Some of the new capabilities you can look forward to are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Connect Azure and Oracle Cloud seamlessly<\/strong>, allowing customers to extend their on-premises datacentres to both clouds.<\/li>\n
- Unified identity and access management<\/strong>, via a unified single sign-on experience and automated user provisioning, to manage resources across Azure and Oracle Cloud.<\/li>\n
- Supported deployment of custom applications and packaged Oracle applications<\/strong> on Azure with Oracle databases deployed in Oracle Cloud.<\/li>\n
- A collaborative support model<\/strong> to help IT organisations deploy these new capabilities while enabling them to leverage existing customer support relationships and processes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
AZURE BACKUP FOR SQL SERVER 2008 IN PREVIEW<\/h4>\n
SQL Server 2008 might be reaching end of life this month but for those customers who are choosing to migrate their workloads to Azure there\u2019s another surprise from Microsoft. Azure Backup\u00a0<\/a>is an\u00a0enterprise-scale,\u00a0zero-infrastructure\u00a0solution that protects SQL Server on Virtual Machines (VM) in Azure without the need to deploy and manage any backup infrastructure. This offering is already generally available for more recent SQL Server versions, but last month Microsoft announced Azure Backup support for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 end of support is now in public preview<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benefits-Azure-Backup.png\")
<\/p>\nBenefits of Azure Backup. Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
INTELLIGENT PERFORMANCE FOR AZURE DATABASE FOR MYSQL NOW IN PREVIEW<\/h4>\n
Azure Database for MySQL\u00a0<\/a>now provides preview support for Intelligent Performance<\/a>, which includes three distinct features:\u00a0query store,\u00a0query performance insights, and\u00a0performance recommendations. These features work together to provide you with the ability to better understand your workloads, identify bottlenecks, and visually inspect your workloads. Use this functionality to view a list of recommendations that will help improve the performance of your workloads.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ANNOUNCING THE PREVIEW OF AZURE BASTION<\/h4>\n
\u2018We need an easy and integrated way to deploy, run, and scale jump-servers or bastion hosts within our Azure infrastructure\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n
Microsoft certainly listened to our requests leading up to the preview of Azure Bastion! For many of us, securely connecting from the outside to workloads and VMs on private networks can be challenging. Exposing VMs to the public Internet to enable connectivity through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell (SSH), increases the perimeter, rendering your critical networks and attached VMs more open and harder to manage.<\/p>\n
Azure Bastion<\/a> is a new managed PaaS service that provides seamless RDP and SSH connectivity to your VMs over the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). This is completed without any exposure of the public IPs on your VMs. Azure Bastion provisions directly in your Azure Virtual Network, providing bastion host or jump server as-a-service and integrated connectivity to all VMs in your virtual networking using RDP\/SSH directly from and through your browser and the Azure portal experience. This can be executed with just two clicks and without the need to worry about managing network security policies.<\/p>\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Azure-Bastion.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLimit public exposure of VM IPs with Azure Bastion. Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NEW ZONE-REDUNDANT VPN AND EXPRESSROUTE GATEWAYS NOW IN PUBLIC PREVIEW<\/h4>\n
You can now deploy VPN and ExpressRoute gateways in Azure Availability Zones.<\/a> This physically and logically separates them into different Availability Zones protecting your on-premises network connectivity to Azure from zone-level failures. Additionally, Microsoft have made fundamental performance improvements including reducing the deployment time to create a virtual network gateway.<\/p>\n
By adding support for Azure Availability Zones Microsoft is bringing increased resiliency, scalability, and higher availability to virtual network gateways.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
STORAGE AUTO-GROW FOR AZURE DATABASE FOR MYSQL NOW GENERALLY AVAILABLE<\/h4>\n
In June, Microsoft announced that\u00a0Azure Database for MySQL\u00a0users can opt-in to storage auto-grow<\/a>, which is now generally available. With auto-grow enabled, Azure Database for MySQL will automatically increase the size of the provisioned storage of users\u2019 database servers. As a result, there\u2019s no longer a need to worry about rightsizing when beginning to use these services or about running out of storage.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
AUDITING FOR AZURE DEVOPS NOW IN PUBLIC PREVIEW<\/h4>\n
Auditing for Azure DevOps<\/a> gives you the ability to monitor activities and changes throughout your organisation. When an auditable event occurs, a log entry is recorded. These events may occur in any portion of Azure DevOps<\/a> and include information such as who caused the event to be logged and their IP, what happened, and other useful details that can help you answer the who, what, when, and where questions.<\/p>\n
![\"Azure](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Azure-DevOps-Auditing.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAuditing for Azure DevOps. Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FASTTRACK FOR AZURE NOW AVAILABLE<\/h4>\n
Bringing proven practices, design principles and tools from engineering and real customer experiences, FastTrack for Azure<\/a> guides customers from design, configuration, and development to production.\u00a0As of right now FastTrack is only available to customers who are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Located in the US, Canada, New Zealand, UK, France, Latin America or Western Europe<\/li>\n
- Have an identified FTA-supported Azure project with expected consumption per project of > incremental USD 5,000\/month or equivalent in local currency once fully ramped (within 12 months) and intent to deploy in the near term<\/li>\n
- Have an active paid Azure subscription.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"FastTrack](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/FastTrack-for-Azure.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBenefits of FastTrack for Azure. Source: Microsoft<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
NEW MANAGED INSTANCE CONTRIBUTOR ROLE ENHANCES SECURITY OF AZURE SQL DATABASE MANAGED INSTANCE<\/h4>\n
Introducing the new Azure RBAC role\u00a0Managed Instance Contributor<\/a> designed with a minimum set of managed instance and networking permissions required to provision and operate managed instance. This enhances security and enterprise compliance, as only individuals authorised to manage Azure SQL Database managed instance assets can be granted RBAC permissions through the new role.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
IN OTHER NEWS:<\/h4>\n
Announcing the general availability of Azure premium files<\/a><\/p>\n
Microsoft warns Azure customers of Exim worm<\/a><\/p>\n
Azure SQL Database managed instance now supports larger regional resource limitations<\/a><\/p>\n
Microsoft encourages hacking its cloud services with Safe Harbor<\/a><\/p>\n
Enhan<\/a>ced<\/a> management<\/a> capabilities<\/a> to<\/a> release<\/a> unused<\/a> subnets<\/a> and<\/a> create<\/a> databases<\/a> available<\/a> for<\/a> Azure<\/a> SQL<\/a> Database<\/a> managed<\/a> instance<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#e05206″ height=”5px” _builder_version=”3.10.1″ 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=”3.19.18″ 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
AMAZON WEB SERVICES<\/h1>\n
\u00a0<\/h4>\n
AWS ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF AWS SECURITY HUB<\/h4>\n
AWS Security Hub<\/a> gives customers a central place to manage security and compliance across an AWS environment. The service aggregates, organises, and prioritises security alerts from AWS services such as Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, and Amazon Macie, and from a large list of AWS Partner Network solutions.<\/p>\n
Customers can also run automated, continuous compliance checks based on industry standards and best practices, helping to identify specific accounts and resources that require attention. AWS Security Hub brings all of this information together in one place, providing a comprehensive view of a customer\u2019s overall security and compliance status visually summarised on integrated dashboards with actionable graphs and tables.<\/p>\n
![\"AWS](\"http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/AWS-Security-Hub-1024x350.png\")
<\/p>\nHow AWS Security Hub works. Source: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
AWS ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF AWS CONTROL TOWER<\/h4>\n
AWS Control Tower<\/a> is designed to make it easy for customers to set up and continuously govern secure, compliant multi-account AWS environments. AWS Control Tower gives customers an automated landing zone (a pre-configured environment built according to AWS best-practices) as well as a pre-packaged set of guardrails (clearly defined rules for security, operations, and compliance) that provide ongoing governance. Customers can use AWS Control Tower to deploy their new multi-account environment with just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
VIEW AND MANAGE AWS SERVICE QUOTAS FROM ONE CENTRAL LOCATION WITH AWS SERVICE QUOTAS<\/h4>\n
As of last month, you can now know before you max out your AWS services with AWS Service Quotas<\/a>. The new feature enables you to view and manage your quotas (or limits) from a central location via the AWS console, API or the CLI. Service Quotas is a central way to find and manage service quotas, an easier way to request and track quota increases, and a simplified way to request quota increases for new accounts created in AWS Organisations.<\/p>\n
The benefits of AWS Service Quotas include:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Central management of service quotas<\/li>\n
- Improved visibility of service quotas<\/li>\n
- Easier quota increase requests<\/li>\n
- Paving the way for proactive quota management<\/li>\n
- Simplify quota requests for new accounts in AWS Organisations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
RDX EASES ORACLE DATABASE MIGRATION TO POSTGRESQL ON AWS<\/h4>\n
In June, RDX launched a set of tools designed to make it easier to convert applications running on an Oracle database to Amazon Aurora<\/a>, an instance of an open source PostgreSQL database running on AWS. Announced at AWS Summit the\u00a0clckwrk Refactoring Service for Oracle\u00a0promises to reduce the amount of manual effort associated with refactoring applications for the Amazon Aurora platform by automating as much as 60% of the database schema conversion process.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
INTRODUCING VPC TRAFFIC MIRRORING<\/h4>\n
In June AWS launched VPC Traffic Mirroring<\/a>. What is this new feature? According to the announcement VPC Traffic Mirroring can be used with your existing Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) to capture and inspect network traffic at scale.<\/p>\n
This allows you to:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Detect network and security anomalies<\/li>\n
- Gain operational insights<\/li>\n
- Implement compliance and security controls<\/li>\n
- Troubleshoot issues<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You can think of VPC Traffic Mirroring as a \u201cvirtual fibre tap\u201d that gives you direct access to the network packets flowing through your VPC. You can choose to capture all traffic, or you can use filters to capture the packets that are of particular interest to you, with an option to limit the number of bytes captured per packet. You can use VPC Traffic Mirroring in a multi-account AWS environment, capturing traffic from VPCs spread across many AWS accounts and then routing it to a central VPC for inspection.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
IN OTHER NEWS:<\/h4>\n
AWS adds new partner programs for cloud migrations and government projects<\/a><\/p>\n
AWS launches machine learning driven text and data extractor Amazon Textract<\/a><\/p>\n
Pulumi Crosswalk for AWS Accelerates Delivery of Well-Architected Infrastructure as Code<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.19.18″ src=”http:\/\/content.n4stack.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Skydive_Orchid.jpg” align=”center” max_width=”70%” url=”https:\/\/www.justgiving.com\/fundraising\/node4-committee1″ url_new_window=”on” \/][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
\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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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
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[\/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
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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
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[\/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 INTERCONNECTING MICROSOFT AZURE AND ORACLE CLOUD Microsoft and Oracle have partnered up to deliver a highly-optimised, best-of-both-clouds experience. In a press release in June Microsoft announced a \u2018cloud interoperability partnership enabling customers to migrate and run mission-critical enterprise workloads\u2019 across Microsoft Azure and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":55577,"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>
- Unified identity and access management<\/strong>, via a unified single sign-on experience and automated user provisioning, to manage resources across Azure and Oracle Cloud.<\/li>\n