Microsoft Azure Cheat Sheet 2020 – The Definitive Guide to Azure Services & Architecture

As organizations increasingly adopt cloud technology, Microsoft Azure has become the go‑to platform for scalable, secure, and innovative solutions. This cheat sheet distills the essentials of Azure 2020, from foundational services to advanced AI tools, helping architects and developers make informed decisions.

What is Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure is a cloud‑first, open‑source‑friendly platform that empowers enterprises to design, deploy, and manage applications at scale. It delivers a portfolio of interoperable services—compute, storage, networking, AI, analytics, and more—under a unified management plane, all built on Microsoft’s proven infrastructure.

History of Microsoft Azure

Azure began in the mid‑2000s. In 2008, Microsoft’s chief software architect announced the launch of Windows Azure, initially offering five core categories: networking, SQL database, .NET services, live file sharing, and a suite of SaaS offerings (SharePoint, Dynamics CRM). A preview arrived in February 2010, expanding language, OS, and framework support. In April 2014, the platform was rebranded as Microsoft Azure, reflecting its broadened scope and global reach.

Microsoft Azure Cheat Sheet

The cheat sheet highlights Azure’s most frequently used services—storage, CDN, virtual machines, and Windows‑specific offerings—alongside key computing and data services. Billing follows a consumption‑based model, with pricing varying by service type, region, and storage options.

Core Azure Services Overview

• Azure Storage: Durable, scalable object, file, queue, and table storage.
• Azure CDN: Global content delivery network for low‑latency media.
• Azure Virtual Machines: Windows and Linux VMs provisioned in minutes.
• Azure App Service: Managed platform for web, mobile, and API apps.

Azure Service Categories

AI + Machine Learning

• Azure Bot Service: Serverless, intelligent chatbot framework.
• Azure Databricks: Apache Spark–based analytics with collaborative notebooks.
• Azure Cognitive Search: AI‑powered search for mobile and web apps.
• Bing Autosuggest, Bing Custom Search, Bing Entity Search, Bing Image Search, Bing News Search, Bing Spell Check, Bing Video Search, Bing Visual Search, Bing Web Search: Integrated search APIs for rich content discovery.
• Cognitive Services: Pre‑built AI APIs (Computer Vision, Content Moderator, Custom Vision, Face, Form Recognizer, Ink Recognizer, Personalizer, QnA Maker, Speaker Recognition, Speech to Text, Text Analytics, Text to Speech, Translator, Video Indexer, Kinect DK, Anomaly Detector, Azure Open Datasets, Immersive Reader).
• Azure Machine Learning & Azure ML Studio: End‑to‑end platform for experiment, model management, and deployment.
• Microsoft Genomics: Scalable genomics sequencing and analysis.
• Language Understanding: Build natural language understanding for conversational apps.
• Azure Open Datasets: Public datasets for rapid model training.

Analytics

• Azure Stream Analytics: Real‑time analytics on IoT streams.
• Azure Synapse Analytics: Unified analytics platform with data warehousing, big data, and AI.
• HDInsight: Managed Hadoop, Spark, Storm, R, HBase clusters.
• Data Factory: Enterprise‑grade data integration.
• Data Lake Analytics: On‑demand big‑data analytics.
• Event Hubs: High‑throughput event ingestion.
• Power BI Embedded: Interactive analytics in applications.
• Azure Analysis Services: Enterprise‑level analytics engine.
• R Server for HDInsight: R‑based analytics on HDInsight.
• Data Catalog: Discover and manage data assets.
• Azure Data Lake Storage: Scalable, secure data lake built on Blob.
• Azure Data Explorer: Fast log and telemetry analytics.
• Azure Data Share: Share big data with partners.

Blockchain

• Azure Blockchain Service: Build, govern, and extend blockchain networks.
• Azure Blockchain Workbench: Rapid blockchain app prototyping.
• Logic Apps: Orchestrate cross‑cloud data access.
• Azure Cosmos DB: Globally distributed, multi‑model NoSQL database.
• Azure Blockchain Tokens: Token lifecycle management on a ledger.

Compute

• Virtual Machines: Windows & Linux VMs on demand.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Managed Kubernetes for production workloads.
• Service Fabric: Microservices and container orchestration.
• App Service: Managed web & mobile apps.
• Container Instances: Run containers serverlessly.
• Batch: Large‑scale parallel job scheduling.
• SQL Server on VMs: Enterprise SQL Server in the cloud.
• Cloud Services: Highly available cloud‑native APIs.
• SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances: Run SAP HANA at scale.
• Azure Functions: Event‑driven serverless compute.
• Virtual Machine Scale Sets: Auto‑scale VMs.
• Web Apps: Rapid web app deployment.
• Mobile Apps: Backend services for mobile.
• API Apps: API hosting and management.
• Linux & Windows VMs: Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Windows.
• Windows Virtual Desktop: Enterprise‑grade virtual desktop.
• Azure CycleCloud: HPC & large‑scale cluster management.
• Azure VMware Solution: Run VMware workloads on Azure.
• Azure Dedicated Host: Dedicated physical servers for VMs.
• Azure Spring Cloud: Managed Spring Boot microservices.

Containers

• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Service Fabric, Container Instances, Azure Functions, Container Registry, Web Apps, Mobile Apps, API Apps, Web App for Containers, Azure Red Hat OpenShift.

Databases

• Azure API for FHIR: Fast deployment of health data interoperability.
• SQL Server on VMs, Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Cache for Redis, Table Storage, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for MariaDB, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database Migration Service, Azure SQL Database Edge.

Developer Tools

• Visual Studio & Visual Studio Code: Full‑featured IDEs for cloud development.
• SDKs: Language‑specific SDKs for Azure services.
• Azure DevOps: Git repos, pipelines, boards, artifacts, and test plans.
• Azure Pipelines: CI/CD on any platform.
• Azure Lab Services: Ephemeral labs for training and demos.

DevOps

• Azure Boards, Azure Repos, Azure Artifacts, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations, Azure Monitor.

Identity

• Azure Active Directory, Azure Information Protection, Azure AD Domain Services, Azure AD B2C.

Integration

• Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, API Management, Service Bus.

Management & Governance

• Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, Azure Advisor, Scheduler, Automation, Traffic Manager, Azure Monitor, Network Watcher, Azure Service Health, Azure Portal, Azure Resource Manager, Cloud Shell, Azure Mobile App, Azure Policy, Cost Management + Billing, Azure Managed Applications, Azure Migrate, Azure Blueprints, Azure Lighthouse, Azure Resource Manager templates.

Mobile

• App Service, Azure Maps, Notification Hubs, API Management, Web Apps, Mobile Apps, API Apps, Azure Mobile App, Visual Studio App Center, Xamarin, Web App for Containers.

Networking

• Content Delivery Network, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Virtual Network, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Azure DDoS Protection, Network Watcher, Azure Firewall, Virtual WAN, Azure Front Door, Azure Bastion, Azure Private Link, Azure Internet Analyzer, Azure Firewall Manager, Web Application Firewall.

Security

• Azure Active Directory, Azure Information Protection, Azure AD Domain Services, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure Dedicated HSM, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Sentinel.

Azure CLI Commands

Below are the most frequently used Azure CLI command groups and their primary resource types:

• az group – Manage resource groups.
• az vm – Create and manage virtual machines.
• az storage account – Provision storage accounts.
• az keyvault – Manage key vaults.
• az webapp – Deploy and configure web apps.
• az sql server – Manage SQL databases.
• az cosmosdb – Operate Cosmos DB accounts.

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