Information Technology Navigator

In today’s cloud-driven world, controlling cloud costs without sacrificing performance is a key challenge. Microsoft Azure FinOps (Financial Operations) is a framework that brings a strategic approach to managing cloud expenditures, transforming it from a guessing game into a structured process. For businesses utilizing Azure, learning FinOps fundamentals can unlock new cost-saving opportunities and enhance collaboration across finance, IT, and business teams.

Daymark Solutions’ comprehensive Azure FinOps workshop offers hands-on labs, expert-led discussions, and interactive exercises designed to teach critical cost management skills. Participants dive into rightsizing Azure resources, managing orphaned resources, and leveraging Azure’s unique cost-saving options like Azure Hybrid Benefit, Reserved Instances, and Azure Savings Plans. Each session balances theory with practical exercises to build a solid foundation for financial governance within Azure environments.

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Pure Storage Portworx has established itself as the gold standard for cloud-native Kubernetes data storage, offering scalable persistent storage, multi-cloud data mobility and zero RPO data protection and disaster recovery. At Daymark, we have been impressed with Portworx and view it as being in a class of its own when compared to other suppliers of storage for Kubernetes-orchestrated container apps. Once you transition from development to production with Kubernetes, persistent storage and enterprise data services become critical components of your Kubernetes environment.

A recent report by research house GigaOm concurs, recognizing Portworx as an “Outperformer” — the only product with that designation in the report. The GigaOm Radar for Kubernetes Data Storage Report reviewed nine vendors in the Kubernetes data storage space, down from twenty-two vendors in 2021.

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Companies performing work in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) often contemplate whether they should use a cloud service provider for their business, then wonder which version of the cloud service they should consider. The rules and regulations passed down to the DIB from the Federal Government are quite confusing when it comes to trying to figure out what their requirements are. In this article, we will try to clear some of that up!

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Microsoft has recently issued some retirement notices that impact VM default internet access on Azure and Basic Public SKUs. While there is runway on both of these notices, Microsoft recommends planning all new deployments with these changes in mind. We at Daymark agree. Here’s a quick summary of the announcements:

Default Internet Access Retirement

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HashiCorp recently held their annual conference, HashiConf 2023, in San Francisco (and virtually) to unveil some exciting enhancements to their suite of multi-cloud infrastructure automation software. Key themes revolved around infrastructure and security with an emphasis on how to use the cloud operating model to achieve operational cloud maturity and improve the developer experience while enabling platform teams to put controls in place to manage risk and cost.

 

Here are some of the important enhancements to their products that we think will benefit Daymark customers (with links to additional information at the end of this blog):

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Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Machine (Classic) is approaching its full retirement date of September 1, 2023. "Classic" in IaaS VMs refers to VMs managed by Azure Service Manager (ASM). While ASM has full IaaS capabilities and many enhancements over the years, the management of IaaS VMs through Azure Service Manager was deprecated by Microsoft in February 2020. ASM is the old control plane of Azure, responsible for creating, managing, and deleting VMs as well as performing other control plane operations. It’s estimated that 10% of IaaS VMs are still using Azure ASM. Those organizations need to start planning their migration today, given that full retirement is less than three months away.

Impact of this Retirement Notice

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The popularity and wide adoption of Microsoft Azure public cloud has transformed the way millions of businesses operate. It provides a wide range of services where customers can choose to develop and scale applications in a “pay for what you use” model. Getting the most out of Azure in a cost-effective way requires technical acumen, attention to detail and strong organizational skills.

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Azure Sentinel is a cloud native Security Information Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) solution from Microsoft. It was the topic of discussion at one of our recent Daymark Cloud Clinics where our technical cloud consultants offer complimentary technical training and tips on a wide range of Azure and Office 365 features.

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Impossible travel. Is it sending a human to Saturn or Venus? Well maybe, but in the context of Microsoft Office 365, Impossible Travel is a security feature that is a great indicator of potential hacking attempts. The concept is straightforward. If you login to Office 365 from your office in Boston and then 20 minutes later you try to login from Dallas, or you login from home in Chicago and five hours later from Beijing, Office 365 basically says “wait a minute, that’s impossible” and it denies login from Dallas and immediately sends an IT security alert. Get tips to optimize Impossible Travel here.

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