Cloud Computing and Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

A complete vocabulary review deck covering core cloud concepts, NIST characteristics, service and deployment models, cloud provider comparisons (AWS, Azure, GCP), and Azure compute, storage, networking, and migration services.

Cloud Computing

The shift from traditional on-premises infrastructure to flexible, on-demand utility computing, renting compute power, storage, and databases over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Capital Expenditure (CapEx)

High upfront financial investment required in traditional IT models for buying physical servers, building or renting data centers, installing cooling systems, setting up networking, and hiring maintenance teams.

Operational Expenditure (OpEx)

The cloud business model where infrastructure access and compute power are paid as variable operational expenses based on consumed utility.

On-Demand Self-Service

NIST essential characteristic where users provision resources like compute or storage automatically without human interaction with the service provider.

Broad Network Access

NIST essential characteristic where capabilities are accessible over standard networks through heterogeneous devices like laptops, workstations, and mobile devices.

Resource Pooling

NIST essential characteristic where multi-tenant infrastructure dynamically assigns physical and virtual resources according to consumer demand.

Rapid Elasticity

NIST essential characteristic where resources scale outward and inward rapidly and dynamically—often automatically—to match workload demand spikes.

Measured Service

NIST essential characteristic where resource usage is metered and monitored transparently, enabling pay-as-you-go billing.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Cloud service model providing raw virtual machines, firewalls, and storage, offering maximum control to system administrators and architects.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Cloud service model providing operating system and execution runtime, allowing developers to focus on application code while the provider manages runtime infrastructure.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Cloud service model providing complete applications hosted in the cloud and accessed directly by end-users via web browser or API.

Public Cloud

Cloud deployment model providing multi-tenant infrastructure over the public internet that is highly scalable with zero hardware overhead.

Private Cloud

Cloud deployment model offering dedicated single-tenant infrastructure operated solely for one organization, prioritizing control and compliance.

Hybrid Cloud

Cloud deployment model integrating public and private clouds, allowing sensitive data retention on private infrastructure alongside elastic web scaling.

Multi-Cloud

Cloud deployment model using two or more public providers to prevent lock-in and optimize best-of-breed services.

Shared Responsibility Model

Security model dividing responsibilities where the vendor manages security OF the cloud and the customer manages security IN the cloud.

AWS Outposts

AWS service bringing fully managed AWS infrastructure directly into local customer data centers for ultra-low latency.

Azure Arc

Microsoft Azure service that manages multi-cloud servers and Kubernetes clusters under a single control plane.

GCP Anthos

Google Cloud service providing container-first application management across GCP, AWS, and on-premises environments.

AWS Bedrock

AWS AI service offering flexible model choice including Claude, Llama, and Titan with custom Trainium and Inferentia silicon.

Azure OpenAI Service

Azure service providing exclusive enterprise access to GPT-4o models integrated with enterprise security and Microsoft 365.

GCP Vertex AI

Google Cloud AI platform featuring industry-leading TPU v5p hardware, native Gemini 2.5 models, and effortless RAG pipelines.

Azure Storage Account

Resource providing a unique namespace of 3-24 lowercase letters and numbers, globally unique in Azure, containing storage services protected by a redundancy option.

Standard GP v2

Recommended default Azure storage account type for blobs, files, queues, and tables across most scenarios.

Locally Redundant Storage (LRS)

Azure storage redundancy option providing 11 nines (99.999999999%) durability by synchronously replicating data 3 times within a single data center.

Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS)

Azure storage redundancy option providing 12 nines durability by replicating data synchronously across 3 availability zones in the primary region.

Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS)

Azure storage redundancy option providing 16 nines (99.99999999999999%) durability with 6 total copies across two regions and an RPO under 15 minutes.

Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage (GZRS)

Azure storage redundancy option providing 16 nines durability with 6 total copies, combining ZRS in the primary region with LRS in a secondary region.

Azure Blobs

Massively scalable object store in Azure for text and binary data, including support for big data analytics through Data Lake Storage Gen2.

Azure Files

Managed file shares in Azure for cloud or on-premises deployments using SMB or NFS protocols.

Azure Queues

Azure messaging store for reliable asynchronous messaging between application components, supporting messages up to 64 KB each.

Azure Disks

Block-level storage volumes fully managed by Azure for Azure Virtual Machines.

Azure Tables

NoSQL store option in Azure for structured, non-relational data storage.

Azure Migrate

Online real-time migration hub in Azure providing a single portal to assess and migrate on-premises servers, databases, and web apps.

Azure Data Box

Physical offline bulk data transfer service shipping secure storage devices with up to 80 TB capacity, featuring NIST 800-88r1 disk wiping.

AzCopy

Command-line file movement utility in Azure for one-way scripted, automated file transfers between accounts or cross-cloud providers.

Storage Explorer

Standalone graphical GUI app for Windows, macOS, and Linux that uses AzCopy on the backend to visually manage Azure blobs and files.

Azure File Sync

Agent service enabling bi-directional automatic sync, cloud tiering, and multisite caching for hybrid file server scenarios.

Azure Virtual Network (VNet)

Fundamental building block for private networks in Azure providing isolation, segmentation, and communication between Azure resources, internet users, and on-premises client computers.

Azure Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Service that uses an encrypted tunnel over an untrusted network (typically public internet) to safely connect trusted private networks.

Azure ExpressRoute

Service extending on-premises networks into the Microsoft cloud over a private connection via a connectivity provider for faster speeds, consistent latency, and higher security.

Azure DNS

Hosting service for DNS domains providing authoritative name resolution using Microsoft Azure infrastructure.

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)

IaaS compute offering in Azure providing virtualized server instances with complete operating system control, custom hosting setups, and manual patching requirements.

Availability Sets

Azure VM grouping feature that organizes VMs across update domains (rebooted together during planned maintenance) and fault domains (sharing power and network resources) to ensure high availability.

Azure Virtual Desktop

Managed desktop and application virtualization service in Azure allowing users to securely access Windows desktops and apps remotely from any device.

Azure Container Instances (ACI)

PaaS offering providing the fastest and simplest way to run isolated containers in Azure without managing virtual machines.

Azure Container Apps

PaaS compute service for containerized apps offering managed runtime, built-in load balancing, and dynamic scaling.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Managed container orchestration service in Azure providing cluster management, fleet lifecycle control, and deeper Kubernetes orchestration.

Azure Functions

Event-driven serverless compute option in Azure that executes code when triggered, scales automatically, and charges only for active CPU runtime used.

Azure App Service

Managed PaaS platform for building and hosting web apps, REST APIs, background jobs, and mobile back-ends with autoscale and high availability.

WebJobs

Feature of Azure App Service that allows running background tasks, scripts, or executable programs within the context of an App Service web app.

VM Size Family B

Azure Virtual Machine size family designed for burstable workloads.

VM Size Family F

Azure Virtual Machine size family optimized for compute-intensive workloads.

VM Size Family N

Azure Virtual Machine size family equipped with GPUs for graphics-heavy or AI/ML workloads.