Azure services

General

Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform that offers a wide range of services such as artificial intelligence (machine learning, speech or image recognition, other cognitive services, OpenAI, Genomics), High Performance Computing or Big Data. Cloud services can be deployed quickly, they are easily scaled according to the amount of use and very high performance is available. Cloud services do not have fixed costs, only operating costs. Azure service data can be kept in the EU and information security is good. For more information about Azure services, see Microsoft’s website: Academic Research, Azure Documentation. 

Azure Services are Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) services on which you can build your own service or application. As a rule, Azure services do not directly provide end-user services.

How to subscribe to Azure

When you want to start using Azure, open a support request in IT Helpdesk. You will be contacted so that we can agree on how to create and configure the service. As a rule, we will create a new Azure resource group or subscription for you, within which you can start creating the services and other resources you want. If Azure and its terminology are not yet familiar, start self-studying at Azure Fundamentals.

Provide the following information in the support request:

• Name of the resource group you want
  • Minimum length of 8 characters including only the following characters: a-z A-Z 0-9
  • Follow Microsoft’s naming policy 
• Cost centre
  • The costs of the services and other resources you use will be allocated to this cost centre
  • Find out the maximum cost of the service and other resources you want, either in the Azure documentation or with Azure cost assessment tool. Note that excessive costs can arise quickly. 
  • Before submitting the support request, agree with the owner of the cost centre that he/she accepts your costs
• We can set the initial alarm limit for the costs (per month). How high should the limit be?
• Project number and internal order number (optional, shown in the billing to your organization unit)
• Responsible persons
  • The designated persons shall be granted adequate rights
  • Name at least two people

Using the Azure service

IT Services maintains a high level of security in Azure, and therefore access to Azure resources group or subscription is activated only when needed. You can activate your access when you need access to an Azure resource group or subscription. The activation is valid for 9 hours, after which the activation must be re-activated. The access is activated as follows: In the Azure portal, type pim in the search box, click Azure AD Privileged Identity Management in the search results, then click My roles – Azure resources and Activate for the right resource. For the following times, you can make a bookmark from My Roles page in your browser.

Monitor costs regularly and accurately with Azure Cost Management tools. Set a budget and alerts. There is no hard cap on the cost of resources, after which the resource would stop and stop causing costs.

Ensure the security of the capacity you are using and optimise costs by regularly following and following Azure Advisor’s recommendations.

Actively follow Microsoft’s Azure documentation as services are developing at a fast pace.

 

IT Helpdesk
+358 294 520 500
it-helpdesk [at] tuni.fi (it-helpdesk[at]tuni[dot]fi)
helpdesk.tuni.fi