\u00a0<\/p>\n
AZURE RELEASES NEW FEATURES TO SIMPLIFY SECURITY FOR SERVERLESS & WEB APPS<\/h4>\n
Despite the growing popularity of serverless and PaaS, app security is as important as ever. To reduce the burden of securing your apps Microsoft have announced<\/a> new security features which reduce the amount of code needed to work with identities and secrets under management. These new features include:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Sourcing Application Settings from Key Vault. Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In November Microsoft announced the first release candidate of Azure DevOps Server 2019<\/a>, which delivers the codebase of Microsoft Azure DevOps while being optimised for customers who prefer to self-host. The new features it brings to Azure DevOps are:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Azure DevOps Server 2019 RC1 release management improvements. <\/em>Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Following the success of SQL Data Warehouse Gen2 in April this year Microsoft have now announced<\/a> new features to support our growing data volume and analytics workloads. The new features consist of:<\/p>\n Added capabilities<\/em>\u00a0of Azure SQL Data Warehouse. <\/em>Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Designed to meet customers strict security and compliance requirements, the Microsoft Azure Dedicated Hardware Security Module (HSM) is provisioned on your virtual network and provides cryptographic key storage in Azure. The Dedicated HSM allows you to migrate HSM-protected applications, maintain security and compliance, and manage HSMs in the cloud.<\/p>\n Read more about the key benefits here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Microsoft announces free MongoDB Atlas tier for learning and early development<\/a><\/p>\n Azure AD group-based license management now generally available<\/a><\/p>\n Azure struggles with multi-factor authentication<\/a><\/p>\n 12 ways Azure beats AWS<\/a> (see our AWS section for the counter argument!)<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#e05206″ height=”5px” _builder_version=”3.10.2″ background_color=”#e05206″ max_width=”85%” module_alignment=”center” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text module_id=”AmazonWebServices” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#00a9e0″ header_2_text_color=”#e05206″ header_3_text_color=”#e05206″ header_4_text_color=”#e05206″]<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n AWS\u2019 new data transfer service, AWS DataSync, makes it easy to automate moving data between on-premises storage and Amazon S3 or EFS. By automatically handling many of the tasks related to data transfers that can slow down migrations or burden your IT operations, DataSync promises to transfer your data up to 10x faster than open source tools. And the icing on the cake? You only pay for the data you copy. Interested? Get started here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n AWS DataSync: How it works. Source: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Build, deploy and host cloud-powered modern web apps with the Amplify Console. The service accelerates your application release cycle, simplifies production and development workflows, automatically updates the associated DNS records and generates a free HTTPS certificate. Get started<\/a> with AWS Amplify Console now.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n AWS Amplify Console offers scalable hosting for static web apps with serverless backends. Source: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n AWS put smiles on everyone\u2019s faces at re:Invent last month when they announced predictive scaling for EC2<\/a>. Powered by machine learning, AWS can now predict your expected traffic and EC2 usage up to 48 hours in advance, allowing you to scale proactively \u2013 improving user experience and helping you to avoid over-provisioning, in turn reducing your EC2 costs.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Predictive scaling forecasts and scheduled actions. Source: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Last month AWS announced<\/a> the ability to launch EC2 instances, set them up as desired, hibernate them (paying only for the EBS volumes and elastic IP addresses attached to them), and then bring them back to life when required. The hibernation process stores the in-memory state of the instance, along with its private and elastic IP addresses, allowing it to pick up exactly where it left off.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Hibernating your EC2 Instance. Source: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n During re:Invent AWS announced new Lambda features to make it more developer friendly and satisfy customer requirements. The new features include:<\/p>\n Have a read of the new features in more detail here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Additional security layers, new storage class and a fully-managed Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) service? Looks like Amazon has paid some serious attention to their Simple Storage Service (S3)!<\/p>\n Increased protection: <\/strong>It\u2019s no secret that Amazon\u2019s S3 buckets are often misconfigured by users resulting in customer data being exposed but it looks like Amazon have taken notice and have added another layer of protection with the introduction of Amazon S3 Block Public Access. The new service gives users the ability to block existing public access and ensure access isn\u2019t granted to newly created access. Find out how to get started here<\/a>.<\/p>\n S3 Intelligent-Tiering<\/strong>: The new Amazon S3 storage class designed for customers who want to optimise storage costs automatically when data access patterns change, without performance impact or operational overhead. You can find the announcement here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fully-managed SFTP service: <\/strong>A secure file transfer service that stores your data in Amazon S3 and simplifies the migration of SFTP workflows to AWS. Get started with AWS Transfer for SFTP here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In a bid to dive into the hybrid-cloud world, AWS have announced their new Outposts<\/a> service which will be coming in the new year. The fully managed service targets customers looking to move to the cloud but who have workloads that for one reason or another need to stay on-premise. Scott Carey described the service perfectly when he summarised<\/a> \u2018customers will get AWS configured hardware and software delivered to their on-premise datacentre to run apps in a cloud-native manner without having to run it in AWS data centres\u2019.<\/p>\n How AWS Outposts works. Source: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n AWS\u2019 new service promises to easily scale connectivity across thousands of Amazon VPCs, AWS accounts, and on-premise networks by creating one single connection from the central gateway into each Amazon VPC or on-premise datacentre.<\/p>\n AWS Transit Gateway: how it works. Source: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n AWS Transit Gateway offers easier connectivity, better visibility and control, and on-demand bandwidth. Find out more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amazon launches Managed Streaming for Kafka<\/a><\/p>\n Amazon RDS for Oracle now supports Oracle Java<\/a><\/p>\n Save up to 85% with Amazon EFS Infrequent Access Storage Class<\/a><\/p>\n Lift & shift your windows applications to AWS with Amazon FSx for Windows File Server<\/a><\/p>\n AWS opens up \u2018Machine Learning University\u2019 to developers<\/a><\/p>\n AWS announces storage service that costs \u00bc of the price of its existing Glacier system<\/a><\/p>\n AWS rolls out new AMD-based R5, T3 and M5 Instances<\/a><\/p>\n 11 ways AWS beats Azure (and Google Cloud)<\/a> (see our Azure section for the counter argument!)<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.12.2″ background_color=”#e05206″ color=”#e05206″ height=”4px” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_team_member _builder_version=”3.12.2″ name=”Izzi Fuller” position=”Digital Marketer” linkedin_url=”https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/isobel-fuller-5070b880\/” image_url=”http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Izzi-Fuller_GW.png” saved_tabs=”all” global_module=”54024″]<\/p>\n \nIzzi is a recent addition to the N4Stack team and loves getting stuck into writing – whether its a blog, collateral or website content.<\/p>\n She’s taking a leap into the world of Data, DevOps and Cloud\u00a0after previously working with SaaS in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare prior to that.<\/p>\n Get to know more about Izzi here<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_team_member][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I'M INTERESTED IN AZURE I'M INTERESTED IN AWS \u00a0MICROSOFT AZURE\u00a0MICROSOFT LAUNCHES CONTAINER SUPPORT FOR AZURE COGNITIVE SERVICESThe container support will \u2018allow users of Azure Cognitive Services\u2019 pre-made models to deploy AI via\u00a0Docker containers\u00a0for edge devices, in the cloud, or in on-premise servers\u2019. If you\u2019re finding that drawing AI predictions from the cloud is expensive, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":54593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" \u00a0<\/em><\/p> For the first time ever, Microsoft\u2019s Azure revenue has exceeded AWS revenue after jumping a whopping 89 percent in the last financial quarter! In terms of market share however, AWS is still very much in the lead, commanding 33% of public cloud market with Azure following in 2nd<\/sup> place with 13%.<\/p> After receiving feedback<\/a> that the current Azure exams are \u2018too broad, covering a range of skills that very few individuals, even experts in the area, would have\u2019 Microsoft have taken it upon themselves to take another look at their certifications. The result? They\u2019ll be assessing the skills you actually need to be successful \u2013 we think that\u2019s an excellent idea!<\/p> Microsoft are even offering an 80% discount on their Azure Administrator beta exams for the first 300 people who register! 3\u20262\u20261\u2026go!<\/p> Microsoft\u2019s Azure Dev Spaces<\/a> is now in public review. The cloud-native development experience can be used with Azure Kubernetes Services<\/a> (AKS) and is designed to help developers work with cloud native code \u2013 making it easier to make the jump into container development.<\/p> To get started click here<\/a>.<\/p> Microsoft recently announced<\/a> that Azure SQL Data Warehouse customers will benefit from \u2018at least 2x faster query performance from their workloads, cementing it as the fastest data warehouse in the cloud\u2019. In the announcement they explained the speed boost was made real by brand spanking new instant data movement capabilities<\/a> which makes the movement between data warehouse computer notes more efficient than ever before. Well, it\u2019s certainly peaked our interest!<\/p> Looking for visibility into the security of your cloud platform? Great news \u2013 Azure Security Center is now available in public preview and has been integrated into the subscription package so that customers can assess the security state of resources and ensure data is protected and not vulnerable to attacks.<\/p> Find out more here<\/a>.<\/p> In July Microsoft announced<\/a> the release of their Azure Service Fabric Mesh to public preview. The fully-managed service supports both Windows and Linux containers and is designed to enable developers to \u2018deploy and operate containerised applications without having to manage VMs, storage or networking configuration\u2019.<\/p> You can get started with it here<\/a>.<\/p> In May 2017, Microsoft announced its new database service, Azure Cosmos DB<\/a>, designed to deliver high performance for large scale applications. This month Microsoft announced that Cosmos DB is getting an upgrade. Introducing the new and improved Cosmos DB Explorer<\/a>, described by Microsoft as \u2018a full screen standalone web-based version of the Data Explorer many of you already use in Azure Portal for Cosmos DB\u2019.<\/p> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p> \u00a0<\/em><\/p> Following the success of AWS Greengrass<\/a> in 2017, Amazon has added more edge computing capabilities to its AWS services. Not only will this allow customers to analyse and move data at the site where its created, the introduction of their Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances to their Snowball Edge<\/a> system, cuts down processing delays and reduces the amount of data customers need to store in the cloud.<\/p> Take a look at Amazon\u2019s announcement here<\/a>.<\/p> A political autodial company has come under fire after exposing the personal data of 2,600 voters in the US after failing to properly secure their AWS S3 bucket. Unfortunately, this is becoming a pretty common issue despite Amazon offering up a solution<\/a> in November 2017 with the introduction of five new encryption and security features, including dashboard warning lights.<\/p>\n
![\"Key](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Key-Vault-1024x387.png\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/h4>\n
INTRODUCING AZURE DEVOPS SERVER 2019 RC1<\/h4>\n
\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Azure-DevOps-Server-2019-RC1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNEW SQL DATA WAREHOUSE FEATURES ANNOUNCED<\/h4>\n
\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Azure-SQL-Data-Warehouse-1024x618.png\")
<\/p>\nMICROSOFT ANNOUNCES AZURE DEDICATED HSM AVAILABILITY<\/h4>\n
IN OTHER NEWS:<\/h4>\n
\u00a0<\/h1>\n
AMAZON WEB SERVICES<\/h1>\n
TRANSFER DATA TO AND FROM AWS UP TO 10X FASTER<\/h4>\n
![\"AWS](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AWS-DataSync-1024x376-1.jpg\")
<\/h4>\nINTRODUCING THE AWS AMPLIFY CONSOLE<\/h4>\n
![\"AWS](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AWS-Amplify-Console-1024x492-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPREDICTIVE SCALING FOR EC2 AVAILABLE NOW<\/h4>\n
![\"EC2](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/EC2-predictive-scaling.jpg\")
<\/h4>\nHIBERNATE YOUR EC2 INSTANCES<\/h4>\n
![\"Hibernate](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Hibernate-EC2-instances.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/h4>\n
NEW AWS LAMBDA FEATURES ANNOUNCED<\/h4>\n
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AMAZON S3 GETS SOME EXTRA ATTENTION<\/h4>\n
AWS ANNOUNCES NEW OUTPOSTS SERVICE<\/h4>\n
![\"AWS](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AWS-Outposts-1024x384.png\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/h4>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
INTRODUCING AWS TRANSIT GATEWAY<\/h4>\n
![\"AWS](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AWS-Transit-Gateway.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/h4>\n
IN OTHER NEWS:<\/h4>\n
MICROSOFT AZURE<\/strong><\/h1>
Microsoft has had a busy month releasing new tools and services into public review. They\u2019ve also improved their Azure certifications AND for the first time ever have exceeded Amazon\u2019s AWS cloud revenue! Well done to Microsoft Azure.<\/em><\/h4>
MICROSOFT<\/strong> EXCEEDS AMAZON\u2019S CLOUD REVENUE<\/strong><\/h2>
AZURE CERTIFICATIONS RECONSIDERED<\/strong><\/h2>
MICROSOFT ADDS KUBERNETES TOOLS TO AZURE<\/strong><\/h2>
AZURE SQL DATA WAREHOUSE GETS A SPEED BOOST<\/strong><\/h2>
MICROSOFT INTEGRATES AZURE SECURITY CENTER INTO SUBSCRIPTION EXPERIENCE<\/strong><\/h2>
AZURE SERVICE FABRIC MESH NOW AVAILABLE AS PUBLIC PREVIEW<\/strong><\/h2>
AZURE COSMOS DB GETS AN UPGRADE<\/strong><\/h2>
AMAZON WEB SERVICES<\/strong><\/h1>
July was a big month for Amazon Web Services. They introduced a couple of new instances and even found themselves some Greek gods!<\/em><\/h4>
AMAZON INTRODUCES EC2 INSTANCES TO THEIR AWS SNOWBALL EDGE SYSTEM<\/strong><\/h2>
2,600 PERSONAL DATA FILES EXPOSED DUE TO OPEN AWS S3 BUCKET<\/strong><\/h2>
AWS ANNOUNCES THREE NEW INSTANCES\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>