Microsoft Azure is a collection of cloud services, which in many cases can make the operation of a local server infrastructure superfluous. Sometimes a mixed operation of local IT infrastructure and cloud services can be a reasonable solution. As a long-time Microsoft partner, we are happy to help you choose the right Azure Cloud services for a high-performance IT environment.
The following is a brief description of some Azure Cloud solutions that can make your IT more productive. The services included in this list represent only a small portion of the Azure Cloud services provided by Microsoft. Microsoft's overall offering ranges from IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service ) services to Azure Machine Learning and artificial intelligence (Azure Applied AI Services).
.
A virtual server in the cloud can completely replace a local server. Under certain circumstances, this solution can not only increase flexibility, but also significantly reduce the costs for your own IT systems.For example, if you only need the majority of your server resources at certain times, with the classic on premise solution you have to keep these server resources permanently available. With a virtual server on Microsoft Azure, on the other hand, you have the option of scaling your required performance according to your needs and only pay for this higher performance in the time required. On Microsoft Azure, you can adjust the performance of your virtual machines within seconds - whether on Windows or Linux.
The Microsoft Azure platform offers a variety of different database systems that you can use immediately. One variant is the classic SQL Server databases. With Azure SQL, you do not have to first set up a virtual server and perform an SQL installation there, but use a ready SQL instance. You decide whether the database should be permanently online (provisioned) or only started on demand (serverless). So you always have full cost control and can adjust your expenses exactly to your requirements.
.
As a cloud service, Active Directory on Azure offers much more than just user management. In addition to the adjustable two-factor authentication (2FA), you also have the option of restricting access to your cloud resources or granting access only to certain user groups. Conditional access to cloud services is also possible, whereby a user is excluded if his end device configuration does not comply with the specifications. In addition, you can distribute software via the cloud or make it available to users via the company portal for installation.
The Microsoft Azure AD forms the backbone for the further Microsoft cloud infrastructure and can also be used in a hybrid configuration together with a local Active Directory.
.With this cloud-based solution from the Azure platform, your data can be classified using policies. This is either done completely automatically or you leave the decision up to the creator of a document, where they can rely on recommendations from the system. Classification is always stored with the data, regardless of location or release status. So you have complete control, what to do with this data. Only you decide whether printing of documents should be prevented or whether forwarding of sensitive data should be prevented.
Detailed logging functions mean that you always have an overview of how your data is being used and can revoke access if necessary.
.