Introducing Azure Basics
This chapter introduces you to the basics of Azure and explains its general capabilities. It covers several core Azure concepts, including Virtual Machines (VMs), data storage, compute options, the Azure portal, accounts, and subscriptions, which future chapters will build upon.
Azure is one of the major hyperscalers in the industry, offering Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Software as a Service (SaaS). It provides several cloud, hybrid, and on-premises services, such as VMs, networks, compute, databases, messaging, and Machine Learning (ML), while focusing on security and compliance. You could use these services to build anything from web pages to mobile apps, and from data analytics solutions to IoT solutions.
In Azure, users have the flexibility to choose from completely hosted no-code solutions to completely build-your-own solutions. The latter of these...