We are excited to share that Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the inaugural Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Application Platform. In this report, Gartner placed Microsoft furthest in Completeness of Vision.
Microsoft Azure’s comprehensive cloud application platform spans Azure App Service, Azure Container Apps, and Azure Functions to support application modernization and AI application innovation, with seamless integration with Azure AI, Azure databases, and popular developer tools like GitHub and Visual Studio.
Microsoft’s cloud application platform caters to development needs with clear and numerous benefits to customers. Azure App Service is a platform as a service (PaaS) offering with built-in productivity and security features for web applications in popular languages and frameworks such as .NET, Java, Node.js, and Python. Azure Container Apps is ideal for microservices and containerized applications, supporting buildpacks and .NET Aspire and Spring Boot to simplify development processes. With Azure Functions, developers can leverage scalable, serverless, and event-driven application architectures to achieve high performance without incurring significant costs.
Microsoft leads in security and compliance, with substantial investments in cybersecurity and an extensive team of security experts positioning it as a top choice for enterprise security. Microsoft and our customers view security as a key requirement for AI apps. Azure’s robust enterprise security and compliance across all layers, from application code to data, adheres to responsible AI practices throughout Azure’s extensive AI service portfolio.
Azure is the platform of choice for AI applications
Microsoft is dedicated to making Azure the premier platform for all your applications. As you develop new applications and modernize your existing estate, Azure’s cloud application platform enables customers to meet the growing demand for AI applications, with an integrated platform across apps, data, and AI services.
Microsoft Copilot in Azure acts as an expert companion for Azure App Service and Azure Functions helping you troubleshoot performance issues, high CPU utilization, and networking problems. Through automatic scaling and high availability, Azure is optimized for the specific performance and scale requirements of AI applications. Azure’s app platform also integrates seamlessly with Azure databases and Azure AI Services, such as Azure OpenAI, along with popular development tools like Visual Studio and GitHub, enabling developers to incorporate advanced AI capabilities into their applications and development environments. Azure’s app platform includes built-in security controls and compliance certifications, ensuring that AI applications are protected against threats and adhere to industry standards.
At tax time, we support millions of users simultaneously. The combination of .NET and Azure services powers AI Tax Assist to scale and manage peak demands without issues. .NET easily interoperates with Microsoft Azure and Azure services, such as Azure OpenAI Service, Azure App Service, and Azure Functions, and offers seamless experiences for model development and deployment, as well as deploying and managing applications” — Vin Kamat, Principal Architect, H&R Block
Learn how customers like KPMG, H&R Block, University of Sydney, KPN, and Denso Corporation are leveraging Azure’s cloud app platform, databases, and AI services for their AI app innovation.
Seamless app modernization and enhanced developer experience
Microsoft is committed to ensuring customers are successful in modernizing existing applications with AI capabilities so organizations can maximize their investments, stay competitive, avoid costly disruptions, and be well-prepared for future AI advancements.
Azure Container Apps was very useful when we implemented the microservice architecture using Java. The existence of Container Apps makes the Java on Azure efforts quite attractive. With cloud services other than Azure, it is usually possible to make detailed settings on services, but conversely, it can also be said that we need to manage even the details to bring out its performance. With Azure, there is no need for such labor and we can efficiently conduct the whole process from construction through operation” — Mr. Yoichi Ohara, Senior Manager, Fujitsu Japan Limited
Azure Migrate is Microsoft’s free tool for migrating to and modernizing on Azure. It offers consistent discovery, assessment, business case analysis, planning, migration, and modernization capabilities across workloads. Microsoft’s offerings, Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate, support each stage of your cloud journey—from migration to innovation with AI.
From an IT standpoint, we used to be pretty decentralized, with on-premises applications running in almost every country in the world. A few years back, we migrated everyone to Microsoft Office 365. The natural second step was to move all our on-premises infrastructures to Azure. We saw improvements right away. With Azure App Service, developers can build, deploy, and scale web, mobile, and API applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure” — Quentin Drion, IT Director of Infrastructure and Operations, Mediterranean Shipping Company
Microsoft is committed to continuous investment in AI, developer experience, application modernization, and end to end security. Our app platform is globally distributed, catering to customers of all sizes and industries.
Learn how customers like Commercial Bank of Dubai, Scandinavian Airlines, Nexi, and National Basketball Association (NBA) leverage Azure’s Cloud app platform to modernize their business critical applications and deliver enhanced customer experience with increased developer productivity and security.
Getting started with Azure application platform
We are incredibly proud of our achievements and the recognition as a Leader in the Cloud Application Platform Magic Quadrant. The Azure application platform offers a robust, developer friendly environment to build, deploy, and modernize your applications with AI responsibly.
- Read the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Application Platforms report.
- Learn more about migrating and modernizing to the Azure application platform.
- Learn more about building and modernizing intelligent apps on Azure.
- Engage with the Azure developer community standup, hosted by our product teams.
- Explore more on the Microsoft Customer Stories page.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Application Platforms by Tigran Egiazarov, Mukul Saha, Anne Thomas, Steve Schwent, Nov. 4, 2024
*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
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