VMware on Azure, free Azure ebook, Azure Stack @ ANZ plus more on the latest Need to Know podcast.
Host VMware infrastructure with VMware virtualization on Azure
Most workloads can be migrated to Azure easily using services like Azure Site Recovery; however, there may be specific VMware workloads that are unique and more challenging to migrate to the cloud. For these workloads, you may need the option to run the VMware stack on Azure as an intermediate step. Microsoft have announced the preview of VMware virtualization on Azure, a bare-metal solution that runs the full VMware stack on Azure hardware, co-located with other Azure services. We are delivering this offering in partnership with premier VMware-certified partners. General availability is expected in the coming year.
ANZ deploys Azure Stack
ANZ, the first Australian customer for Azure Stack, using the system to avoid having to move masses of data for a new application into the public cloud.
They have used Azure Stack to put a front-end on that data using web apps, Kubernetes and modern cloud paradigms that are put in front of the back-end systems that contain all the data.
Because of the consistency from a DevOps perspective between Azure and Azure Stack, ANZ can deploy that same app in countries where the local laws prohibit data from leaving the geography and across both Azure and Azure Stack.
Azure Stack is gaining traction because of the large community of developers familiar with public cloud services such as Azure, compared to bespoke “snowflake cloud” services. “when we started doing the research for Azure Stack, developers do not like snowflake clouds.”
Azure Automation watcher tasks public preview
Azure Automation has the ability to integrate and automate processes across Azure and on-premises environments using a hybrid worker. This hybrid management capability has been extended to now deliver an automatic response to events in your datacenter using watcher tasks.
Watcher tasks deliver the ability to author a watcher runbook that polls a system in your environment and then call an action runbook to process any events found.
As an example:
- Look for new files that arrive in a folder and take action based on the content of the files.
- Monitor for new requests in SharePoint and fulfill the request using an action runbook.
- Watch for new email in an Office 365 folder and escalate to a ticketing system.
- Watch for alerts generated in a monitoring system and perform remediation tasks based on the alert type.
Azure Advisor – your personalised best practices service got better
Azure Advisor is your personalised cloud service for Azure best practices that help you to improve availability, enhance protection, optimise performance of your Azure resources and maximise the return on your IT budget.
Advisor brings an all-new dashboard to help you more easily review the overall status of your recommendations across multiple subscriptions, in four categories – high availability, security, performance, and cost. You can see the overall status of active recommendations, their impact, and the number of resources that can be optimised. The cost recommendation category also highlights the total possible savings you can achieve if you implement all recommendations in this category.
In addition, the new downloadable reports in PDF and CSV formats allow you to share Advisor recommendations within your organisation to prioritise and collaborate.
Azure Virtual Datacenter free ebook
Azure Virtual Datacenter is an approach to making the most of the Azure cloud platform’s capabilities while respecting your existing security and networking policies. When deploying enterprise workloads to the cloud, IT organizations and business units must balance governance with developer agility.
A free ebook – Azure Virtual Datacenter provides models to achieve this balance with an emphasis on governance.
Building a modern campus
At a time when space is at a premium and many companies are looking for room to grow, Microsoft recognises that their 500-acre campus in Redmond Washington, is a unique asset. Neighboring a vibrant urban core, suburban towns, lakes, mountains and miles of forest, it’s one of Microsoft’s crown jewels. And as we continue to grow and look to create the best workplace in the tech sector, Microsoft will invest right here in Redmond, home for more than 30 years.
Next fall, we will break ground on a multi-year campus refresh project that will include 18 new buildings, 6.7 million square feet of renovated workspace, $150 million in transportation infrastructure improvements, public spaces, sports fields and green space.
Marc Kean 