Definition: Microsoft Azure

Microsoft's cloud computing platform, which along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform, comprise the major cloud providers in the U.S. Microsoft Azure features Azure OS, which combines Windows with Microsoft's virtual machine capability (see Hyper-V).

Azure OS was specialized for datacenter computing, in which clusters of servers provide computing resources on demand. Azure natively supports Microsoft's .NET Framework and all major programming languages.

Azure OpenAI Services
In partnership with OpenAI, Azure users have access to OpenAI products such as GPT-4 and DALL-E, as well as a platform for building their own AI models, AI-powered search and other AI applications. Following is a brief overview of Microsoft's cloud offerings. See cloud computing and Cobalt 100.

  Microsoft
  Cloud Service       Purpose

  Windows Azure        PaaS

  Office Online        SaaS

  OneDrive (SkyDrive)  Storage