How Azure Machine Learning Can Benefit Your Business

Today there are use cases for machine learning in every business and every industry. The fact is that complex algorithms are perfectly suited to solve everyday challenges and to help you accelerate insights and decision-making. The technology can optimise your supply chain, improve your planning capabilities and help you learn more about your customers. However, while the benefits might be clear, implementing machine learning algorithms can seem complex; for a start, they require specialist knowledge and huge computing resource. Up until recently, machine learning has felt limited to data scientists and those with deep expertise.  

Thankfully, the advent of cloud computing has simplified the use of advanced algorithms. Machine learning models no longer take weeks to be trained and they can be deployed using ready-to-use services; this means that it is far easier to adopt machine learning to gain a competitive advantage. With services like Azure Machine Learning, you can leverage the benefits of machine learning technology, simplify and automate repetitive tasks, gain deep insights and focus on growing your business. 

Why is Machine Learning Important?

Machine learning is a subcategory of artificial intelligence that enables machines to self-learn and imitate intelligent human behaviours. It’s the power behind predictive texts, chatbots, in-app recommendations, predictive social media feeds and more. It’s also the force behind autonomous vehicles and image-based medical diagnosis. The possibilities are endless, which makes machine learning extremely important in today’s business world. 

A huge percentage of organisations are already using machine learning in some capacity. Successful adoption can help organisations to make sense of valuable business data, automate business processes, increase productivity and drive business growth. However, while most organisations are keen on adopting the technology, they can find themselves struggling to get started. There can be high set-up costs and the requirement for specialist coding skills and expensive hardware. Fortunately, Microsoft’s Azure Machine learning service can empower businesses to overcome these challenges and quickly leverage the benefits of machine learning. 

What is Azure Machine Learning?

Azure Machine learning is Microsoft’s cloud-based enterprise-grade machine learning service that enables businesses to build and deploy machine learning models. The service drives the machine learning project lifecycle; Azure developers can train and deploy models as well as manage machine learning operations (MLOps). Whether they assemble models from scratch or use an existing model from an open-source platform, Azure’s machine learning capabilities can be used on custom data or public data. Meanwhile, Azure provides MLOps tools to help monitor, retrain and redeploy models. 

Azure Machine Learning is for anyone who wants to implement MLOps within their business and bring machine learning models into production in a secure environment. The service provides tools for integrating models into applications or services along with a robust set of tools for building advanced ML tooling. For those who already work in the Microsoft Azure cloud, security and role-based access will be familiar and comforting. As machine learning projects often require a multi-faceted team, there are tools to facilitate collaboration, ensure models can be deployed quickly and securely at scale and run machine workloads anywhere with built-in governance. Azure Machine Learning can scale to millions of requests per second, which means millions of predictions for your business. 

What Are the Business Benefits of Azure Machine Learning?

Every business creates a huge amount of data, however, that data only has value if it can be analysed and understood. With Azure Machine Learning, your business can do just that: derive insights from data, drive value and gain a competitive advantage. While you may already have streamlined data processes, workflows and teams in place, Azure Machine Learning can help you to increase speed to value and reduce cost to value. Azure Machine Learning provides seamless integration and advanced capabilities that make it easier for businesses to build a machine learning practice and achieve business objectives. 

However, while organisations can quickly augment their analytics with machine learning and deploy services, Azure Machine Learning comes with many more exceptional features. Some of the many business benefits of choosing Machine Azure Learning include:

• Cost-efficiency – Azure Machine Learning is a pay-as-you-go service, reducing the need for purchasing and implementing big hardware or complex software. The flexible pricing model means you only purchase the service you need and can start building machine learning apps immediately. 
• Excellence – Azure offers best-of-breed ML algorithms developed by Microsoft Research. The algorithms can be used with a simple drag-and-drop configuration and ensure that cutting-edge apps can be built without an in-depth knowledge of data science or expertise in algorithms. 
• Scalability – there is no set data limit to import data from Azure storage which reduces costs and enables developers to fine-tune data and yield more value. 
• Flexibility – Azure Ml is cloud-based and can be used anywhere at any time from any device. Using Azure ML service can help promote flexible working arrangements and ensure access to data and reports. With Azure, you can gain an interactive view of essential business data irrespective of location. 
• Security – as machine learning models often analyse sensitive information, security is paramount. Azure Machine Learning enables you to build secure apps with role-based access, virtual networks and private links. You can also manage governance with built-in policies, quotes and audit trails. Azure streamlines compliance with a comprehensive portfolio of certifications. 

Ultimately, with Azure Machine Learning, your business has the potential to rapidly create intelligent, data-driven apps that empower smarter, data-driven decisions. With Azure Machine Learning, you can build a data-driven culture where decisions are never based on best guesses or intuition. Moreover, you can uncover key insights that will not only improve decision-making but propel business growth. 

Could Your Business Benefit From Azure Machine Learning?
Azure Machine Learning removes many of the roadblocks that stand in the way of machine learning adoption. With the range of friendly and robust features on offer, you can reap the benefits of machine learning without needing to understand complex algorithms or have a data scientist on hand. Whatever industry you work in, Azure Machine Learning can help you to derive insights from the data you collect and to make better business decisions. Moreover, it can help you do so in a scalable, secure and cost-efficient way. With Azure Machine Learning, the power is in the palm of your hands.