What is Azure Virtual Machine (VM)?

Definition: Azure Virtual Machine is a computer or server that you access over the internet using your browser.

• Azure VM is one of the services provided by Azure.
• Azure VM is an IAAS (Infrastructure As A Service) offering of Azure.
• For Azure VM, except hardware, you have full control over the OS you install, the development tools, testing and deployment tools or any other software you install.
• Azure VM is an on-demand, scalable resource that Azure provides.
• When you want complete control over your development environment, you go for Virtual Machine.
• Azure charges are based on an hourly basis and based on VM size and operating system.
• Before creating VM, you need to consider a few things like,
  • Size of the VM
  • Operating system
  • No. of VM required
  • Location of the VM
  • Configuration of the VM once it starts
  • Other tools are needed on VM.

What are the advantages of Virtual Machine (VM)?

• Control: You have control of the machine except for the hardware. Whatever you want to install and set up for the development work, you can do it.
• No Big Servers: The headache of keeping and maintaining big servers at the organization level is gone.
• IT staff and resources reduced: You don’t need to keep IT staff anymore to handle heavy servers. You also save electricity and other maintenance charges.
• Hybrid Help: Azure VMs can easily be synced with your on-premises datacenters for Hybrid architecture support.

What are the disadvantages of Virtual Machine (VM)?

• Not always recommended: If you can use another azure service instead of VM, you should opt for that only.
• Maintenance: You still need some maintenance. Operating system updates, patches, security issues, and other software installation and their updates. So, lot of things you will have to manage on Azure VM also.