An organization benefits from business apps in many ways. But the challenge for businesses is to find the right platform to deploy such solutions. An on-premises infrastructure would require significant investment on hardware, security, and maintenance. 

And then the cloud came sporting the ‘pay-as-you-go’ pricing model. 

This considerably reduces infrastructure costs, and provides many other benefits. However, cloud adoption was still considered to be a risky path by businesses because of concerns about privacy, security, and compliance. Microsoft technologies imprinted in this sector as well with Microsoft Azure – a solution that features a broad range of services for different scenarios. 

Benefits of Azure

• Pay-as-you-go pricing model that helps you move from Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) to Operational Expenses (OPEX).
  
• Network services such as VPN, VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute to efficiently establish network connection between on-premises and cloud resources. 
  
• Virtual Machines service that provide a wide array of virtual server configurations from which you can choose one that suits your needs.
  
• Quick access to all resources that reduces time to market.
  
• Services like Azure Active Directory reduces efforts for security.
  

The cloud also grants you a great amount of flexibility i.e. you will able to add more servers and decommission old ones when necessary. This flexibility in infrastructure decision-making also leads to flexibility in decision-making for the business. 

For an organization to deploy a business app while it already has on-premises resources, a network needs to be created. Developers can use Azure to create a virtual network service that can help create a cloud network which in turn can be integrated with the on-premises network. Using the VPN Gateway service, the datacenter will also have to be connected with the cloud. 

With the network ready, you can either integrate and synchronize your Active Directory with the Azure Active Directory or deploy and configure your own configuration of the Active Directory on the virtual machine. To conclude, Azure brought that significant change that businesses relying on Microsoft technologies have been seeking for a long time.