Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft's cloud, most convenient for .NET, Windows environments and companies on Microsoft 365 and Entra ID.

Official site

What it is

Azure was launched by Microsoft as Windows Azure and became generally available in 2010. It is the second largest cloud by market share after AWS, especially strong in the enterprise sector.

Key services: Virtual Machines, App Service (web app hosting), Azure Functions, AKS (Kubernetes), Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Blob Storage. It integrates deeply with .NET, Visual Studio, GitHub and Azure DevOps.

Identity and access go through Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) and RBAC. For corporations that is the main advantage: single sign-on shared with office apps.

Use it when

  • A stack on .NET, SQL Server or Windows Server.
  • The company already uses Microsoft 365 and Entra ID.
  • You need a hybrid scenario with on-premises data centers (Azure Arc, Azure Stack).
  • Access to OpenAI models through Azure OpenAI Service with enterprise guarantees.

Avoid it when

  • A small startup with no Microsoft ties: AWS or simpler providers have more tutorials and examples.
  • You need the simplest VPS for the lowest price.
  • The team dislikes the layered structure of subscriptions, resource groups and roles.

Key concepts

Subscription / Resource Group
A subscription is a billing boundary, a resource group bundles the resources of one app for management and deletion.
Entra ID
The identity service: users, groups, SSO, applications and managed identities.
App Service
A PaaS for web apps and APIs: deploy code or a container without managing servers.
ARM / Bicep
Microsoft's infrastructure as code. Bicep is a more compact syntax that compiles to ARM templates.
Managed Identity
A resource identity that lets it call other services without passwords or keys.

Example

Azure CLI: a resource group and a web app deployed to App Service.

Interview questions

  1. 1. What is a Resource Group?

    It is a logical container for resources that share a lifecycle. Deleting a group deletes everything inside, and you can assign roles and tags to the group.

  2. 2. Why is Managed Identity better than a connection string with a password?

    Azure issues and rotates the credentials for the resource itself, so no password is stored anywhere. That removes the risk of leaking secrets from code or configuration.

  3. 3. How do Azure Functions differ from App Service?

    Functions is an event-driven model billed per execution that scales to zero. App Service is an always-on host for a web app with a fixed plan.

Comparisons with this technology

Related technologies

Logos belong to their owners and are used for identification only. Icons: Simple Icons (CC0), Devicon (MIT).

Explore the platform