3.2. Azure Compute Options
Azure Compute is one of the most critical offerings within Microsoft Azure’s extensive catalog of cloud services. It provides a range of compute options that cater to the diverse requirements of applications, workloads, and services deployed in the cloud. This compute suite comprises virtual machines, containers, serverless computing, and more, all designed to give developers and IT professionals the flexibility to select the best compute resources for their specific needs. Understanding these options is essential for the Azure Fundamentals certification, as they form the backbone of most cloud services and solutions. In this section, we will explore the depth and breadth of Azure Compute, detailing each offering to provide a comprehensive understanding of the platform’s capabilities.
Virtual Machines (VMs)
● On-demand scalability: Quickly scale up or down with demand, and only pay for what you use.
● Variety of options: Choose from a wide selection of VM sizes and images for various use cases.
● Windows and Linux support: Azure supports a broad range of Windows and Linux distributions.
VMs are suitable for migrating existing applications to the cloud, especially when you require control over the operating system and the environment.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Containerization has become an industry standard for developing, shipping, and running applications. Azure Kubernetes Service is a managed container orchestration service based on the open-source Kubernetes system, which automates the deployment, scaling, and operations of application containers:
● Managed Kubernetes: AKS reduces the complexity of managing Kubernetes by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure.
● Integrated developer tools: Seamlessly integrate with Azure DevOps, Visual Studio Code, and other tools to simplify the workflow.
● Microservices-ready: AKS is ideal for microservices architectures due to its high levels of scalability and flexibility.
AKS is optimal for cloud-native applications that require rapid scaling and high availability.