Stack{d}
Our thoughts on all things Data, DevOps and Cloud
Is Private Cloud Being Replaced By Azure & AWS?
I work for a Managed Services Provider (MSP). We own a UK-centric network, multiple datacentres and have many teams of highly skilled technical staff who manage customer systems which are hosted on our infrastructure. We have over 1000 customers and it's...
Infrastructure & Software Automation: When You Should Use It (And Why)
It’s no secret that I like automation, so much so that I wrote a book called Learn Ansible which, as you may have guessed, covers the basic usage Red Hats Ansible. While I try and automate as much as possible, there are a few basic rules I stick to and...
Serverless Computing London 2018 – The Low Down
Yesterday I attended Day One of Serverless Computing London. Unsurprisingly the theme of the day was ‘serverless’ and the general gist was serverless is here, and it’s here to stay. We explored the past, present and future of serverless, the security risks...
![CloudStack[d] October Newsletter](https://n4stack.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/CloudStackd-October-Newsletter-1-400x250.png)
CloudStack[d] October Newsletter
MICROSOFT AZURE HAPPY BIRTHDAY AZURE! We know, we know, Azure turned 8 in February, but 10 years ago at the Professional Developers Conference Microsoft announced the Community Technology preview of Azure. We definitely think that's worth celebrating! ...
Checklist for SQL Server Always On Availability Groups
As a Senior Database Consultant with over 20 years experience I've configured Always On more times than I can count and I find myself making the same recommendations over and over again. So, I did the sensible thing - I wrote myself an Always On checklist, and I'd...
Building a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Capability
Key points Building a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) capability requires changes in hiring, training, and organisation behaviour Adopting SRE needs enhanced trust across the IT organisation An SRE Managed Service can help organisations get the benefits of SRE...
![CloudStack[d] September Newsletter](https://n4stack.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CloudStackd-September-Newsletter-400x250.png)
CloudStack[d] September Newsletter
MICROSOFT AZURE MICROSOFT LAUNCHES AZURE DEVOPS Microsoft’s well known Visual Studio Team Service (VSTS) has been rebranded to Azure DevOps, and the guy put forward by Microsoft to announce this slick name change... it just had to be Jamie Cool! The Director of...
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) as a Managed Service
Key points Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is a radically new approach to IT operations The 'everything as code' approach brings a software engineering mindset to operations SRE teams are empowered to say 'no' to software with low operability In this two-part mini...
Why Operations-as-a-Service is the Future with Azure
Key Points As technology decision-makers or architects we need to understand the trajectory of modern cloud tools/platforms so we can make investment decisions Some of the cloud technology offerings have deep complexity and need a significant investment - they...
Extend Microsoft Support of SQL Server 2008 with Azure
The launch of SQL Server 2008 created a significant turning point where Microsoft customers could be confident their critical applications would operate in a scalable and resilient environment. End-users and application developers alike started to use SQL...
How to Fix Oracle Database Networking Issues
This simple two-part procedure will help to diagnose and fix the most common sqlnet and tnsnames configuration problems. TEST COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE CLIENT AND THE LISTENER We will use tnsping to complete this step. It's a common...
![CloudStack[d] August Newsletter](https://n4stack.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CloudStackd-August-Newsletter-400x250.png)
CloudStack[d] August Newsletter
MICROSOFT AZURE NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR APPLICATION MODERNISATION Microsoft have announced that Windows Server Containers in Web App are now available in public preview. The preview enables the opportunity to lift and shift to PaaS and install custom...
Oracle on Windows: DLL missing errors
Recently I encountered a DLL issue when trying to log in to Oracle on Windows. It's an issue i've not encountered before and it took a little while to figure out so I thought i'd share my solution with you below... THE SCENARIO You log in, set your...
Trolling Myself with Azure Logic Apps
Earlier this week we had a session at the office with April Edwards from Microsoft about Azure Logic Apps; https://twitter.com/Scubaninja24/status/1031969656884682752 While this is something I had been aware of before it is something I had never...
Automating Deployments Using Ansible AWX & Jenkins
Sharing an office with a development team can be a challenge when you are a system administrator, you are always finding yourself doing “quick deploys” or logging into servers to take a look at configuration changes which “didn’t quite go as planned”. As...
Migrating Oracle Data to Amazon RDS with GoldenGate
The migration of databases to cloud has increased rapidly in recent years and it’s not hard to see why. Moving your capital expenditure (CapEx) costs into operational expenditure (OpEx) budgets offers greater flexibility and lower risk but there’s still a major...
N4Stack launches Microsoft Azure services
New DevOps-aligned services and adoption of Microsoft Azure offer comprehensive portfolio of transformational services Derby, UK – 7th August 2018 - Node4, the cloud, data centre and communications provider, has launched N4Stack, a range of services enabling...
![CloudStack[d] July Newsletter](https://n4stack.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/CloudStackd-July-Newsletter_SM-1-1-400x250.png)
CloudStack[d] July Newsletter
MICROSOFT AZURE Microsoft has had a busy month releasing new tools and services into public review. They’ve also improved their Azure certifications AND for the first time ever have exceeded Amazon’s AWS cloud revenue! Well done to Microsoft Azure. ...
AWS Summit 2018 #London – Key Takeaways
If you weren’t one of the 12,000 attendees or one of the 4,000+ streaming the AWS Summit, London live then let me take 2 minutes of your time to fill you in. Firstly, wow, the number of attendee’s year on year is increasing and I have to say there was no...
Oracle 12c on Windows Install Issues for a Danish client
Recently I’ve had to install Oracle 12C on Windows Server 2012 for a client. Normally this wouldn’t be blog-worthy but this time the installation threw up several headaches that I’ve not encountered before, and one I had and should have known better!...
MongoDB Europe 2017: Key Takeaways
Couldn't make MongoDB Europe in London this year? Don't worry, here are the key takeaways! Only the second year of MongoDB Europe, yet the atmosphere is buzzing and charged up with MongoDB enthusiasts from around Europe flocking in to know and learn...