Core Services Quick Reference
Work through a condensed reference of compute, storage, networking, and database services, focusing on the key differences and use-case triggers the exam tests.
Compute Services at a Glance
Key compute services and when to choose each: Azure Virtual Machines — IaaS, full OS control, lift-and-shift migrations. Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets — identical VMs that auto-scale, load-balanced workloads. Azure App Service — PaaS web hosting, no OS management, supports .NET, Java, Python, Node.js, PHP. Azure Functions — serverless event-driven code, pay per execution, scale to zero. Azure Container Instances — serverless container runs, no cluster management. Azure Kubernetes Service — managed Kubernetes, production container orchestration.
Storage Services at a Glance
Key storage services and their use cases: Azure Blob Storage — unstructured objects (images, videos, backups), hot/cool/archive tiers. Azure Files — cloud SMB/NFS file shares, mountable from VMs and on-premises. Azure Queue Storage — simple message queuing between application components. Azure Table Storage — NoSQL key-value store for structured non-relational data. Azure Managed Disks — block storage attached to VMs, Standard HDD/SSD, Premium SSD, Ultra Disk. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 — big data analytics on Blob with hierarchical namespace.