network

Why Do Companies Migrate to Azure?

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In modern business, one of the areas expanding exponentially is Microsoft Azure’s cloud computing. More and more institutions, as well as individuals, are moving their computer-related tasks to Azure. This is part of the cloud computing age, which is going to grow more and more in the coming years.

Now, this raises a question: Why do companies migrate to Microsoft Azure?

There are many answers to this question. However, I will focus on two major reasons why companies migrate to Microsoft Azure: Reducing costs and increasing performance.

REDUCING COSTS

If I could pick one driver for migrating to Azure, it would be reducing costs. Remember, the cloud (including Azure, AWS, GCP, and more) is just a set of large datacenters that you rent to host your Information Technology tools. You pay a recurring cost to have the luxury of using another datacenter to run your tools.

With Azure cloud usage, you can reduce the overall Information Technology costs for some of the following reasons:

  1. No need to purchase and warranty servers
  2. No need to purchase and warranty routers and switches
  3. No need to purchase and warranty network area storage devices
  4. No need to purchase and warranty storage area network devices
  5. A cost reduction as you do not need to purchase and insure a building for a datacenter
  6. A cost reduction as you do not need to purchase and maintain the network connectivity for the building
  7. A cost reduction as you do not need to pay for the electricity to the building

And MUCH MORE…

These costs are given to Microsoft (if you are using Azure cloud), and the overall costs are then divided into hourly/computer-usage units, so you are only charged for what you use. Most businesses only use a small fraction of the total computer power available to them, so the costs are a fraction of what the current spending is.

INCREASING PERFORMANCE

One of the largest advantages that Microsoft Azure presents is its ability to increase performance. Microsoft is continually building more servers across the United States and the world at large.
As these new datacenters are constructed, the latest and greatest physical devices and networking are used to provide users with the best experience in Azure. Additionally, new tools are continuously being made available in the various portals for Azure, which increase the options for performance and optimizing execution.

With Azure cloud usage, you can increase the overall performance of your Information Technology infrastructure for some of the following reasons:

  1. You can increase application compute resources within seconds
  2. You can increase application network resources within seconds
  3. You can increase application storage resources within seconds
  4. You can increase application database resources within seconds
  5. You can increase application security resources within seconds
  6. You can link multiple copies of an application infrastructure (redundancy) for near 100% availability
  7. The supporting platform in Microsoft Azure will have the latest updates, improving performance and stability

And MUCH MORE…

For so many reasons like the ones above, it is easy to see why companies are eager to move more tools to the cloud — YOU ARE GETTING MORE PERFORMANCE FOR LESS COST.

What Is a Server?

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From desktops to laptops, to cell phones and even to modern video gaming consoles (2021 — PlayStation 5/Microsoft Xbox Series X/Microsoft Xbox Series S), there is a multitude of computers available to people. We use computers for so many reasons, including but not limited to: internet access, playing video games, researching news, watching/listening to entertainment, and so so much more.

The basic idea is that for most computers above, each machine will be used for one person/purpose. For instance, a Dell Gaming PC may be used for playing the latest Batman game at 4k resolution and at 60 frames per second.

The same cannot be used at the same moment to play Crisis 3 at 4k and 60 frames per second reliably — at least, not any machine I have ever seen as of 2021. The basic idea of all of the computing devices above is centered around personal computing — they are designed to give an outstanding one-on-one experience.

What about data that needs to be continually available to 10 … 100 … 1,000 people? You need that same computing power, but the experience needs to be group-focused and not personal.

To solve this problem, the concept of a server was created. A server, simply stated, is a computer that is configured to serve EVERYONE WITHIN A GROUP AT ONE TIME, doing simple or quantum complex tasks individually at the same time.

Originally, you saw higher-specification (i.e., computer comprised of parts that could handle larger personal workloads — such as playing the Crisis game at 4k, 60 frames per second in 2021) personal computers being used as servers.

To do so, you needed to maximize the amount of available computing (CPU chip), storage (hard drive size and speed), and network (fastest-available network card and network connecting to all the potential users in the group it would serve).

In 2021, the server is more a special type of computer that has parts that are built with the mindset they will be used by multiple people at the same time, combing some of the most powerful hardware available in a smaller case.

Furthermore, there are now software versions specifically built for server functionality. Instead of Windows 10, on a modern server, you would load Windows Server 2019 or Red Hat Linux Enterprise version 7. You typically have multiple network connections that can be either bridged (wired to the same network connection for much more data flow) or used separately in parallel (each port connected to a different network connection which allows more connected/alive time if one network connection goes bad). This and more allows the modern server to deliver more accessible services with consistency.

In addition, the cloud is ‘virtualization in another owner’s datacenter.’ If I can name one device type that is dominant in a datacenter, it is the server.

To conclude this, servers are computers configured to serve multiple people with multiple tasks at one time and at various levels of complexity and execution time.

What Is a Datacenter?

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When computers were first mass adopted in society, there were mainframes and large consoles were used to access the mainframe. These mainframes were as large as basements in modern homes or even larger; they required (at times) custom, dedicated power lines just to keep them powered.

Furthermore, they were extremely expensive (the Harvard Mark I mainframe….used in the 1940s and later … had a manufacturing cost of $200,000 USD — in 2020, that would be around $3 million USD). These mainframes were used to calculate (think SUPER calculators), primarily using information called data.

These machines were quite big; the Harvard Mark I was 9,500 pounds, or over 4 tons and was over 50 feet long. As more widespread adoption of these units became a reality, these units required massive amounts of customized real estate to house them.

Basically, you needed a large ‘center’ to house these machines that calculated new ‘data.’ Welcome to the idea of a datacenter!

A short, concise understanding of the term datacenter is a large area or room dedicated to housing larger computing devices and the network/electricity/etc. needed to keep them up and running as close to 100% of the time as possible.

Fast-forward to 2020. The typical modern datacenter may have some AS400 units (modern mainframe), but will also have large metal shelfs (called racks) which hold servers, network switches, network routers, network patch panels, backup tape drives, NAS and SAN storage units, and more. The main purpose of all these devices is to do the large calculation, manipulation, and distribution of information for an organization.

Think of it this way:

For most companies, most of the large data sets and information tables stored and updated/calculated against are stored in datacenters. Furthermore, the cloud concept is renting datacenter access from other companies (eg., Microsoft Azure).

To summarize, a data center is the large area or room dedicated to housing larger computing devices and the network/electricity/etc. needed to keep them up and running as close to 100% of the time as possible.

What Is A Network?

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What is a network?

IMAGINE THIS:

You are having a conversation with a group of computer professionals. The conversation is about a recent event where a popular company’s website was not accessible from anyone’s internet for two days. People debate the cause and reasons for this event and what could have been done to prevent or at least reduce the chances of this event happening.

Then, in one second, confusion takes over. What was easy to understand is now confusing.

You will hear the word ‘network,’ but what does that mean? Furthermore, how is this used in the discussion above? Have no fear, for we will cover this and make it easy to understand.

The short answer is this: A network is a group of items that have a link or connection. THAT’S IT.

Let’s place a real-life example here to demonstrate this.

Think about the group of people who call you the most. If you have an Andriod operating system on your cell phone, you can open the phone app and see which contacts are listed under “Frequently Contacted.” These are the people the phone has recognized as those you contact the most overall. They are the people with who you have the most — at least on that phone — conversations.

It is these people that you have a connection, a link, with. You shared ideas and concepts on a regular basis with these people. In many cases, your thoughts have impacted them in some ways, and the same is vice versa for you.

You and these people have formed a network.

In the same way, information is shared with members in this Frequently Contacted list; devices that share data in a similar way are part of a network. If you can group devices that communicate with each other (share data) —  they are a network.

There can be many examples of networks in a company’s computer setup.

Network of computers,

Network of routers,

Network of switches,

Network of mainframes,

First-floor network of computers, second-floor network of computers … the list can go on for a long time …

So, in short, a network is a group that shares data (linked/connected).