Unlocking the multicloud advantage: AWS to Azure service comparisons
This post is part of a series on replicating apps from AWS to Azure. View all posts in this series. As an Independent Software Vendor (ISV), expanding your Marketplace offer's reach beyond AWS Marketplace by replicating to Azure Marketplace offers exciting opportunities to grow your customer base. With millions of customers across a global network of businesses and industries, Azure presents a thriving platform to enhance your app’s visibility and functionality. To ensure a seamless app replication, start by reviewing the marketplace listing requirements. Understanding the key differences between AWS and Azure will help you transition and optimize performance on Azure while benefiting from its unique advantages. This guide will outline these differences, highlight similar services, and offer steps for a seamless replication or migration. You can also join ISV Success to get access to over $126K USD in cloud credits, AI services, developer tools, and 1:1 technical consults to help you replicate your app and publish to Azure Marketplace. The benefits of replicating or migrating to Azure Marketplace Migrating to Azure Marketplace unlocks a wealth of opportunities for ISVs. The Azure ecosystem offers several advantages, including: Global reach: Azure’s vast global network of data centers ensures high availability and low-latency access to your application for customers worldwide. Cost efficiency: Azure’s flexible pricing models and cost management tools allow ISVs to optimize their cloud spending. Scalability: With Azure’s powerful compute and storage options, you can scale your application effortlessly to accommodate growing demand. Security and compliance: Azure’s comprehensive security tools and certifications help you meet industry-specific compliance standards, ensuring that your application is secure and trusted. Meet where your customers are: Deploy into customer subscriptions, making your solution more integrated to customer workload. AWS vs. Azure AWS and Azure are the top cloud platforms with diverse services for developers and businesses. Below, we will highlight key areas where AWS and Azure differ—and how to leverage Azure services—when moving your Marketplace offer from AWS to Azure Marketplace. Azure Marketplace capabilities In Azure, ISVs can leverage metered billing to charge customers based on actual usage, similar to AWS's pay-as-you-go model. This flexible pricing model is ideal for SaaS solutions. Partner Center offers tools for setting pricing models, tracking usage, and adjusting billing. It also provides anomaly detection to help partners identify unexpected usage and ensure transparent billing. When creating SaaS offers in the Azure Marketplace, ISVs can define plans with various pricing strategies, such as usage-based or flat-rate billing. These plans, or SKUs, can be customized through free trials, BYOL (Bring Your Own License), or vCPU-based pricing for virtual machines. Both Azure and AWS allow flexible, metered billing based on usage. Azure also provides the ability to set customer discounts or negotiated pricing. Using Partner Center, you can configure and manage these offerings, providing flexibility for customers and partners to scale as needed. Like AWS Control Tower, Azure Lighthouse enables service providers to manage multiple customer Azure environments securely and at scale, offering enhanced visibility, control, and automation. For usage-based monthly billing, you can choose from predefined or custom pricing options (using metered billing APIs). Predefined options like per core, per node, or per pod let Microsoft bill customers based on hourly usage, billing them monthly. Learn more about usage-based pricing here: Setting Plan Pricing. Mapping AWS services to Azure services Your Marketplace offer may use multiple AWS services, and you can build the same offer using Azure services. However, this requires careful mapping to ensure your application functions seamlessly in the Azure environment. Here’s a quick overview of how popular AWS services map to Azure:: Networking: AWS VPC → Azure Virtual Networks (VNets) Compute Services: AWS EC2 → Azure Virtual Machines (VMs), Azure App Services (for web apps) Storage: Amazon S3 → Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Storage (for big data) Identity Management: AWS IAM → Entra ID Containers: EKS and Elastic Beanstalk → AKS and Azure App Services Serverless: AWS Lambda → Azure Functions Databases: Amazon RDS → Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB (for NoSQL) Azure for AWS professionals provides you with a more comprehensive mapping of different services. Let's take a deeper look into each of these areas. Cloud architecture and networking One of the primary differences between AWS and Azure lies in their cloud architecture and networking models. AWS uses Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) to create isolated networks, while Azure employs Virtual Networks (VNets). Both services perform similar functions, but they have different terminologies and setups. For instance, in Azure, you'll be working with VNet Peering, Network Security Groups (NSGs), and Azure VPNs for secure networking. The goal is to map your AWS VPC setup to Azure VNets with ease. AWS needs a Nat Gateway for egress access whereas Azure does not need a Nat Gateway for default egress. AWS Subnets are pinned to Availability Zones (AZs) whereas Azure Subnets span across the AZs. Compute services: EC2 vs. Virtual Machines (VMs) AWS EC2 instances are one of the most widely used compute services, allowing you to run applications on virtual servers. In Azure, the equivalent service is Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). While both offer scalable compute resources, the key differences are in the range of VM sizes, configurations, and the management interface. When migrating from AWS EC2 to Azure VMs, it's important to assess the appropriate Azure VM sizes and configurations that match the performance of your EC2 instances. Additionally, Azure VMs support Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, which provide more automation for resource management. For those who have utilized EC2's Auto Scaling feature, Azure provides similar functionality through Azure Scale Sets. Storage: S3 vs. Blob Storage For object storage, AWS uses Amazon S3, while Azure uses Azure Blob Storage. Both services serve the same purpose — storing large amounts of unstructured data — but the underlying configurations, security features, and cost structures differ. While migrating from S3 to Blob Storage, it’s important to review your storage needs and adjust your application accordingly. Azure Blob Storage offers Cool and Archive tiers, which can be a great way to optimize storage costs for infrequently accessed data, and Azure's data redundancy options ensure high availability and durability. The Azure Storage Explorer tool also makes it easier for ISVs to manage their data after migration. Identity and Access Management (IAM) & billing: IAM vs. Entra ID IAM services on AWS and Azure differ in how they manage roles and permissions. AWS uses IAM for users, roles, and policies, while Azure uses Entra ID for IAM across cloud services. AWS organizes accounts through AWS Organizations, with IAM used for role-based access control (RBAC) and policies for service access. Azure’s structure involves Subscriptions and Management Groups, with Entra ID managing identity and access. Azure uses RBAC to assign roles at various levels (Subscription, Resource Group, Resource) and Azure Policies for governance and compliance. Azure Entra ID integrates with Microsoft services, like Office 365, SharePoint, and Teams, supporting identity federation, multi-factor authentication, and RBAC for granular permissions. It enhances governance and security across platforms. Azure handles billing management via subscriptions providing access to resources and can be reassigned to new owners. It offers three classic subscription administrator roles for resource access and management for billing and resource access. Container management: Elastic Beanstalk vs. Azure App Services and EKS vs. AKS For containerized applications, AWS offers Elastic Beanstalk for easy application deployment and management. Azure’s equivalent services include Azure App Services for simple web application hosting and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for container orchestration. While Azure App Services is more suitable for traditional web applications, AKS provides a robust and scalable solution for microservices and containerized applications, similar to AWS’s Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). ISVs who are accustomed to Elastic Beanstalk for deploying containerized applications will find Azure App Services or AKS a seamless alternative, with Azure offering rich integrations with DevOps pipelines, CI/CD workflows, and container registries. Serverless: AWS Lambda vs. Azure Functions Both AWS and Azure support serverless computing, which allows developers to run code without managing servers. AWS offers Lambda, while Azure offers Azure Functions. Both services allow you to trigger code in response to events, such as file uploads or API calls. The key difference is that Azure Functions integrates deeply with other Azure services, such as Azure Logic Apps and Azure Event Grid. If your application leverages AWS Lambda, you will find that Azure Functions can serve as an excellent equivalent. Azure also provides Durable Functions, which extend Azure Functions for stateful workflows. Migrating from AWS Lambda to Azure Functions typically requires mapping your event-driven functions and configuring their triggers in the Azure ecosystem. Databases: RDS vs. Azure SQL and Cosmos DB When it comes to databases, AWS offers Amazon RDS for relational databases, and Amazon DynamoDB for NoSQL. Azure provides several alternatives, including Azure SQL Database for relational storage and Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL storage. Both platforms support database scalability, automated backups, and high availability. If you are using Amazon RDS with services like MySQL or PostgreSQL, you can migrate to Azure Database for MySQL or Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Similarly, if you are using AWS DynamoDB, Azure’s Cosmos DB offers a global, scalable NoSQL database with low-latency access. Messaging: AWS SQS vs. Azure Service Bus Messaging services are crucial when your application handles high-throughput, asynchronous communication between different components. AWS offers Simple Queue Service (SQS) for messaging and SNS for pub/sub notifications while Azure offers Azure Service Bus and Azure Event Grid. Azure Service Bus provides similar functionality to SQS but offers additional capabilities like advanced message routing, dead-lettering, and sessions for handling ordered messages. If your application relies on a queuing mechanism for inter-service communication, you’ll want to map AWS SQS to Azure Service Bus. For event-driven architectures, Azure Event Grid can connect different services and trigger actions across Azure services. Security: Protecting your application on Azure When migrating from AWS to Azure, security is paramount. Both platforms offer strong frameworks to protect data, apps, and infrastructure. Azure provides a suite of integrated security services to maintain high security while enabling cloud scalability. AWS offers AWS Shield and WAF for DDoS and web application firewalls, while Azure offers Azure DDoS Protection and Azure Firewall for similar threat prevention. Azure Security Center monitors your security posture, and Azure Sentinel provides cloud-native SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) for threat detection and response. Microsoft Defender for Identity and Azure Entra ID Identity Protection integrate with Entra ID, ensuring your app security is tightly linked to user identity and governance. Compliance: Meeting regulatory standards on Azure Ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations is crucial for many ISVs. Azure provides a robust compliance framework that aligns with global standards to meet the most stringent requirements. Whether your application deals with sensitive data or operates in highly regulated industries, Azure’s comprehensive compliance offerings can help you achieve the necessary certifications. Azure complies with key standards such as: GDPR HIPAA SOC 1, 2, and 3 ISO 27001 and other ISO standards FedRAMP Azure provides tools like Azure Policy for governance and Azure Blueprints for complex regulatory requirements. It offers a similar set of compliance certifications to AWS, with a stronger integration into Microsoft enterprise tools, easing compliance for businesses in regulated sectors. For apps handling sensitive data, use Azure Security and Compliance Blueprint to ensure regulatory adherence. Azure’s Compliance Manager helps track and manage compliance, simplifying the process of meeting industry standards. Key resources SaaS Workloads - Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework | Microsoft Learn Metered billing for SaaS offers in Partner Center Create plans for a SaaS offer in Azure Marketplace Metered billing with Azure Managed Applications Set plan pricing and availability for an Azure Container offer in Microsoft commercial marketplace - Marketplace publisher Configure pricing and availability for a virtual machine offer in Partner Center - Marketplace publisher Overview - CSP marketplace - Partner Center Azure for AWS professionals - Azure Architecture Center Azure networking documentation Microsoft Entra ID documentation - Microsoft Entra ID Azure security documentation Azure compliance documentation Azure Storage Documentation Hub Microsoft Azure container services documentation Azure serverless - Azure Logic Apps Migration examples Get over $126K USD in benefits and technical consultations to help you replicate and publish your app with ISV Success Maximize your momentum with step-by-step guidance to publish and grow your app with App AdvisorM365 Developers Update | February 2025
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A guide for AWS ISVs replicating or migrating to Azure Marketplace As an Independent Software Vendor (ISV), listing your application on Azure Marketplace can significantly boost visibility and growth. For ISVs already on AWS Marketplace, replicating to Azure provides an exciting opportunity to reach a broader and more diverse customer base. We previously discussed the business advantages of replicating your app from AWS to Azure, which you can read here. Either replicating or migrating from AWS to Azure is simpler when you understand the strengths and key architectural differences of each platform. This guide will cover the key phases of this type of project while highlighting differences to help you navigate a smooth transition. You can also join ISV Success to get access to over $126K USD in cloud credits, AI services, developer tools and 1:1 technical consults to help you replicate your app and publish to Azure Marketplace. Discovery and assessment phase: Laying the groundwork The first phase of replicating or migrating your application from AWS Marketplace to Azure Marketplace is the discovery and assessment phase. This step allows you to thoroughly evaluate your current infrastructure and applications, identifying dependencies and opportunities to prepare you for a smooth and successful transition from AWS to Azure. Key activities: Infrastructure and services evaluation: Understand the components that make up your current AWS environment. This includes: Regions: When replicating from AWS to Azure Marketplace, choosing the right Azure region is key for performance, availability, and cost optimization. Azure offers 60+ regions, compared to AWS’s 30+. Ensure your selected region supports the services you need by checking product availability by region. Pick a region close to your customers to minimize latency and use Azure Traffic Manager for traffic optimization across regions. Also, consider compliance standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS, as some regions are designed to meet specific regulatory requirements. Finally, use the Azure Pricing Calculator to compare regional costs and ensure a cost-effective replication. Selecting the right region will ensure a smooth transition that meets performance and compliance needs. Ensure that the services you plan to use from Azure Marketplace are available. Servers: Assess the virtual machines (VMs) running your AWS Marketplace (EC2 instances) and map them to Azure Virtual Machines. While the names are similar, the underlying architecture, performance characteristics, price and region-specific availability may differ. Storage: Replicating from Amazon S3 to Azure Blob Storage requires evaluating storage classes, data transfer rates, and costs. Azure Blob Storage integrates with various Marketplace solutions for big data, analytics, and AI. It's important to assess how your AWS solutions handle data and explore equivalent services or optimized transfer tools in Azure. Networking: Networking is crucial when migrating from AWS Marketplace to Azure Marketplace. AWS uses VPCs, while Azure uses VNets. You'll need VNet Peering for internal communication, particularly across regions or environments. Configuring NSGs to manage traffic at the subnet or network interface level is essential for security. Secure connectivity via VPNs or ExpressRoute will ensure smooth interaction between on-premises and Azure, or across cloud environments, without compromising security. Latency requirements: Evaluate the latency-sensitive components of your AWS application to ensure their Azure equivalents meet or exceed these requirements. Azure Marketplace solutions, such as edge computing or CDNs, can optimize latency and improve user experience during the transition. Service mapping: Some AWS services don’t have direct Azure equivalents, offering an opportunity to explore more flexible solutions. For example, AWS Lambda maps to Azure Functions, with some configuration and capability differences that you can easily adapt to. EKS workloads can be migrated to AKS or ACA, depending on the workload type. Data and compliance assessment: Both platforms offer strong compliance frameworks, making this a great time to align your application with Azure’s security standards. While security protocols, encryption, and Identity Access Management (IAM) systems differ, Azure provides tools to help ensure a smooth and secure transition. Cost analysis: Both AWS and Azure offer flexible pricing models, and comparing their service offerings and resource allocations can help optimize costs. A detailed cost comparison will guide your financial decisions for a smooth, cost-effective migration. Consider costs for data transfer, storage, and networking, as these may differ from AWS Marketplace. Customers with specific consumption commitments may get the app for a lower price. Pricing Models: Understanding different commercial marketplace pricing models that ISVs can offer to their customers is important for a sustainable business model. Azure supports various pricing offer types including recurring subscriptions, usage-based pricing and bring your own license (BYOL). Publishing to the Azure Marketplace storefront happens through the Microsoft commercial marketplace. Design & planning phase: Creating a roadmap to replicate to Azure Once you have completed the discovery phase, the design & planning phase follows. This phase focuses on creating a comprehensive replication or migration strategy, selecting the appropriate Azure services, and designing the architecture that will best support your application in Azure Marketplace. Key activities: Service selection and architecture design: Mapping your AWS architecture to Azure requires careful consideration to select the right Azure services and marketplace solutions. For example, you can migrate from AWS ELB to Azure Load Balancer or Application Gateway, and from AWS RDS to Azure SQL Database or Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL. Explore third-party solutions on Azure Marketplace for specialized needs. Choosing the right strategy: Based on your marketplace application needs, decide whether to employ a Lift & Shift (Rehost) or Re-platform (App Modernization) approach. Lift & shift: Moving your application "as-is" can be the quickest method to replicate your app to Azure but may not fully optimize your application for Azure’s capabilities. Re-platforming: This approach involves re-architecting parts of your application to fully leverage Azure’s powerful offerings, like AKS or Azure App Services, to enhance scalability, performance, and cost efficiency. While it may take a bit more time and resources, the long-term benefits are well worth it, offering exciting opportunities to delight your customers and boost your revenue. Service customization: Azure and AWS offer unique approaches to advanced services like serverless computing and container orchestration. For instance, while AWS uses Elastic Beanstalk for managed app deployments, Azure provides Azure App Services for web apps and APIs, along with AKS for containerized applications. By mapping these services to your app, you’ll ensure optimal performance and leverage Azure’s scalability and flexibility. Security and compliance: Azure offers unique security features, including Azure Security Center and Microsoft Entra ID for identity management. As you move to Azure Marketplace, you can integrate these services with your existing security solutions and adapt your IAM policies to leverage Azure’s RBAC. These tools will enhance protection and ensure a secure migration. Selecting pricing offers: In the design and planning phase, selecting the right pricing model is key to aligning with your business and customer needs. Azure supports recurring subscriptions, usage-based pricing, and BYOL. The ideal model depends on your app’s value and customer preferences—recurring subscriptions work for steady usage, while usage-based suits scalable apps. Understanding your audience helps choose a pricing structure that ensures satisfaction and business sustainability. Environment set-up: Building your Azure landing zone The environment set-up phase involves creating a landing zone in Azure that serves as the foundation for your replicated or migrated applications. This is a crucial step to ensure a smooth and secure migration. Key activities: Network and connectivity configuration: Azure offers its own set of powerful network services that provide great flexibility, including VNet Peering, which is similar to AWS's VPC Peering for seamless inter-network connectivity. As you transition, you'll have the opportunity to fine-tune your setup by configuring subnets, firewall rules, and private link connections to ensure your Azure network performs optimally and securely, just as it did on AWS. This will help you maintain a smooth, high-performance experience in the Azure environment. Identity management: In AWS, IAM manages user access and permissions, while Azure uses Microsoft Entra ID for identity management. As you transition to Azure, you can integrate Entra ID with your existing setup, including third-party or federated identities, ensuring a smooth transition. Azure’s identity solutions help maintain secure and efficient user access management. Governance and compliance: Azure combines Azure Policy and Management Groups to manage governance and ensure compliance with internal and external standards. While AWS uses AWS Organizations and Service Control Policies (SCPs), Azure's approach offers flexibility and control in designing governance strategies. With careful planning, monitoring, and audits, you can confidently ensure compliance with industry standards, especially in sectors like government and healthcare, where regional and industry-specific compliance is crucial. Replication/migration phase: Moving to Azure The actual replication or migration of your application to Azure requires careful coordination. During this phase, you’ll use various tools and strategies to ensure that your services and data are securely and efficiently transferred. Key activities: Data transfer: Migrating large datasets between AWS and Azure can be complicated, especially when moving data from S3 to Azure Blob Storage. The process involves using tools like AzCopy, Azure Data Box, or Azure Storage Migration Service, but data consistency and transfer speed can be issues, especially for large volumes of data or applications with stringent uptime requirements. Compute migration: Moving applications that run on AWS EC2 instances to Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) requires consideration of VM sizes, underlying OS support, and the region-specific availability of services. In some cases, you may encounter differences in the types of VMs available on Azure compared to AWS, which could lead to performance adjustments. Using Microsoft & third-party tools: Azure provides Azure Migrate and Azure Site Recovery, while third-party tools like CloudEndure can offer continuous replication of data for minimal downtime. These tools are essential for minimizing the risk of downtime and maintaining data integrity during migration. Pricing Set-up: Additionally, during the replication/migration phase, it’s important to set up your pricing plans in Azure Marketplace. You can use Partner Center to configure and manage your pricing structure, ensuring it aligns with the new environment and meets your customers' needs. This step is crucial for ensuring a seamless transition and continued revenue generation throughout the process. Testing and cutover phase: Ensuring seamless transition Once your application is replicated or migrated to Azure Marketplace, you must validate its functionality, performance, and security during the testing and cutover Phase. Key activities: Functionality and performance testing: After replication/migration, conduct smoke tests to validate core functions like user authentication, network connectivity, and data integrity. Use Azure’s Application Insights and Azure Monitor to track post-migration performance. Addressing latency and performance issues: Differences in infrastructure between AWS and Azure, such as service provisioning and region-specific features, may cause latency or performance issues. It's crucial to conduct load testing and optimize Azure services to meet operational requirements. Security audits: Post-replication/migration, review your Azure security settings to ensure they align with your framework. Azure offers tools like Azure Security Center and flexible IAM approaches, making it easy to validate and adjust security for a smooth transition and continued protection. Post-replication/migration optimization and support The final step after completing the replication or migration involves optimizing and supporting the application on Azure. This is an ongoing process that requires monitoring, scaling, and addressing any issues that arise in the Azure environment. Key activities: Monitoring: Azure offers tools like Azure Monitor and Azure Application Insights to help you keep track of your app’s performance. While similar to AWS CloudWatch, these tools are configured differently and may require adaptation to your monitoring setup. Cost management: With different pricing models, monitor your Azure usage post-migration in Azure Portal to stay within budget and adjust resources as needed. Partner Center offers anomaly detection to monitor your customers’ usage and ensure they are not overbilled. User support and documentation: Offer customer support to address any issues users face with the new Azure environment, and provide documentation tailored to Azure’s services and infrastructure. Key resources: ISV Development Toolkit: Get cloud-ready reference code to replicate from AWS to Azure AWS to Azure - Service Mapping Azure Well-Architected Framework Get over $126K USD in benefits and technical consultations to help you replicate and publish your app with ISV Success. Conclusion Replication or migrating from AWS Marketplace to Azure Marketplace is an exciting opportunity for growth. With careful planning, execution, and support, ISVs can navigate differences in architecture, services, and operations between AWS and Azure. By embracing the discovery, design, replication/migration, and testing phases with clear strategies and informed decisions, ISVs ensure a smooth transition, unlocking Azure's full potential and expanding their reach on a globally recognized platform.
Empowering AI innovation with Azure AI Foundry
In a recent meeting at the Azure AI Foundry Partner Council, we delved deep into the capabilities and future of Azure AI Foundry, highlighting its unified AI platform, extensive model catalog, and the innovative services and tools it offers. With a rising trend in the use of multiple AI models and the evolving capabilities of AI agents, Azure AI Foundry is at the forefront of streamlining the AI development process. The highlight of the meeting was the announcement of the Foundry SDK, bringing with it a unified inferencing API and support for multiple languages. This SDK promises to revolutionize how developers approach AI projects, offering templates for quick starts and a host of upcoming features and improvements. Additionally, new tools and integrations with GitHub and Visual Studio Code were introduced, enhancing the developer experience and providing seamless transitions between different platforms. A particularly exciting development is the upcoming launch of Sora, a new visual experience within Azure Open AI services. This launch is set to redefine how users interact with AI models, making the process more intuitive and visually engaging. As probably some of the readers are also evaluating, participants were keen to understand the scalability of low-code solutions and the transition to pro-code. For more complex capabilities, Foundry provides a seamless integration experience, ensuring that developers can easily transition between different SDKs and platforms. It doesn’t matter which dev tools you are using we’ll provide you with what you need wherever you are. Looking ahead, future developments such as the Foundry Canvas, observability suite, and management center were discussed, along with new products like Catalog NextGen and Foundry Copilot. These innovations promise to further enhance the capabilities of Azure AI Foundry, making it an indispensable tool for AI developers. Learn more about Azure AI Foundry: Azure AI Foundry | Microsoft Learn Join upcoming Azure AI Foundry Partner Council sessions to continue learning about the Azure AI Platform. February 13: Hello to the AI agentic world February 19: Build your first agent with Azure OpenAI Agent Service workshop February 20: GenAIOps lifecycle and best practices February 27: Managing and optimizing GenAI costs- updated FinOps approach For more information, please contact aipartnerteam@microsoft.com. Links and Resources: Evaluation of generative AI applications with Azure AI Foundry - Azure AI Foundry - Microsoft Learn Microsoft’s Agentic AI Frameworks: AutoGen and Semantic Kernel - Semantic KernelExploring Azure AI Content Understanding: Insights from the Partner Council Session
Azure AI Content Understanding is a powerful AI service designed to process and analyze various types of content, including documents, audio, images, videos, and text files. Here are some of its key features and capabilities: Multimodal Data Ingestion: This feature allows the ingestion of diverse types of data, such as documents, images, audio, and video. It uses a range of AI models available in Azure AI to convert the input data into a structured format that can be easily processed and analyzed by downstream services or applications Information Extraction Using Schemas: Azure AI Content Understanding helps define schemas of the extracted results to fit specific needs. This can be done by generating task-specific representations of the output, such as insights, features, or summaries from a pre-configured set of schemas or customized ones. For example, it can generate captions, transcripts, or summaries from video or audio files, and thumbnails, previews, or highlights from images or video files Grounding and Confidence Scores: This feature ensures that the extracted results are accurately, grounded to the input content, and provide confidence scores for the extracted data, making automation and validation more reliable and efficient The platform leverages generative AI models to unify these processes, effectively addressing challenges such as prompt engineering complexities, model selection dilemmas, and lifecycle management hurdles. By offering a structured approach to processing unstructured data, Azure Content AI Understanding accelerates time-to-value, making it an essential tool for businesses aiming to derive actionable insights efficiently. Live Demonstrations The session featured three key demos, illustrating the real-world application of Azure AI Content Understanding: Post-Call Analytics Demonstrated the creation of a content understanding project in AI Foundry. Showcased schema definition for extracting information from multilingual audio files. Highlighted structured outputs, including call summaries, sentiment analysis, and key topic extraction. Document Processing Focused on schema definition for extracting key fields (e.g., title, date, scope of work) from PDF documents. Demonstrated data labeling, correction of extractions, and confidence score enhancement through additional training samples. Video Processing Explained the breakdown of video content into structured elements such as key frames, descriptions, and sentiment analysis. Real-World Applications and Common Use Cases Highlighted several compelling use cases illustrating Azure AI Content Understanding in action: Insurance Claim Processing: Integrating written statements, call recordings, police reports, and video footage to expedite claims decisions. Contact Center Analytics: Enhancing customer service through insights derived from call recordings and chat logs. Social media Trend Analysis: Extracting valuable insights from social media videos to identify emerging trends and relevant product mentions. For those seeking additional insights, we encourage viewing the session recording HERE or you can read more about it here: Announcing Azure AI Content Understanding: Transforming Multimodal Data into Insights | Microsoft Community Hub For specific questions you can reach out to the Azure AI Partner Team at aipartnerteam@microsoft.com or continue the conversation below in the comments.M365 Developers Update | January 2025 Edition
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