Azure Sentinel also promises to:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Analyse and detect threats quickly with AI on your side<\/li>\n
- Investigate and hunt for suspicious activities<\/li>\n
- Automate common tasks and threat response<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Azure-Sentinel-1024x575.png\")
<\/p>\nAzure Sentinel Overview. Source: Microsoft<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AZURE STORAGE SUPPORT FOR AZURE AD BASED ACCESS CONTROL GENERALLY AVAILABLE<\/h4>\n
With the release of Azure Active Directory (AD) based access control<\/a> enterprises can now grant specific data access permissions to users and service identities from their Azure AD tenant using Azure’s role-based access control. Administrators can then track individual user and service access to data using Storage Analytics logs.\u00a0The new solution is now available for production use in all Azure cloud environments. More information on Azure AD based access control can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AZURE DEVOPS SERVER 2019 NOW AVAILABLE<\/h4>\n
Following the launch of Azure DevOps<\/a> in September last year, Microsoft have announced the official release of Azure DevOps Server 2019. Previously known as Team Foundation Server (TFS), Azure DevOps Server is a set of collaborative software development tools, hosted on-prem.<\/p>\n
Some of the major updates from TFS 2018 to Azure DevOps Server 2019 are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Enhanced Azure Pipelines<\/li>\n
- Simpler, more cost-effective Azure Artifacts and Release Management licensing<\/li>\n
- New, more responsive, navigation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You can download your free Azure DevOps Server 90 day trial here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
AZURE BACKUP FOR SQL SERVER VMS NOW GENERALLY AVAILABLE<\/h4>\n
Fed up of using backup software or writing elaborate custom scripts every time you want to back up your SQL Servers? With the release of Azure Backup for SQL Server VMs<\/a> you no longer need to deploy and manage backup infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Azure\u2019s enterprise scale, zero-infrastructure solution offers users:<\/p>\n
- \n
- 15-minute Recovery Point Objective<\/li>\n
- One-click, point-in-time restores<\/li>\n
- Long-term retention<\/li>\n
- Protection for encrypted databases<\/li>\n
- Auto-protection<\/li>\n
- Central management and monitoring<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Azure-Backup.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSource: Microsoft<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WELCOME TO AZURE STACK HCI<\/h4>\n
Microsoft understands that not all their customers are ready to take the leap to Azure Stack, so they\u2019ve unveiled Azure Stack HCI<\/a>. The hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution is designed for users who want to:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Replace aging server and storage infrastructure<\/li>\n
- Connect virtualised applications to Azure<\/li>\n
- Consolidate existing server and storage workloads and reduce datacentre footprint<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Azure-Stack-HCI-1024x254.png\")
<\/p>\nKey differences between Azure, Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI. Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Want more information? Download the Azure Stack HCI datasheet<\/a>!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NEW AZURE FIREWALL CAPABILITIES ANNOUNCED<\/h4>\n
Early in March Microsoft announced<\/a> that they were launching two new key capabilities to Azure Firewall<\/a>, their cloud native firewall-as-a-service offering that was made generally available back in September last year. The new capabilities are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Threat intelligence based filtering<\/li>\n
- Service tags filtering<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
With threat intelligence based filtering users can now configure Azure Firewall to alert and deny traffic to and from known malicious IP addresses and domains in near real-time.<\/p>\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Azure-Firewall.png\")
<\/h4>\nAzure Firewall concept architecture. Source: Microsoft<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Service tags filtering means that Microsoft now supports service tagging for a rich set of Azure services which includes managing the address prefixes encompassed by the service tag, and automatically updating the service tag as addresses change.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF AZURE MANAGED DISK SIZES OF UP TO 32 TIB<\/h4>\n
Last week Azure announced<\/a> the general availability of larger, more powerful Azure Managed Disk sizes of\u00a0up to 32 TiB on Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD disk offerings. Using larger disk sizes offers huge benefits such as:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Reduced VM maintenance costs<\/li>\n
- Simplified deployments<\/li>\n
- Increased performance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
At the moment you can create new Managed Disks or extend your existing disks to larger sizes using the\u00a0Azure portal,\u00a0Powershell, or\u00a0CLI. The newly introduced sizes are generally available in\u00a0all regions in Azure Public Cloud however it\u2019s worth reminding you that these larger disk sizes are only supported on Managed Disks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AZURE IS HOT ON THE HEELS OF AWS<\/h4>\n
According to the RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report<\/a> overall Azure adoption grew from 45% in 2018 to 52% in 2019, narrowing the gap with AWS. As a result, the report said, Azure adoption has now reached 85% of AWS adoption, up from 70% last year. Looks like the race is on between Azure and AWS, and all bets are off!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
IN OTHER NEWS:<\/h4>\n
Microsoft open-sources Azure compression technology<\/a><\/p>\n
The countdown is on to Global Azure Bootcamp 2019<\/a><\/p>\n
Azure Data Box family meets customers at the edge<\/a><\/p>\n
Announcing the general availability of Java Support in Azure Functions<\/a><\/p>\n
Azure DevOps Projects now allows deployment of multiple apps to a single Azure Kubernetes Service cluster<\/a><\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ specialty=”off” prev_background_color=”#ffffff” next_background_color=”#ffffff” _builder_version=”3.19.18″ background_color=”#ededed”][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=”MicrosoftAzure” _builder_version=”3.19.18″ 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″ header_4_font_size=”26px”]<\/p>\n
ARE YOU READY TO MODERNISE YOUR DATA PLATFORMS?<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.19.18″ src=”http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Azure-Icon_200px-x-200px.png” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.19.18″ text_font_size=”18px”]<\/p>\n
Modernising your data platforms can lower costs, increase efficiency and optimise performance.<\/p>\n
Chat to us about migrating your outdated SQL Server VMs or Oracle workloads to Azure, or making the move from MongoDB to Cosmos DB!<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button _builder_version=”3.19.18″ button_text=”LET’S CHAT!” button_alignment=”center” custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#e05206″ button_border_color=”#e05206″ button_url=”#Chat” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”0|0px|54px|0px|false|false” prev_background_color=”#ededed”][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=”3.19.18″ 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<\/h1>\n
AMAZON WEB SERVICES<\/h1>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
AWS ANNOUNCES LOWEST COST STORAGE IN THE CLOUD<\/h4>\n
In March AWS announced the general availability of Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive<\/a>. The storage class promises to meet customers\u2019 long-term data retention requirements and eliminate the complexity of managing tape, while ensuring that data is preserved for future analysis. Plus, at just $0.00099 per GB-month, AWS Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest cost storage in the cloud.<\/p>\n
Other key features of the storage class include:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Retrieval time within 12 hours<\/li>\n
- Ideal alternative to magnetic tape libraries<\/li>\n
- Designed for durability of 99.999999999% of objects across multiple Availability Zones<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
AWS APP MESH NOW GENERALLY AVAILABLE<\/h4>\n
Amazon\u2019s new service mesh provides application-level networking to make it easy for your services to communicate with each other across multiple types of compute infrastructure. AWS App Mesh<\/a> standardizes how your services communicate, giving you end-to-end visibility and ensuring high-availability for your applications.<\/p>\n
AWS App Mesh offers the following benefits to users:<\/p>\n
- \n
- End-to-end visibility<\/li>\n
- Streamline operations<\/li>\n
- Ensure high availability<\/li>\n
- Enhance any application<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"AWS](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/AWS-App-Mesh-1024x361-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow AWS App Mesh works. Source: AWS<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You can use App Mesh with\u00a0AWS Fargate<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon EC2<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon ECS<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon EKS<\/a>, and\u00a0Kubernetes<\/a>\u00a0running on AWS, to better run your application at scale.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AWS SIMPLIFIES AI APP DEVELOPMENT WITH DEEP LEARNING CONTAINERS<\/h4>\n
Quickly set up deep learning environments with optimised, pre-packaged container images. AWS Deep Learning Containers<\/a> are designed to make it easy to deploy custom machine learning (ML) environments quickly by letting you skip the complicated process of building and optimizing your environments from scratch.<\/p>\n
With AWS DL Containers you can:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Start building immediately<\/li>\n
- Get the best performance automatically<\/li>\n
- Easily manage machine learning workflows<\/li>\n
- Quickly add machine learning to Kubernetes applications<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
IN OTHER NEWS:<\/h4>\n
AWS announces new Direct Connect Console<\/a><\/p>\n
Amazon ECS introduces Enhanced Container Dependency Management<\/a><\/p>\n
AWS releases Open Distro for Elasticsearch<\/a><\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.17.6″ background_color=”#e05206″ color=”#e05206″ height=”4px” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.19.18″ text_font_size=”17px” header_4_text_color=”#e05206″ header_3_text_color=”#e05206″ module_id=”Chat”]<\/p>\n
Get CloudStack{d} straight to your inbox<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
If you enjoyed the latest edition of CloudStack{d} pop your details into the form below and we’ll send you future editions<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
\n[123-contact-form i1243466]<\/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_team_member _builder_version=”3.17.6″ 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
Izzi heads up the N4Stack Marketing function and loves getting stuck into writing – whether its a blog, collateral or website content.<\/p>\n
She took 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 \u00a0 MICROSOFT AZURE INTRODUCING MICROSOFT AZURE SENTINEL Azure Sentinel has been designed by Microsoft to empower your SecOps team to see security threats clearer and eliminate distractions. The solution provides intelligent security analytics at cloud scale for your entire enterprise by making it easy to collect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":55385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
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>
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>
MICROSOFT<\/strong> EXCEEDS AMAZON\u2019S CLOUD REVENUE<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
AZURE CERTIFICATIONS RECONSIDERED<\/strong><\/h2>
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 ADDS KUBERNETES TOOLS TO AZURE<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
AZURE SQL DATA WAREHOUSE GETS A SPEED BOOST<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
MICROSOFT INTEGRATES AZURE SECURITY CENTER INTO SUBSCRIPTION EXPERIENCE<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
AZURE SERVICE FABRIC MESH NOW AVAILABLE AS PUBLIC PREVIEW<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
AZURE COSMOS DB GETS AN UPGRADE<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
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>
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>
AMAZON INTRODUCES EC2 INSTANCES TO THEIR AWS SNOWBALL EDGE SYSTEM<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
2,600 PERSONAL DATA FILES EXPOSED DUE TO OPEN AWS S3 BUCKET<\/strong><\/h2>
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>
AWS ANNOUNCES THREE NEW INSTANCES\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>