Moving resources from one location to another in Azure has been possible but not easy to do. In this article, Dennes Torres introduces an exiting new Azure feature: Azure Resource Mover.… Read more
This article pulls together the concepts from two previous articles to demonstrate a way to automate the “on-demand” creation and deletion of an HDInsight cluster. This not only serves as a demonstration of the power of automating Azure provisioning, but is a practical solution for the user who only occasionally requires the power of HDInsight for scalable computations.… Read more
Because Azure is designed from the ground-up to allow automated provisioning, It provides a number of interesting opportunities for use. With a .NET language such as C#, it is possible to create a very flexible 'on-demand' infrastructure in Azure, using Azure Resource Manager templates, that allows users to economically deploy the resources they need just for the interval of time that they are required, and then destroy them. … Read more
If you need a way of deploying infrastructure-as-code to Azure, then Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates are the obvious way of doing it simply and repeatedly. They define the objects you want, their types, names and properties in a JSON file which can be understood by the ARM API. Ed Elliott takes the mystery out of a simple means of specifying your Azure environment, whether it is a VM with blockchain software, SQL Server or a Web App on Linux with PostgreSQL
… Read more
OpenStack holds a great deal of promise as a cloud platform built on open standards, and has support from the major players in cloud services. It has the potential for allowing organisations to set up their own private cloud services that are designed to inter-operate. Is it ready yet for companies that want the convenience of cloud solutions, but with more control, and without the large subscription fees? Robert Sheldon finds out.… Read more
In a bid to challenge Intel's dominance of high performance computing environments, IBM have introduced OpenPOWER, a flexible open-source framework based on their POWER processor architecture. Robert Sheldon looks at the potential of this new platform.… Read more
Are microservices the cure for the ague of monolithic applications, or do they bring their own problems with them that monolithic architectures have circumvented? Are they capable of delivering applications that are easier to maintain and develop? How can they avoid the failings of service-oriented architectures? Once more, Robert Sheldon gets to the heart of the technical issues.… Read more
There is a growing assumption that Cloud file-storage services represent an ideal way of backing up files. It seems a compelling idea because it is so easy and seems secure. The truth is, as always, more complicated. There is more to any backup strategy than just cloud storag… Read more
The public perception is that, when something is deleted, it no longer exists. IT in general prefers the fuzzier idea of the trashcan, where the deleted compromising documents can blow around a digital landfill site for years. The Cloud takes this further, and so the data you serve up to the cloud can be stored out there indefinitely, no matter how hard to try to delete it. Rob Sheldon investigates, and finds the cloud a worryingly public place.… Read more
With Amazon Web Services, you might find that a large Amazon Machine Image (AMI) as with over 1 TB, taken as a snapshot can take two days or more. If so, it is time to change your backup strategy and manage your EBS volumes as efficiently as possib… Read more
AWS's DNS service, called Route 53, is a reliable and cost effective service for managing your domain. It has a simple RESTful API for managing them in the command-line.… Read more
Virtualization certainly has advantages, but using a private cloud means a lot of configuration, troubleshooting, and management; and you still get CPU, memory, and disk space constraints. Private Cloud feels more like traditional hosting than the silver bullet one is led to expect.… Read more
OpenStack is an open-source cloud platform based on Linux. It aims to allow organisations to run cloud services on standard hardware, with interoperability between cloud services such as Amazon AWS.… Read more
In the Cloud, services come in the form of Software (SaaS), Infrastructure (IaaS) and platform (PaaS). when moving a service to the cloud, IaaS and PaaS provide two different service models and provisioning steps of solutions. A PaaS providers has more responsibility for your solution than an IAAS provider. wherase an IaaS solutionmay offer more flexibility at lower level. Wely Lau explains.… Read more