Microsoft Azure Maps is a collection of mapping and location APIs that enable businesses to add location information to their solutions.
Microsoft Azure Maps is a collection of mapping and location APIs that enable businesses to add location information to their solutions. Tea Geocoding service is one of the most prominently used Maps APIs that allows geocoding addresses (converting text addresses to geographic coordinates) and vice versa. For example, the name or address of a coffee shop, such as 1124 Pike St, Seattle, can be converted to 47.61403,-122.32820 (latitude and longitude coordinates) so it can be placed and visualized on a map or used to calculate distance metrics.
Geocoding is one of the most important steps in positioning, as it forms the basis for all the advanced location analysis that can be performed once addresses are accurately plotted on a map. For example, after identifying the location of a coffee shop, you can find the nearest grocery stores or other points of interest.
Microsoft has continuously invested in geocoding services for decades to leverage them across its product portfolio (such as Bing, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Windows, and more) and provide our enterprise customers with the best in the industry. Organizations use the Azure Maps geocoding service for batch geocoding, which helps them easily geocode multiple data points at once. One of the most common use cases for geocoding is to enrich databases with location data to create mapping-based web and mobile applications that can run across platforms.
Why choose Azure Maps geocoding service?
- Data accuracy and coverage – Azure Maps sources data from multiple trusted data providers to provide global coverage of country, city, street, address, and other granular regional data. Our geocoding services have used state-of-the-art artificial intelligence for over a decade to consistently lead the industry in coverage and accuracy. We are pleased to announce that from On November 12, 2024, the Azure Maps geocoding service includes support for South Korean addresses in accordance with regional data residency laws, expanding our global coverage.
- Security, Compliance and Scalability – Azure Maps is natively hosted on Microsoft Azure cloud services and benefits from the broader security and scalable infrastructure of Azure. The result is seamless integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory/Microsoft Entra ID and a shared access signature token for authentication and authorization, enabling robust identity management and access control. It is also fully compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Federal Risk Management and Authorization Program (FedRAMP) and many others.
- Favorable Terms of Use – The Azure Maps geocoding API allows users to save geocoded addresses and coordinates for data enrichment scenarios if they have an active Microsoft Azure account, so they don’t have to re-use the geocoding service each time for an address they have. they already have and include incremental costs.
How do organizations use Geocoding?
- Faster checkout and seamless delivery – Retail companies use Azure Maps geocoding service to improve the overall shopping experience for their customers around the world. Capabilities such as address auto-fill allow online shoppers to register their addresses and pay quickly.
- Targeted Marketing with Customer Insights – Brick-and-mortar stores and on-premise restaurants use Azure Maps geocoding to find their customers’ nearest retail store. Using this information, they can target email advertising and sales flyers to the offers available to them if they visit a store.
- Preventive planning with pattern analysis – Public health institutions, NGOs and health insurance providers use the Azure Maps geocoding service to visualize the distribution of health outcomes on a map and analyze the risks of potential virus outbreak scenarios. This allows them to track vaccine uptake and helps ensure that treatment is distributed where it is likely to have the greatest impact.
- Site Based Risk Analysis – Insurance must plan for the “unplannable”. Using actuarial data and predictive catastrophe models, insurance brokers can estimate the level of risk that an insurer must have covered by its policy to cover the costs should something damage the item or person that is insured.
- Fleet Route Optimization – Logistics, trucking and shipping companies use the Azure Maps geocoding service to geocode addresses. This converts customer and other addresses into latitude and longitude points, which can then be used to calculate the most optimized delivery routes, helping to ensure efficient delivery schedules and reduce fuel consumption.
Get started with Azure Maps
Azure Maps is designed for compatibility and allows you to connect to a range of Microsoft services such as Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Power BI, Entra ID, Microsoft Azure Data Explorer, Microsoft Power Apps, Synapse, Microsoft Azure IoT and more. With minimal coding required, you can effortlessly enhance your applications with powerful mapping and location analysis features.
If you already have an Azure subscription, just add an Azure Maps resource to your project and use that instance to call the Azure Maps API. Visit the Azure Maps pricing page to explore pricing options. Pay only for what you use and easily deploy Azure Maps into your existing Azure subscription. If you don’t have an Azure subscription, sign up for it here and follow the steps above.