.
All this comes down to saying that Azure manages and maintains the hardware, infrastructure, and resources that can be accessed for free or pay-per-use, on-demand basis. This allows you to build and deploy your code and applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
While there are different pricing models, the most common and recommended is azure's pay-as-you-go model. It allows you to only pay for what resources you use and as you use them. Azure offers over 250 services that allow you to do anything from hosting a simple website/application to training AI models.
To get started using Azure, go here. If you are a student, Microsoft Azure offers free credits applied to your account when you signup with Azure for student benefit. Get started with it here.
To date, I've found that Azure is one of many organizations that provides comprehensive documentation for its services. So do not worry if you get stuck using any Azure service, simply make an internet search for the problem you are facing and an article on Microsoft learn related to your problem should be among the first five search results. Also, the Microsoft Tech Community provides rich support in terms of answering questions and providing documentation.
To get started using any azure service, explore this documentation that covers most of the services on Azure here. ( I say most because I haven't explored all the services on Azure and can't tell if it covers all, but from what's on the documentation if it doesn't cover all azure services then it at least covers 95% of it. )
In my article, I'll write comprehensively on Azure for Students and how to take advantage of it.
