Azure application building blocks

Let's return to the last diagram in the previous section. In the bottom layer, you'll find two other components of the Azure platform:

• Azure application building blocks
• Azure data services

Both Azure application building blocks and Azure data services, are managed services that extend the platform with so-called common capabilities (shared functionalities).

In the following diagram, you will find an overview of the Azure application building blocks. Because of the high number of individual components on offer, they are only represented in categories:

The service categories are as follows:

• Media: With the Azure Media Services, the Azure platform provides an extensive portfolio for on-demand and live video processing, video and audio encoding, and much more.
• Cache: The use of a cache allows you high throughput and consistent data access with low latency for fast and scalable Azure applications. The solution for the Azure platform called Azure Redis Cache is based on the popular open source Redis cache and has been realized as a fully managed service.
• CDN: The Content Delivery Network (CDN) offers a global solution for delivering high-bandwidth content that is hosted in Azure or any other location (for example any HTTP/HTTPS location).
• Identity: This category contains the identity services, such as the Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure AD B2C, Multi-Factor Authentication, and Azure Key Vault which is a safe place for your certificates.
• Networking: This category contains the basic networking services. For example, Azure ExpressRoute, VNet Peering, and VPN gateways.
• Integration: The integration services include interfaces for hybrid connections, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) message processing, an easy-to-use administrative portal for trading partners as well as support for common EDI schemas and comprehensive EDI processing via X12 and AS2.

• Messaging: The messaging services include all interfaces from the Azure Service Bus not included in the integration category,  for example, Azure Service Bus topics and Azure Service Bus Notification Hubs.
• Dev Services: These are cloud-based development tools for version control, collaboration, and other development-related tasks, for example Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) and the Azure DevTest Labs.
• IoT: IoT services include the fundamental tools needed to work with devices used for the IoT,  for example Azure IoT Hub, IoT Edge, and Azure Event Hubs.
• Blockchain: Blockchain is a way for businesses, industries, and organizations to make and verify transactions—streamlining business processes, and reducing the potential for fraud.