Microsoft offers a lot of cloud based services under their Azure platform and wrangling all of that information into one place is obviously challenging.
When you add the constant flow of services that are being upgraded and improved through upgrades it can be a very dynamic collection of data. Oh, and don't forget about keeping track of what services are in preview versus fully released and available.
You can head over to the main Microsoft Azure portal and start digging for details there on services and that will require using a dynamic menu that helps you dig deeper into the available services.
Functional?
Yes.
Convenient?
No.
However, I recently became aware of an awesome resource that brings all of the Microsoft Azure services into a single webpage. From this page you can see all of the Azure services broken down by category, easily see what services are in preview and have immediate access to more information about the service.
The site is called the Interactive Azure Platform Big Picture and is located at http://azureplatform.azurewebsites.net/en-us/.
When you arrive on that pager you will find this listing that gives you a truly big picture overview of Microsoft's Azure Services and it is broken down by the following categories and their respective services.
Note: Those items marked with (*) are still in preview.
- Compute
- Virtual Machines
- Virtual Machine Scale Sets
- Cloud Services
- Batch
- RemoteApp
- Service Fabric
- Azure Container Service
- Web & Mobile
- Web Apps
- Mobile Apps
- Logic Apps
- API Apps
- API Management
- Notification Hubs
- Mobile Engagement
- Functions (*)
- Data & Storage
- SQL Database
- DocumentDB
- Redis Cache
- Storage: Blobs, Tables, Queues
- StorSimple
- Search
- SQL Data Warehouse
- SQL Server Stretch Database
- Analytics
- Data Lake Analytics (*)
- Data Lake Store (*)
- HDInsight
- Machine Learning
- Stream Analytics
- Data Factory
- Data Catalog
- Power BI Embedded
- Media, Internet of Things & Intelligence
- Media Services
- Azure IoT Suite
- Azure IoT Hub
- Event Hubs
- Cortana Intelligence Suite
- Cognitive Services (*)
- Networking & CDN
- Virtual Network
- ExpressRoute
- Traffic Manager
- Load Balancer
- Azure DNS (*)
- VPN Gateway
- Application Gateway
- Content Delivery Network
- Enterprise Integration, Identity & Access Management
- BizTalk Services
- Service Bus
- Backup
- Site Recovery
- Azure Active Directory
- B2C
- Domain Services (*)
- Multi-Factor Authentication
- Developer Services
- Visual Studio Team Services
- Azure DevTest Labs
- VS Applications Insights (*)
- HockeyApp
- Developer Tools
- Management & Security
- Azure Portal
- Scheduler
- Operations Management Suite
- Automation
- Log Analytics
- Key Vault
- Security Center
If you click on anyone of these services then a panel will open up on screen to provide more information:
In these detail panels you will find links to various information about the specific service which could include:
- Overview
- Pricing
- Documentation
- Limits
- Service Level Agreement (SLA)
- Service Updates
- Documentation Updates
- Code Samples
What I like most about these detail tabs is that all of the links are set to open in a new browser window or tab so you never lose your place on the big picture site.
I really enjoy seeing these kind of resources come together because they can be bookmarked and give you immediate access to the information you are looking for instead of needing to visit the main service portal and dig down through several layers to grab that info.
But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.
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