I hope that you and your family are continuing to do well. 2020 has been a dramatic year, no doubt. But don’t give up. Keep a positive mindset, keep learning, keep moving forward with dedication and determination.
Let’s look at the last couple of weeks in the world of Microsoft Azure.
ONE.
In a recent blog post, Microsoft introduced it’s new “Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework”. This provides customers with a set of best practices to help them build and deliver well-designed solutions using Microsoft Azure.
Blog post:
Introducing the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework | Azure Blog and Updates
If your job is to design solutions for the cloud, then it’s worth looking at how Microsoft looks at application design. It’s also good if you are looking to become an Architect or take the Azure Architect Expert certification.
The blog post references the Azure Architecture Center which contains a lot of architect resources:
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework – Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework introduction
And not only that, you can take a quiz to see how your company’s architecture measures up to the standard.
Welcome to Microsoft Assessments
TWO.
We haven’t talked much about Azure Stack because it’s not really “the cloud” technically. It’s the Azure Fabric technology running in your own data center.
But Google, AWS, and Azure are both battling it out in the on-prem world. The cloud battle is coming right into your office data center!
Google has Anthos which allows you to run Kubernetes clusters anywhere, even in your own environment. AWS has Outposts, which extends the AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools into almost any datacenter. And since 2017, Azure Stack has been available to extend the cloud metaphor to your own machines.
Azure Stack has a new product, code-named Fiji.
As you might know, Azure Stack is software that you run on your own hardware. Well, Stack Fiji is Azure-provided hardware that you install in your datacenter. We’re talking about “racks of servers provided by Microsoft” that you run in your own environment.
Being able to install Azure hardware in your own environment is a little scary and a little cool. Yes, we’ve had Data Box for a while, but that’s temporary. Stack Fiji, when available, will be an interesting step to the true Hybrid cloud.
Article: Microsoft readies its AWS Outposts hybrid competitor: Azure Stack ‘Fiji’
AZURE PLATFORM UPDATES.
Some updates to Azure over the past two weeks:
- Lifecycle Management for Azure Data Lake
- Azure Blob Storage “object replication” is available in more regions (preview feature)
- Azure bandwidth pricing change as of Aug 1
- Azure file share can be backed up right from the File share blade
- Kubernetes resource view (in public preview)
- Azure Monitor can now monitor itself
- Azure Advisor has a new “quick fix” feature
- Backup compression now available for Azure SQL Database and Managed Instance
- Azure App Service now supports .NET Framework 4.8
- Selective disk backup for Azure VM Backups
- Azure Database for MySQL now supports customer-managed keys and double encryption with two different algorithms
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL now supports customer-managed keys and double encryption with two different algorithms
- Cloud Shell now can run on a virtual network and interact with VMs that only have a private IP address (in preview)
Be sure and check out the Azure Updates page if any of these affect you.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/
COMING UP FOR ME.
I can’t believe summer is going by so fast. Mid-August already.
I’ve just uploaded 12 new videos (1 hour, 20 minutes) to the AZ-104 course to cover new and updated topics for the Azure Administrator certification. Thank you to all students who’ve been asking questions in that course, as Jordi and I are working hard to ensure that it is the most-updated course available on the topic.
https://www.udemy.com/course/70533-azure/?couponCode=IBMPCDAY
I’ve also just uploaded 5 new videos (30 minutes) to the AZ-900 course to cover new and updated topics for the Azure Fundamentals certification. Kevin and I are also trying our best to make this course the best one available anywhere to prepare you for that exam.
https://www.udemy.com/course/az900-azure/?couponCode=IBMPCDAY
Use coupon code IBMPCDAY at checkout for the best deal I can offer on my courses.
WHERE TO FIND ME.
And that’s it for issue 1.13. Thanks for reading this far.
What is your favorite platform to be on? Perhaps we can connect there.
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/getcloudskills/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjduffy/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getcloudskills.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottjduffy
Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/user/scottduffy2/
LinkedIn Learning: https://www.lynda.com/Scott-Duffy/1993589682-1.html
See you in two weeks!