As you would expect quite a few changes within the world of Microsoft Azure since my last update in March 2018.
So without further delay, below is my take on the heavy hitters which have been announced.
Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL
Generally availability was a announced in April 2018, which essentially means that for customers using either database service are no longer running at risk and are now protected by an SLA of 99.99%
Read more here.
Integration of Azure Backup into VM Create Experience
OK, this is quite a small thing but when you have deployed oodles of VMs and you have to make sure you undertake backup configuration separately, can lead to a bit of frustrating.
Quite pleased Microsoft have introduced this as it makes for an overall better VM creation workflow.
Azure Service Health
Put simply being able to see the affect of any Azure outages on your resources rather than a generic status update is a great step forward.
Read more here.
Azure Virtual Machine Serial Console
Wondering why your VM won’t power on, or is hung without knowing the status. Well we finally have an answer thanks to Serial Console access.
Makes the diagnosis of issues far easier and transparent. Read more here.
Application Security Groups
This makes managing Network Security Groups at scale far easier, no longer are we reliant on IP Addresses, we can group network interfaces into Application Security Groups to govern traffic flow.
Read more here.
Security Centre Overhaul
I have to admit it, Security Centre wasn’t the most pleasant place to be. Microsoft have taken this on-board and given the UI an overhaul. Now it’s easier to understand, find and remediate issues within your Azure environment.
Azure Firewall
When I read into Azure Firewall, it wasn’t the big news as I was expecting, more so a v0.1 release from Microsoft.
In a nutshell, it monitors interesting outbound traffic. So a step in the right direction, but more to come soon hopefully.
Read more here.
Azure Management Groups
For those of us that work across customers with multiple subscriptions this makes life so much easier!
Quite a simple thing, but again a great time sizer. Read more here.
Encrypted ExpressRoute Microsoft Peering
This was announced under the radar so to speak. We now have the ability to natively encrypt ExpressRoute Microsoft Peering traffic to access PaaS services within Azure.
So if you are a department with a requirement to use Azure PaaS securely, this will likely be the solution you are looking for.
VMFocus 