Azure Cloud Services

Platform as a service (PaaS) technology engineered to deploy web and cloud applications that are scalable, reliable, and inexpensive to operate.

Deploy highly available and scalable applications in minutes

Build the web and cloud applications you need on your terms while using the many languages we support. Simplify the management of your applications with cloud services while ensuring high availability. Scale your environment automatically based on demand and reduce costs. Automate operating system and application updates to increase security. Take advantage of integrated health monitoring and load balancing. Focus on your application, not the underlying cloud infrastructure.

Highly available and massively scalable platform for your applications and APIs. Accelerated application deployment

Autoscaling of your cloud environment to optimize costs and improve performance

Integrated health monitoring and load balancing with dashboards and real-time alerts

Excellent development experience using the Azure SDK, which integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio

Accelerate the deployment of your web and cloud applications

Build and deploy powerful web and cloud applications and services in minutes with Azure Cloud Services. Use Azure Cloud Services to keep your applications available and redirect traffic from troubled instances to healthy ones that are running smoothly. Once your application is deployed, Azure will take care of the rest—from provisioning to load balancing. Your application is backed by an industry-leading 99.95 percent service-level agreement (SLA).

Increase application resiliency

Use the new Azure Resource Manager–based deployment model—provided by Azure Cloud Services (extended support)—to increase regional resiliency. With this new deployment model, use capabilities such as role-based access control (RBAC), tags, policy, and support for deployment templates.

Keep using the existing Azure Cloud Services (classic) deployment model for your Azure Service Manager–based applications.

Scale your apps automatically to optimize costs

Automatically scale your cloud services infrastructure based on current demand. The autoscale feature helps you manage unexpected traffic spikes by automatically scaling your Azure Cloud Services environment up or down to deliver an excellent customer experience. Set scaling limits, schedule goals, and ensure that the performance of your applications can scale while simultaneously minimizing costs.

Use the development environments you prefer

Experience an excellent development environment using the Azure SDK, which integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio. Deploy applications using the language you like, including .NET, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, or Ruby. Test your application before deploying it to the cloud by using Azure Emulator, which brings the platform’s key functionality right to your development computer. To deploy the new release to production, just swap the staging environment into production.

Monitor your cloud applications

Set up real-time alerts to know when service availability or other metrics may degrade. Automate operating system updates to improve the security of your environment. Focus on building great applications and don’t worry about patching, faulty hardware, or network issues. Azure Cloud Services helps you conveniently monitor the health and availability of your applications. The health metrics dashboard shows you key statistics at a glance.

Comprehensive security and compliance, built into Azure Cloud Services

• Microsoft invests more than USD 1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development.
• We employ more than 3,500 security experts who are dedicated to data security and privacy.
• Azure has more certifications than any other cloud provider. View the comprehensive list.

Azure Cloud Services pricing

Select the right virtual machine for your Azure Cloud Services deployment based on your target application. Review prices based on your Azure region. Reduce your costs with one- and three-year reservations.

Resources and documentation

Get started with learning resources

Explore popular developer resources

Frequently asked questions about Azure Cloud Services

• Is Azure Cloud Services (extended support) a new product?

There are many other Azure options to consider:

• Virtual machine scale sets
• Azure App Service
• Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)
• Azure Service Fabric

These alternatives are particularly appealing if your application is continuously evolving and needs a modern feature set to cater to your changing requirements.

During the preview, Azure Cloud Services (extended support) does not offer an SLA.

Azure Cloud Services (extended support) provides two paths to migrate from Azure Service Manager (ASM) to Azure Resource Manager (ARM).

The first path requires a redeployment, where customers deploy cloud services directly in ARM and then delete the old cloud service in ASM after thorough validation. This migration path is already generally available. Learn more in the documentation.

The second path is an in-place migration, which can migrate existing Azure Cloud Services (classic) to Cloud Services (extended support). In this scenario, the platform orchestrates the migration of your customer’s services from ASM to ARM and provides a no-downtime migration experience for most scenarios. This feature is now in Public Preview. Learn more in the documentation.

App Service

A fully managed platform for building, deploying and scaling your web apps

Enabling productivity and innovation for over 2 million apps and sites on Azure

Quickly build, deploy, and scale web apps and APIs on your terms. Work with .NET, .NET Core, Node.js, Java, Python or PHP, in containers or running on Windows or Linux. Meet rigorous, enterprise-grade performance, security and compliance requirements used a trusted, fully managed platform that handles over 40 billion requests per day.

Fully managed platform with built-in infrastructure maintenance, security patching, and scaling

Built-in CI/CD integration and zero-downtime deployments

Integration with virtual networks and ability to run in an isolated and dedicated App Service environment

Rigorous security and compliance, including SOC and PCI, for seamless deployments across public cloud, Azure Government, and on-premises environments

Quickly build web apps and APIs in the cloud

• Bring your code or container using the framework language of your choice.
• Increase developer productivity with tight integration of Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio.
• Streamline CI/CD with Git, GitHub, GitHub Actions, Atlassian Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Docker Hub, and Azure Container Registry.
• Reduce downtime and minimize risk for app updates by using deployment slots.

Scale apps on an enterprise grade platform

• Achieve high availability with SLA-backed uptime of 99.95 percent.
• Simplify operations with automatic platform maintenance and security patching.
• Protect your applications with Web App Firewall and connect with virtual network integration.
• Deploy isolated web app instances with a single-tenancy model.
• Use Azure Active Directory and other popular identity providers to authenticate and authorize app access.
• Scale globally across all Azure regions.

Migrate .NET web apps with ease

Bring your web apps to the cloud with minimal or no code changes using the Azure App Service Migration Assistant — a free and simple tool to automatically migrate .NET web applications from on-premises to the cloud.

Migrate in three easy steps

1. Quickly assess your website for migration by running a scan of its public URL.
2. Download the Migration Assistant to run readiness checks.
3. Migrate your web app.

Assess your app in seconds

Innovate with Azure’s cognitive and event driven services

Use App Service to bring the best of Azure to your web app

• Improve accessibility with cognitive services for embedded text reading and speech translation.
• Create easily searchable content with AI-powered cloud search services.
• Boost usability with Personalizer.
• Innovate faster managing all your APIs in one place.

Windows Virtual Desktop

Enable a secure, remote desktop experience from anywhere

Access your desktop and applications from anywhere

Set up Windows Virtual Desktop in minutes to enable secure remote work. Provide the familiarity and compatibility of Windows 10 with the new scalable multi-session experience for your end users and save costs by using the same Windows licenses. Manage your end-to-end Windows Virtual Desktop deployment alongside other Azure services within the Azure portal.

Deliver Windows 10 desktops on any device, anywhere

Provide employees the best virtualized experience with the only solution fully optimized for Windows 10 and Office 365.

Built-in intelligent security

Keep your applications and data secure and compliant with security capabilities that can proactively detect threats and take remedial action.

Deploy and scale in minutes

Simplify deployment and management of your infrastructure and quickly scale based on your business needs.

Reduce cost using existing licenses

Use existing licenses to save cost with a modern cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and pay only for what you use.

Access Windows 10 desktop and applications from anywhere, on any device.

Regardless of your device type (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android or any other device with an HTML5 web client) bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and remote connect to your enterprise experience with Windows Virtual Desktop. ITs can pick whatever Azure VM will meet their teams needs and leverage the Windows 10 multi-session advantage that only Azure offers. With Windows 10 multi-session, you can run multiple concurrent user interactive sessions easily with the same deployment for more cost efficiency.

Leverage the seamless Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Office experience

Provide employees the same experience as a local desktop or laptop — whether you are managing your inbox with outlook, sharing files on OneDrive or collaborating with colleagues on Microsoft Teams meetings.

Reduce cost

No additional license costs — Windows Virtual Desktop is a free service and can be used with your existing Microsoft 365 or Windows per user license.

Reduce infrastructure costs — by right sizing VMs and shutting down VMs in use. Increase utilization of VMs with Windows 10 multi-session. Avoid upfront costs and align operational expenses to business usage.

Reduce management overhead by moving all your VDI into a managed service in the cloud.

Deploy and scale quickly with Azure portal

The Azure portal is your management hub for Windows Virtual Desktop. Configure network, deploy desktop, and enable security with a few clicks. Setup automated scaling with Logic Apps and manage your images efficiently with Azure image gallery. You focus on your desktop apps and policies and Azure will focus on managing the rest.

Modernize your Citrix and VMWare virtual desktop infrastructure

Maximize investments and skills with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop service and VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure to integrate Windows Virtual Desktop into existing desktop and app virtualization environments.

In addition to support for hybrid deployments, a centralized management, and advanced tooling, Citrix and VMware customers can rapidly deploy Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session on Azure virtual machines.

We provide the tools. You change the world.

Create amazing solutions with powerful capabilities, training, and support. Start exploring with an Azure free account and get 12 months of popular, free cloud services—plus a $200 credit.

On-premises, hybrid, multicloud, or at the edge—create secure, future-ready cloud solutions on Azure

Expand your cloud skills with Microsoft Learn

Learn to build, deploy, and manage your apps and infrastructure with training, certifications, and communities.

Get instant clarity from your data

Experience unmatched time to insight and apply machine learning models to your apps with Azure Synapse Analytics.

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Start putting your ideas into action with Azure products and services

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2. AI + machine learning
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4. Containers
5. Hybrid + multicloud
6. Internet of Things (IoT)

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Unify on-premises, hybrid, and cross-cloud infrastructure

Add video, voice, SMS, chat, and other communication APIs to apps

Get unmatched time to insights with a limitless analytics service

Maximize the business value of data with unified data governance

Add cognitive capabilities to apps with APIs

Build and manage edge AI solutions

Build, train, and deploy machine learning

Detect content with vision and speech functions

Add cognitive capabilities to apps with APIs

Create bots and connect them across channels

Design AI with Apache Spark TM -based analytics

Build for mixed reality using AI sensors

Deploy VMs in seconds

Create open-source, enterprise-grade apps

Get industry-leading performance for SQL

Deploy scalable, protected virtualized infrastructure

Trigger apps with serverless computing

Expand apps to additional locations

Build, deploy, and scale web apps on a fully managed platform

Trigger apps with serverless computing

Build and scale apps with managed Kubernetes

Run containers without managing servers

Stay compliant with managed app updates

Bring modern microservice patterns to Spring Boot apps

Unify on-premises, hybrid, and cross-cloud infrastructure

Build apps across on-premises, cloud, and the edge

Stop threats with intelligent security analytics

Extend threat protection to any infrastructure

Create secure, private clouds

Enable single sign-on and multifactor identification

Build IoT solutions on a hosted platform

Deploy cloud intelligence on local edge devices

Authenticate communication across devices, edge, and cloud

Create models of physical environments

Secure your IoT hardware and software

Visualize IoT data in real time

Find out how these customers are innovating with Azure

Make-A-Wish® transitioned to remote work within a week with Azure, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Teams and continues to make wishes come true.

American Cancer Society has kept resources flowing to patients and researchers during the global pandemic by transitioning their infrastructure to Azure.

Walgreens Boots Alliance uses Microsoft Healthcare Bot service to help customers quickly find answers to healthcare questions—including about COVID-19.

Bosch Building Technologies used Azure to expand and globally deploy a platform that analyzes energy consumption and helps pursue ongoing energy efficiency.

The BBC uses Azure AI and Azure Bot Service to deliver news with Beeb, a voice assistant that understands the broad range of UK accents and dialects.

Make-A-Wish® transitioned to remote work within a week with Azure, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Teams and continues to make wishes come true.

American Cancer Society has kept resources flowing to patients and researchers during the global pandemic by transitioning their infrastructure to Azure.

Walgreens Boots Alliance uses Microsoft Healthcare Bot service to help customers quickly find answers to healthcare questions—including about COVID-19.

Bosch Building Technologies used Azure to expand and globally deploy a platform that analyzes energy consumption and helps pursue ongoing energy efficiency.

The BBC uses Azure AI and Azure Bot Service to deliver news with Beeb, a voice assistant that understands the broad range of UK accents and dialects.