What is the name of Microsoft's cloud computing platform?

Microsoft Azure is the name of Microsoft's cloud computing platform. It provides on-demand computing power, storage, databases, networking, analytics, artificial intelligence, and other online services through Microsoft's global data-center infrastructure.

Azure began as Project Red Dog and was introduced at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in October 2008. It officially launched as Windows Azure in February 2010, then was renamed Microsoft Azure in 2014 as the platform expanded beyond Windows-based services.

Azure supports Microsoft technologies such as Windows Server, SQL Server, and .NET, but it also runs Linux systems and supports many open-source languages, tools, and frameworks. This broad compatibility distinguishes it from the mistaken idea that Azure is only for Microsoft software.

A common mix-up is confusing Azure with Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 is primarily a subscription productivity suite, while Azure is an infrastructure and cloud-services platform. Its major competitors include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud.