Among the world's largest companies by market capitalization, Microsoft built the Azure cloud-computing platform.
Microsoft Azure is a cloud-computing platform that provides computing power, storage, databases, networking, analytics, and artificial-intelligence services over the internet. Microsoft introduced the service as Windows Azure in 2010 and renamed it Microsoft Azure in 2014.
Azure allows organizations to run applications and store data in Microsoft's global network of data centers rather than relying only on local servers. It supports Microsoft's own tools as well as many open-source languages, databases, and operating systems.
Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Its earlier success came from software such as MS-DOS and Windows, while Azure became a major pillar of the company's later enterprise strategy. Azure is distinct from Microsoft 365, which is a subscription suite of productivity applications and services.