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Benefits of Microsoft Azure

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Flexible scaling

Always enough resources for business needs. Automatic or manual scaling of computing resources at any time

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Pay as you go

It is no longer necessary to plan the volume of resources for years ahead. Pay only upon use

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Security

State-of-the-art security that Microsoft provides for physical data centers, infrastructure, and the Azure network around the world

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Convenience of management

Manage all cloud services, security and monitoring from a single Microsoft Azure portal

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High availability

Provide up to 99.99% service resiliency with Azure Availability Zones around the world

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High level of data privacy

Protect data with multiple layers of security and encryption protocols in accordance with the requirements of security standards IEEE 802.1AE MAC Security, GDPR, and more

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Wide geography

The largest geographic coverage among cloud service providers: more than 60+ regions of Microsoft Azure presence

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Modernity

Constant introduction of new technologies and updating security policies

How we help companies migrate to the Microsoft Azure cloud

Cloud Migration Consulting

Migrate to the cloud with a strategy that delivers specific, measurable results. Our experts will help you consider options that meet the needs and goals of your business, as well as prepare an overall plan

Cloud assessment

Leverage our expertise, best practices and actionable tools to help you understand where you are and what your business goals are, and get guidance on how to get there

Building Cloud Architecture

Our certified cloud architects will help you develop an architecture that meets your company's business requirements

Cloud Implementation

We perform cloud migration and implementation of services with the help of our experienced specialists from the moment of choosing the right solution and its capacity to a fully finished (configured) product

Cloud adoption

We train your employees to work with new solutions for faster adaptation and higher productivity

Cloud support

We offer a wide range of support for the cloud platform and services: from managing your licenses to technical support to resolve emerging issues

For more than 14 years, SMART business has been a strategic partner of Microsoft in Ukraine

15

years of successful work in the IT market

750

companies among our customers

91.5%

customer satisfaction rate

314

qualified IT specialists

65

customer countries in the world

18

Microsoft Gold Competencies

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Technical support

Personal service from SMART business experts and technical support from Microsoft

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Price and billing

Transparent pricing system and simplified financial administration

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Expertise

Our experts assess the current level of IT security of the company, provide practical recommendations for strengthening protection against cyber threats, and help deploy the necessary Microsoft Security services

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Optimal selection of licenses

We provide a comprehensive analysis of the company's IT security strategy, identify security vulnerabilities, and select the necessary licenses to fully cover existing and future business needs

Blog

Articles and materials

13 min read
What is Azure Databricks?
Azure Databricks is a unified software platform for working with cloud data warehouses, analyzing and processing data, and machine learning. Azure Databricks allows you to work with large amounts of data and use technologies that are combined under the term Big Data. Azure Databricks is used to:
  • analyze large amounts of data to identify new insights and trends;
  • process streaming data in real time;
  • deploy ready-made databases and engage them in parallel computing;
  • build and manage data in cloud-based analytical systems;
  • organize and maintain large volumes of corporate information;
  • conduct analytical calculations based on data of various formats;
  • develop analytical applications and conduct research using custom data processing algorithms.
The Azure Databricks platform uses cloud clusters for computing and can work with data both in cloud storage and in "on-premises" storage. For the user, this means the following: you do not need to maintain special local storages, invest in server hardware, buy expensive computers with powerful computing modules—all this is already available in Azure Databricks. The user gets a ready-to-use platform that will work correctly on a regular office laptop or PC. Another significant advantage of the fully cloud-based Azure Databricks infrastructure is the highest level of information protection. Microsoft invests $1 billion annually in cybersecurity research and development: the company implements its own security solutions with the help of 3,500 permanent specialists. Your data will, firstly, be consolidated in one place and available for sharing through Azure Databricks technologies, secondly, all derived analytical calculations and analytical materials (diagrams, graphs, visualizations of mathematical models) created on their basis will also be stored on the cloud in a single Microsoft ecosystem. Thus, Azure Databricks fully addresses the issue of corporate data protection, and no additional security measures are required.

What is Azure Databricks used for?

If your business collects a large amount of data on business activities and you want to make more informed and effective decisions based on this information (data-driven approach), you can do it with Azure Databricks. This analytical platform is a universal tool for working with data, and the built-in functionality in most cases far exceeds the needs of a particular business. If at some point you need to perform a specific task or implement a new automatic analysis algorithm, Azure Databricks will be sufficient, no additional software is required. Next, let's take a look at the main requests related to data processing that Azure Databricks covers.
Organization, arrangement and data storage. These tasks are the building blocks of Azure technology. Users of the system store and organize large amounts of information in various formats, each supported by one of more than 200 internal Azure products. Any tasks related to the operation, maintenance and use of big data are handled by the Azure infrastructure. Microsoft Azure Databricks technology itself is used mainly for automating analytical processes based on this data, machine learning and other distributed cluster computing functions.
Sharing and using information. In addition to storing information directly, Azure Databricks provides the functionality to simultaneously access this data across different cloud-based software products. You can use different data in different computing processes, including automated ones, and perform other analytical actions with this information in parallel. With Azure Databricks, you can also use artificial intelligence to simplify and automate further processes.
Data analysis. Azure Databricks is a powerful platform for analytical queries that combines user-friendly interfaces with cost-effective cloud computing resources. To simplify the interaction with the platform, administrators can set up computing clusters for non-technical professionals so that they can perform basic analytical queries without having to understand the complexities of cloud programming. Data analysis can be performed by writing code in several programming languages supported by Azure Databricks.
Prediction of performance. With the help of calculations, you can build mathematical models with predicted values of variables in future periods of business activity. Azure Databricks provides a graphical display of the calculations with the ability to integrate the results into Microsoft Power BI for even better visualization and reporting based on the calculated values.
Automation of routine analytical processes. You can automate many processes within Azure Databricks, including data collection, data cleansing and transformation, automatic data updates and even automated analytic queries. In addition, the platform provides ample opportunities for machine learning and the use of artificial intelligence technologies, including in predictive processes. Among the features that simplify information management within Azure Databricks, we also note: (I) automation with unique scripts; (II) setting up warnings and alerts during automatic analytics to monitor data changes.
Azure Databricks provides unlimited possibilities for scaling analytical processes based on user data. The platform's highly optimized engine, built on Apache Spark™ technology, guarantees an increase in computing performance of up to 50 times compared to software models such as MapReduce.

Azure Databricks technologies and programming languages

To begin with, we need to divide Azure Databricks into two fundamental components: the Azure infrastructure cloud platform and the standalone Databricks software product.
  1. Microsoft Azure is a cloud application development platform that combines more than 200 cloud products. Azure Databricks is one of these products, you can connect it to your cloud account and use the functionality provided to fulfill your business tasks.
  2. Databricks is an American company that created the Apache Spark™ cluster processing technology. In the broadest sense, Databricks is a web platform with a ready-made interface that allows automated management of clusters for performing computations using interactive notebooks. All the most up-to-date achievements of the Databricks platform are available through integration with Azure Databricks: in addition to the technology itself, users also get cloud computing power to perform it.
Next, we will talk in more detail about the technical component of the Azure Databricks product from the user's point of view. What does it bring to the business, why is it convenient, and what are the technical benefits for administrators, data analysts and developers when interacting with the platform?

Apache Spark™ computing technology

Apache Spark™ technology is an evolutionary extension of the Apache Hadoop cluster technology that uses the MapReduce programming model. The essence of MapReduce is as follows: one large computational task is divided into small fragments, each of which is launched and calculated in parallel on one of the cluster nodes. In this case, a cluster is a network of serial computers. Apache Spark™ interacts with disk information 10 times faster than MapReduce and processes it 100 times faster. That's why we say that Apache Spark™ is an evolutionary technology compared to MapReduce: they are based on the same principle of program logic, but the speed of information processing by these technologies differs tenfold. In addition, it is worth noting that Azure Databricks uses cloud clusters for computing, which means that the user does not need to use physical hardware to work with the platform.

Programming languages

Azure Databricks supports five programming languages: Python, Scala, R, Java and SQL. This means that an automation specialist can fulfill business data processing requests much faster with a variety of ready-made commands in different languages, instead of being limited to the functionality of only one of them. This is also very convenient when performing complex, unique tasks, including setting up a multistep process of automated calculations based on many databases that are updated at different intervals. With Azure Databricks, a developer can write part of the code in one language and part in another for greater convenience. This saves experts time and universalizes interaction with the platform. Azure Databricks also supports machine learning frameworks and software libraries: TensorFlow, PyTorch and Scikit-learn. This functionality is also designed to simplify the interaction with the platform, but in matters of machine learning based on calculations. Support for three libraries at once frees up the hands of machine learning algorithm developers: it allows them to implement combined software solutions that will be correctly interpreted by the platform. The developers of Microsoft Azure Databricks are actively working to bring even more technologies and supported programming languages to the platform. This requires absolutely nothing from users, as the entire load falls on the system's internal cloud clusters.

What business tasks does Azure Databricks solve?

The Azure Databricks software platform can perform most data tasks that businesses may encounter. The list below describes some of these tasks but is not limited to them.
  • Data workflow planning and management
  • Secure storage of large-scale corporate data
  • Analytical calculations based on data in various formats
  • Visualization of calculated values
  • Creation of analytical dashboards
  • Data ingestion and transformation
  • Creation of a secure network for cloud application development
  • Automation of data collection, updating and analysis
  • Creation of advanced machine learning models
It's hard to find the words to describe all the features of Azure Databricks exhaustively. Within the Microsoft ecosystem, any business need can be met. Related technologies within the platform extend its functionality to cover the needs of even giant businesses with hundreds of parallel processes.

Implementation and customization by the SMART business team

The SMART business team provides services for the implementation, maintenance and development of software algorithms within the Azure Databricks system. If you have a business request to integrate Azure Databricks into your company's software network and are ready to discuss it, then we invite you to a consultation. We have been working with the needs of medium and large businesses for a long time, interacting with data: analysis, process automation, infrastructure development and construction. The SMART business team has created complex sequential processes for the automatic processing of large data sets with daily updates of variables. We invite you and your business to achieve the desired results in business analytics, data management through Azure Databricks and many other processes.

Azure Databricks pricing

Azure Databricks pricing depends on three main factors:
  • type of license subscription;
  • the number of additional integrated software;
  • the level of customization of the platform to meet business needs.
To find out the exact cost of Azure Databricks for your company, please contact SMART business specialists for a consultation. We strive to make the partnership mutually beneficial, so we will look for options to optimize the price of Azure Databricks: platform connection, algorithm automation, integration into the software environment, training, extended service—the number of service components is determined individually for the needs of each business.

Three reasons why Azure Databricks from SMART business is beneficial

  1. Convenient connection of licensed software. As one of the Microsoft partners, we are familiar with all the subtleties of choosing licenses and their support. We will advise you and provide several profitable connection options. We perform all actions with licenses independently, without involving third parties.
  2. Full migration to software products of the Microsoft ecosystem. Whether it's just Azure Databricks or we'll connect Power BI for better reporting and visualization, it's up to you. We also have our own products based on the Microsoft ecosystem that offer even more benefits. The next section will tell you about them.
  3. Quick integration of Azure Databricks with other software. The SMART business team has ready-made solutions for medium and large businesses, so we quickly build software infrastructure in the cloud. Learn more about our ERP, CRM and HRM systems based on Microsoft services.
Microsoft Azure Databricks is one of the many services we offer. We have one more important section to cover about this platform to outline its potential.

Azure Databricks automation and integration with other software services

Let us visualize how useful and beautiful the automation process can be. Imagine a small chain of cozy coffee shops that approached the SMART business team to automate their processes with Azure Databricks.
  • Data collection: Each coffee shop enters the stock balances into the database on the cloud on a daily basis.
  • Data import: Azure Databricks automatically connects to the database to import the collected data at a specific configurable frequency, for example, every morning at 6 o'clock.
  • Inventory forecasting: With Azure Databricks, you can set up an analysis of historical data, sales trends by day of the week and much more. The system can calculate how many certain items need to be prepared and sold to meet demand.
  • Automatic notifications: We add to the algorithm the generation and sending of notifications when indicators reach thresholds, for example, when coffee runs out.
  • Order generation: Azure Databricks will automatically generate an accurate list of how much and what kind of coffee you need to buy.
  • Integration with suppliers: The list with the order of goods can be automatically sent to various designated suppliers via email or API integration.
  • Dashboard updates: When you integrate Azure Databricks with Power BI, each individual coffee shop will have a display of all operational metrics that will be updated in real time. These indicators include inventory, demand fulfillment performance, comparison of values with historical data for the same period, forecasted values, graphs and much more.
Azure Databricks provides businesses with a more accurate and efficient material resource management system, which saves employees time and thus saves the company money. With this approach to business, a small network can easily become a large network that operates simultaneously in many countries around the world using a single ready-made automated scheme. If you are interested in the Azure Databricks functionality or have unique data requests, we invite you to a consultation. The SMART business team is able to integrate Azure Databricks into any software system. After implementing the service, we provide extended support and modernize the platform's functionality to meet your business needs. We invite you to develop and cooperate! Book a consultation
7 min read
What is Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and how it can help your business improve IT security
Are you sure that the confidential information of your business is reliably protected from unauthorized access? How many working hours does your IT department spend managing user accounts and user groups? And how many passwords do your employees have to access different company resources? If you haven’t answered a single question with ‘We have Azure Active Directory, so it’s all set’, we recommend that you pay attention to this cloud-based identity and access management service. Azure Active Directory is part of the Microsoft cloud services ecosystem and plays a key role in providing IT account security, convenience, and managing access to various company resources. Let’s see how true it is.

What is Azure Active Directory

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management service provided by Microsoft for integration with various cloud and on-premises applications. Azure Active Directory as part of Microsoft Entra is an enterprise identity service that provides single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and conditional access and protects users from 99.9% of cyber attacks. It eliminates the need to create and administer different user accounts for different systems. This is a kind of hub for all authentication and authorization requests: from Microsoft services to third-party applications.

7 benefits of using Azure AD for business

Using Azure Active Directory provides you with numerous benefits that make it easier to maintain your company’s IT security. Here are some of them:
  • Single Sign-On (SSO). The basic idea behind SSO is to allow a user to log in once, and after that, their credentials will be used automatically to access other related resources. This makes the authentication process more convenient for users and reduces the risk of entering incorrect credentials. With Azure AD, you can set up single sign-on for users to cloud and on-premises resources, which simplifies the authentication process and improves the user experience.
  • Easy integration with cloud and on-premises applications. Azure AD supports industry-standard protocols such as SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, and WS-Federation, making it easy to integrate a variety of cloud and on-premises applications with Azure Active Directory.
  • Identity protection: identification and authentication management. Azure AD provides a centralized mechanism for managing user identities. This allows you to request multi-factor authentication (MFA) while providing IT security and usability.
  • Access control flexibility. Azure AD allows you to configure access policies for different resources based on roles and user groups. You can control which users have access to specific applications and resources and what actions they can perform.
  • Synchronization with local directories. Azure AD allows you to synchronize user data, groups, and attributes from local directories, including Windows Server Active Directory. This simplifies user management and ensures data integrity.
  • Identity protection and security. Azure AD has built-in security mechanisms such as threat detection, activity monitoring, and the use of access conditions to improve the security of user accounts.
  • Integration with Microsoft ecosystem. Azure AD works seamlessly with other Microsoft products and services such as Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, and more. This allows for uniform identification and access to these services.
Having outlined these benefits, we can conclude that using Azure AD helps create a secure and convenient environment for managing identity and access, which helps to increase the level of information security of the business, the efficiency and convenience of the work of users and IT administrators of the company.
Have questions about implementing and configuring Azure Active Directoty? SMART business specialists are ready to provide a free consultation right now.
Get a consultation

Who and for what tasks uses Azure Aсtive Directoty

Your employees can use Azure Active Directory to access their Microsoft 365 accounts such as Outlook email, SharePoint for document collaboration, and Teams for team communication and video conferencing. With Azure AD, employees access the Azure portal, where they can manage various cloud services and resources such as virtual machines, databases, and more. Azure AD integrates with thousands of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) programs such as Salesforce, Dropbox, Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, and more. This means that your employees can use their Azure AD accounts for Single Sign-On to these programs without having to remember separate IDs and passwords for each program. Overall, Azure AD makes it easy to manage access to various external resources and allows employees to conveniently and securely use them in their work. A standalone service in Azure Active Directory is Azure Active Directory B2C. It is based on the same technology as Azure AD but is used for a different purpose: providing a convenient, secure and flexible identity system for external users to interact with various applications and services of the company. For example, developers can use Azure AD B2C to integrate authentication into mobile applications. Users will be able to sign in to apps from their existing account or by registering new ones.

Can Azure Active Directory be used for free?

Azure Active Directory is a free service available in all Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 subscriptions, and separately for Azure AD subscriptions. However, some advanced features and capabilities of Azure AD are available at an additional cost. Usage and pricing for Azure Active Directory:
  • Azure Active Directory Freе Companies can use Azure AD for free as part of a subscription to commercial cloud products, including Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Intune, Power Platform, and more.
  • Microsoft 365 It is also possible to use additional Azure AD features that are included in Office 365 E1, E3, E5, F1, and F32 for free.
  • Azure Active Directory Premium P1 Microsoft 365 E3 includes a 30-day free trial of Azure AD Premium P1. Price per user: $6 without VAT.
  • Azure Active Directory Premium P2 Microsoft 365 E5 includes a 30-day free trial of Azure AD Premium P2. Price per user: $9 without VAT.
The prices are relevant at the time of the article publication. To find out the cost of licenses to use Azure Active Directory for your company, submit a request.
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Azure Aсtive Directory (Azure AD) is becoming Microsoft Entra ID

When Microsoft introduced Microsoft Entra in May 2022, it included three products: Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), Microsoft Entra Permissions Management, and Microsoft Entra Verified. The Microsoft Entra family was later extended with Microsoft Entra ID Governance and Microsoft Entra Workload. To simplify product naming and unify the Microsoft Entra family, the company is changing the Azure AD name to Microsoft Entra ID. Licensing features and plans, login URLs, and APIs remain unchanged, and all existing deployments, configurations, and integrations will continue to work. All licensing plans and pricing for Azure AD and Microsoft 365 plans that include Azure AD remain the same. All processes related to changing the name from Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023. No action is required from you.

What can be done right now to improve your company’s IT security level?

Below are 2 ways we can help you minimize the risk of corporate data breaches and loss of employee passwords:
  • Get a free company IT security assessment to learn about potential vulnerabilities in your business and get advice on how to improve your cybersecurity with the Zero Trust model.
  • Schedule a consultation with us where we’ll answer your questions, identify your immediate needs, and tell you what tasks SMART business professionals can take on.
Order a consultation
3 min read
How the SSPR service eliminates 20-30% of your IT department’s routine
SSPR (Self-Service Password Reset) is one of the services of Azure Active Directory, a cloud-based solution that is responsible for identifying users and granting them access. This service allows company employees to change or reset their own passwords without the help of an administrator. It may seem like a small thing. But what happens in organizations that don't use Azure AD SSPR? In this case, 20-30% of the support team's working time will be spent restoring access. Employees often forget their passwords, especially if they are complex, as required by information security rules. In addition, when a password expires, employees do not always change it in time and are forced to contact administrators to regain access to their accounts. In organizations with many employees, such requests become an endless stream. Companies have to direct a significant portion of their IT staff's efforts to recover passwords from forgetful colleagues.

Forget like a bad dream

With Microsoft's SSPR feature, this problem simply disappears. Employees can reset their passwords on their own. What do you need to do this? Just click on the "Forgot your password?" button when you log in and follow the simple instructions. The system will offer one of the following methods of identity verification: entering a password in the Microsoft Authenticator mobile application, an SMS or phone call, an email with a code, control questions, etc. Azure AD Self-Service Password Reset allows each organization to set up any of these verification methods in accordance with their own security policies. It is recommended to provide multiple alternative methods in case one of them fails or is unavailable for some reason. Thus, thanks to the SSPR feature, it takes 1-2 minutes to reset a password on your own. The employee doesn't have to wait for the help desk to resolve the issue, and the help desk is freed from a large amount of routine. As a result, employees have less downtime, and IT can focus their efforts on higher-priority tasks.

Implement SSPR to support your IT security with the Zero Trust model 

Security Identity services, which include SSPR, are the first fundamental security layer in the Zero Trust model. It is based on the idea that access to a company's IT resources and data can only be granted after appropriate identification, authentication, and security assessment. The key principle of the Zero Trust model is "Never trust, always verify". If you would like to learn more about Microsoft's Self-Service Password Reset feature as well as conduct an audit of existing IT security solutions in your company, leave a request for a consultation. The SMART business team will provide practical recommendations for strengthening protection against cyber threats and help you deploy the necessary Microsoft Security services. Get a consultation
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