In the last four chapters, I have tried to give you a deeper insight into the Azure platform with a comprehensive introduction. You have learned which building blocks (services) are available and how they can be used (also, of course,  combining individual parts with each other). At least theoretically, you know all the basics to create your own Azure solutions.

Or? Yes, if I ask, there is, of course, an or.

I am a solution architect, which means I construct individual solutions for enterprises. The process of designing an enterprise application is very complex, and knowing the available components is only one part of this process. So, if we want to look at the design process as a whole, we also have to consider the aspect of everyday work, along with the solution.

What are the aspects of daily work? Answering this question is a bit difficult, as there is usually no clear picture of what we consider relevant to our work. In order to provide at least one approach to an answer, I have a few examples:

• Availability
• Performance
• Monitoring and telemetry
• Security and some more

In this chapter, we will take a closer look at some aspects of this list. We will start with the topic availability.

I still have one important point—the area's availability and performance are similar in some ways. One aspect that is important for availability can also be significant for performance.

We will explore, in detail, the following topics in this chapter:

• What is availability?
• Uptime and downtime
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Planned maintenance
• Azure autoscaling