3 Pillars of the Azure Cloud
Description
There are some workloads that are well suited for the flexibility that virtual machines provide. Virtual machines enable you to choose the operating system, tools, languages, and configuration management tools. If you’re going to use virtual machines, then you’re going to also be using Azure Storage, because VMs rely on it for disk storage. Azure Storage doesn’t stop at disk storage, it also provides NoSQL, Blob, File, and Queue options.
Once you have some virtual machines, inevitably you’ll need to handle the network access and load balancing. Azure provides options for creating virtual networks and subnets. It also has support for VPN access allowing for hybrid cloud solutions. There are options for load balancing, web application firewalls, advanced traffic routing, and more.
Compute, Networking, and Storage, are the pillars of cloud computing platforms, and Azure is no different. Azure’s infrastructure as a service utilizes these three pillars, and the platform as a service offerings are built on top. Understanding these pillars will help you to truly understand not just the IaaS capabilities of Azure, but also the PaaS capabilities.
Whether you’re a developer, IT pro or solutions architect, understanding these three pillars is going to help you build and deploy applications. So, if you’re new to Azure, or looking to get a better understanding of the pillars that the higher-level abstractions are built on, then click on the first course to get started!
Learning Objectives
- Get a comprehensive understanding of Azure services
- Learn how to set up virtual networks inside of Azure
- Get an in-depth understanding of Azure virtual machines
- Explore the various storage options offered in Azure
Intended Audience
IT professionals or anyone who wants to learn about three of Azure core services: networking, virtual machines, and storage.
Prerequisites
To get the most out of this course, you should have general technical knowledge of IT infrastructures. A Microsoft Azure account is also recommended (sign up for a free trial at https://azure.microsoft.com/free if you don’t have an account).
Updates
- April 27, 2018 - Updated quizzes
- April 9, 2018 - Added Learning Path Exam
Certificate
Learning Path Steps
This course gives an overview of the services available on Azure and shows how to create virtual machines and web apps using the Azure CLI and Azure Portal.
In this course, you will learn everything you need to get started with setting up virtual networks inside Azure.
This course will give you a basic understanding of Azure virtual machines (VMs) and how you can use them in your Azure environments.
This course offers an in-depth look at VM scale sets, VM configuration management, VM storage options, and VM monitoring within Azure.
In this lab, you'll learn how to configure and start your first Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine (VM) from the Azure portal.
In this course, you will learn how to use the core Azure Storage services as building blocks for Azure applications and virtual machines.
Final Exam: Three Pillars of the Azure Cloud
Ben Lambert is a software engineer and was previously the lead author for DevOps and Microsoft Azure training content at Cloud Academy. His courses and learning paths covered Cloud Ecosystem technologies such as DC/OS, configuration management tools, and containers. As a software engineer, Ben’s experience includes building highly available web and mobile apps. When he’s not building software, he’s hiking, camping, or creating video games.