Microsoft Azure: Planning, Deploying, and Managing Your Data Center in the Cloud

Written for IT and business professionals, this book provides the technical and business insight needed to plan, deploy and manage the services provided by the Microsoft Azure cloud. Find out how to integrate the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) models with your existing business infrastructure while maximizing availability, ensuring continuity and safety of your data, and keeping costs to a minimum.

The book starts with an introduction to Microsoft Azure and how it differs from Office 365—Microsoft’s ‘other’ cloud. You'll also get a useful overview of the services available. Part II then takes you through setting up your Azure account, and gets you up-and-running on some of the core Azure services, including creating web sites and virtual machines, and choosing between fully cloud-based and hybrid storage solutions, depending on your needs.

Part III now takes an in-depth look at how to integrate Azure with your existing infrastructure. The authors, Anthony Puca, Mike Manning, Brent Rush, Marshall Copeland and Julian Soh, bring their depth of experience in cloud technology and customer support to guide you through the whole process, through each layer of your infrastructure from networking to operations. High availability and disaster recovery are the topics on everyone’s minds when considering a move to the cloud, and this book provides key insights and step-by-step guidance to help you set up and manage your resources correctly to optimize for these scenarios. You’ll also get expert advice on migrating your existing VMs to Azure using InMage, mail-in and the best 3rd party tools available, helping you ensure continuity of service with minimum disruption to the business.

In the book’s final chapters, you’ll find cutting edge examples of cloud technology in action, from machine learning to business intelligence, for a taste of some exciting ways your business could benefit from your new Microsoft Azure deployment.

What you’ll learn

• What Microsoft Azure can do (infrastructure and platform as a service), and reasons for adoption
• How to plan for successful integration of Azure with your existing IT infrastructure
• How to use the Azure management portal to manage basic workload items, and how to use the enterprise portal for monitoring and reporting
• How to create web sites on Azure to save platform running and management costs and scale easily
• How to create virtual machines on Azure and how to migrate them safely from an existing infrastructure
• When and why to choose different storage options on Azure
• How to extend your on-premise network to Azure
• How to handle identity management using Azure Active Directory, from the free edition to the full Enterprise Mobility Suite
• How to manage your resources with clusters and affinity groups to maximize availability, minimize costs, and optimize disaster recovery scenarios
• Advanced applications of Azure to machine learning and business intelligence

Who this book is for

This book is for IT and business administrators and managers looking to deploy some or all of Microsoft Azure’s services to their existing business infrastructure, while maximizing availability, building robust disaster recovery solutions, and minimizing costs.

Table of Contents

Part I: Introducing Microsoft Azure

Chapter 1: Why Choose Microsoft Azure

Chapter 2: Azure Services Overview

Chapter 3: Azure Real-World Scenarios

Chapter 4: Planning Your Azure Deployment

Part II: Microsoft Azure Quick Start

Chapter 5: Getting Started with Azure Websites

Chapter 6: Getting Started with Azure Virtual Machines

Chapter 7: Understanding Your Storage Options

Part III: Extending Your On-Premise Environment with Azure

Chapter 8: Extending Your Network with Azure

Chapter 9: Identity Management with Azure Active Directory

Chapter 10: Extending Azure Active Directory

Chapter 11: Clusters, Regional VNets, High Availability, and Disaster Recovery

Chapter 12: Migrating Your Virtual Machines to Azure

Chapter 13: Monitoring and Reporting

Part IV: Futures and Advanced Topics

Chapter 14: Machine Learning with Microsoft Azure

Chapter 15: Data Management and BI with HDInsight

Chapter 16: Configuring Intune and RMS