Describe cloud computing

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this module, you will be able to:

 Define cloud computing.

 Describe the shared responsibility model.

 Define cloud models, including public, private, and hybrid.

 Identify appropriate use cases for each cloud model.

 Describe the consumption-based model.

 Compare cloud pricing models.

Introduction to Microsoft Azure

Fundamentals
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform with an ever-expanding set
of services to help you build solutions to meet your business goals. Azure
services support everything from simple to complex. Azure has simple
web services for hosting your business presence in the cloud. Azure also
supports running fully virtualized computers managing your custom
software solutions. Azure provides a wealth of cloud-based services like
remote storage, database hosting, and centralized account management.
Azure also offers new capabilities like artificial intelligence (AI) and
Internet of Things (IoT) focused services.

In this series, you’ll cover cloud computing basics, be introduced to some

of the core services provided by Microsoft Azure, and will learn more about
the governance and compliance services that you can use.

Describe cloud service types

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this module, you'll be able to:

 Describe Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

 Describe Platform as a Service (PaaS).

 Describe Software as a Service (SaaS).

 Identify appropriate use cases for each cloud service (IaaS, PaaS,
SaaS).
Describe Infrastructure as a
Service
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the most flexible category of cloud
services, as it provides you the maximum amount of control for your
cloud resources. In an IaaS model, the cloud provider is responsible for
maintaining the hardware, network connectivity (to the internet), and
physical security. You’re responsible for everything else: operating
system installation, configuration, and maintenance; network
configuration; database and storage configuration; and so on. With
IaaS, you’re essentially renting the hardware in a cloud datacenter, but
what you do with that hardware is up to you.

Shared responsibility model

The shared responsibility model applies to all the cloud service types. IaaS
places the largest share of responsibility with you. The cloud provider is
responsible for maintaining the physical infrastructure and its access to
the internet. You’re responsible for installation and configuration, patching
and updates, and security.

Scenarios

Some common scenarios where IaaS might make sense include:

  Lift-and-shift migration: You’re setting up cloud resources similar to
your on-prem datacenter, and then simply moving the things
running on-prem to running on the IaaS infrastructure.

 Testing and development: You have established configurations for

development and test environments that you need to rapidly
replicate. You can start up or shut down the different environments
rapidly with an IaaS structure, while maintaining complete control.

Describe Platform as a Service

Platform as a service (PaaS) is a middle ground between renting space in
a datacentre (infrastructure as a service) and paying for a complete and
deployed solution (software as a service). In a PaaS environment, the
cloud provider maintains the physical infrastructure, physical security, and
connection to the internet. They also maintain the operating systems,
middleware, development tools, and business intelligence services that
make up a cloud solution. In a PaaS scenario, you don't have to worry
about the licensing or patching for operating systems and databases.

PaaS is well suited to provide a complete development environment

without the headache of maintaining all the development infrastructure.

Shared responsibility model

The shared responsibility model applies to all the cloud service types.
PaaS splits the responsibility between you and the cloud provider. The
cloud provider is responsible for maintaining the physical infrastructure
and its access to the internet, just like in IaaS. In the PaaS model, the
cloud provider will also maintain the operating systems, databases, and
development tools. Think of PaaS like using a domain joined machine: IT
maintains the device with regular updates, patches, and refreshes.

Depending on the configuration, you or the cloud provider may be

responsible for networking settings and connectivity within your cloud
environment, network and application security, and the directory
infrastructure.

Scenarios
Some common scenarios where PaaS might make sense include:

 Development framework: PaaS provides a framework that

developers can build upon to develop or customize cloud-based
applications. Similar to the way you create an Excel macro,
 PaaS lets developers create applications using built-in software
components. Cloud features such as scalability, high-
availability, and multi-tenant capability are included, reducing
the amount of coding that developers must do.
 Analytics or business intelligence: Tools provided as a service
with PaaS allow organizations to analyze and mine their data,
finding insights and patterns and predicting outcomes to
improve forecasting, product design decisions, investment
returns, and other business decisions.

Describe Software as a Service

Software as a service (SaaS) is the most complete cloud service model
from a product perspective. With SaaS, you’re essentially renting or using
a fully developed application. Email, financial software, messaging
applications, and connectivity software are all common examples of a
SaaS implementation.

While the SaaS model may be the least flexible, it’s also the easiest to get
up and running. It requires the least amount of technical knowledge or
expertise to fully employ.

Shared responsibility model

The shared responsibility model applies to all the cloud service types.
SaaS is the model that places the most responsibility with the cloud
provider and the least responsibility with the user. In a SaaS environment
you’re responsible for the data that you put into the system, the devices
that you allow to connect to the system, and the users that have access.
Nearly everything else falls to the cloud provider. The cloud provider is
responsible for physical security of the datacentres, power, network
connectivity, and application development and patching.

Scenarios
Some common scenarios for SaaS are:

 Email and messaging.

 Business productivity applications.
 Finance and expense tracking.

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals:

Describe Azure architecture and
services
Introduction
In this module, you’ll be introduced to the core architectural components
of Azure. You’ll learn about the physical organization of Azure:
datacenters, availability zones, and regions; and you’ll learn about the
organizational structure of Azure: resources and resource groups,
subscriptions, and management groups.

Learning objectives

After completing this module, you’ll be able to:

 Describe Azure regions, region pairs, and sovereign regions.

 Describe Availability Zones.

 Describe Azure datacenters.

 Describe Azure resources and Resource Groups.

 Describe subscriptions.

 Describe management groups.

 Describe the hierarchy of resource groups, subscriptions, and

management groups.

What is Microsoft Azure

Azure is a continually expanding set of cloud services that help you meet
current and future business challenges. Azure gives you the freedom to
build, manage, and deploy applications on a massive global network using
your favorite tools and frameworks.

What does Azure offer?

Limitless innovation. Build intelligent apps and solutions with advanced

technology, tools, and services to take your business to the next level.
Seamlessly unify your technology to simplify platform management and to
deliver innovations efficiently and securely on a trusted cloud.

 Bring ideas to life: Build on a trusted platform to advance your

organization with industry-leading AI and cloud services.

 Seamlessly unify: Efficiently manage all your infrastructure, data,

analytics, and AI solutions across an integrated platform.

 Innovate on trust: Rely on trusted technology from a partner

who's dedicated to security and responsibility.

What can I do with Azure?

Azure provides more than 100 services that enable you to do everything
from running your existing applications on virtual machines to exploring
new software paradigms, such as intelligent bots and mixed reality.

Many teams start exploring the cloud by moving their existing applications
to virtual machines (VMs) that run in Azure. Migrating your existing apps
to VMs is a good start, but the cloud is much more than a different place
to run your VMs.

For example, Azure provides artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-

learning (ML) services that can naturally communicate with your users
through vision, hearing, and speech. It also provides storage solutions that
dynamically grow to accommodate massive amounts of data. Azure
services enable solutions that aren't feasible without the power of the
cloud.

Get started with Azure accounts

To create and use Azure services, you need an Azure subscription. When
you're completing Learn modules, most of the time a temporary
subscription is created for you, which runs in an environment called the
Learn sandbox. When you're working with your own applications and
business needs, you need to create an Azure account, and a subscription
will be created for you. After you've created an Azure account, you're free
to create additional subscriptions. For example, your company might use a
single Azure account for your business and separate subscriptions for
development, marketing, and sales departments. After you've created an
Azure subscription, you can start creating Azure resources within each
subscription.
If you're new to Azure, you can sign up for a free account on the Azure
website to start exploring at no cost to you. When you're ready, you can
choose to upgrade your free account. You can also create a new
subscription that enables you to start paying for Azure services you need
beyond the limits of a free account.

What is the Azure free account?

The Azure free account includes:

 Free access to popular Azure products for 12 months.

 A credit to use for the first 30 days.
 Access to more than 25 products that are always free.

The Azure free account is an excellent way for new users to get started
and explore. To sign up, you need a phone number, a credit card, and a
Microsoft or GitHub account. The credit card information is used for
identity verification only. You won't be charged for any services until you
upgrade to a paid subscription.

What is the Azure free student account?

The Azure free student account offer includes:

 Free access to certain Azure services for 12 months.

 A credit to use in the first 12 months.
 Free access to certain software developer tools.

The Azure free student account is an offer for students that gives $100
credit and free developer tools. Also, you can sign up without a credit
card.

What is the Microsoft Learn sandbox?

Many of the Learn exercises use a technology called the sandbox, which
creates a temporary subscription that's added to your Azure account. This
temporary subscription allows you to create Azure resources during a
Learn module. Learn automatically cleans up the temporary resources for
you after you've completed the module.

When you're completing a Learn module, you're welcome to use your

personal subscription to complete the exercises in a module. However, the
sandbox is the preferred method to use because it allows you to create
and test Azure resources at no cost to you.

Exercise - Explore the Learn

sandbox
In this exercise, you explore the Learn sandbox. You can interact with the
Learn sandbox in three different ways. During exercises, you'll be
provided for instructions for at least one of the methods below.

You start by activating the Learn sandbox. Then, you’ll investigate each of
the methods to work in the Learn sandbox.

Activate the Learn Sandbox

If you haven’t already, use the Activate sandbox button above to activate
the Learn sandbox.

If you receive a notice saying Microsoft Learn needs your permission to

create Azure resource, use the Review permission button to review and
accept the permissions. Once you approve the permissions, it may take a
few minutes for the sandbox to activate.

Task 1: Use the PowerShell CLI

Once the sandbox launches, half the screen will be in PowerShell
command line interface (CLI) mode. If you’re familiar with PowerShell, you
can manage your Azure environment using PowerShell commands.

Tip

You can tell you're in PowerShell mode by the PS before your directory on
the command line.

Use the PowerShell Get-date command to get the current date and time.

Get-date

Most Azure specific commands will start with the letters az. The Get-date
command you just ran is a PowerShell specific command. Let's try an
Azure command to check what version of the CLI you're using right now.

az version