MICROSOFT AZURE

AZURE SENTINEL NOW GENERALLY AVAILABLE

Microsoft Azure Sentinel, a cloud-native SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) that provides intelligent security analytics at cloud scale for enterprises of all sizes and workloads, was first launched back in February. In September Azure Sentinel moved out of public preview and became generally available.

With Azure Sentinel, enterprises worldwide can now keep pace with the exponential growth in security data, improve security outcomes without adding analyst resources, and reduce hardware and operational costs. Some of the capabilities you can expect to see are:

Collect and analyse nearly limitless volume of security data

Apply analytics, including Machine Learning, to detect threats

Expedite threat hunting, incident investigation, and response

Build on the expertise of Microsoft and community members

Support managed Security Services Providers and complex customer instances

An overview of Azure Sentinel. Source: Microsoft

WINDOWS VIRTUAL DESKTOP NOW GENERALLY AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

Back in March we were treated to the preview of Windows Virtual Desktop. In September Microsoft announced the worldwide general availability of the service. Windows Virtual Desktop is the only service that delivers simplified management, a multi-session Windows 10 experience, optimisations for Office 365 ProPlus, and support for Windows Server Remote Desktop Services (RDS) desktops and apps.

With Windows Virtual Desktop, you can deploy and scale your Windows desktops and apps on Azure in minutes. So, what are you waiting for? Get started with Windows Virtual Desktop today.

AZURE FILES PREMIUM TIER GETS ZONE REDUNDANT STORAGE (ZRS)

Azure Files premium tier with ZRS replication is now generally available and enables highly-performant, highly-available file services, that are built on solid-state drives (SSD). The service should be considered for managed file services where performance and regional availability are critical for the business. ZRS provides high availability by synchronously writing three replicas of your data across three different Azure Availability Zones, protecting your data from cluster, datacentre, or entire zone outage. Zonal redundancy enables you to read and write data even if one of the availability zones is unavailable.

Currently, the ZRS option for Azure Files premium tier is available in West Europe with regional coverage due to be expanded gradually.

ANNOUNCING AZURE PRIVATE LINK

Azure Private Link, a secure and scalable way for Azure customers to consume Azure Services, Microsoft Partner Services or their own services privately from their Azure Virtual Network (VNet), is now available in preview. Some of the key highlights of Azure Private Link are:

Private on-premises access

Data exfiltration protection

Simple to set up

Overlapping address space

The preview is currently available in a limited set of regions but will be expanding to more regions in the near future. You can read the full announcement here.

Source: Microsoft

STAY ON TOP OF PERSONALISED RECOMMENDATIONS WITH AZURE ADVISOR ALERTS

Microsoft appreciates how busy we all are, and how easy it is to miss remediating your Azure Advisor recommendations. In a bid to help us keep on top of best practices Advisor now offers user-configurable alerts so you can get automatically notified as soon as your best practice recommendations become available. You can choose from a wide range of notification options and can configure these alerts to be triggered based on:

Recommendation category – high availability, performance, or cost.

Business impact – high, medium, or low.

Recommendation type – for example, right-size or shutdown underutilised VMs, enable VM backup, or use availability sets to improve fault tolerance.

Sound good? Get started with Azure Advisor alerts now.

AZURE HPC CACHE: REDUCING LATENCY BETWEEN AZURE AND ON-PREMISES STORAGE

In September Microsoft announced the preview of their Azure HPC Cache service, a new Azure offering that empowers organisations to run large, complex high-performance computing (HPC) workloads in Azure. Azure HPC Cache reduces latency for applications where data may be tethered to existing datacentre infrastructure because of dataset sizes and operational scale.

Scale your HPC pipeline using data stored on-premises or in Azure. Azure HPC Cache delivers the performant data access you need to be able to run your most demanding, file-based HPC workloads in Azure, without moving petabytes of data, writing new code, or modifying existing applications.

Read the full announcement here.

Benefits of Azure HPC Cache. Source: Microsoft

MONGODB ATLAS LAUNCHES ON AZURE MARKETPLACE

MongoDB Atlas has expanded its relationship with Microsoft and is now available on Azure Marketplace, making it easier for Azure customers to purchase and use MongoDB Atlas. The cost of MongoDB Atlas will be integrated into your Azure bill, resulting in a single, simple payment.

You can get started with MongoDB Atlas on Azure free tier here.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Microsoft Azure available from new cloud regions in Germany

Announcing Azure Storage Explorer 1.10.0

Introducing cost-effective increment snapshots of Azure Managed Disks in preview

Retirement date for Scheduler extended to December 31st 2019

Satellite connectivity expands reach of Azure ExpressRoute across the globe