Tag: Azure

Oct072020October 7, 2020October 6, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series - Umbrellar

Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Umbrellar

Posted in Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Thomas Maurer, Virtualization, Webinar

Together with the Azure Stack Hub team, we are starting a journey to explore the ways our customers and partners use, deploy, manage, and build solutions on the Azure Stack Hub platform. Together with the Tiberiu Radu (Azure Stack Hub PM @rctibi), we created a new Azure Stack Hub Partner solution video series to show how our customers and partners use Azure Stack Hub in their Hybrid Cloud environment. In this series, as we will meet customers that are deploying Azure Stack Hub for their own internal departments, partners that run managed services on behalf of their customers, and a wide range of in-between as we look at how our various partners are using Azure Stack Hub to bring the power of the cloud on-premises.

Umbrellar is a cloud-based company focused on empowering its customers and resellers in making the most of the Azure and Azure Stack Hub clouds and create value to their end-customers in a multi-tenanted environment. Join the Umbrellar team as we explore how they create value to their customers using Azure and Azure Stack Hub.

Links mentioned through the video:

I hope this video was helpful and you enjoyed watching it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you want to learn more about the Microsoft Azure Stack portfolio, check out my blog post.


Oct062020October 6, 2020October 6, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Arc enabled SQL Server

How to add an Azure Arc enabled SQL Server

Posted in Azure Arc, Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, SQL Server, Windows Server

A couple of months ago Microsoft announced a new Hybrid Cloud feature called Azure Arc enabled SQL Server. Azure Arc enabled SQL Server allows you to manage your global inventory of SQL servers, protect SQL Server instances with Azure Security Center or periodically assess and tune the health of your SQL Server configurations. In this blog post, we will cover how you can add SQL Server to Azure Management using Azure Arc.

Azure Arc enabled SQL Server Architecture

Azure Arc enabled SQL Server Architecture

Prerequisites

Before you add an Azure Arc enabled SQL Server, you need to prepare the following prerequisites:

  • A virtual or physical machine running SQL Server. The machine hosting SQL Server must be connected to the internet directly or via a proxy server. Running one of the following operating systems:
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 and higher
    • Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 (x64)
    • CentOS Linux 7 (x64)
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 (x64)
  • The Connected Machine agent communicates outbound securely to Azure Arc over TCP port 443. If the machine connects through a firewall or a HTTP proxy server to communicate over the Internet, review the network configuration requirements for the Connected Machine agent.
  • A user account with permissions (An user account with local admin rights.
  • Azure PowerShell installed on the computer executing the onboarding script.
  • You need to have the “Microsoft.AzureData” provider namespace registered. You can run the following Azure PowerShell command to do that: “Register-AzResourceProvider -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.AzureData”. You can run that command in Azure Cloud Shell.

To learn more about the prerequisites, check out the following Microsoft Docs page.

Read More

Oct052020October 5, 2020October 8, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud Virtual Event

Join the Free Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud Virtual Event

Posted in Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Virtualization, Webinar

I am happy to let you know about another free online event where I am presenting with Microsoft Senior Azure Product Marketing Manager, Dave Kurth, about Azure Hybrid Cloud solutions. This free virtual event will be on October 7 from 4:00 pm-6:00 pm (CEST). In this session, you will learn about the unique approach from Microsoft about Azure hybrid cloud. David Kurth will share with you Microsoft’s Hybrid Cloud strategy. I will be joining him to showcase the outlined strategies in powerful demos. We will also share use cases and customer stories and how our approach is different from our competitors.

Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud Virtual Event Topics

Since the event is over, you can watch the recording here:

About the Speakers:

Dave Kurth (Senior Azure Product Marketing Manager)

David is a Senior Azure Product Marketing Manager. He is focused on Azure Hybrid, specifically Azure Stack Hub and Azure Stack Edge. Before that, he successfully led the Cloud + AI business Switzerland. Apart from his professional endeavors, he has lent his skills to causes involving humanitarian actions and economic empowerment.

Thomas Maurer (Microsoft Senior Cloud Advocate)

Thomas works as a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. He engages with the community and customers worldwide to share his knowledge and collect feedback to improve the Azure cloud platform. Before joining the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI), Thomas was a Lead Architect and Microsoft MVP to help architect, implement, and promote Microsoft cloud technology. If you want to know more about Thomas, check out his blog: www.thomasmaurer.ch and Twitter: www.twitter.com/thomasmaurer

I am really looking forward to the Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud virtual event, and I hope to see you there!


Oct022020October 2, 2020October 2, 20203Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Passed AZ-303 and AZ-304 Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect

Passed AZ-303 and AZ-304 Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Thomas Maurer

I just got the great mail in my inbox that I passed the AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304 Microsoft Azure Architect Design exams to receive and renew the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. Back in 2015 I received my first MCSD Azure Solutions Architect certification and renewed it in 2019. A couple of weeks back I took the new AZ-303 and AZ-304 beta exams online, to future proof my knowledge on Azure cloud architecture. When you take a beta exam you get the test results after a couple of days the exam in generally launched, and today was the day.

What is the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect certification?

Earning the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification demonstrates skills and knowledge to advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. Candidates have advanced experience and knowledge across IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance–this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution.

Candidates for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification should have subject matter expertise in designing and implementing solutions that run on Microsoft Azure, including aspects like compute, network, storage, and security.

Responsibilities for this role include advising stakeholders and translating business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable cloud solutions.

An Azure Solution Architect partners with cloud administrators, cloud DBAs, and clients to implement solutions.

A candidate for this certification should have advanced experience and knowledge of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance–this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. In addition, this role should have expert-level skills in Azure administration and have experience with Azure development and DevOps processes.

You can find more information on the certification here. To earn the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification you will need to pass two exams.

Read More

Sep302020September 30, 2020September 29, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series - Datacom

Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Datacom

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Virtualization

Together with the Azure Stack Hub team, we are starting a journey to explore the ways our customers and partners use, deploy, manage, and build solutions on the Azure Stack Hub platform. Together with the Tiberiu Radu (Azure Stack Hub PM @rctibi), we created a new Azure Stack Hub Partner solution video series to show how our customers and partners use Azure Stack Hub in their Hybrid Cloud environment. In this series, as we will meet customers that are deploying Azure Stack Hub for their own internal departments, partners that run managed services on behalf of their customers, and a wide range of in-between as we look at how our various partners are using Azure Stack Hub to bring the power of the cloud on-premises.

Datacom is an Azure Stack Hub partner that provides both multi-tenant environments, as well as dedicated ones. They focus on providing value to their customers and meeting them where they are by providing managed services as well as complete solutions. Datacom focuses on a number of customers ranging from large government agencies as well as enterprise customers. Join the Datacom team as we explore how they provide value and solve customer issues using Azure and Azure Stack Hub.

Links mentioned through the video:

I hope this video was helpful and you enjoyed watching it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you want to learn more about the Microsoft Azure Stack portfolio, check out my blog post.


Sep292020September 29, 2020September 29, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Arc Center - Azure Portal

Check out the new Azure Arc Center – Azure Portal

Posted in Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack

During the Microsoft Ignite 2020 virtual conference, Azure Arc got a couple of enhancements and announcements. For example, Azure Arc enabled servers is now generally available and Azure Arc and Azure Arc enabled data services is now in public preview. If you want to learn more what Azure Hybrid announcements we had at Microsoft Ignite 2020, check out (Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure) blog post. One of the enhancements which I find super helpful, but didn’t get a special mention, is the new Azure Arc Center blade in the Azure Portal.

All Azure Arc Resources

All Azure Arc Resources

In the Azure Arc Center, you can now find an overview of all your hybrid cloud resources and services you can use together with Azure Arc. These include different Azure Arc enabled services like:

You cannot just get an overview of different Azure Arc services, but also find an easy way to onboard, connect, and register new hybrid resources. To open the Azure Arc Center Blade, navigate to Azure Arc in the Azure Portal.

I hope this was helpful if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.


Sep282020September 28, 2020September 27, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
CloudSkills fm Podcast - Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

CloudSkills.fm Podcast – Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft MVP, PowerShell, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Webinar

Last week I had the honor to speak with Mike Pfeiffer on his CloudSkills.fm post cast, about Azure Archtiecture and much more. This is my second apperance in the CloudSkills.fm podcast, last year I was speaking about Azure Hybrid Cloud Management. In this episode of the CloudSkills.fm podcast, Mike Peiffer and I dive into Azure Architecture. Learn about Enterprise Scale Landing Zones, Azure Bicep, the Well Architected Framework, and more.

CloudSkills.fm podcast Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

Thomas Maurer works as a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. As part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI), he engages with the community and customers around the world to share his knowledge and collect feedback to improve the Azure platform.

In this episode, we talk about…

  • Thomas is working with Azure Architecture to make it easier for clients to operate cloud tech
  • Azure Architecture is made up of three main parts
  • Reasons that people have not heard about Azure Arc
  • Cloud Adoption Framework will assist those looking to build their company with Azure
  • Enterprise Scale Landing Zones help plan and set up Azure environment
  • How the automation for the Visio landing zone operates
  • Azure Bicep makes it easier to write and write ARM templates
  • It is still very early on in the development of Azure Bicep
  • Microsoft Learn helps people learn all about Microsoft, not just Azure
  • Microsoft Build provides a 24/7 video platform as a learning resource
  • Advice for those that want to get into content creation
  • Collaborating with others is incredibly important for growth
  • Well-Architected Framework vs. Cloud Adoption Framework at Microsoft
  • It never helps anyone to act like a jerk; be polite
  • Even bad advice provides value if you look at it correctly

You can listen to the episode here: CloudSkills.fm Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

About CloudSkills.fm

CloudSkills.fm is a weekly podcast with technical tips and career advice for people working with cloud-native technologies. This show is for developers, IT pros, or anyone making a career move into the cloud. Episodes will be short and to the point and will regularly feature experts who share their experiences.

This show is hosted by Mike Pfeiffer, a twenty-year tech industry veteran, entrepreneur, Pluralsight author, and Microsoft Azure MVP. If you enjoy the show and want more tips delivered to your mailbox every week, subscribe to CloudSkills Weekly at cloudskills.io/subscribe.

Conclusion

It is always fun to speak with Mike and I highly recommend his podcast. I hope you enjoyed CloudSkills.fm Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer. If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know in the comments.



  • Follow Me

  • About

    Thomas Maurer

    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI) and engage with the community and customers around the world. I am located in Switzerland. I am focusing on Microsoft technologies, especially cloud and datacenter solutions based on Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Windows Server. Opinions are my own.

  • Get Updates

  • Sponsor

  • Sponsor

    Starwind

  • Sponsor

    Scriptrunner PowerShell Ad

  • Sponsor

    Altaro Ad