As the newest addition to Microsoft’s cloud-based platforms, Azure Analysis Services provides a cloud-based space for storing large amounts of information and data from multiple sources and then present it in a tabular model. It is especially beneficial for businesses that require ad-hoc information for business decisions as it provides this data in a quick and efficient way. Furthermore, integration with Excel and Power BI allows the final information to be presented in a simple, organized, and visually interactive manner.

Why Azure Analysis Services?

• Azure Analysis Services boasts of high availability, with assurance from Microsoft of about just 4.38 hours of downtime in a year, which compared to its competitors is very impressive.
• It provides flexibility in pricing and scaling. Businesses have the option to scale up or down as per their own needs and requirements, thereby only paying for the services they actually use rather than any hidden charges, almost like a pay-as-per usage.
• The ability of this server to be integrated with other Microsoft tools is another advantage for the users. It can be used with Power BI, SQL Reporting Services as well as Microsoft Excel.
• It also allows its users to pause the server per their convenience without paying pausing charges, as is common with other servers. 
• Being part of the Azure services, it provides the basic security of Distributed Denial of service (DDoS), firewall, Azure Authentication, and Server Side Encryption.