Windows Azure

Microsoft Azure began as a Windows Server-based cloud platform, but has since
grown to become a very flexible cloud platform that enables developers to use any
language, framework, or tool to build, deploy and manage applications. According
to Microsoft, Azure features and services are exposed using open REST protocols.
The Azure client libraries, which are available for multiple programming
languages, are released under an open source license and hosted on GitHub.
The 2014 version of the Azure cloud platform includes a new portal and integrated
billing. Microsoft Azure includes a number of improvements to Visual Studio
Online, including Team Projects for managing application lifecycles and a
lightweight editor codenamed "Monaco" that allows developers to modify and
commit code changes without leaving Microsoft Azure. Other improvements
include an analytics option and a new management feature for automating
deployment. As of June 2015, available services include:
Azure Active Directory - provides identity management andaccess
control capabilities.
Azure API Management - allows customers to publish application programing
interfaces (APIs).
Visual Studio Application Insights - provides telemetry services for devices and
web applications.
App Service - allows customers to create enterprise-ready mobile apps for any
platform or device.
Azure Automation - allows customers to automate the creation, deployment,
monitoring and maintenance for Azure resources.
Azure Backup - allows customers to manage cloud backups.
Azure Batch - allows customers to run large-scale parallel and high performance
computing (HPC) workloads.
Azure BizTalk Services - provides integration services for public cloud and hybrid
cloud deployments.
Azure CDN - provides customers with a content delivery network.
Azure Cloud Services - provides customers with the ability to build, deploy and
manage software applications.

Azure Data Factory - allows customers to create, orchestrate and schedule work
flows and transformation activities for data.
Azure DNS - allows customers to host their DNS domains with their Azure apps.
Azure Document Hub - provides customers with a fullymanaged NoSQL document database service.
Azure Event Hubs - allows applications to process events with variable load
profiles.
Azure HDInsight Service - provides customers with a Hadoop-based service
for big data.
Microsoft Azure Key - provides customers with encryption key
management capabilities.
Azure load balancer - provides customers with a way to distribute traffic among
service instances in Azure Cloud Services or Azure Virtual Machines.
Azure Machine Learing - allows customers to design, test, operationalize and
manage predictive analytics.
Azure Cache - provides customers with fast access to data.
Azure Mobile Engagement - provides customers with mobile application
management (MAM) capabilities.
Azure Mobile Services - provides back-end services for building cross-platform
mobile apps.
Azure Multi-Factor Authentication - provides multi-factor authentication services
that follow organizational security and compliance polices.
Notification Hubs - provides customers with push notification capabilities.
Operational Insights - allows customers to collect, correlate and visualize machine
data in logs.
Redis Cache - provides customers with a dedicated cache for their Azure
applications.

Remote App - allows customers to deliver Windows apps to any device.
Azure Scheduler - allows customers to invoke actions on a set basis or future date.
Azure Search - allows customers to give their applications search capabilities.
Azure Service Bus - provides customers with a messaging infrastructure that can sit
between applications.
Site Recovery - provides customers with disaster recovery services.
Azure SQL Database - provides customers with a relational database system.
StorSimple - provides customers with a hybrid-cloud storage service.
Stream Analytics - provides customers with an event processing engine to assist
with real-time analytics.
Azure Traffic Manager - allows customers to route incoming traffic across multiple
hosted Azure services.
Azure Virtual Machines - allows customers to deploy a Windows
Server or Linux image in the cloud.
Azure Virtual Network - allows customers to create VPNs that are hosted in the
cloud.
Visual Studio Online - provides customers with a hosted application lifecycle
management (ALM) service.
Azure VPN Gateway - allows customers to establish secure connectivity between
their Azure VPNs and their on-premises IT infrastructures.