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What is Microsoft Azure and how does it work?

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What is Microsoft Azure?

Azure, or MS Azure, is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. Azure is an on demand data centre in the cloud that has the ability to scale up or down with your business as and when you need it (only pay for what you use at the time you use it) and it’s available whenever you need it.

This can be achieved in the cloud or as a hybrid solution. Your Azure environment can be customised to functions as all, or a combination of, your servers, backup, disaster recovery, website platforms, dev test sites and storage among other things.

Azure provides a greater level of flexibility by easily integrating with on-premise servers and data centres or as a standalone solution. It is utilised by 66% of Fortune 500 companies as it is fast becoming one of the largest cloud platforms in the world, as well as being utilised to help organisations meet business challenges, move faster and achieve more while saving money.

One of the best things about Azure is the ability to utilise it in a number of ways, including on-premise, hybrid or full cloud.

What is Microsoft Azure eStorm Australia Managed IT Services

Learn more about how you can benefit from using Microsoft Azure.

How does Microsoft Azure work?

Azure uses a technology known as virtualisation. This separates the coupling between a computer’s CPU and it’s operating system using an abstraction layer called a Hypervisor. A Hypervisor (virtual machine monitor) emulates all the functions of a computer and its CPU in a virtual machine with the ability to run multiple virtual machines at the same time. Each virtual machine, or VM, can run any compatible operating system (OS).

Azure takes this virtualisation technology and repeats it on a large scale in Microsoft data centres throughout the world. Each data centre has multiple racks filled with servers which all include Hypervisors to run multiple VMs. A network switch then provides connectivity to the servers.

One server in each rack runs a special piece of software called a Fabric Control. Each Fabric Controller is connected to another piece of software called the Orchestrator. This is responsible for managing everything that happens in Azure, including responding to user requests. Users make requests using Orchestrator’s web API, which can be called by many tools such as the user interface of the Azure Portal. When a user makes a request to create a VM, the Orchestrator packages everything that’s needed, picks the best server rack and then sends the package and request to the Fabric Controller. Once the Fabric Controller has created the VM, the user can connect to it.

Microsoft Azure makes it easy for developers and IT professionals to build, deploy and manage applications and services quickly and easily.

How Microsoft Azure Works eStorm Australia Managed IT Services

 

 

eStorm Australia is an IT managed service provider headquartered in Brisbane. We partner with your business and provide IT solutions and services that suit your specific requirements. Our solutions include a variety of services that are critical to overall business success and competitive advantage.

If you need any information, or to find out exactly how we can help your business – contact us anytime on (07) 3120 0640 or email us at [email protected].

Public Cloud vs Private Cloud vs Hybrid Cloud – Which Is Right For You?

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Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services, infrastructure and resources via the internet, with deployment options including public, private and hybrid cloud.

What is a Public Cloud

Public clouds are the most common when it comes to setting up cloud computing. The cloud resources, such as servers and storage, are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider, which is then delivered via the internet.

All hardware, supporting infrastructure and software is owned and managed by the cloud provider as, in a public cloud, all hardware, storage and network devices are shared with other organisations aka cloud tenants.

Public cloud services are frequently accessed via a web browser and most commonly provide web-based mail, online office applications, storage and testing and development environments.

Public cloud advantages include:

  • Lower costs – due to not being required to purchase hardware or software
  • No maintenance as the service provider is responsible for maintenance
  • Close to unlimited scalability
  • Increased reliability

What is a Private Cloud

A private cloud is comprised of computing resources used exclusively by a single business or organisation. Private Cloud is a secure and high performance solution available for businesses seeking the added resilience of having their infrastructure, servers and storage housed within a secure data centre environment. We discovered that many businesses prefer not to operate in a multi-tenant and public cloud environment because of internal policies, industry compliance legislation or just personal preference.

The infrastructure and services in a private cloud are always maintained on a private network where the hardware and software is specifically dedicated to a single organisation and a single organisation only. This allows organisations to tailor their resources to meet their exact requirements.

Private clouds are most commonly utilised by organisations with business-critical operations who seek a greater level of control over their environment.

Private cloud advantages include:

  • Greater security
  • Increased flexibility
  • High levels of customisation
  • Increased scalability
  • Greater efficiency

Learn more about eStorm’s Private Cloud solutions and what Infrastructure as as Service (IaaS) is.

What is a Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid clouds offer a combination of on-premise infrastructure with cloud based services in order to maximise the benefits of both solutions.

A complete cloud solution isn’t always the right solution for all businesses as there can be limiting factors, such as poor internet access that limit the benefits of moving all your IT infrastructure and applications to the cloud.

Hybrid cloud solutions are tailored to provide you with the best of both worlds. Experience the benefit of on premise IT resources whilst still maintaining some of the benefits of a full cloud solution such as anywhere access, full redundancy and disaster recovery

Hybrid cloud advantages include:

  • Flexibility
  • Control
  • Cost-effectiveness
  • Easy transition

Overall Benefits

All 3 methods for deployment provide similar benefits, which include:

  • cost-effectiveness
  • performance
  • reliability
  • flexibility
  • scale

Learn more about eStorm’s Hybrid Cloud solutions and why a complete cloud solution isn’t right for all businesses.

Still not sure which is the right solution for you? Or perhaps you’re undertaking some cloud changes and could use some guidance to be certain you’re making the right decision – you can learn more with eStorm’s Cloud Consulting services. If you’d like any further information please contact us on (07) 3120 0640 or email us at any time [email protected]

Sources:
eStorm Hybrid Cloud
eStorm Private Cloud
Microsoft Cloud

What is AWS (Amazon Web Services) and How Can Your Business Benefit?

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What is Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is a secure cloud services platform that offers computing power, database storage, content delivery, deployment tools and other functionality solutions that can increase your businesses flexibility and reliability while maintaining agility, lowering your IT costs, and scaling your applications.

From data warehousing to deployment tools, directories to content delivery, over 50 services are available at the click of a mouse with AWS.

Deep features such as a wide range of database engines, server configurations, encryption and powerful big data tools enable you to stay focused on your core business, and not on gathering infrastructure.

How can your business benefit?

AWS is as complex as it is powerful and there are several different solutions that can be tailored for specific cloud environments.

When used correctly, AWS can deliver greater flexibility within your business, which is why we recommend utilising the expertise of IT professionals to help you choose the right instances and tools for your applications. For example, eStorm can design redundant and secure environments as well as manage your migration and optimise your deployments.

Learn more about eStorm’s AWS support.

Rightsized for Your Size

AWS solutions can be scaled to your business needs via tailored solutions for small, medium and large corporations. Our solutions are specifically aimed at providing maximum value and cost effectiveness for your AWS environment. 

Focus on Your Applications in AWS — Not Your AWS Infrastructure

Your applications are key to the running of your business, however monitoring performance and tracking costs at the application level within AWS often requires a resource-draining effort. From architecture to monitoring, we focus and drill down on individual applications and not merely AWS infrastructure.

One option we provide is a monthly report card that delivers you the relevant data required to keep costs in line with your business objectives.

Customised Control: The Right Way to do Managed AWS

Our approach to AWS allows for custom managed services delegation. This means that if you want to keep some AWS tasks in-house, we are able to facilitate that. Alternatively, you are can unburden yourself and put it on our plate, from infrastructure management to the convenience of having us as a single billing contact for all your AWS services. Our mission is to lighten your load and give you back the time needed to innovate and grow your business with the assurance that you’re always in control.

Hybrid — The Future is Flexible

Our comprehensive portfolio of infrastructure solutions gives you the agility to optimise architecture as your workloads, security concerns and compliance requirements evolve. Moving to a hybrid solution can simultaneously optimise AWS deployment performance and contain costs.

If you’d like to find out exactly how we can help your business, or if you require any further information, assistance with your IT needs or you simply don’t know where to start – please feel free to call us on (07) 3120 0640 or email us at [email protected]

Microsoft Azure for Students: How To Prepare Students To Thrive In The Digital Economy

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As cloud and specifically distributed computing competencies are the #1 skill set needed most by organisations in 2018, according to LinkedIn, a long with Australia being in the top 4 nations for IoT readiness, there has never been a more integral time for students to think big, get creative and explore the development of digital applications and services.

Today’s students are tomorrow’s developers; Azure for Students, developed as part of a growing commitment to education in both the cloud and STEM classrooms, helps these students be successful future cloud developers regardless of the tools and technologies they pick. From learning a coding language to building new Artificial Intelligence experiences, students are now able to learn through a growing library of computer science labs and how-to-build docs.

Announced on March 1st, Azure for Students is designed specifically with student-focused cloud usage in mind and offers verified students full access to 25+ free Azure products, as well as a US$100 credit for use toward paid products with no credit card required.

estorm_azure_for_students

But what is Azure exactly?

Microsoft Azure is a comprehensive set of cloud services that developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy and manage applications through a global network of data centres. Integrated tools, DevOps and a marketplace support the efficient building of anything from simple mobile apps to Internet-scale solutions.

Azure for developers

As Azure integrates tools from mobile DevOps to serverless computing, as well as supporting a range of operating systems, programming languages, frameworks, databases and devices, you are able to get your apps to market faster while using tools and open-source technologies you already know.

  • Continuously innovate and provide high quality apps
  • Provide cross-device experiences with support for all major mobile platforms
  • Run any stack – Linux-based or Windows-based – and use advanced capabilities such as Kubernetes cluster in Azure Container Service

The consistent hybrid cloud

With Azure, you get the freedom to build and deploy wherever you want using the tools, applications and frameworks of your choice. Azure allows you to connect data and apps in the cloud, as well as locally, for maximum portability and value from existing investments. Azure also offers hybrid consistency in application development, management and security and identity management.

Building intelligent apps

Take advantage of Azure data services and artificial intelligence to create new experiences that scale. and support deep learning, data-driven intelligent apps, HPC simulations and real-time analytics on any shape and size of data.

  • Develop breakthrough apps with built-in AI
  • Build and deploy custom AI models at scale
  • Combine the best of Microsoft and open-source data and AI innovations

The trusted cloud

Trusted by 90% of Fortune 500 companies, the Microsoft Cloud provides security, privacy, transparency and the most compliance coverage of any cloud provider.

  • Achieve global scale on a network of managed data centres
  • Detect and mitigate threats

Some Microsoft Azure benefits:

  • Using an open and flexible platform: Azure supports the broadest selection of operating systems, programming languages, frameworks, tools, databases and devices.
  • Extend your existing IT: easily integrate with your existing IT environment through the largest network of secure private connections, hybrid database and storage solutions, and data residency and encryption features.
  • Scale as you need, pay as you go: Azure’s pay-as-you-go services can quickly scale up or down to match demand, so you only pay for what you use.
  • Protect your data: We know some organizations are still wary of the cloud and that is why Microsoft has made an industry-leading commitment to the protection and privacy of your data.
  • Run your apps anywhere: Azure runs on a worldwide network of Microsoft-managed data centres across 19 regions.
  • Make smarter decisions: Make smarter decisions, improve customer service and uncover new business possibilities from your structured, unstructured and streaming ‘Internet of Things’ data.
  • Rely on a trusted cloud: From small dev-test projects to global product launches, Azure is engineered to handle any workload. More than 57 percent of Fortune 500 companies rely on Azure.

Learn more about how Microsoft Azure can help your business.

If you’d like any further information about Microsoft Azure, assistance with your IT needs or you simply don’t know where to start – please feel free to call us on (07) 3120 0640 or email us at [email protected] We’re here to help.