Microsoft offers a cloud infrastructure service called Azure that competes directly with AWS. It is generally ranked as number two in the industry in size and capabilities, although it has been closing that gap recently.

The range of services is similar to AWS but with a Microsoft flavor. Microsoft markets the services as easier to integrate with corporate on-premise networks. Integration leans more toward Microsoft technology, such as the Windows operating system, the .NET programming language, and the SQL Server database.

We will review some of the services of interest for IoT analytics.