Microsoft created the Azure cloud-computing platform and became a major rival to Amazon Web Services.
Microsoft announced Azure, originally called Windows Azure, in 2008 and released it commercially in 2010. The platform provides computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, and artificial-intelligence tools through Microsoft’s global data-center infrastructure.
Azure expanded Microsoft beyond its traditional Windows and Office businesses. Companies and public institutions use it to host applications, manage data, build software, and run large-scale workloads without owning all the necessary physical servers.
Amazon Web Services launched earlier and remains a leading cloud provider, while Google Cloud is another major competitor. Azure is not the same product as Microsoft 365: Microsoft 365 is a subscription suite of productivity applications and services, whereas Azure is a broad cloud-computing platform.