ACTS’ Azure Cloud Foundation: The Beginning of the Cloud Journey
What is Microsoft Azure?
Azure is a cloud computing service Microsoft created and launched in 2010. Azure’s collection of services are used for the building, testing, deploying and managing of services and applications. It provides options varying from Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to meet the needs of developers and organizations that use it. Azure provides both typical cloud computing offerings such as virtual machines, object storage, and content delivery networks as well as unique Microsoft technologies allowing for a broad range of usage and computing capabilities.
How is Azure used?
Azure has the ability to set up and deploy numerous environments with multiple options. Within a given environment you can launch virtual machines (VM), which act as separate computers with the ability to run applications and programs for testing or performing tasks. You can also publish and manage websites or applications within Azure to easily monitor the behavior of users as well as set up automated processes using these monitoring functions.
This Cloud Service enables you to store data and files, analyze databases and protect your assets with various built in security protocols.
Examples of Cloud Computing in Azure
Conversational chatbot: A chatbot that runs on Azure can allow customers to find out information about goods or services without waiting for a representative. Often to answer simple questions a business would have to hire and train an employee but with a workflow within Azure a chatbot can be available at all times to respond to customers with questions and keep your business moving forward.
Scalable Personalization: Using Azure’s machine learning capabilities developer’s can create personalized experiences based on the content and information that customers prefer to view. Businesses can use this concept to continue optimizing content based experiences based on machine learning.
Movie Recommendations: Using an Azure Data Science Virtual Machine an organization can train a model that would then recommend movies based on ratings that have been given to movies. This concept can be applied to many different industries to provide customers with seamless experiences based on their interests.
animation taken from Azure.microsoft
Data & AI
Azure allows users to use virtual machines, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Databricks and ONNX to create models that enable machine learning about a specific product or customer interaction. These learned attributes can than be analyzed and learned from, in order to make suggestions to users who are likely to be interested in a specific product or scenario.
This allows developers to automate the creation of paths that are more likely to interest users, enable employees, and simplify future workflows. Accurate predictions created by machine learning can quickly cut costs and create a better user experiences.
ACTS & Azure
ACTS supports organizations no matter where they are on their Cloud Journey. For those not immersed in the Cloud we lay a solid foundation to establish core fundamental elements to embark on your journey. As we move organizations to Azure we ensure that the right infrastructure is in place for a successful future in the Azure Cloud. As Cloud maturity grows we foster a vision for how this new and improved infrastructure shapes current and future growth through things like: Data Analysis, Collaboration, Machine Learning, and Innovation.
Learn how ACTS can help on your cloud journey
Additional Azure Resources
Designed To Disrupt
ACTS CEO, James Farhat along with the ACTS team, co-authored Designed to Disrupt an eBook detailing how those who embrace new approaches may reap great rewards.
To Disrupt, You Need to Master Change
To become a digital business will require every organization to transform their organizational and operational abilities, skill sets and adaptability.