Top Azure Tools for Cloud Management and Security

What Does Microsoft Azure Do?

A cloud computing platform, Microsoft Azure is known for offering Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). It is widely used among companies because of essential virtual functions such as computing, storage, network, analytics, etc.

With the ease of scaling up, the platform also provides globally aligned services that exhibit compatibility with various programming languages and operating systems. It also goes well with multiple tools and frameworks. Additionally, the flexibility in computing resource requirements, agility in switching to new business models, and the fact that you pay only what you use make it a preferable cloud service platform.

Azure Monitoring And Reporting Tools

The topmost Azure reporting tools for monitoring and alerting include the following:

Azure Monitor 

This is one of the most prominent Azure monitoring tools, offering end-to-end observability for networks, applications and infrastructure. It is an efficient tool that enhances performance by allowing monitoring without hassle and with minimal configuration. The single window-based visualization of accumulated data further eases monitoring and analysis.

Azure Monitor also allows troubleshooting, analysis and diagnosis of the data while offering near-real-time alerts. It is automatically scalable and has integration features with other Azure services. Further, the Azure Monitor System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) managed instance eases the on-premise to cloud transition in Azure.

Power BI

Power BI is an advanced data analytic tool with AI and a user-friendly interface. It connects and visualizes all data sources, offering a unified platform for effortless monitoring and visualization. Power BI further integrates with numerous Microsoft 365 apps.

The app offers the option of quickly developing interactive reports and dashboards that are easy to share with teams and customers. Users can also generate DAX calculations and create summaries by simply describing the requirements. Conversation-based queries to the generated reports seeking in-depth information are also possible with Copilot in Microsoft Teams Fabric.

New Relic 

The New Relic monitoring and reporting tool New Relic allows insights into IT infrastructure, applications and the Azure cloud environment. It offers end-to-end observability, integration, logging and metrics in the Azure portal. New Relic exhibits scalability and rapid onboarding.

Users can manage the available services to monitor and gain real-time visibility into system performance. The observability feature expands to networking, session replay, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), error tracking, synthetic infrastructure and Kubernetes monitoring.

Did You Know? 🔍

83% of enterprises use Azure to optimize their cloud operations, reduce costs, and accelerate digital transformation.

Azure Development Tools

The list of efficient Azure development tools includes:

Visual Studio 

Integrated with GitHub Copilot, the IDE tool assists in code writing and editing. It offers the functionality to build code, edit, and debug, followed by app publishing. The tool further provides code completion assistance, compilers, graphical designers and more. It supports major operating systems such as Linux, Windows and MacOS. Visual Studio has an in-built presence of TypeScript, JavaScript, and Node.js.

Further, it supports programming languages such as Java, PHP, C++, C#, Python, Go and .NET. Visual Studio also exhibits compatibility with extensions, adding to its ease of usage and features. Moreover, there are multiple options to enhance productivity.

Azure Blob Studio 

It is a file management tool with an extension for Visual Studio 2010 and as a stand-alone WPF developer client. The tool allows users to create and remove containers (folders), upload and remove multiple blobs (files), retrieve the URI for each blob and its metadata, open blobs via URI and copy them.

Azure Blob Studio's applications include developing cloud-native and mobile apps and performing analyses. It is also a cost-effective option for long-term data storage through the tiered storage option. The tool is scalable to meet advanced computing needs. The security features include role-based access control and authentic entry only.

Cloud Combine 

One of the well-known Azure Development tools, Cloud Combine, is widely used due to its simple user interfaces and unique supported functions. It can be used as a browser, manager and explorer for cloud services. Besides supporting large-scale media file storage on Azure, it is also compatible with Amazon AWS and Google Cloud.

Some key features that make it worthwhile include effortless file sharing, upload and download for any type and size, and reliable transfer at maximum speed. It is compatible with various Visual Studio versions, including 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022. Also, the availability of the perpetual license allows free updates of the tool.

Azure DevOps Tools

While the list contains multiple items, here are the key Azure DevOps tools:

Azure Boards

It is an effective tool for work tracking that offers agile planning and project management. It has a drag-and-drop option and other user-friendly visualization features to streamline tasks. Azure Boards feature customized team dashboards, reports, Kanban boards, and backlogs.

The tool enhances connectivity by offering the option to link teams with work items. Further, the in-built scrum boards and planning tools contribute to easy and effective meeting planning, running sprints and stand-ups. It allows users to tweak the workflow to meet the project's needs. The integration feature with GitHub, Microsoft Teams, and Slack ensures seamless management of complex projects. Users can access the existing ones and even create their extensions.

Azure Pipelines

The tool allows users to develop, test and deploy products for any cloud or platform unstoppably. Compatible with major operating systems such as Windows, Linux and MacOS, it supports building mobile, web, and desktop applications. The tool's automation of tasks allows users to bring their creative style-forward, regardless of the project language. Azure Pipelines support Android, iOS, Node.js, Java, Python, C and many more.

The tool supports numerous extensions and containers. It allows the latter’s deployment to Kubernetes or individual hosts, easing scalability. Azure Pipelines is flexible in pushing software updates to any cloud platform, including Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Using pipelines is free of cost for open-source projects. It simultaneously allows access to 10 free parallel jobs.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

The AI incorporation, scalability and ability to build cloud-native apps make Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) a worthy DevOps tool. It allows the deployment and management of customized applications without requiring expertise. AKS encourages and simplifies multi-region applications, offers portability and high availability, allows usage of open-source tools, and integrates with existing DevOps tools.

Similar to others, it also involves a pay-as-you-go model. It is suited for data streaming, microservices, machine learning model training, and other tasks. AKS has features like network observability, integration with container insights and development tools, enforcing regulatory compliance controls per Azure policy, and others.

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Azure Cost And Resource Management Tools

Some of the key Azure cost management tools, Azure management tools and Azure cost optimization tools are as follows:

Azure Pricing Calculator

This is a web-based tool for planning and estimating the budgets of Azure services based on expected usage. The tool is effective for both small and large enterprises by offering overall and personalized calculations. The calculator has three main sections: product picker, estimate, product configuration, and estimation summary.

Further, the Azure pricing calculator works in three steps: product configuration, consumption estimation and pricing plans. It obtains the prices from data provided by the Azure retail prices API and then calculates them depending on the usage method. The provided rates can be further accessed using different options, such as the pay-as-you-go model, one—or three-year reserved instance, and savings plans.

Turbo360

Apart from being suited for cost management, it is also one of the best Azure cost optimization tools. It can optimize costs, monitor resources, and develop technical documents. Offering high speed, Turbo360 is also suited owing to its proactive approach to minimizing the incurred losses. The tool offers a hierarchical and mapped exhibition of expenditures that expands across departments.

A proactive approach involves shifting the cost anomalies to impacted infrastructure resources to gain attention. Turbo360 is also recommended because it automatically predicts cost-saving methods and cuts costs. Moreover, it performs resource optimization by scaling down the resources when not in use and scaling up during busy times. The impact is up to 70% savings.

CloudHealth 

Tanzu CloudHealth is a finance and cloud management tool. It allows infrastructure analysis and access to customer reporting while enhancing effective resource usage. CloudHealth performs automated actions, offers personalized recommendations for cost efficiency, and allows rules to be set for continuous optimization.

Some key features that lead to its widespread usage include its ability to detect anomalies, forecast, and manage resources, organization, and budget. CloudHealth can also manage migration, waste reduction, report and dashboard development, cost allocation and chargeback. The tool is compatible with AWS, OCI, Azure, Alibaba, and GCP.

"Cloud is not just a technology, it's a business transformation." – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

Azure Security Tools

The top Azure security tools are as follows:

Azure Key Vault

The tool is designed to offer increased security and control over keys and passwords through FIPS 140-2 Level 2 and Level 3 validated HSMs. It offers robust encryption while allowing the quick creation and import of encryption keys. The key use can be monitored and audited via Azure logging.

Further, the cloud scale and global redundancy reduce latency, allowing fast and reliable access to keys and services. The tool also limits direct access to keys by application, adding to the security by separating the sensitive data. The SSL/TLS certificates further simplify and automate the tasks.

Azure Sentinel

Step up security with the tool that offers next-generation security operations. It is powered by AI and the cloud to help recognize possible threats on time and take smart actions accordingly. Azure Sentinel provides a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution for detection, assessment and response while adhering to the scaleup requirements.

The detection encompasses unknown threats and the strange behavior of insider threats and compromised users. Further, incorporating tools comes with contextual and behavioral information to ease threat recognition, evaluation, and choice of response through built-in behavioral analytics. Moreover, the tool is suited to all company sizes with the pay-as-you-go model and other pricing methods.

Azure Firewall 

This cloud-based network security service offers protection for Azure Virtual Network resources. It is designed to be effortlessly scalable and highly available for effective security. Azure Firewall assists in generation, enforcement and logging the application and network connectivity policies. The tool is also capable of central security management.

It is effective because it can provide real-time alerts and intelligently restrict access from potentially dangerous IP addresses and domains. The stated function is possible via the Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS), which uses signatures for investigation. The tool is a common choice due to Transport Layer Security (TLS) inspection, which limits the spread of malware via encryption connections.

Azure ETL Tools

Extract, Transform and Load or Azure ETL tools are enlisted as follows:

Azure HDInsight

This cloud service tool allows the running of multiple open-source frameworks such as Kafka, Apache Hadoop, Hive, Spark and others for processing. It is scalable and customizable and supports enterprise-level businesses and their voluminous data. It eliminates the storage requirements for hardware installation and infrastructure management.

Over 30 certifications ensure perfect data protection, while autoscaling and pricing tiers allow cost-effectiveness. Azure HDInsight integrates with Azure data storage solutions, including Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Blob Storage, Azure Synapse analytics, and Azure Data Lake Storage. The tool exhibits flexibility by supporting productivity tools such as JavaScript, Scala, R, .NET, and Python.

Azure Data Factory

Another one of the Azure ETL tools, Azure Data Factory, simplifies hybrid data integration for enterprise-level businesses. It is a serverless data integration service encompassing over 90 in-built maintenance-free connectors. The tool allows the construction of ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) and ELT (Extract, Load and Transform) processes, supporting both with and without code.

The processed data can be further used to obtain insights by delivering them to Azure Synapse Analytics. The tool also eases the modernization of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) by rehosting and extending SSIS packages. The process is seamless, owing to a deployment wizard and well-documented guidelines.

Azure Logic Apps

This cloud platform is a leading Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) capable of creating and running minimal code-based automated workflows. The time-saving approach requires a few steps owing to the availability of prebuilt operations and easy integration and management. The tool comprises over 1000 prebuilt connectors for effortless integration with cloud-based and on-premise solutions.

It also encourages containerizing workflows for deployment and running the applications at any location. Azure Logic Apps can deploy multiple workflows and facilitate the development, debugging, and evaluation of various operating systems using Visual Studio Code. Additionally, it supports complex mapping and enterprise messaging scenarios.

Relevant Read: Fundamental Microsoft Cloud Services that are in Demand 🎯

Factors to Choose The Best Azure Tools

Making the correct and best choice can be simplified by focusing on key parameters essential for the business. While we have listed the general and important ones, feel free to add other essential factors specific to the organization and its needs.

• Needs: It includes identifying the data type to be handled, required speed, performance specifications and others. Choose the tool that aligns with all the essential needs of the project.
• Security: Identify the security regulations the tool complies with. Also, check the encryption policy, the presence of access control, and other security requirements.
• Learning Curve: The tool's learning curve will play a key role in choosing, depending on the project scale and type. Understand the employee’s familiarity with it, user-friendliness and training requirements.
• Reliability and Scalability: They are the keys to ensuring accurate results. Further, scalability will prevent hassle in the long run.
• Regional Availability: The tool services must be available in your region.
• Cost: Check out the different pricing models and their alignment with the budget to finalize the choice.

Also Read: Azure Cost Management Solutions 💻

Conclusion

Azure provides a comprehensive suite of tools for effective business management. Cloud management is essential to every business, and Azure also serves this need. With the vast demand for cloud computing and associated services, the candidates seeking a career in the domain have numerous options to explore. However, it all begins with the presence of the correct skill set.

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FAQs

1. What are Azure function tools?

Azure Functions is a cost-effective serverless solution that eliminates the need for long codes and the maintenance of large infrastructure. It also keeps applications running efficiently.

2. Is Azure an ETL tool?

Azure has multiple Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) tools, such as Azure Data Factory and Azure Databricks.

3. Which tools are in Azure Devops?

The Azure DevOps tools include Kibana, Azure Test Plans, and Azure Artifacts.

4. Which two tools should you use in Azure?

Tools like Azure Portal, Azure CLI, and others can effectively manage Azure services.

5. How can Azure tools benefit users?

Azure tools are scalable and flexible, offer security and disaster recovery and are cost-efficient.