[MODULE - 1]
Describe cloud computing
01-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.
What is Azure Fundamentals?
Azure Fundamentals is a series of three learning paths that familiarize you
with Azure and its many services and features.
Whether you're interested in compute, networking, or storage services;
learning about cloud security best practices; or exploring governance and
management options, think of Azure Fundamentals as your curated guide to
Azure.
Azure Fundamentals includes interactive exercises that give you hands-on
experience with Azure. Many exercises provide a temporary Azure portal
environment called the sandbox, which allows you to practice creating cloud
resources for free at your own pace.
Technical IT experience isn't required; however, having general IT
knowledge will help you get the most from your learning experience.
Why should I take Azure Fundamentals?
If you're just beginning to work with the cloud, or if you already have cloud
experience, Azure Fundamentals provides you with everything you need to
get started.
No matter your goals, Azure Fundamentals has something for you. You
should take this course if you:
Have general interest in Azure or in cloud computing
Want to earn official certification from Microsoft (AZ-900)
The Azure Fundamentals learning path series can help you prepare for
Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals. This exam includes three
knowledge domain areas:
AZ-900 Domain Area Weight
Describe cloud concepts 25-30%
Describe Azure architecture and services 35-40%
Describe Azure management and governance 30-35%
Each domain area maps to a learning path in Azure Fundamentals. The
percentages shown indicate the relative weight of each area on the exam.
The higher the percentage, the more questions that part of the exam will
contain. Be sure to read the exam page for specifics about what skills are
covered in each area.
This training helps you develop a broad understanding of Azure.
02-Introduction to cloud computing
In this module, you’ll be introduced to general cloud concepts. You’ll start
with an introduction to the cloud in general. Then you'll dive into concepts
like shared responsibility, different cloud models, and explore the unique
pricing method for the cloud.
If you’re already familiar with cloud computing, this module may be largely
review for you.
Learning objectives
After completing this module, you’ll 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.
03-What is cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet.
Computing services include common IT infrastructure such as virtual
machines, storage, databases, and networking. Cloud services also expand
the traditional IT offerings to include things like Internet of Things (IoT),
machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI).
Because cloud computing uses the internet to deliver these services, it
doesn’t have to be constrained by physical infrastructure the same way that
a traditional datacenter is. That means if you need to increase your IT
infrastructure rapidly, you don’t have to wait to build a new datacenter—you
can use the cloud to rapidly expand your IT footprint.
04-Describe the shared responsibility
model
You may have heard of the shared responsibility model, but you may not
understand what it means or how it impacts cloud computing.
Start with a traditional corporate datacenter. The company is responsible for
maintaining the physical space, ensuring security, and maintaining or
replacing the servers if anything happens. The IT department is responsible
for maintaining all the infrastructure and software needed to keep the
datacenter up and running. They’re also likely to be responsible for keeping
all systems patched and on the correct version.
With the shared responsibility model, these responsibilities get shared
between the cloud provider and the consumer. Physical security, power,
cooling, and network connectivity are the responsibility of the cloud provider.
The consumer isn’t collocated with the datacenter, so it wouldn’t make
sense for the consumer to have any of those responsibilities.
At the same time, the consumer is responsible for the data and information
stored in the cloud. (You wouldn’t want the cloud provider to be able to read
your information.) The consumer is also responsible for access security,
meaning you only give access to those who need it.
Then, for some things, the responsibility depends on the situation. If you’re
using a cloud SQL database, the cloud provider would be responsible for
maintaining the actual database. However, you’re still responsible for the
data that gets ingested into the database. If you deployed a virtual machine
and installed an SQL database on it, you’d be responsible for database
patches and updates, as well as maintaining the data and information stored
in the database.
With an on-premises datacenter, you’re responsible for everything. With
cloud computing, those responsibilities shift. The shared responsibility model
is heavily tied into the cloud service types (covered later in this learning
path): infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and
software as a service (SaaS). IaaS places the most responsibility on the
consumer, with the cloud provider being responsible for the basics of
physical security, power, and connectivity. On the other end of the spectrum,
SaaS places most of the responsibility with the cloud provider. PaaS, being
a middle ground between IaaS and SaaS, rests somewhere in the middle
and evenly distributes responsibility between the cloud provider and the
consumer.
The following diagram highlights how the Shared Responsibility Model
informs who is responsible for what, depending on the cloud service type.
When using a cloud provider, you’ll always be responsible for:
The information and data stored in the cloud
Devices that are allowed to connect to your cloud (cell phones,
computers, and so on)
The accounts and identities of the people, services, and devices within
your organization
The cloud provider is always responsible for:
The physical datacenter
The physical network
The physical hosts
Your service model will determine responsibility for things like:
Operating systems
Network controls
Applications
Identity and infrastructure
05-Define cloud models
What are cloud models? The cloud models define the deployment type of
cloud resources. The three main cloud models are: private, public, and
hybrid.
Private cloud
Let’s start with a private cloud. A private cloud is, in some ways, the natural
evolution from a corporate datacenter. It’s a cloud (delivering IT services
over the internet) that’s used by a single entity. Private cloud provides much
greater control for the company and its IT department. However, it also
comes with greater cost and fewer of the benefits of a public cloud
deployment. Finally, a private cloud may be hosted from your on site
datacenter. It may also be hosted in a dedicated datacenter offsite,
potentially even by a third party that has dedicated that datacenter to your
company.
Public cloud
A public cloud is built, controlled, and maintained by a third-party cloud
provider. With a public cloud, anyone that wants to purchase cloud services
can access and use resources. The general public availability is a key
difference between public and private clouds.
Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud is a computing environment that uses both public and private
clouds in an inter-connected environment. A hybrid cloud environment can
be used to allow a private cloud to surge for increased, temporary demand
by deploying public cloud resources. Hybrid cloud can be used to provide an
extra layer of security. For example, users can flexibly choose which
services to keep in public cloud and which to deploy to their private cloud
infrastructure.
The following table highlights a few key comparative aspects between the
cloud models.
Public cloud Private cloud Hybrid cloud
No capital Organizations have Provides the most
expenditures to scale complete control over flexibility
up resources and security
Applications can be Data is not collocated Organizations
quickly provisioned with other determine where to
and deprovisioned organizations’ data run their applications
Organizations pay only Hardware must be Organizations control
for what they use purchased for startup security, compliance,
and maintenance or legal requirements
Organizations don’t Organizations are
have complete control responsible for
over resources and hardware maintenance
security and updates
Multi-cloud
A fourth, and increasingly likely scenario is a multi-cloud scenario. In a multi-
cloud scenario, you use multiple public cloud providers. Maybe you use
different features from different cloud providers. Or maybe you started your
cloud journey with one provider and are in the process of migrating to a
different provider. Regardless, in a multi-cloud environment you deal with
two (or more) public cloud providers and manage resources and security in
both environments.
Azure Arc
Azure Arc is a set of technologies that helps manage your cloud
environment. Azure Arc can help manage your cloud environment, whether
it's a public cloud solely on Azure, a private cloud in your datacenter, a
hybrid configuration, or even a multi-cloud environment running on multiple
cloud providers at once.
Azure VMware Solution
What if you’re already established with VMware in a private cloud
environment but want to migrate to a public or hybrid cloud? Azure VMware
Solution lets you run your VMware workloads in Azure with seamless
integration and scalability.
06-Describe the consumption-based
model
When comparing IT infrastructure models, there are two types of expenses
to consider. Capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure
(OpEx).
CapEx is typically a one-time, up-front expenditure to purchase or secure
tangible resources. A new building, repaving the parking lot, building a
datacenter, or buying a company vehicle are examples of CapEx.
In contrast, OpEx is spending money on services or products over time.
Renting a convention center, leasing a company vehicle, or signing up for
cloud services are all examples of OpEx.
Cloud computing falls under OpEx because cloud computing operates on a
consumption-based model. With cloud computing, you don’t pay for the
physical infrastructure, the electricity, the security, or anything else
associated with maintaining a datacenter. Instead, you pay for the IT
resources you use. If you don’t use any IT resources this month, you don’t
pay for any IT resources.
This consumption-based model has many benefits, including:
No upfront costs.
No need to purchase and manage costly infrastructure that users might
not use to its fullest potential.
The ability to pay for more resources when they're needed.
The ability to stop paying for resources that are no longer needed.
With a traditional datacenter, you try to estimate the future resource needs.
If you overestimate, you spend more on your datacenter than you need to
and potentially waste money. If you underestimate, your datacenter will
quickly reach capacity and your applications and services may suffer from
decreased performance. Fixing an under-provisioned datacenter can take a
long time. You may need to order, receive, and install more hardware. You'll
also need to add power, cooling, and networking for the extra hardware.
In a cloud-based model, you don’t have to worry about getting the resource
needs just right. If you find that you need more virtual machines, you add
more. If the demand drops and you don’t need as many virtual machines,
you remove machines as needed. Either way, you’re only paying for the
virtual machines that you use, not the “extra capacity” that the cloud provider
has on hand.
Compare cloud pricing models
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet by
using a pay-as-you-go pricing model. You typically pay only for the cloud
services you use, which helps you:
Plan and manage your operating costs.
Run your infrastructure more efficiently.
Scale as your business needs change.
To put it another way, cloud computing is a way to rent compute power and
storage from someone else’s datacenter. You can treat cloud resources like
you would resources in your own datacenter. However, unlike in your own
datacenter, when you're done using cloud resources, you give them back.
You’re billed only for what you use.
Instead of maintaining CPUs and storage in your datacenter, you rent them
for the time that you need them. The cloud provider takes care of
maintaining the underlying infrastructure for you. The cloud enables you to
quickly solve your toughest business challenges and bring cutting-edge
solutions to your users.
