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).