Azure is second only to AWS as the largest cloud platform provider worldwide. It makes sense that IT professionals want to learn everything they can about Azure. Although there are many online courses that can help you learn Azure, they don’t often include the information that most of us want to know.
Today, we will be discussing three interesting facts about Microsoft Azure availability zones and regions. This knowledge can be very useful as you prepare for certification or use it every day.
1. Pairs of Azure Regions
Redundancy is the biggest reason Microsoft Azure pairs are deployed. Although this was a predictable answer, it doesn’t explain why Microsoft does what they do.
Production systems need redundancy. These systems are designed for a specific capacity, 24 hours a days. These systems are not available on weekends or evenings. This is a lot to expect from our IT systems admins.
We demand this type of usage from all our systems. Redundancy is one of the ways we offer this level of availability. It’s simple. RAID arrays use redundant drives. Data centers that are reliable use redundant environmental systems, battery backups, and even ISP connections. Servers also use redundant power supplies, and network connections.
Redundancy is having backups for everything. This does not refer to information backups. We’re talking about failover components that can be used for virtually everything IT. This is what Azure and VMWare call high availability. Both companies differ in their definitions of high availability. However, high availability is based on redundancy.
The Azure deployment endpoints work the same. Azure uses multiple redundancy endpoints. Although IT infrastructure built on the Azure cloud platform can create redundancy by deploying across multiple geographic locations, that is not the point of other Azure features.
Some Azure endpoints offer data sovereignty as an option. Other Azure endpoints may handle data and networking to comply with local laws.
Redundancy and compliance with local laws are not possible if there is only one deployment endpoint for a single region. This is why Microsoft deploys Azure regions in pairs.
2. Even Azure Capacity Is Limited
Azure is a resource that can be used in unlimited ways. The cloud is a remote server farm. Azure has limited resources.
Local data centers are designed to meet the expected capacity. Businesses don’t want IT solutions that are too expensive. This is why technical colleges offer classes on understanding total cost of ownership (TCO).
TCO has become more difficult to calculate because of cloud platforms. It is, at least in part. Because organizations don’t have their cloud(s), TCO can be converted and calculated as business expenses. These costs are calculated in the same manner as an Autodesk subscription or Office 365 subscription.
Costs can quickly spiral out of control. However, the Azure cloud is so large that it’s easy for more resources to be allocated to solve a problem. However, these resources are not unlimited. Microsoft still designs Azure data centres around the expected capacity levels.
Microsoft experienced capacity problems shortly after Azure was rebranded and launched many years ago. Microsoft had no additional resources, so businesses couldn’t provide new resources for their cloud infrastructure.
Microsoft has since solved this problem by expanding its data centers. However, not all Azure data centers are created equal. Some regions offer different products than others. Other regions that offer redundant Azure products may not have the same products available. Azure’s capacity is still a concern today.
