What is Azure?

The Azure cloud platform is more than 200 products and cloud services designed to help you bring new solutions to life—to solve today’s challenges and create the future. Build, run and manage applications across multiple clouds, on-premises and at the edge, with the tools and frameworks of your choice.

Trust your cloud

Get security from the ground up, backed by a team of experts and proactive compliance trusted by enterprises, governments and startups.

Operate hybrid seamlessly

On-premises, across multiple clouds and at the edge—we will meet you where you are. Integrate and manage your environments with services designed for hybrid cloud.

Build on your terms

With a commitment to open source and support for all languages and frameworks, build how you want and deploy where you want to.

Be future-ready

Continuous innovation from Microsoft supports your development today and your product visions for tomorrow.

compliance offerings—the largest portfolio in the industry

of Fortune 500 companies trust their business on Azure

investment (US dollars) per year in security to protect customers’ data from cyberthreats

Solutions do the work for you

Find answers to the business challenges you face with an Azure solution that brings together everything you need—related products, services and third-party applications. From DevOps to business analytics to the Internet of Things, you will be up and running quickly with a scalable, cost-effective solution that works with your existing investments.

Healthcare

Develop solutions for proactive, personalised healthcare.

Financial services

Better serve customers, empower employees and optimise risk management.

Government

Build secure solutions to better serve and protect your citizens.

Retail

Deliver personal, seamless and differentiated experiences.

Manufacturing

Respond quicker to customer feedback and market trends.

Companies doing great things with Azure

«We did look at different platforms, including Azure, Google, Amazon, and VMware. If we wanted to put the whole city in the cloud, we needed Azure.»

Photo of Corona, CA by sergei.gussev / CC by 4.0

Creating better experiences for 15.4 million customers worldwide

ASOS, a top online fashion retailer, delivered a more personalised, mobile-first experience with Azure.

Onboarding developers in hours instead of weeks

Daimler AG quickly attracts and onboards top talent to innovate faster using the Azure development environment.

Providing a compliant analytics service for healthcare

After assessing multiple options, McKesson chose Azure to offer their customers cloud-based healthcare analytics.

Popular questions about Azure

Is Azure secure?

Yes, security and privacy are foundational for Azure. Microsoft is committed to the highest levels of trust, transparency, standards conformance and regulatory compliance—with the most comprehensive set of compliance offerings of any cloud service provider.

How can Azure help if I outsource my IT?

IT partners use Azure to deploy, manage and support customers’ existing solutions and to offer ready-made or custom solutions. Ask your IT partner how your organisation can take advantage of Azure to meet your business goals. Or, find an Azure partner that fits your needs. Explore a wide network of partners with verified Azure capabilities.

What other customers are using Azure?

Of the Fortune 500 companies, 95 percent rely on Azure for trusted cloud services. Companies of all sizes and maturities use Azure in their digital transformation.

Is it only for Windows apps and services?

No. Azure supports open source technologies, so you can use the tools and technologies you prefer. Run virtually any application using your data source, with your operating system, on your device. With Azure, you have choices.

Will Azure really save me money?

With no upfront cost, you only pay for what you use. Azure provides flexible purchasing and pricing options for all your cloud scenarios, such as the Azure Hybrid Benefit and offers extensive tools to help manage your cloud spend.

Can I try Azure services?

Yes. Create an Azure free account to experiment and build in the cloud. You will get access to free Azure products and services, plus a $200 credit to use in your first 30 days.

Will Azure work for my industry?

Azure provides solutions for all industries, through proven combinations of cloud products and services. Address your industry-specific business challenges today and prepare for the future by innovating with Azure solutions.

How does Azure compare to other clouds?

Azure is the only consistent hybrid cloud, delivers unparalleled developer productivity, provides comprehensive, multilayered security, including the largest compliance coverage of any cloud provider and you will pay less for Azure as AWS is five times more expensive than Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server.

What is Azure?

The Azure cloud platform is more than 200 products and cloud services designed to help you bring new solutions to life—to solve today’s challenges and create the future. Build, run, and manage applications across multiple clouds, on-premises, and at the edge, with the tools and frameworks of your choice.

Trust your cloud

Get security from the ground up, backed by a team of experts, and proactive compliance trusted by enterprises, governments, and startups.

Operate hybrid seamlessly

On-premises, across multiple clouds, and at the edge—we’ll meet you where you are. Integrate and manage your environments with services designed for hybrid cloud.

Build on your terms

With a commitment to open source, and support for all languages and frameworks, build how you want, and deploy where you want to.

Be future-ready

Continuous innovation from Microsoft supports your development today, and your product visions for tomorrow.

compliance offerings—the largest portfolio in the industry

of Fortune 500 companies trust their business on Azure

investment (US dollars) per year in security to protect customers’ data from cyberthreats

Solutions do the work for you

Find answers to the business challenges you face with an Azure solution that brings together everything you need—related products, services, and third-party applications. From DevOps to business analytics to the Internet of Things, you’ll be up and running quickly with a scalable, cost-effective solution that works with your existing investments.

Healthcare

Develop solutions for proactive, personalized healthcare.

Financial services

Better serve customers, empower employees, and optimize risk management.

Government

Build secure solutions to better serve and protect your citizens.

Retail

Deliver personal, seamless, and differentiated experiences.

Manufacturing

Respond quicker to customer feedback and market trends.

Companies doing great things with Azure

«We did look at different platforms, including Azure, Google, Amazon, and VMware. If we wanted to put the whole city in the cloud, we needed Azure.»

Photo of Corona, CA by sergei.gussev / CC by 4.0

Creating better experiences for 15.4 million customers worldwide

ASOS, a top online fashion retailer, delivered a more personalized, mobile-first experience with Azure.

Onboarding developers in hours instead of weeks

Daimler AG quickly attracts and onboards top talent to innovate faster using the Azure development environment.

Providing a compliant analytics service for healthcare

After assessing multiple options, McKesson chose Azure to offer their customers cloud-based healthcare analytics.

Popular questions about Azure

Is Azure secure?

Yes, security and privacy are foundational for Azure. Microsoft is committed to the highest levels of trust, transparency, standards conformance, and regulatory compliance—with the most comprehensive set of compliance offerings of any cloud service provider.

How can Azure help if I outsource my IT?

IT partners use Azure to deploy, manage, and support customers’ existing solutions, and to offer ready-made or custom solutions. Ask your IT partner how your organization can take advantage of Azure to meet your business goals. Or, find an Azure partner that fits your needs. Explore a wide network of partners with verified Azure capabilities.

What other customers are using Azure?

Of the Fortune 500 companies, 95 percent rely on Azure for trusted cloud services. Companies of all sizes and maturities use Azure in their digital transformation.

Is it only for Windows apps and services?

No. Azure supports open source technologies, so you can use the tools and technologies you prefer. Run virtually any application using your data source, with your operating system, on your device. With Azure, you have choices.

Will Azure really save me money?

With no upfront cost, you only pay for what you use. Azure provides flexible purchasing and pricing options for all your cloud scenarios, such as the Azure Hybrid Benefit, and offers extensive tools to help manage your cloud spend.

Can I try Azure services?

Yes. Create an Azure free account to experiment and build in the cloud. You’ll get access to free Azure products and services, plus a $200 credit to use in your first 30 days.

Will Azure work for my industry?

Azure provides solutions for all industries, through proven combinations of cloud products and services. Address your industry-specific business challenges today, and prepare for the future by innovating with Azure solutions.

How does Azure compare to other clouds?

Azure is the only consistent hybrid cloud, delivers unparalleled developer productivity, provides comprehensive, multilayered security, including the largest compliance coverage of any cloud provider, and you’ll pay less for Azure as AWS is five times more expensive than Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server.

Azure Communication Services

Build rich communication experiences with the same secure platform used by Microsoft Teams

Build engaging communication experiences at scale

Azure Communication Services is a platform with rich communication, video, and SMS APIs for deploying your applications across any device, on any platform, using the same reliable and secure infrastructure that powers Microsoft Teams.

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Reach customers anywhere with a fully managed telephony and communication platform

Deliver video, voice, chat, text-messaging, and telephony experiences anywhere your customers are-across your applications, websites, and mobile platforms.

Scale with a global platform used by Microsoft Teams

Use a reliable global platform trusted by millions of people daily.

Build on a secure and compliant cloud

Reach more customers without compromising security using a secure and compliant cloud.

Engage customers with API-enabled communications

Connect people across web and mobile apps. Add communications workflows to applications with flexible SDKs and APIs for common platforms and languages including iOS, Android, Web, .NET, and JavaScript.

Build custom app experiences connected to Microsoft Teams

Offer custom app experiences where employees benefit from the security, familiarity and capability of Microsoft Teams, and external users enjoy a custom communication experience on a web or mobile app. Save on VoIP and Chat usage under your existing Microsoft 365 license.

Scale up or down with a proven global platform

Benefit from a global, low-latency network that automatically scales to meet your demand. Deliver reliable enterprise-grade calling, chat, and messaging capabilities with just a few lines of code.

Enhance your communications with Azure services and tools

Connect Azure Bot Services to improve your customer experience with intelligent voice assistants for handling customer calls. Tap into Azure Cognitive Services for translation and sentiment analysis of chat messages. Or easily build SMS based automation workflows connected to backend systems with Azure Event Grid and Logic Apps.

Largest security and compliance portfolio

• Built to meet compliance needs such as HIPAA and the General Data Protection Regulation.
• Get built-in security controls, including network security and encryption.
• Take advantage of capabilities like Azure Active Directory identity to simplify security.
• Microsoft invests more than USD 1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development.
• We employ more than 3,500 security experts dedicated to data security and privacy.
• Azure has more certifications than any other cloud provider. View the comprehensive list.

Flexible pricing that scales with your needs

Meet your organization’s business needs and budget with competitive pay-as-you-go pricing.