Microsoft Azure Cloud & Cloud Computing Introduction

There are plenty of companies that are now offering cloud computing services. One of them is Microsoft which uses the service Azure for cloud computing. Eighty-five percent of companies on the Fortune 500 use Microsoft Azure for their cloud computing and IT needs. Cloud computing is a service that allows companies to consume computational resources (like virtual machines, storage devices, or apps) as utilities like electricity instead of building or maintaining computing infrastructures in-house. This definition comes from the website searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing). Services are billed on demand (usually by the minute or by the hour) with new resources added only when they are needed by the user. You can also remotely shut down resources that are not needed in order to reduce up front costs. There are many types of cloud computing, such as:

• Infrastructure as a Service (also known as IaaS for short): A form of cloud computing where you handle apps, data, routines, middleware, and operating systems of your cloud computing system. Meanwhile, the company hosting the cloud system handles virtualization, servers, storage, and networking. In Microsoft Azure, services like Azure Compute and Azure Storage are Infrastructure as a Service cloud computing services you can use at any time. When it comes to other companies, Amazon Web Services and Google Compute Engine also offer IaaS cloud computing services for you to try. IaaS is commonly used for testing and developing computer applications, storing data and backing up data in case of emergencies, high performance computing, and big data analysis.
• Platform as a Service (also known as PaaS): You handle the applications and data for the cloud computing service. However, the vendors handle routine, middleware, operating systems, virtualization, servers, storage, and networking for you. When it comes to Microsoft, you can use Azure Logic applications, Azure Functions, Azure Web Jobs, and Azure Automation in order to run PaaS cloud computing services. Outside of Microsoft, Amazon offers PaaS in the form of Amazon Elastic Beanstalk while the company Salesforce.com will let you use the service Heroku for PaaS cloud computing. Platform as a Service cloud computing is usually used by organizations for analytics intelligence, business intelligence, and development frameworks for websites & applications.
• Software as a Service (also known as SaaS): You do not need to personally handle anything when it comes to software as a service. In fact with SaaS, everything is handled by the vendor. Sure, it reduces your options for customization, so it is probably the worst option for a company that wants to specifically work with their own custom virtual servers or use a cloud service to run their own fully-custom website/database combination. However, those who don't want to be bothered with working with data, virtualization, storage, or anything like that will probably enjoy this option. Microsoft lets its customers use Sharepoint, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams, and Power Platform as SaaS cloud services. Outside of Microsoft, you have Google G Suite and Dropbox and Salesforce. Software as a Service is utilized to access sophisticated business apps and to help easily mobilize your workforce.

As you can see from the above descriptions, cloud computing is good for services that require HA (or high availability - making sure a service is still available even if local servers or computers have failed. It also helps with DR or disaster recovery) and for fault tolerance. Microsoft Azure cloud computing is available in over one hundred forty countries and over sixty geographic regions. Cloud computing also counts as a OpEx or operational expense which can be deducted the same year you use the service. Most forms of data storage and usage before this were CapEx: a capital expense that can't be deducted on the same fiscal year & an expense that you might have to pay over the life of an asset (i.e. buy a bunch of servers and pay for the servers as long as you use them for a data center. Some businesses won't be able to write off the servers the same year that you purchase them, increasing the up front costs).