1. Introduction to Azure
Hi, I'm Kevin James, a freelance Training Architect with more than three decades of experience. I've had the privilege of working with a diverse range of companies such as IHG Hotels, Guthy-Renker, and The Walt Disney Company. Today, I'm excited to share my knowledge with you and dive into the fundamentals of Microsoft Azure, exploring its crucial role in the ever-evolving world of cloud computing.
2. Built in collaboration with Microsoft
This course has been built in collaboration with Microsoft. The topics in this course have been aligned with some of the learning objectives in the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals certification. To find out more about our partnership, and the exam discount offered, please visit the link below.
3. Introducing: Azure
Microsoft Azure, commonly known as Azure, is one of the leading providers of cloud computing services, offering over 200 products and cloud services. 95% of Fortune 500 companies trust their businesses on Azure.
It empowers businesses, developers, and IT professionals to build, deploy, and manage applications and services efficiently and securely in the cloud.
4. Refresher: Cloud computing
Let's quickly refresh our memory on what cloud computing is.
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the internet - this includes services such as compute, storage, databases, networking, software and more. All this with a pay-as-you-go model, you'll only ever pay for the resources you use!
5. Refresher: On-premises
Before cloud computing came along, businesses only had way to store their data: on-premises. Cloud computing has revolutionized how businesses store data.
So what do we mean by on-premise? Simply put, it's where the server you're running your resources on is based on the premise of your organisazion!
6. Benefits of cloud services
When working with cloud services, it's crucial that the service you need is available exactly when you need it. With Azure, uptime guarantees are part of the service level agreement (SLA) and typically fall into these categories: 99, 99.9, 99.95, and 99.99%.
Another major benefit is the ability to scale resources as needed. If your application experiences a sudden increase in traffic, you can add resources to manage the demand.
There are two types of scaling: vertical and horizontal. Vertical scaling is useful when you need more processing power and need to add or remove CPUs or RAM to your virtual machine.
7. Benefits of cloud services
Horizontal scaling is the ability to increase or decrease resources, either manually or automatically.
8. Benefits of cloud services
Reliability of your cloud provider is crucial and is a core aspect of Azure's Well-Architected framework. In case of a catastrophic event, Azure can automatically shift your resources to a new region due to its global scale.
Additionally, Azure's pay-as-you-use model ensures predictable performance and cost. Features like auto-scaling and load balancing support performance, while tools like Total Cost of Ownership and Pricing Calculations help estimate spending.
These are some of the key benefits of using the cloud.
9. Use cases
Any business can utilize Azure regardless of industry.
Some examples include web hosting, data analysis, game development, machine learning, and more.
10. What to expect in this course
As part of this course, you’ll be working in an Azure sandbox in some exercises where you will have a truly hands-on experience to test out your new skills.
Here is an example of how to access the Azure interface through DataCamp.
11. Let's practice!
Next up, let's check how well you know Azure.