What is Microsoft Azure used for?

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform for virtual machines, app hosting, databases, containers, analytics and AI services. It is a good fit for migrating .NET and Windows workloads, hosting containerized applications, and building AI applications on managed models.

Is Microsoft Azure free?

Yes. Microsoft Azure has a free plan.

Is Microsoft Azure open source?

No. Microsoft Azure is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Microsoft Azure include Sealos, Ubicloud and Apache CloudStack.

What are some alternatives to Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure competes with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Microsoft Azure alternatives.

Microsoft Azure: features, pricing and alternatives

About Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform. It offers a large catalog of services for running virtual machines, hosting applications, storing and analyzing data, and building AI applications, and it is used by organizations that want managed infrastructure or integration with Microsoft products.

Among the services listed on its site are Linux and Windows virtual machines, Azure Kubernetes Service, Container Apps, Functions, API Management and Container Registry for compute and containers; Cosmos DB, SQL, Database for PostgreSQL and Managed Redis for data; Microsoft Fabric and Databricks for analytics; Foundry and Azure Machine Learning for AI; and Monitor, Defender for Cloud, Sentinel and Arc for operations and security. Solutions cover migration, serverless, DevOps and sovereign cloud. Azure is proprietary and vendor-hosted, with a pricing section on the Azure site. Its hybrid offerings such as Azure Arc and Azure Local extend some services beyond Microsoft's own data centers.

Key features

Linux and Windows virtual machines
Managed Kubernetes and container services
Serverless functions and API management
Managed databases including Cosmos DB and PostgreSQL
AI platform with Foundry and Machine Learning
Monitoring, Defender and Sentinel security tools
Hybrid options through Arc and Azure Local

Good fit for

→Migrating .NET and Windows workloads
→Hosting containerized applications
→Building AI applications on managed models

Tags: cloud; azure; microsoft; iaas; paas; kubernetes; databases; ai

Microsoft Azure: questions and answers

What is Microsoft Azure used for?: Microsoft Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform for virtual machines, app hosting, databases, containers, analytics and AI services. It is a good fit for migrating .NET and Windows workloads, hosting containerized applications, and building AI applications on managed models.
Is Microsoft Azure free?: Yes. Microsoft Azure has a free plan.
Is Microsoft Azure open source?: No. Microsoft Azure is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Microsoft Azure include Sealos, Ubicloud and Apache CloudStack.
What are some alternatives to Microsoft Azure?: Microsoft Azure competes with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Microsoft Azure alternatives.