Implementing Azure Cloud Design Patterns: Implement efficient design patterns for data management, high availability, monitoring and other popular patterns on your Azure Cloud

Before we start on the actual topic (the Azure platform), we should clarify some terms related to cloud computing. Knowing these concepts, we will then be in a position to identify individual parts of the Azure platform.

Let's start.

Cloud service models

The first term we will look at is cloud service models.

All workloads in a cloud scenario use resources from an extremely large resource pool that is operated (managed) by you or a cloud service provider. These resources include servers, storage, networks, applications, services, and much more.

The cloud service models describe to what extent your resources are managed by yourself or by your cloud service providers.

Let's look at the available service models. In the following diagram, you will find a comparison of the models and the existing management responsibilities. Areas that are colored in blue are managed by you: all others are the responsibility of your provider:

The offers are mainly categorized into the following service models:

• On-premises: On-premises describes a model in which the user manages all resources alone.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): IaaS describes a model in which the cloud provider gives the consumer the ability to create and configure resources from the computing layer upwards. This includes virtual machines, containers, networks, appliances, and many other infrastructure-related resources.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): PaaS gives the consumer an environment from the operating system upwards. So the consumer is not responsible for the underlying infrastructure.
• Software as a Service (SaaS): SaaS is the model with the lowest levels of control and required management. A SaaS application is reachable from multiple clients and consumers, and the owning consumer doesn't have any control over the backend, except for application-related management tasks.

Cloud deployment models

The second term we will look at is cloud deployment models.

Cloud deployment models describe the way in which resources are provided in the cloud.

Which cloud deployment models are available?

Let's look at the following diagram first:

The deployment model based on the on-premises service model is called the private cloud. A private cloud is an environment/infrastructure, built and operated by a single organization, which is only for internal use.

In the context of this book, you should know that the Windows Azure Pack (a free add-on for the Windows server) gives you the opportunity to deploy Azure technologies in a private cloud environment.

The deployment model based on the IaaS and the PaaS service model is called the public cloud. A public cloud is an offer from a service provider (for example, Microsoft Azure), that can be accessed by the public. This includes individuals as well as companies.

Note

Note: When we talk about Azure in this book, it always means the public cloud model.

There is still a third deployment model available, which is the hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud combines parts of the private and public clouds. It is defined as a private cloud environment at the consumer's site, as well as the public cloud infrastructure that the consumer uses.

In the context of this book, you should know that Azure Stack (a new offering from Microsoft) gives you the opportunity to build a hybrid cloud environment:

Now we have acquired some basic knowledge about cloud computing, the question arises: Where do we go Each of these models can be used independently, but also in combination. from here?

I think that when we start talking about the Microsoft Azure platform, we should first talk about running applications in the cloud. For this, Microsoft Azure provides five deployment models (also known as Azure execution models), that are outlined in the following diagram:

The five execution models are:

Each of these models can be used independently, but also in combination.

As I mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of updates every year on the Azure platform and the Azure execution models have also been affected. The execution models' websites and mobile services are now out of date and have been replaced by the execution model, App Services (Azure App Services):

Just look at the following diagram:

As you can see, the Azure App Services execution model currently consists of the following elements:

A further change to the area of Azure execution models is the addition of another model, Azure Service Fabric (also known as Azure Microservice Architecture), in 2016:

With Azure Service Fabric, you can focus on building applications and business logic, and let the Azure platform solve all other problems by analyzing reliability, scalability, management, and latency.

Let's return to the last diagram in the previous section. In the bottom layer, you'll find two other components of the Azure platform:

Both Azure application building blocks and Azure data services, are managed services that extend the platform with so-called common capabilities (shared functionalities).

In the following diagram, you will find an overview of the Azure application building blocks. Because of the high number of individual components on offer, they are only represented in categories:

The service categories are as follows:

Azure data services are managed services that extend the platform with so-called common capabilities (shared functionalities). Because of the special importance of data in today's digital world, they were separated from the Azure application building blocks and represent a separate kind of service.

In the following diagram, you will find an overview of the Azure data services. Because of the high number of individual components on offer, these are only represented in categories:

The service categories are as follows:

And finally, we now come to a special component of the Azure application building blocks: the Azure platform services. Azure platform services are all services that are responsible for internal workflows on the platform itself.

Since Microsoft has an open strategy for the Azure platform, these services are usually also available to the end user.

Examples of these type of services are as follows:

In the previous sections of this chapter, we've had an overview of the Azure platform. Now let's dig a bit deeper.

The first point in our discovery journey— How is access to the Azure platform organized?

As long as we look at Azure from our personal point of view, the answer is simple—our entire world consists of an Azure account, a subscription and the direct or indirect handling of Azure resources, as shown here:

But if we look at the situation from the perspective of an enterprise, it becomes much more complicated, as shown in the next figure. The reason for this is Microsoft's attempt to delineate your company with an Azure enrollment as precisely as possible.

Let's have a look—the high-level element in the figure is now the enterprise element linked to the Enterprise Administrator's role. Here, the most comprehensive and highest rights exist. An Enterprise Administrator is allowed to do everything within the Azure enrollment.

The rights of the Enterprise Administrator include:

The Enterprise Administrator is also the only person who can access all consumption and cost data at every level of the Azure enrollment.

The next element is departments (linked to the Department Administrator's role)—with the creation of departments, you can subdivide your enrollment into logical units. Even if the term department suggests something different, you have given yourself flexibility in terms of how the elements are divided.

The decision on how elements are classified is actually made based on the following:

Let's go to the Department Administrators—they have the ability to create accounts within their department and, if necessary, can create a cost center (for a complete cost control).

From the next level, everything is as usual (Azure account, subscriptions, Azure resources and so on):

Now we know how access to Azure is organized. The question arises— How do I work with Azure?

In general, all work is done through the Azure portal (also known as the Azure management portal).

The Azure portal is a web-based application that can be used to create, manage, and remove all types of Azure resources and services. It includes a customizable dashboard, the ability to create your own dashboards and tooling for managing or monitoring Azure resources. It also provides information for cost and usage management.

The Azure portal is located at https://portal.azure.com.

A big thing, but wait, there's even more. Look at the following diagram:

As you can see, there are four other ways to work with Azure, namely:

In this chapter, I've given you an introduction to the Azure platform. You've learned the basics about cloud services and cloud deployment models, had an overview of the Azure execution model, the Azure application building blocks, and the Azure data services, and now know how to access and work with Azure.

In the next chapter, we will start with a more detailed look  at the Azure world and you will learn all about the basic architectures behind Azure App Services, Azure Service Fabric, Azure VMs, and Azure Container Services.