The Intelligent Cloud

Get an intelligent, consistent and comprehensive platform from cloud to edge with Azure.

Cloud computing is when you access computing services – such as servers, storage, networking, software – over the Internet (“the cloud”) from a provider like Azure. For example, instead of storing personal documents and photos on your personal computer’s hard drive, most people now store them online: that’s cloud computing.

Cloud computing platforms, such as Azure, tend to be less expensive, more secure, reliable and flexible than on-premise servers. Equipment downtime due to maintenance, theft or damage is almost non-existent and you can scale your compute and storage resources – up or down – when your needs change. Also, you typically only pay for the services you use, which provides a level of convenience and cost-control that’s almost impossible to achieve with on-site infrastructure.

The Intelligent cloud offers:

• Lower cost – Cloud computing eliminates the expense of setting up and running on-site data centres and allows organisations to access the computer resources they need in real time to match their business needs on demand.
• Higher security – Security is a key focus of cloud providers, who typically also offer a broad set of policies, compliance, technologies and controls that strengthen your security and protect your data, apps and infrastructure from threats.
• Increased productivity – Efficiently develop and manage your applications with nearly unlimited cloud computing resources. Continuously updated data centre networks with the latest-generation hardware, provide you with fast, efficient computing resources.
• Global scale – Cloud computing runs on data centres around the world, providing overall resiliency and reliability by allowing your data to be backed up in more than one geographic location. This also allows your IT resources to be delivered from specific geographic locations when required.