Microsoft Azure Technology Selection
Estimate compute
workload
Estimate data
volumes
NEW
Type of
workload?
YES
Do I need a
web frontend?
EXISTING
Measure compute
workload
Measure data
volumes
API & FRONT END
Consider Azure
Websites
Azure Website
Azure is an open and ﬂexible cloud platform that enables you to
quickly build, deploy, and manage applications across a global
network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.
NO
API Management
Consider Azure
Websites & API
Management
Azure Website
YES
You can build applications using any language, tool, or
framework; and you can integrate your public cloud applications
with your existing IT infrastructure in a hybrid environment.
Do I need a
web API?
NO
DATA PREPARATION & PROCESSING
Consider the legal
implications of transmission
between datacenters
(e.g. PCI compliance)
Can it be
isolated or
encrypted?
NO
Can it be
redacted or
anonymized?
NO
YES
YES
The breadth of products available in Azure can make technology
selection a challenge.
Does
data need to be
moved to the cloud
as part of the
process?
YES
Is any data
sensitive?
YES
NO
NO
We have produced this guidance to help you walk through your
options, and make pragmatic choices based on the functionality,
workﬂow, connectivity and scale needed by your solution.
Consider using
Azure Data Factory
Data Factory
Is the volume
too large to transfer
over the wire?
YES
Consider Disk
Shipping
VHD Disk Shipping
YES
Consider Blob
Storage
Storage Blob
Is any data bulk
upload?
NO
YES
Consider Event
Hubs
NO
Is any data
high frequency?
azureweekly.info
Consider Service
Bus
Event Hubs
Document DB
Cosider Azure
Document DB,
MongoDB Azure
Add-on
Service Bus
Do
you need to do
indexed lookups within
the document?
YES
YES
Is any data
document-like?
NO
NO
Mongo DB
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advice and guidance on the Azure Platform, subscribe to Azure
Weekly at http://azureweekly.info
Does any data
require media
transcoding?
YES
Consider Media
Services
Media Services
NO
Virtual Machine
Do we need high
performance from
small datasets?
NO
Consider Azure
Table storage
Storage Table
Is the data
simple Key/
Value pairs?
YES
YES
NO
Do you require
large data volumes or
high availibility?
YES
Is any data
highly schematized?
NO
Storage Blob
Consider the SQL
Server in a VM
cluster template
VHD
NO
SQL Database
Consider Azure
SQL Database
Consider Blob
Storage
Consider Redis
YES
Download a digital copy of this poster at
http://azureweekly.info/azuretechselector
Azure SQL Database
Consider Azure Search
or ElasticSearch
in VMs
Azure Search
YES
Does any data
require full
text search?
NO
Is the
processing
a multi-stage
pipeline?
YES
Consider Azure
Data Factory
Data Factory
YES
Does any data
require processing or
transformation?
NO
NO
Consider HDInsight
HDInsight
NO
Is the processing
complex or over a large
volume of data?
YES
Consider Machine
Learning
Do you have an
existing
NOAzure Website
with suﬃcient
capacity?
NO
Consider Worker Role
instances fed from an
Azure Queue
Storage Queue
YES
Machine Learning
YES
Is the data
event-stream-like?
Consider Stream
Analytics
Stream Analytics
Worker Role
Consider a webjob fed
from an Azure Queue
or Blob Storage
WebJobs
Storage Blob
Storage Queue
COMPUTE
Storage Queue
Consider worker role
intances fed from an
Azure Queue
Do you have
an existing Azure
Website with suﬃcient
capacity?
NO
Can the
workload be
decomposed into
multiple retryable
units?
NO
YES
YES
Can it be bulk
processed?
Consider Azure
Batch
Batch
NO
YES
Worker Role
Consider a webjob fed
from an Azure Queue
or Blob Storage
Does the
workload require
access to shared
results?
Storage Queue
Storage Blob
WebJobs
YES
YES
Does the data
change over time?
Consider Azure
Cache
Azure Cache
HORIZONTAL CONCERNS
NO
NO
Do we need high
performance from small
datasets?
NO
Consider Azure
Table Storage
Storage Table
Is the data
structured as Key/
Value Pairs?
YES
YES
Security
Identity
Network
NO
Consider Blob
Storage
Consider Redis
Storage Blob
Azure Rights
API Management
Management (RMS)
YES
Consider
Scheduler
Scheduler
Do we need
to schedule
tasks?
Azure
Active Directory
Microsoft account
Traﬃc Manager
Multi-Factor
Authentication
Access
Control
ExpressRoute
Azure load
balancer
Virtual Network
NO
Backup &
StorSimple
OUTPUT
Notiﬁcation Hubs
YES
Consider Notiﬁcation
Hubs
Service Bus
YES
Is it a large
volume?
Do we need to
notify subscribers of
the results?
StorSimple
NO
NO
Consider Service
Bus
Site Recovery
Backup Service
Content Delivery
Network (CDN)
Consider Content
Delivery Network
YES
Are there many
geographically distributed
clients?
Storage Blob
Consider Blob
Storage/Shared
Access Tokens
Do we need
to provide bulk
access?
YES
NO
NO
Deployment &
Scalability
Azure
Automation
Dropbox code
source
Startup task
Autoscaling
OS image
Git repository
Visual Studio
Online
Azure
Marketplace
EXISTING INVESTMENT
Consider PowerBI
Oﬃce 365
YES
Is the processing
complex or over a large
volume of data?
SQL
Biz Talk Services
Legacy Applications
Consider HDInsight
HDInsight
NO
Do we need
to stream
media output?
YES
Consider Media
Services
Media Services
SQL Database
(generic)
MySQL
database
SQL reporting
BizTalk Services
BizTalk Hybrid
Connection
Virtual machine
VHD
RemoteApp
NO
Endjin are a Cloud Technology Consultancy, working with our clients to
develop some of the largest global solutions delivered on the Microsoft
Azure Platform.
www.endjin.com
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develop their Azure skills, and accelerate your business into the Cloud.
© Copyright endjin limited 2015
Azure Technology Selector by endjin is licensed
under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
20/03/2015 14:03:51