Microsoft Azure

In the cloud computing world, Microsoft Azure, sometimes known as Azure, is a cloud computing service run by Microsoft for application management via the use of Microsoft-managed data centres. As a cloud computing service provider, it offers software- as-a-service, platform- as-a-service (PaaS), and infrastructure- as-a-service offerings. It supports a wide range of programming languages, toolsets, and frameworks, as well as Microsoft-developed and third-party applications and systems.

The Microsoft Azure cloud computing service was first announced at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October 2008, and was given the internal codename "Project Red Dog." It was officially released in February 2010 as Windows Azure, before being renamed to Microsoft Azure on March 25, 2014.

Azure makes extensive use of large-scale virtualization in Microsoft data centres across the globe, and it provides more than 600 services in total.