Redmond, Washington, United States
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft's cloud platform, and the first of the major clouds to open a dedicated Gulf region. Azure OpenAI Service is the most common route enterprises use to buy OpenAI's models under their own compliance terms.
Where it sits in the stack
- User - Microsoft Azure does not work at this layer
- Application - Microsoft Azure does not work at this layer
- ModelThe AI itself - Microsoft Azure works at this layer
- InferenceRunning the model, live - Microsoft Azure works at this layer
- ComputeThe processing power - Microsoft Azure works at this layer
- GPUThe physical chips - Microsoft Azure works at this layer
- Data CentreThe building - Microsoft Azure works at this layer
- Power & Network - Microsoft Azure does not work at this layer
Has a site in the UAE
Microsoft was the first global cloud provider with a dedicated UAE region: UAE North opened in Dubai in October 2019, later paired with UAE Central in Abu Dhabi, operated in partnership with G42.
- UAE North - Dubai
- UAE Central - Abu Dhabi
What it offers
Azure Virtual Machines
GPU and CPU virtual machines, including the NDv5 series used for large-scale AI training.
Azure OpenAI Service
Managed access to OpenAI's models inside an Azure subscription and compliance boundary.
Azure Blob Storage
Object storage for training data and model artefacts.
What it can do
- Managed OpenAI model access with enterprise compliance controls
- Large-scale GPU clusters for training and fine-tuning
- Deep integration with Microsoft 365 and enterprise identity
What its 5 layers mean
- Model
The trained system that actually produces the answer - GPT, Gemini, Claude, Llama and others like them - plus the platforms that make models like these available for developers to build on.
- Inference
The moment a trained model is actually used to produce an answer, in about the time it takes to read this sentence. Training a model happens once; inference happens every single time someone uses it.
- Compute
The raw computing capacity - rented by the hour, the month or the year - that trains and runs AI models. This is what "the cloud" mostly means in practice.
- GPU
The specialised chips - mostly made by NVIDIA - that do the actual arithmetic behind AI, built to run millions of small calculations in parallel far faster than a general-purpose computer chip can.
- Data Centre
The physical building - racks, servers, cooling - where everything above this actually lives. An AI model has no existence outside a room full of running machines.
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