Title sums it up. In more detail, I'd like to offer my own proprietary closed-source ML algorithms to MS Azure customers as pay-to-use SaaS through WS API. E.g. sales volumes forecast algorithm SaaS listed on Azure Marketplace licensed monthly or annually. I could not find any info on the web on how to do that on Azure through its native support for SaaS if any.
Please keep in mind that this is not licensing software solutions, but rather licensing usage of my ML API. Thus I'd not have VM images to offer on the marketplace. Machine images are great for software vendors offering full software solutions like ERP, Accounting, etc . E.g. an accounting software vendor sets up a server image with their software fully installed and configured for customers to license as turn-key, ready to be cloned and used.
Mine is not software package but SaaS - think of it as weather forecasting api you subscribe to, integrate your systems with it and get weather forecast information. One does not need to buy the entire VM image to get weather forecast through a web api.
So, does Azure natively support what I'm trying to do is my question? I.e. Setting up and offering my own ML-algos as SaaS to customers as VM-image-free pay-to-use pure-WS-solution. It seems that Azure platform only offers machine images on its marketplace, while I'm looking to have them support and list only my own WS there. Hopefully, I have missed that option somewhere.
Thank you in advance for your help.
P.S. MS Cognitive Services are MS-only algos and no 3rd party algos allowed.
I'd like to answer my own question - there's support for this in the platform, which is great. Place to start SaaS applications Offer Publishing Guide
P.S. Hopefully, they'll make it even more integrated with the payment/licensing system - e.g. for certain prod license types limit the max number of simultaneous WS calls and max CPU cores allowed, and implement enhanced trial licenses time/functional limits support.