Azure Core Services

Compute Services

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)

Azure VMs are IaaS compute instances analogous to AWS EC2. You choose an image (Windows Server, Ubuntu, Red Hat, or custom), a size (general-purpose, compute-optimized, memory-optimized), and a region.

az vm create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name web-server \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys

Azure differentiates with availability sets (fault domains + update domains) and availability zones (physical separation within a region). An availability set spreads VMs across multiple racks; availability zones spread them across separate data centers.

Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS)

VMSS is Azure’s managed auto-scaling group, equivalent to AWS Auto Scaling Groups + Launch Templates. It automatically adjusts VM count based on metrics like CPU or memory.

{
  "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets",
  "apiVersion": "2024-03-01",
  "properties": {
    "sku": { "name": "Standard_DS2_v2", "capacity": 2 },
    "upgradePolicy": { "mode": "Automatic" },
    "virtualMachineProfile": {
      "storageProfile": {
        "imageReference": { "publisher": "Canonical", "offer": "UbuntuServer", "sku": "22.04-LTS", "version": "latest" }
      },
      "osProfile": { "computerNamePrefix": "vmss", "adminUsername": "azureuser" }
    }
  }
}

App Service

Azure App Service is a fully managed PaaS offering for web apps, REST APIs, and mobile backends. It supports .NET, Java, Node.js, Python, and PHP — comparable to AWS Elastic Beanstalk but with deeper Windows integration.

az webapp create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --plan my-plan \
  --name my-node-app \
  --runtime "NODE:20-lts"

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

AKS is Azure’s managed Kubernetes offering (like AWS EKS). It handles the control plane for free and automates upgrades, scaling, and security patching for worker nodes.

az aks create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-cluster \
  --node-count 3 \
  --enable-managed-identity

Azure Functions

Azure Functions is a serverless compute service (competitor to AWS Lambda). It supports triggers from HTTP, Blob Storage, queues, Event Grid, and Cosmos DB.

// C# HTTP-triggered function
public static async Task<IActionResult> Run(
    HttpRequest req, ILogger log)
{
    string name = req.Query["name"];
    return new OkObjectResult($"Hello, {name}");
}

Storage Services

Blob Storage

Azure Blob Storage is the equivalent of AWS S3 — object storage for unstructured data. It offers three tiers: Hot (frequent access), Cool (infrequent), and Archive (long-term).

az storage container create \
  --name my-container \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --public-access blob

Blob Storage integrates with Azure CDN for global content delivery and supports lifecycle management policies for tier transitions.

Networking Services

Virtual Network (VNet)

Azure VNet is analogous to AWS VPC. It provides network isolation, subnets, and peering across regions.

az network vnet create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-vnet \
  --address-prefix 10.0.0.0/16 \
  --subnet-name web-subnet \
  --subnet-prefix 10.0.1.0/24

Load Balancer

Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) and supports both public and internal load balancing. Azure Application Gateway is the Layer 7 alternative (like AWS ALB).

az network lb create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-lb \
  --frontend-ip-name my-frontend \
  --backend-pool-name my-backend

Management Tools

Azure offers three primary management surfaces:

• Azure Portal — Web UI for resource management
• Azure CLI — Cross-platform CLI (az commands)
• ARM Templates / Bicep — Infrastructure as Code with JSON or declarative DSL

The core services you learned here — compute, storage, networking — form the building blocks for every architecture you will deploy on Azure.