Overview of Cloud Computing Concepts and Azure Services

Cloud Computing

Service delivery model over the internet (cloud) including compute power, storage, networking, analytics services.

Scalability

The ability to scale, so allocate and deallocate resources at any time.

Elasticity

The ability to scale dynamically.

Agility

The ability to react fast (scale quickly).

Fault Tolerance

The ability to maintain system uptime while physical and service component failures happen.

Disaster Recovery

The process and design principle which allows a system to recover from natural or human induced disasters.

High Availability

The agreed level of operational uptime for the system, calculated as availability = uptime/(uptime + downtime).

Economies of Scale

The principle that as companies grow, they become more effective at managing shared operations, leading to cost reductions.

Capital Expenditure (CapEx)

Up front cost that is significant and lowers value over time.

Operational Expenditure (OpEx)

Ongoing cost based on usage, tax deduction happens in the same year.

Consumption-Based Model

A pricing model in the cloud where customers are charged based on their resource usage, with no upfront costs.

Unused Resources

Resources that do not incur charges unless they are actively consuming storage or processing power.

Virtual Metric

The metric used to calculate how much each resource in Azure was used.

Service Models Responsibilities

Defines which party will manage a particular layer and all the layers below.

Blob Storage

Storage that consumes space and is considered used when storing any data.

Virtual Machines

Resources that consume CPU, memory, and other resources even if there isn't any traffic.

Pricing Model

A model that allows customers to pay for what they need and stop paying when they don't.

Metrics Tracking

The process of tracking smaller metrics on a granular level to offer the best possible pricing model.

Service Delivery

The method of providing services over the internet, including various computing resources.

Operational Uptime

The total time a system is operational and available for use.

Cost Reduction

The process of lowering expenses associated with providing services to customers.

Infrastructure Costs

The underlying expenses that cannot be reduced to zero as they are necessary for service provision.

Software layer

Consists of the application (application code and set) & the application data.

Platform layer

Means all the supporting software and the operating system required to host the application.

Infrastructure layer

Consists of hardware, the infrastructure, and virtualization required to host the platform.

Cloud Deployment Model

Describes where the company resources are deployed, either in a public cloud provider environment or a private datacenter.

On-Premises

Resources are managed and hosted on the company's own infrastructure.

IaaS

Infrastructure as a Service, where the cloud provider manages the infrastructure.

PaaS

Platform as a Service, where the cloud provider manages the platform and runtime environment.

SaaS

Software as a Service, where the cloud provider manages the application.

Responsibility Matrix

Represents responsibilities across different layers for On-Premises, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

Application

The software that performs specific tasks for users.

Data

Information processed or stored by the application.

Runtime

The environment in which application code is executed.

Middleware

Software that connects different applications or services.

Operating System

The software that manages hardware and software resources on a device.

Virtualization

The creation of virtual versions of physical resources.

Servers

Physical or virtual machines that provide services.

Networking

The infrastructure that connects servers and devices.

Storage

The system that holds data for access and use.

Public Cloud

Everything runs on cloud provider hardware with no local hardware.

Private Cloud

Everything runs on your own datacenter with self-service provided.

Hybrid Cloud

Combines both Public & Private cloud.

Key Characteristics of Public Cloud

No CapEx, high availability, agility, pay as you go pricing, and no hardware maintenance.

Advantages of Public Cloud

No CapEx, high availability, agility, pay as you go pricing, no hardware maintenance, and no deep technical skills required.

Disadvantages of Public Cloud

Not all security and compliance policies can be met, no ownership over the physical infrastructure, and rare specific scenarios can't be done.

Key Characteristics of Private Cloud

You maintain the hardware and can support any scenario.

Advantages of Private Cloud

Total control over security and infrastructure, and can meet any security and compliance policy.

Disadvantages of Private Cloud

Initial investment is required (CapEx), limited agility constrained by server capacity and team skills, and very dependent on IT skills & expertise.

Key Characteristics of Hybrid Cloud

Combines both Public & Private cloud.

Advantages of Hybrid Cloud

Great flexibility, can run any legacy apps in private cloud, can utilize existing infrastructure, meet any security & compliance requirements, and can take advantage of all public cloud benefits.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud

Can be more expensive, complicated to manage due to larger landscape, and most dependent on IT skills & expertise from all three models.

Data Center

Physical facility hosting a group of networked servers with own power, cooling & networking infrastructure.

Region

Geographical area on the planet with one or more datacenters connected with low-latency network (<2 milliseconds).

Availability Zone

Regional feature designed to protect from data center failures with grouping of physically separate facilities.

Region Pair

Each region is paired with another region making it a region pair, residing within the same geography with physical isolation of at least 300 miles distance.

Geographies

Discrete market typically containing two or more regions ensuring data residency, sovereignty, resiliency, and compliance requirements are met.

Azure Resource

Object used to manage services in Azure, representing service lifecycle saved as JSON definition.

Resource Groups

Grouping of resources that holds logically related resources, typically organizing by type, lifecycle, department, billing, location, or combination of those.

Resource Manager

Management Layer for all resources and resource groups, providing unified language and controlling access and resources.

Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Set of identical virtual machines

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Custom software, custom requirements, very specialized, high degree of control

Built-in auto scaling features

Designed for manual and auto-scaled workloads like web services, batch processing, etc.

Containers

Use host's operating system

Lightweight

No operating system

Azure Container Instances

Simplest and fastest way to run a container in Azure

Platform as a Service

A cloud computing model that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications.

Serverless Containers

Designed for small and simple web apps/services, background jobs, and scheduled scripts

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Open-source container orchestration platform

Highly scalable and customizable

Designed for high scale container deployments

App Service

Designed as enterprise grade web application service

Azure Functions (Function Apps)

Serverless platform with consumption-based and dedicated hosting/pricing models

Micro/nano-services

Designed for small, efficient services

Azure Networking

Connect cloud and on-premises

Azure Virtual Network

Logically isolated networking components segmented into one or more subnets

VNet peering

Allows cross region communication

Azure Load Balancer

Even traffic distribution supporting both inbound and outbound scenarios

VPN Gateway

Specific type of virtual network gateway for on-premises to azure traffic over the public internet

Application Gateway

Web traffic load balancer with web application firewall and URL routing

Content Delivery Network

Minimize latency by defining content and using multiple points of presence

Data Types

Categories of data including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured

Structured Data

Data that can be represented using tables with very strict schema

Semi-structured Data

Data that can be represented using tables but without strict defined schema

Unstructured Data

Any files in any format, like binary files, application files, images, movies, etc.

Storage Account

Group of services which include blob storage, queue storage, table storage, and file storage.

Queue Storage

Storage for small pieces of data (messages) designed for scalable asynchronous processing.

Table Storage

Storage for semi-structured data (NoSQL) with no need for foreign joins, foreign keys, relationships or strict schema.

File Storage

Storage for files accessed via shared drive protocols designed to extend on-premise file shares or implement lift-and-shift scenarios.

Disk Storage

Disk emulation in the cloud providing persistent storage for Virtual Machines with different sizes, types (SSD, HDD), and performance tiers.

Cosmos DB

Globally distributed NoSQL (semi-structured data) Database service that is schema-less and designed for highly responsive applications with super low latency responses <10ms.

SQL Database

Relational database service in the cloud (PaaS) defined using schema and relationships with rich query capabilities (SQL).

Azure SQL Database

Reliable relational database based on SQL Server.

Azure Database for MySQL

Azure SQL version for MySQL database engine.

Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Azure SQL version for PostgreSQL database engine.

Azure SQL Managed Instance

Fully fledged SQL Server managed by cloud provider.

Azure SQL on VM

Fully fledged SQL Server on IaaS.

Azure SQL DW (Synapse)

Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) version of SQL Server.

Azure Marketplace

An 'Azure Shop' where you purchase services and solutions for the Azure platform.

Internet of Things (IoT)

A network of internet connected devices (IoT Devices) embedded in everyday objects enabling sending and receiving data such as settings and telemetry.

Azure IoT Hub

Managed service for bi-directional communication that is highly secure, scalable, and reliable.