Tag Archives: Azure Policies

Connect physical/virtual servers to Azure Arc for centralized Azure management

The Cloud usage grows in the last years rapidly, but in many customer environments we had servers and applications they can´t migrate to the cloud about different reasons. There are many reasons why applications can not migrated to the cloud e.g. data regulations, connections and latency challenges and more. On the other hand customers whish to use different cloud providers. In summary the hybrid cloud is one of the most use cases in many customer environments. Microsoft released Azure Arc as a solution for hybrid cloud environments. Azure Arc was announced as public preview at Ignite 2019 and going GA on Ignite 2020.

In this article I will cover how connect Windows VMs to Azure Arc.

Azure Arc in General

Azure Arc capabilities – Image from Microsoft Docs

Azure Arc is a solution to extend the Azure management capabilitites to services outside of Azure. This gives the possibilites to manage different services, in different environments from one central place with same capabilities across different services layers.

Microsoft release the first version for Server management and has since expanded the range of functions over Dataservices, Kubernetes and new since some days Azure applications.

Continue reading Connect physical/virtual servers to Azure Arc for centralized Azure management

Speaking at Scottish Summit 2021 about Azure Policy and Azure Security Center

I am pleased to have received an invitation to speak at the upcoming Scottish Summit 2021. The Scottish Summit was estabhlished in 2020. This year the conference is becoming an online-only conference and will be streamed on all social media channels. The conference itself is growing into a really big conference with many parallel tracks with different language. The main conference starts on Saturday 27/02/21 and there will be many sessions on Microsoft Cloud services (like Azure, M365 and so on).

Azure Governance is an important topic for any customer using cloud resources. In my session, I will show the power of Azure Policy and Azure Security Center to define guardrails for your Azure environment and bring it into a compliant and secure state. I will go live with my session at Saturday 27/02/21 starting 1PM. If you are interested in how Azure Policy and Azure Security Center work together and how these services are handled, please feel free to join my session and ask questions.

There are quite a few Microsoft Cloud sessions planned for the Conference. Go to the website, plan your agenda and grab your ticket. There’s also an App available for iOS and Android. I hope to see you there.

Speaking at Azure Saturday Hamburg 2021 together with Thomas Naunheim

In the past Thomas Naunheim (Thomas Blog) and I have worked on several Cloud projects focusing on Azure Governance and Enterprise Scale. We decided to create a session together to integrate the best of both worlds and our experiences and recommendations from the field.

Our agenda:

  • Overview of Cloud Adoption Framework
  • Overview of Well-architecture Framework
  • Management of Compliance and Security Status
  • Azure Enterprise-Scale Landing Zone
  • Azure Ops: “Operationalize” Azure environment at scale

We are very happy to announce that our session was accepted by the Azure Saturday Hamburg Team on 20/02/2021. The Azure Saturday Hamburg is a full, free Azure conference day with lot of great sessions. The event will have two different tracks and the first speakers and sessions have been announced. Take a look at the agenda and sign up for this great conference across different sessions from the Azure Cosmos.

Continue reading Speaking at Azure Saturday Hamburg 2021 together with Thomas Naunheim

Azure VM Best Practices

Last year Gregor Suttie and Richard Hooper launched the Azure Advent Calendar and I got to support with a session on Azure Bastion. This year they improved on the idea with the Festive Tech Calendar. I’m happy to be back with an article on Azure VM best practices. I hope you find the article helpful and I would appreciate feedback.

Over the past few months, I have conducted many customer workshops, designed and implemented Landing Zones, and migrated or placed VMs into Azure. One of the most common customer questions has been about best practices for Azure VMs to maximize performance and efficiency, minimize costs, increase security, and reduce management overhead. This article is based on my real-world experience and recommendations based on several Azure projects.

Continue reading Azure VM Best Practices

Speaking with Thomas Naunheim at GermanyClouds Meetup about Azure Governance Best Practices

In the past Thomas Naunheim and I do a lot of architecture and designing prinicple for integrating Azure in company environments. We have the idea to create a Azure Governance Best Practices session in the last couple of months to give the community our insights and best practices for Starting/Integrating Azure environments. The goal is to give you insights, where you can find the best documentations to start with a Cloud journey and which technical Azure features help to bring and hold your environment in an compliant and secure state.

The session contains the following topics:

  • Cloud Adoption Framework
  • Well-architecture Framework
  • Insights about Azure Policies and Azure Security Center
  • Azure Enterprise Scale architecture
  • Azure Ops
  • Identity and Access Management

We are exited to hold the session at the GermanyClouds Meetup on november 26. Did you interested in this topics or you are in the beginning or implementig phase, join us. We will happy to see you there and get your questions.

The session will not been recorded.

Speaking at the ESPC AzureWeek about Azure Policy with Azure Security Center

This is a challenging time for everyone and I hope you are well. Many community conferences cancelled or moved to an online event. The online events give the oppurtunity to learn and discuss in an different way. The European Sharepoint Conference (ESPC) Team has announced the Azure Week between 25.05. – 29.05.20 as a webinar week.

The Azure Week has an great lineup with very useful sessions. Thomas Maurer open the week with a session about Modern Azure Cloud operations for IT Ops and I have the pleasure to close the week with a session about Azure Policy with Azure Security Center.

In this session we will dive into the many aspects of Azure Policy and Azure Security Center and see how they work together.

Continue reading Speaking at the ESPC AzureWeek about Azure Policy with Azure Security Center

Global Azure Virtual 2020 is close including two sessions from me

Time has changed, and the actual situation around the globe has shifted many personally events to virtual events. Global Azure (formerly known as Global Azure Bootcamp) has also transformed the personally meetings around the globe into purely virtual events. This has prompted many community organizers to make their events virtual. The Global Azure Team decided to make an own global virtual event around the globe with a dedicated call for speakers. This has led to the beautiful result that now several global azure events are taking place simultaneously. Some are organized by local organizers and one event is organized by the Global Azure Team. This results in three Azure days of Azure sessions (Thursday to Saturday) around the globe with an awesome agenda, where you can pick the sessions that suit you perfectly 🙂

Continue reading Global Azure Virtual 2020 is close including two sessions from me

How I pass the Azure Security Exam Az-500

In the past I have taken several Azure exams, and yesterday I took the Azure Security exam Az-500. I am really glad that I passed the exam. In this article I will give you a brief overview of the topics I saw in the exam and what materials I used to prepare for the exam. I can say directly that the best way to succeed in the exam is practice.

Continue reading How I pass the Azure Security Exam Az-500

Azure Governance Slides zur SQLSatRheinland Session

Der Mai neigt sich langsam dem Ende und damit ein Monat voller Community Veranstaltungen. Vom Azure Global Bootcamp, zum Sharepoint und Azure Saturday, fand gestern der SQL Saturday statt. Dort durfte ich gleich zu Beginn eine Session zu Azure Governance halten.

SQL Sat Rheinland 856 Opening Keynote
SQL Sat Rheinland 856 Opening Keynote
Continue reading Azure Governance Slides zur SQLSatRheinland Session

Azure Management Groups und Blueprints – Ueberblick und Einrichtung – Teil 2

Im ersten Teil habe ich vorgestellt, warum ein Azure Governance Konzept sinnvoll ist, wie sich Management Groups als organisatorisches Mittel in Azure dafür nutzen lassen und warum diese für Azure Blueprints als Vorraussetzung notwendig sind. Im 2. Teil werde ich nun zeigen, was Azure Blueprints sind, wie sich diese einrichten lassen und was beim erzeugen einer neuen Subscription passiert, wenn ein Azure Blueprint darauf angewandt wird.

Continue reading Azure Management Groups und Blueprints – Ueberblick und Einrichtung – Teil 2