“Microsoft Azure”, earlier known as “Windows Azure” is not an operating system or product but it is a medium which allows you to create your data center/machines/storage/websites etc.. without the need of purchasing any hardware resource. Azure comes into existence when cloud computing evolves.
In order to use Azure you do not need to install or buy anything. Simply navigate to https://portal.azure.com and you will be presented to a website which is the entry gate to use Azure services. In order to start utilizing Azure the first thing you need to do is to get a subscription. Microsoft gives $200 worth free subscription to its first users for evaluation purpose for 30 days. So you can register yourself there or you can buy the same :). Once 30 days period over your credit card gets debited and can continue using the benefits like a post paid account.
Once you have a valid subscription and logged in to Azure you will come up with a screen like below
From here you can start creating virtual machines/servers/web sites/ storage/ Databases and many more things just by doing some clicks. for example without purchasing a hardware you can create a windows/Linux machine as small as a single core 3.5GB RAM to a 128 core processor and 2 TB of RAM. 🙂
To Summarize “Microsoft Azure” is a public cloud offering by Microsoft. Now Question comes what is Public cloud so as per what is definition, “A public cloud is one based on the standard cloud computing model, in which a service provider makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet. Public cloud services may be free or offered on a pay-per-usage model“