18.2. Azure Resources and Terminology

When preparing for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam, or beginning your journey in understanding and working with Azure, it is essential to become familiar with the broad array of resources and the terminology used within the Azure ecosystem. This foundational knowledge not only helps you navigate the Azure landscape more effectively but also lays the groundwork for more advanced Azure-related tasks and responsibilities. This section, therefore, aims to guide you through some of the most important Azure resources and terms that you will encounter both in real-world scenarios and while preparing for your certification exam.

Azure Resources and Services

Azure offers over a hundred services that provide solutions ranging from compute, analytics, storage, and networking to modern artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and database services. Understanding what these services do and how they interact is crucial for anyone looking to use or understand Azure.

Compute Services

1. Azure Virtual Machines (VMs): These are on-demand, scalable computing resources that mimic real physical computers. They’re the backbone of cloud computing and can be used for hosting applications, data processing, and more.
2. Azure App Services: A fully managed platform for building, deploying, and scaling web apps quickly and easily.
3. Azure Functions: An event-driven, serverless compute service that allows you to run code triggered by events without provisioning or managing servers.
4. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): A managed container orchestration service based on Kubernetes, which makes deploying and managing containerized applications easier.

Storage Services

1. Azure Blob Storage: A service for storing large amounts of unstructured object data, such as text or binary data.
2. Azure File Storage: Provides managed file shares for cloud or on-premises deployments.
3. Azure Queue Storage: A service for storing large numbers of messages that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
4. Azure Table Storage: Offers a NoSQL store for schema-less storage of structured data.

Database Services

1. Azure SQL Database: A fully managed relational database with auto-scale, integral intelligence, and robust security.
2. Azure Cosmos DB: A globally distributed database service designed to enable you to elastically and independently scale throughput and storage across any number of geographical regions with a comprehensive SLA.

Networking Services

1. Azure Virtual Network: Provides an isolated and highly-secure environment to run your virtual machines and applications.
2. Azure Load Balancer: Delivers high availability and network performance to your applications.
3. Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN): A global CDN solution for delivering high-bandwidth content.

4. Azure ExpressRoute: Lets you create private connections between Azure datacenters and infrastructure that’s on your premises or in a colocation environment.