Microsoft Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, offering virtual machines, managed databases, Kubernetes, AI, and enterprise services with deep integration into the Microsoft ecosystem. Available since 2010 across more than 60 regions, it provides managed Kubernetes with Helm support and a 99.99% uptime SLA. It targets enterprises and Microsoft-invested organizations, with a free tier covering popular services for 12 months plus an initial credit and always-free services, along with a startup program. As a hyperscaler it holds SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, and FedRAMP. Its proprietary services carry higher vendor lock-in, fitting organizations standardized on Microsoft tooling.
low-costenterprisemanaged-kubernetesfree-tierhyperscaler
Overview
- Founded
- 2010
- Pricing tier
- Mid
- Startup-friendly
- Yes
- Enterprise-ready
- Yes
Cloud infrastructure
- Starting price
- $4/mo
- Regions
- 60
- Availability zones
- 90
- SLA uptime
- 99.99%
- Managed Kubernetes
- Yes
- Helm support
- Yes
- Free tier
- Yes
- Vendor lock-in
- High
- Open standards
- No
- Easy data export
- Yes
- Multi-cloud friendly
- No
- Org size
- Enterprise
- Support tier
- Enterprise
- Ease of use
- 2/5
Categories & compliance
Categories
Compliance
SOC2ISO27001HIPAAGDPRPCI-DSSFedRAMP