Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft, providing over 200 cloud services across global data centers. Launched in 2010 (originally Windows Azure), Azure is the second-largest cloud provider with over 60 regions in 140 countries. Key services: Azure Virtual Machines (IaaS compute with over 500 VM sizes including GPU-enabled and HPC instances running Windows and Linux). Azure App Service (PaaS hosting for web apps, mobile backends, and APIs with auto-scaling and CI/CD). Azure Kubernetes Service AKS (managed Kubernetes with automatic upgrades and integration with Azure Monitor and Container Registry). Azure Functions (serverless compute for event-driven applications with triggers from HTTP, timers, queues, Cosmos DB, and Event Grid). Azure Cosmos DB (globally distributed multi-model database with sub-10ms latency, automatic indexing, and five consistency levels supporting document, key-value, graph, and column-family models). Azure SQL Database (fully managed SQL Server with intelligent tuning and threat detection). Azure Blob Storage (scalable object storage with hot, cool, and archive tiers). Azure AI (Cognitive Services for vision, speech, language, and Azure OpenAI Service for GPT models). Azure Synapse Analytics (unified data warehousing and big data with Spark and SQL pools). Azure DevOps (CI/CD pipelines, repositories, boards, and artifact management). Entra ID (identity and access management with SSO, MFA, and conditional access). Azure CDN and Front Door (global content delivery and application acceleration).