Azure platform – a cloud for businesses

What is the goal of every enterprise?

In a market economy, the goal of every enterprise is to generate profits.

The driving force behind a company's growth is its competitiveness. This is influenced by, among other factors, innovation, uniqueness, and online availability. On the other hand, ensuring customers and employees have easy access to the appropriate portion of the company's infrastructure requires significant capital expenditures, such as:

• purchase of servers
• continuous maintenance of company data security
• regular system and application updates
• labor costs, such as server administration, network administration, and helpdesk support

The high entry barrier, which meant the need for significant financial outlays, was sometimes unacceptable for smaller companies. This allowed corporations with significant financial resources to prevail in the market.

However, since the emergence of subscription-based services, particularly cloud solutions, even smaller companies have been able to compete with existing leaders.

One platform offering comprehensive cloud services for businesses is Microsoft Azure. Every company that uses Microsoft 365 (also known as Office 365) also has a portion of free Azure included in its subscription (M365 user accounts are located in the Azure AD (AAD) directory, one of the Azure services).

The Microsoft Azure cloud operates as an IaaS platform – Infrastructure as a Service. This means that Microsoft hosts resources on its servers, ensures their security, and ensures their high availability. The company (Azure customer) installs its servers and applications in this environment and manages this layer itself. If the organization already has its own servers, it can migrate them to Azure or combine both on-premises and cloud models.

List of Azure Services

What core services does Azure provide?

The list of all the services offered by the Microsoft Azure cloud is very long. The most frequently chosen are:

• Windows and Linux virtual machines – they can replace physical servers in a company
• Data storage (often called a cloud file server) – space for files, applications, and virtual machine disks
• Backups of virtual machines and files, including those from the local environment
• Identity directory – user and computer accounts Azure Active Directory – the ability to synchronize accounts and passwords from the local Active Directory environment
• Applications – the ability to migrate local applications or create a hybrid environment. Azure also has a catalog of supported applications that can be managed from the platform, for example, enabling user synchronization with AzureAD and adding access rights.
• Features – Automation of corporate processes
• Virtual network – everything needed to connect and distribute traffic between physical and virtual locations, servers, and applications
• Virtual desktops (VDI) – the ability to use Azure's computing power as a terminal environment – ​​your employees don't need a fast company computer – they can log in to a virtual computer from anywhere, further securing connections with a second layer of authentication (MFA).
• Mobile device management (MDM) or mobile application management (MAM) – you can manage corporate devices running Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS, as well as applications installed on corporate and personal devices.
• SQL databases – a database for applications.
• Internet of Things (IoT Hub) – monitoring controllers located on corporate and home devices, such as production controllers or ARM-based computers.

Is Azure secure? Platform Security

What distinguishes the Azure cloud from corporate data centers, on-premises servers, or local area networks is its holistic and consistent approach to cloud data security.

Microsoft employs a ZeroTrust policy[1]. This means that Microsoft assumes the possibility of a hacker attack anywhere in its own and its customers' infrastructure. For this reason, a multi-layered security system has been implemented. These ensure the company's IT security is at the highest level:

• Azure's built-in security is compliant with most global standards and confirmed by periodic audits and certifications (ISO, PCI, SOC, CSA, etc.)[2]
• Multiple Authentication (MFA) – the ability to enforce additional security for data access in Azure in the form of in-app notifications, temporary codes, SMS, USB tokens, or phone calls.
• Conditional Access (Premium service) – granting access to Azure resources based on selected criteria, such as location and device type.
• Virtual Machine Encryption
• Using AI to analyze user behavior – recording suspicious login attempts and automatically responding to detected threats, such as locking the account or enforcing the use of second-layer authentication (MFA).
• High resource availability – depending on the cloud service level, various redundancy options are available, for example, each file resource is internally replicated three times within a single data center. If you can afford the higher costs, you can choose the additional option of replicating servers to other data centers or even other geographic regions, thus increasing the number of locations with copies of your data. This means that if access to one data center is impaired, you and your clients can continue to connect to other locations.
• Scaling is a unique feature of Azure that allows you to allocate the appropriate amount of resources needed to handle a larger number of requests. If you're running a company promotion or your industry is characterized by seasonality, you can benefit from dynamically adjusting the number of resources, such as virtual machines (VMs) needed to run an application hosted in Azure. When needed, Azure will enable additional VM instances to handle the increasing traffic, ensuring your clients don't experience downtime or website slowdowns.
• Server administration, service administration, and network administration in Azure require specific knowledge from engineers to ensure a company's IT security.

Is Azure free? - Free Services in the Microsoft Cloud

The Azure cloud offers a suite of free, always-available services as part of your account. This means you'll receive an automation and security package for your environment even with a free account. Additionally, you can test premium services for 30 days, and some for up to 12 months.

Free Services in Azure

Azure Configuration - Integration

The Azure cloud is integrated with Microsoft 365. If your company currently uses Microsoft 365, you can easily incorporate Azure offerings into your Office 365 applications.

Integration Examples:

• Management of corporate and personal devices.
• Use AzureAD user accounts for Azure virtual machines, devices connected via Intune, and virtual desktops.
• Use AzureMFA (also known as Microsoft MFA) services – multiple authentication to secure applications connected to Azure and Microsoft 365.
• Use Azure security policies and conditional access for connected devices and applications.

The Azure cloud for businesses will ultimately help you eliminate the need for a physical server room.

Microsoft Azure Implementation - Costs and Licensing

A major advantage of Azure is the ability to use licenses assigned to the purchased service. When installing a computer or virtual server, you receive an operating system license and can use the latest versions. If you already have your own licenses purchased through the Volume Licensing program, you can use them, and Microsoft will deduct the license cost from the virtual machines.

If you no longer need the resources, simply delete them to lower your bill.

Payment for services is handled in two main ways:

• for actual usage,
• for planned virtual machine usage (reservation of resources).

Reservation of resources allows for significant savings – up to 72% or 80%[3] compared to paying for actual usage. Simply reserve the appropriate number of selected virtual machines for one, two, or three years to enjoy lower bills.

You can save a lot by reserving Azure[4]

If you choose to pay for your usage, you can automatically shut down virtual machines when they're not in use to reduce costs. To check prices and plan your expenses, visit the Azure pricing calculator. You can also try Azure for 30 days with a $200 trial account[5]. Our sales team at Online Support will help you answer any questions about costs or license selection.

Your Business in Azure - Who is the Azure Cloud for?

The Microsoft Azure cloud services platform is designed for every enterprise. Small businesses can benefit from high levels of security and testing solutions they simply couldn't afford in a physical server environment. Large companies can eliminate server rooms in even a few locations and implement hybrid solutions, increasing the availability of their services. Microsoft Azure's enterprise cloud is a good solution for your business.

If you're considering moving your company to the cloud and using Azure, please contact Support Online. You can send an email or simply call. We're happy to discuss topics such as Azure implementation, data migration to Azure, Azure environment configuration, and Azure management.

Support Online has been operating since 2002, and our flagship service is comprehensive IT support for businesses (IT outsourcing). Under our ongoing IT support agreement, we provide the following services: 24/7 helpdesk support, server administration and monitoring of the IT environment, computer network management, Office 365 implementation (Microsoft 365), and cybersecurity training.

We also invite you to read reviews of Support Online Sp. z o.o. in the references section.

[1] Zero Trust Model - Modern Security Architecture | Microsoft Security Solutions

[2] Azure Compliance Documentation | Microsoft Docs

[3] Reserved Virtual Machine Instances in Azure | Microsoft Azure

[4] Reserved Virtual Machine Instances in Azure | Microsoft Azure

[5] Create a free Azure account today | Microsoft Azure