What are the main services in Microsoft Azure that are equivalent to the core AWS services?

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Azure offers services that map closely to AWS, though with different names and some unique features.

Azure Virtual Machines is equivalent to EC2. You provision virtual servers with your choice of operating system, size, and configuration. Azure also offers Virtual Machine Scale Sets for automatic scaling.

Azure Blob Storage corresponds to S3. It provides object storage with hot, cool, and archive tiers for cost optimization based on access frequency. Azure Files offers managed file shares.

Azure Virtual Network, or VNet, is like VPC. You create isolated networks with subnets, network security groups, and route tables. VNet peering connects virtual networks.

Azure Active Directory, or Azure AD, handles identity management similar to IAM, but with a stronger focus on enterprise identity. It integrates with on-premises Active Directory for hybrid scenarios. Azure also has Role-Based Access Control, or RBAC, for resource permissions.

Azure SQL Database and Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL are managed database services like RDS. Azure also offers Cosmos DB, a globally distributed NoSQL database.

Azure Functions is the serverless compute equivalent of Lambda. You run code in response to events without managing infrastructure.

Azure Monitor provides monitoring like CloudWatch. It includes Log Analytics for log aggregation and Application Insights for application performance monitoring.

Azure DNS handles DNS routing like Route 53.

Azure Load Balancer and Application Gateway distribute traffic. Application Gateway operates at layer 7 and includes a web application firewall.

Azure Resource Manager, or ARM, templates are infrastructure as code like CloudFormation. Many teams also use Terraform or Bicep with Azure.

Azure Kubernetes Service, or AKS, provides managed Kubernetes, similar to Amazon EKS.

Azure DevOps is a complete DevOps platform including repositories, pipelines, and project management. This is a differentiator from AWS, which uses separate services for these functions.

The concepts transfer between clouds, even if the specific services and interfaces differ.