Cloud Computing as we all know is an ocean of various services for various different use cases. There are multiple cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft offers various resources for different use cases through its cloud platform which is commonly known as Azure Cloud Platform. It offers services ranging from storage, computing, networking, and services related to AI/ML.
To use these resources you need a subscription which can generally be understood as an account on the Azure Portal. Remember one azure account can have multiple subscriptions. Once you get an Azure subscription you can go ahead and create various azure resources directly from the portal.
Each Azure resource sits in a logical container which is known as a resource group. A resource group is just a collection of resources basis certain use cases or types. Though it can contain resources of different use cases and types. A single Azure subscription can contain multiple resource groups and a resource group can contain multiple resources.
The following diagram explains the architecture of resources in the Azure Cloud Platform
Interacting with Azure Cloud Platform
Azure offers three different ways to interact with the resource on the cloud:
Azure Web Portal (UI)
Azure SDKs or APIs
Azure CLIs
Accessing Azure using Web Portal
Accessing Azure resources using the Web portal is one of the easiest ways to access all the resources you have. The simple UI has everything you need in one place. The following is the landing page of the Azure Portal. You can access the portal here
The azure web portal offers everything as per your need, you can easily create and delete resources, upscale and downscale any resource capacity based on your need, add and configure any firewall rules, and various different things.
Accessing Azure Resources using Azure SDKs
Azure offers programmatic access to all its resources via the use of software development kits. These SDKs comes in various language and can be used as per the developer's choice. The full list of SDKs and tools can be found here.
All the SDKs offer all the functionalities to manage and configure resources on azure.
Some of the most common SDKs include libraries compiled in the following languages:
- Python
- JavaScript/TypeScript
- Java
- .Net/C#
Accessing Azure Resources using CLIs
Another programmatic way to access azure resources is through the use of CLIs. Azure offers a wide range of CLIs for interacting with its resources. Using the CLIs we can configure all the parameters for resources in a more easy and granular way.
Each and every azure CLI command starts from az keyword followed by the name of the resources.
Here’s an example command to interact with Azure Resources using Azure CLI
Azure CLIs hold much more power than offered by SDKs in general. Though we can achieve the same using SDKs, Azure CLIs offer much more granular access for interaction with its resources. To learn more about the azure CLI click here
Overall Azure Cloud Platform provides a wide range of tools and services for various use cases, along with the tools to create and interact with them.
In my next blog, I will explain in brief the working and interaction of Azure CLIs with the Azure Cloud Platform.
