The term workload has various definitions. It can refer directly to an individual employee's workload, for example, and their literal burden of tasks. But how do you understand the term workload in the IT context or even in the public cloud environment? And what do your Microsoft Workloads have to do with it?
We explain to you all the important points you should know in relation to your (Microsoft) workloads and the ideal operation.
What are workloads?
A workload in the cloud environment is a collection of IT resources such as servers, VMs, applications or data that together support a specified process or application. In practical terms, you put together a package of necessary resources that support the execution of a process. A workload can also be used for several processes.
In this context, the “workload” refers to the utilisation of a process or a cloud computing component, and is to be regarded as a previously defined amount of work that must be completed by a process or a computing component within a previously defined period of time.
Workloads in the public cloud computing environment
In the world of public cloud computing, like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, the term "workload" has become indispensable. The following characteristics identify a workload running on a public cloud:
- Workloads are platform-independent services or independently executable program codes
- Workloads can be operated independently of each other in different public clouds (e.g. Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure)
- Workloads are defined in workload and execution period before start of operations
- Workloads have interfaces through which data can be input or output
What is special about the cloud computing environment is that the workloads are separated from the hardware on which they are running. For the user of a workload, this means that in many cases it is not clear which physical system is actually providing the service.
In addition to the characteristics of workloads in the public cloud, it is also important to understand the distinction between them. The typical types of workloads in the cloud are:
- Batch workloads
- Transactional workloads
- Analytical workloads
- Database workloads
While the workloads are running, they can run in the background in the case of processing large amounts of data like batch workloads, or in the foreground like transactional or analytical workloads. Foreground operation is particularly beneficial for real-time data flows.
Probably the most frequently used workload is the database workload. This makes the necessary data available to various services or processes the information received for the next step in the data flow.
Which public cloud suits your Microsoft Workloads best?
Microsoft Workloads don't necessarily have to run in the Azure public cloud just because they belong to the Microsoft family. You are free to choose the cloud in which you want to run your workloads. In addition to the private or hybrid cloud, public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services are available to you.
The hyperscaler Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a number of exciting arguments tailored to this question that speak for operation in the Amazon cloud. In our article “Compelling benefits of running Microsoft workloads on AWS”, we give you a complete overview of the six decisive advantages.