Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

July 2023

Why Multicloud Cost Optimization Is Harder Than It Looks, and How to Do It Right

If your business is like most businesses that use the cloud today, you've gone multicloud. Nine out of ten large companies have already adopted multiple clouds, and IT analysts expect that even more businesses will embrace multicloud architectures over the next several years.

Azure Blob Storage Malware Scanning soon to be GA

On September 1, 2023, Microsoft’s Defender for Azure Blob Storage is set to introduce a groundbreaking feature: Malware Scanning. This highly-anticipated addition to the Defender suite brings real-time protection against malicious content, making it a vital component in fortifying your data security and safeguarding against the ever-evolving threat landscape.

4 Ways SaaS Brands Evolved Their Pricing Strategy Using Cost Intelligence

One powerful way SaaS companies can balance their own costs while still providing plenty of value to their customers is to be strategic about pricing tiers and payment plans. When customers can choose the service levels they want at prices they can afford, and your company is compensated for its associated cloud expenses while achieving a healthy profit, you know you’ve done it right.

How Grafana query caching and Amazon Timestream make dashboards faster and more cost-effective

This blog post was co-authored by Igor Shvartser, Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon Timestream, and Michael Mandrus, Senior Software Engineer at Grafana Labs. Grafana Labs Senior Software Engineers Stephanie Hingtgen and Kevin Minehart also helped with the content.

Removing the first line from a Flat file in Logic Apps

Welcome again to another Decoding Logic App Dilemmas: Solutions for Seamless Integration! This time we selected a real problem presented by a client during one of our Logic Apps training courses: How to remove the first line from a flat file (CSV)! In this case, we have a CSV file where the first line contains the column headers that we want to see removed from the message in order to process only the data.

How to Implement Cloud Cost Optimization in Observability

Although microservices and cloud architectures are the new norm for modern applications, cloud cost optimization could run high in observability. High costs are largely due to the number of components involved in cloud architectures. According to Cloud Data Insights in a recent report, around 71% of IT companies say that cloud observability logs are growing at an alarming rate— a driving factor for rising observability costs.

Celebrating a Milestone: 2bcloud is Now an AWS Well-Architected Partner!

We are thrilled to announce another achievement for our company – 2bcloud is now an official AWS Well-Architected Partner! This new partnership, adding to our lates AWS DevOps Competency, marks yet another milestone in our journey to provide exceptional cloud solutions and services to our customers.

The Ultimate Cloud Storage Pricing Comparison

Syncing files and folders across multiple devices, updating them between remote team members, and sharing them across individuals and teams are all essential aspects of running a modern business. Cloud storage services enable small businesses and enterprises to manage their data on-demand, scalably, and in a largely fail-safe manner. Their cloud infrastructure enables you to store documents, spreadsheets, videos, and other types of data formats online.

The Basics of Cloud Infrastructure Management

Cloud Infrastructure Management is the most efficient way to manage your IT resources in a flexible and decentralized way. This type of IT infrastructure provides the scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness required to meet the dynamic demands of organizations of all sizes. Because of this, many business in today's work environment opt for this model.

Ep. 5: Scaling the Cloud: The Growth & Future of AKS featuring Jorge Palma

In this episode, Shon speaks with Jorge Palma, Principal Product Manager for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). They dive deep into the transformation and evolution of Microsoft Azure and the pivotal role of AKS in shaping the future of cloud-native computing. Discover the unique journey from inception to innovation, and learn about the challenges and successes in testing and scaling AKS in every Azure region worldwide. Gain valuable insights into Microsoft's implementation of cloud optimization tools that provide customers with the best value per compute unit.

Partnership at the edge: selecting the right colocation provider

Long before a business addresses ‘who’ it will choose to deliver the benefits of colocation, it needs to understand ‘why’. This is especially important if that decision is being made in the context of a choice between edge architectures, or alternatives such as hyper-scale cloud. Typically, the main order of motivation is performance, cost and control.

Achieving cost-effective scalability: Optimize AWS ELB pricing using CloudSpend

ELB cost optimization- CloudSpend Amazon Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) is a load balancing service that automatically and evenly distributes incoming traffic from client-side applications across multiple virtual server instances, like Amazon EC2 instances, containers, or IP addresses, in different availability zones. It smoothly handles server instance failover and unavailability, thus increasing the application’s fault tolerance.

What Is AWS Lambda? A Straightforward, No BS Guide

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers over 200 services. But AWS Lambda continues to stand out for several reasons. This AWS Lambda tutorial will help explain Lambda in simple terms so you can decide if the service is suitable for your computing needs. We’ll cover what exactly AWS Lambda is, how it works, how it compares to EC2, use cases, benefits, limitations, and more. Additionally, we’ll cover how you can monitor and manage your Lambda costs without the burden of cost management.

Introduction to Azure Kubernetes Service

In the constantly evolving world of technology, managing containerized applications at a scale that can match growing business demands is a challenging task. Microsoft, however, has emerged as a leader in this field, offering the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). AKS is a managed container orchestration service that provides a rich and robust platform for developers to deploy, scale, and manage their applications.

Extend visibility wherever your business demands

Keeping up with the speed of business requires the right tools and tech. You expect efficiency gains when moving to and from the cloud, but risks and visibility gaps happen when resources are monitored by separate tools and teams. And since on-premises infrastructure is likely managed by dedicated IT teams and monitoring tools, you can’t clearly see if migrated resources perform correctly. The results involve disconnected visibility, tool sprawl, and increased MTTR.

Integrate RabbitMQ with Logic Apps using Azure Functions

Unfortunately, no Logic App connector can make the bridge to RabbitMQ, which makes this integration challenge a little bit more complicated. However, we have the ability to create an Azure Function by using the RabbitMQ trigger for Azure Functions to overcome this limitation. The purpose of this POC is to receive a message in a RabbitMQ queue, and that event triggers an Azure Function, which fires a Logic App.

Announcing Spot's new Azure CLI onboarding tool

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our Azure CLI (Command Line Interface) Onboarding tool! This innovative addition significantly streamlines the process of integrating Azure accounts into the Spot platform. Until now, the process was manual, requiring several steps in the Azure portal that were time-consuming and, quite frankly, a tad cumbersome.

A Guide to Installing the JFrog Platform on Amazon EKS

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service — or Amazon EKS — is a managed service that enables you to run Kubernetes on AWS without having to manage your own Kubernetes clusters. The JFrog Platform is available on AWS, making it super simple to deploy applications reliably and predictably, scale them quickly, roll out new features easily, and make the most of hardware resources.

Understanding The Cloud Options Available To Your Business

Businesses in all sectors of industry and commerce have undergone some dramatic changes in the last few decades. One of the key changes has been the move to the digitalization of the modern workplace. Previously, storing and retrieving physical documents, data and information were common practice. Today, this is considered to be incredibly outdated in most organizations and almost all important pieces of data and information are now held in the digital domain.

Accelerate Your Cloud Journey with Azure Storage Global Accelerator!

Are you ready to supercharge your cloud experience and take your applications to new heights? Look no further! Azure Storage Global Accelerator is here to rev up your cloud journey like never before. If you’ve ever felt like your data needed a boost to reach its destination faster, then this innovative service from Microsoft Azure is exactly what you need.

55 Fascinating DevOps Statistics You NEED To Know In 2023

Today's development and operations teams are intertwined like the strands of a rope. The two heavily depend on each other to form a stronger, more solid unit. Unlike traditional teams that worked in silos, today's developers and operations’ workflows should work like a well-oiled machine. Each component needs to work together to create an efficient system that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Dynamic Kubernetes PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) reuse with Ocean for Apache Spark

One of the most exciting implementations to come out of Apache Spark™ on Kubernetes is the dynamic creation, mounting, and remounting of a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) within a Spark application. We’ve spoken previously about how PVCs can be used to recover shuffle data and prevent application failure after a spot kill has occurred, negating one of the biggest drawbacks of spot instance usage in Spark workloads.

Top 3 public cloud costs to watch

“We moved to the cloud and now everything is more expensive!” Unfortunately, this is a common utterance from companies that have made the leap to a public cloud-based architecture, and a slowdown in adoption growth seen during the pandemic is hitting providers big and small as organisations rationalise cloud spend in the face of rising costs. The good news is these costs can typically be reined in without too much disruption or the need to retreat from the cloud.

How CloudZero Provides Unit Cost Better Than Anyone Else

At CloudZero, we’re pretty proud of the fact that our platform allows you to maximize your profitability by understanding your unit costs. In fact, our platform’s ability to help you easily track and analyze unit costs is one of the things that sets us apart the most from our competitors. Here is a brief breakdown of why our method of determining your company’s unit economics is so valuable and what our competitors offer — or don’t offer — in comparison.

Introduction to Azure Cloud Services

Microsoft Azure, a forerunner in the realm of cloud computing, has revolutionized how businesses manage, store, and deploy their IT resources. However, comprehending the plethora of services and offerings provided by Azure can prove to be a daunting task. This article aims to demystify Azure’s three fundamental cloud services: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Azure IoT: Enabling the Future of Connectivity

As we stand on the brink of the fourth industrial revolution, the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a key player in this brave new world. It’s akin to a jigsaw puzzle, providing the bits and pieces that, when properly assembled, can give rise to a complete and holistic picture of our digitized environment. At the heart of this transformation lies Microsoft’s Azure IoT, a comprehensive suite of services and solutions tailored to unlock the full potential of IoT.

The No BS Guide To Understanding S3 Storage Costs

Curious how Amazon calculates your S3 Storage Costs? Or maybe you’re wondering how you can track, control , and optimize your Amazon S3 Storage bill. This guide provides an in-depth look at Amazon S3 pricing and how to calculate your S3 Storage costs. We’ll cover all the billable elements, and the specific factors that affect S3 Storage pricing. Then, we’ll provide some simple Amazon S3 cost optimization tips that you can use to minimize your storage costs.

Start your SNP VMs on Google Cloud

SEV-SNP is a new security feature that is available on AMD’s EPYC processors. It stands for Secure Encrypted Virtualization Secure Nested Pages. SEV-SNP provides a new level of protection for firmware by encrypting the memory pages that contain the firmware code. This makes it much more difficult for attackers to gain access to the firmware and launch attacks.

Managing the challenge of migrating to the cloud

Migrating to the cloud has many advantages … until you’re the one tasked with making it happen. For many data professionals, this will be a first step from the traditional, predictable challenges of managing on-premises servers to the many and varied databases and platforms in the cloud. As many have discovered, it’s not simply a case of ‘lift and shift’.

Monetizing FOSS: PaaS Solutions for Open-Source Software

In today’s software development panorama, there's a philosophy which really stands out and continues to influence the thought processes of numerous creative minds and progressive organisations: Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). FOSS is a champion of collaboration, absolute accessibility, and the freedom to alter, share, and build upon existing software devoid of any licensing impediments.

Lower Your AWS Lambda Bill by Increasing Memory Size- yep!

Lambda allows you to allocate memory for your functions in increments of 1 MB, ranging from a minimum of 128 MB to a maximum of 10,240 MB (10 GB). When we specify the memory size for a Lambda function, AWS will allocate CPU proportionally. For example, a 256 MB function will receive twice the processing power of a 128 MB function.

Top tips: How to effectively manage your hybrid cloud

According to Cisco’s 2022 Global Hybrid Cloud Trends Report, 82% of IT leaders say that they have adopted a hybrid cloud. Cloud adoption has been a popular topic of conversation among many companies. Some wanted to make the huge leap from on-premises to cloud; some didn’t. Although the cloud has numerous benefits, it’s wise to keep critical resources limited to on-premises. Why, you might ask?

Azure Security Features

Welcome to the thrilling era of cloud computing, where digitization is no longer a trendy phrase but an operational reality for numerous businesses. Among the key players in this transformative phase, Microsoft Azure has carved a niche for itself. Known for its powerful and dynamic infrastructure, Azure leads the way in delivering exceptional cloud services.

Kubernetes Community Day Munich Recap: A Meeting of Tech Minds and Ideas

This July, the community spirit was profoundly vibrant in the scenic city of Munich, as Kubernetes Community Day (KCD) Munich brought together a meeting of minds and inspired the open-source collaboration we all know and love. The event was a testament to the strength and vitality of the Kubernetes community, which pulsed with an energy of shared intellectual curiosity and passion for all things Kubernetes.

Google Apps Alternatives: How to DeGoogle Your Life

In an age prone to cybercrime, online privacy and data security are becoming increasingly important. As a result, many people have considered minimizing their reliance on Google’s services. The term “DeGoogle” has become a big talking point in online communities. It involves several steps to transition Google apps to alternative services that align with your privacy preferences. However, the change won’t be simple.

Choose Your Weapon Against Costly Cloud Bills

In the epic struggle against spiraling cloud costs, the only durable solution is automated optimization. The manual engineering efforts that most people call “cloud cost optimization” these days can be time-consuming and tedious, if not impossible at the scale at which modern data stacks operate. Moreover, they redirect valuable human resources away from technical innovation.

Understanding AWS Lambda proactive initialization

AJ Stuyvenberg is a Staff Engineer at Datadog and an AWS Serverless Hero. A version of this post was originally published on his blog. In AWS Lambda, a cold start occurs when a function is invoked and an idle, initialized sandbox is not ready to receive the request. Features like Provisioned Concurrency and SnapStart are designed to reduce cold starts by pre-initializing execution environments.

How Zesty's Programmers and Ops Team Troubleshoots Kubernetes in Minutes

Using Lumigo's end-to-end distributed tracing that surfaces critical payload data, Zesty is able to find the root cause of errors in their microservice-based apps without using logs. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on any new livestreams and observability content! With one-click distributed tracing, Lumigo lets developers effortlessly find and fix issues in serverless and containerized environments.

What Is Cloud Storage?

Cloud storage involves storing your data on a server that belongs to a third-party cloud service provider (CSP) rather than on-premises. Because many CSPs have large numbers of servers available, it tends to be more cost effective to pay a recurring fee for off-site storage rather than storing all of your files locally. Additionally, many organizations use cloud backups to save space in local storage and to improve accessibility and availability.

Metrics for Monitoring Azure Event Hubs

Azure Monitor is a convenient tool designed to help you enhance the performance and accessibility of your various services and applications. A comprehensive solution, this tool helps teams analyze data from cloud-based and on-premises environments. In this post, we'll discuss the best metrics for monitoring Microsoft Azure Event Hubs, and how to get the most from the tool. Get started with a quick demo of MetricFire today to take charge of your network performance!

Simplify GitHub Actions scaling with Spot Connect and Elastigroup

GitHub Actions is a CI/CD platform that allows you to define custom workflows and automate various tasks within your software development projects. With GitHub Actions, you can set up continuous integration and deployment pipelines, run tests, perform code analysis, and execute other actions whenever specific events occur, such as pushing code to a repository or creating a pull request.

Capitalizing on the Cloud: Five Strategic Benefits of ITSM in the Cloud

Cloud computing is no longer the future; it’s our reality. This means that the decision to move ITSM to the cloud isn't just an option. It's a strategic necessity. For business and IT leaders in the early stages of this transformation, understanding the benefits of cloud-based ITSM is pivotal. Here are five advantages that this shift can bring to your organization.

Monitoring edge and fog computing devices

Edge computing and fog computing are technological advancements gaining traction in a hyper-connected world. Being close to the source, edge computing enables data collection and processing at the fastest possible speeds. Instead of sending all the data to a remote cloud location through the internet with latency, edge devices store and process most of it onsite and pass the heavy lifting to the central cloud to achieve the quickest turnaround.

AWS AI: Introduction to Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Rekognition, and Amazon Comprehend

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), ever-evolving fields that are subtly and stunningly transforming our world, are now firmly rooted in most aspects of the current tech landscape and business processes. Their growth is exponential, and their effects are largely positive – fostering business endeavors, enhancing our quality of life, and shaping how we live, work, and interact.

Ambition, action, and award-winning achievement: creating UK's first EDGE Network

The lessons of history: spotting the EDGE opportunity By early 2020, Pulsant had evolved into a midmarket service provider focused on regional businesses. Catering to this demanding community, Pulsant had developed a range of platforms and data centres to service those businesses that drive the economic growth of UK plc.

Unleashing the Power of Azure Storage Integration

Azure Storage Integration! Sounds like a mouthful, doesn’t it? If you’ve been around the block in the world of cloud computing, you’ve probably heard of Azure and its seemingly limitless storage capabilities. In this article, we will dissect this powerful service, shedding light on what it is, how it works, and how you can leverage it to make your cloud journey smoother and more efficient.

Using AKS with workload identities in terraform

We all use Kubernetes on a daily basis, and the more we use it, the more it is apparent that Kubernetes alone will not be as fruitful as it will be with deeper integrations. One of these integrations is Microsoft Azure, which provides the ability to connect, use, and retrieve information from services on your behalf.

CloudHealth Vs. CloudWatch: How Do They Differ?

Amazon’s CloudHealth and VMware’s CloudHealth are two of the most popular cloud management and system monitoring platforms today. But which platform does what, and are they even direct competitors? In this post, we'll compare the two services and highlight their main differences so you can choose which to use — or whether to use both.

How FinOps should become a strategy for continuous cloud and cost efficiency

Cloud computing was originally pitched as a cost-savings alternative to traditional IT infrastructure. The concept was simple: only purchase what you need and adjust those resources up and down based on demand. This eliminated large up-front costs and made it possible to right-size the amount of compute and storage infrastructure based on a specific workload. While that might have been true in the beginning, CIOs are finding themselves in a different situation today.

Architecting Cloud Instrumentation

Architecting cloud instrumentation to secure a complex and diverse enterprise infrastructure is no small feat. Picture this: you have hundreds of virtual machines, some with specialized purposes and tailor-made configurations, thousands of containers with different images, a plethora of exposed endpoints, s3 buckets with both public and private access policies, backend databases that need to be accessed through secure internet gateways, etc.

Proven methods for elevating end-to-end tracking in Azure/Hybrid Integrations

Tracking end-to-end message or business data across Azure/hybrid integration and implementing end-to-end tracking presents a significant challenge for many organizations. To solve this problem, many rely on various monitoring tools like Log Analytics, App Insights, etc., designed for developers. However, when it comes to supporting applications in production or real-time for non-technical Azure operations/support teams, this approach can be challenging in terms of security and expertise.

Azure Rightsizing: Maximizing Performance and Minimizing Costs

Organizations increasingly leverage Azure to host their applications and services in today’s cloud-driven world. However, efficiently managing Azure resources ensures optimal performance, cost-effectiveness, and resource utilization. One essential aspect of resource management is rightsizing. In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of rightsizing Azure resources and provide practical tips on optimizing your deployments.

How CloudZero Allocates Spend Differently (And Better) Than Anyone Else

The need to optimize cloud costs is a fact of life for SaaS companies — it’s required to stay competitive. But to optimize effectively, you’ll first need to find a way to accurately allocate all costs to the resources, teams, products, features, and customers that generated them. However, not all cloud cost allocation methods are created equal.

The Smart and Efficient Way to Test Serverless Architectures

Serverless architectures allow developers to focus on their code, and not worry about infrastructure. But just because it’s “serverless” doesn’t mean it doesn’t need testing, or that testing needs to be hard. Whether you’re working with API Gateway, AppSync, Step Functions or Event-Driven Architectures, Yan Cui will show you how to test it.

AWS S3: An In-Depth Overview and User Guide

In the bustling digital world, data is akin to gold. Handling and managing it effectively is key to unlocking the vault of opportunities. This is where Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3) comes in – an essential tool that enables businesses and developers to manage their data effectively and efficiently.

17 SaaS Metrics Every SaaS Company Should Be Monitoring

If your gross margin is lower than 60-90%, you have a weaker SaaS margin than you’d want. This margin can turn away investors, which can limit the amount of capital you can raise to fund growth. Here's the deal. It may not be a revenue issue. It may be that you are not monitoring the right SaaS metrics. The result: you are probably spending too much. And you are probably not aware whether this reflects growth or simply overspending, thus ruining your budget and ROI.

Mastering Azure Networking

Microsoft’s Azure platform offers robust networking capabilities that aid businesses in creating efficient, secure, and highly customizable cloud environments. As such, a deep understanding of Azure Networking is crucial for IT professionals and organizations striving to harness the power of cloud computing. This guide will unpack the complexities of Azure Networking and provide a roadmap for mastering its various components.

Cloud Repatriation Explained: Is Bringing Your Data Home the Right Move?

The cloud is the future — or is it? While statistics show that the public cloud continues to grow, a small but loud group is proudly going in the other direction. David Heinemeier Hansson, the CTO of 37signals — the company behind Basecamp and HEY, among others — recently posted his controversial take on the subject, announcing that the organization would be leaving the cloud.

GCP Monitoring with Graphite and Grafana

In this article, we are going to look at what are the possible options available to users in terms of monitoring their applications hosted in the Google Cloud Platform. Graphite and Grafana are examples of the great tools available for monitoring time-series metrics for your cloud-hosted applications. There are also hosted monitoring options available for Google Cloud users through MetricFire’s offering of Hosted Graphite and Hosted Grafana.

Top 10 Azure Services: Harnessing the Power of Microsoft Azure

Are you ready to unlock the full potential of the cloud? Look no further than Microsoft Azure, a robust and comprehensive cloud platform that empowers businesses with a vast array of services and tools. Azure has revolutionized the way organizations build, deploy, and scale their applications, offering a wide range of solutions tailored to meet diverse business needs. In this article, we delve into the top 10 Azure services that are transforming the landscape of cloud computing.

Introducing Trace Endpoint Mapping

At Lumigo, we see ourselves as your reliable ally in the noble mission of detecting and vanquishing troublesome issues that lurk within your serverless and container applications. Our secret sauce? Equipping you with a wealth of detailed trace data, ensuring you’re always well-lit and ready for battle when the nefarious ‘bugs’ make their unsolicited appearances.

Discover 10 Must-Have Photo Sharing Apps You Need to Download Now

Since the popularity of social media, photos have become an essential part of our lives. We can now effortlessly share our precious moments with the world in a few simple clicks, thanks to the power of photo sharing apps. With numerous options to share your photos, it's crucial to find an app that suits your needs; that's why we created this list for people who are looking to.

Get smarter about M&A IT infrastructure integration

That’s great news—your business is growing, and opportunities abound. It also means you will have to align the acquired company’s IT infrastructure with your own. What this looks like will vary depending on the specifics of any given merger. In some cases, where the acquired entity will continue to operate independently, you may simply look for opportunities to optimize and create economies of scale.

Hybrid Cloud Monitoring and Performance Management

Many organizations manage a hybrid infrastructure spread over on-premise and multiple public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure and Google for specific business applications. The hybrid cloud approach has advantages but adds more complexity for IT teams responsible for keeping IT systems safe and secure. The monitoring tools system administrators use for on-premise infrastructure are often unsuitable for monitoring public cloud platforms.

Machine Learning CI/CD with AWS Sagemaker

There are many benefits of incorporating CI/CD into your ML pipeline, such as automating the deployment of ML models to production at scale. The focus of this article is to illustrate how to integrate AWS SageMaker model training and deployment into CircleCI CI/CD pipelines. The structure of this project is a monorepo containing multiple models. The monorepo approach has advantages over the polyrepo approach, including simplified dependency versioning and security vulnerability management.

11 Cloud Computing Examples You Need To Know

Using the cloud is like ordering a meal from a restaurant. You can choose the type of food you want. You decide the amount you want to order. And, you choose the frequency you want to have it delivered to you. It's an efficient and customizable way to meet your needs — or is it? Each organization has different needs and considerations, and it takes careful thought to find the model that will best serve those needs.

What are Azure Functions?

Serverless computing, also known as Functions as a Service (FaaS), has taken the world of cloud computing by storm. A game-changer in its own right, serverless computing has completely transformed the way developers approach and design their applications by abstracting the underlying infrastructure layer. But what makes it a powerful paradigm shift?

Microsoft Azure vs AWS

Welcome to the fascinating world of cloud computing! As you traverse this realm, you’re bound to encounter two behemoths, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Each champion in their own right, these two platforms dominate the landscape, offering a myriad of solutions that are designed to propel businesses to greater heights. But, as with most things in life, you’re bound to question which is the better choice for your specific needs.

VMware Tanzu Aligns to Multi-Cloud Industry Trends

Businesses today are prioritizing software agility to remain competitive in a rapidly changing world. However, the perks of having access to different clouds, tools, and methodologies can also bring along with it layers of complexity. As the cloud native landscape continues to grow, it’s vital that organizations are investing in capabilities that accelerate developer productivity, drive revenue, and maintain a competitive edge.

No PC required: Meet OutReal, the future of VR gaming

Arvindhan PA, Founder of OutReal, wants to bring VR gaming to the masses with a cloud-based platform that doesn’t depend on PCs or consoles, a world first. We’re providing the infrastructure to turn his vision into a reality. Here’s the story so far. There was a time when the idea of a VR headset in every household seemed like science fiction. Today, it feels more like an impending reality.

8 GKE Monitoring Best Practices To Apply ASAP

Kubernetes (K8s) is the most popular container orchestration platform today. But, it can also be quite complex. To overcome this management challenge, you can deploy your Kubernetes containers using the Google Kubernetes Engine, which is a fully managed service. Yet, to get the most from GKE, you still need to follow best practices. And the following best practices for monitoring GKE clusters will help you get started.

Exciting Innovations for LogicMonitor and AWS Joint Customers

Learn more about the upcoming innovations coming for joint customers of LogicMonitor and AWS. However, as your business continues to evolve, are you adequately monitoring your hybrid cloud infrastructure? Native monitoring can sometimes fall short. There’s a need to respond to pertinent alerts, manage costs effectively, stay updated with cloud service changes, and maintain a clear understanding of your cloud data. LogicMonitor offers a solution with comprehensive visibility across both your on-premises and AWS deployments within a singular platform..

PagerDuty Extends Operations Cloud Leadership into AIOps and Automation

Forrester Names PagerDuty a Leader in first-ever Process-Centric AIOps Wave From helping pioneer the DevOps movement to establishing best practices around service ownership to being the standard in incident response, PagerDuty has a long history of leadership. PagerDuty is honored to add to this list and now be recognized as a leader in the AIOps and Automation space by Forrester.

Azure Unit Cost Analysis for Cloud cost optimization

As organizations embrace cloud computing, understanding, and optimizing costs becomes essential. Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, offers various services and features to help you manage your cloud expenses effectively. One powerful technique to achieve this is by performing Azure unit cost analysis. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of unit cost analysis and provide a step-by-step guide on performing it in Azure.

Maximizing Efficiency: 6 Online Services That Can Help Your New Business

As entrepreneurial activity continues to pick up, more and more people are discovering the unique challenges of operating a new business. One especially difficult hurdle is understanding how best to streamline your operations to make them as efficient as possible. Fortunately, several easy-to-use online services can help small business owners drastically improve their efficiency and profitability - at minimal cost! In this blog post, we'll explore six tried-and-true services designed specifically for entrepreneurs looking to maximize productivity while keeping overhead expenses low.

Ingesting Azure Event Hubs in Cribl Stream: Common Troubleshooting Tips and Tricks

Event Hubs is Microsoft’s cloud-native real-time event streaming service. For Event Hubs to work, data must be pushed to or pulled from it. That is where Cribl Stream comes in. Event Hubs is a source and destination inside Cribl Stream and the control for how you route, shape, and transform your data from Event Hubs. But, one does not simply Stream into (or from) Event Hubs. There is a lot that goes into architecting an Event Hubs Source.

How To Combine Multi-Cloud Spend Into One Single View

Picture the last time you were sitting at your desk trying to make sense out of the multiple cloud provider bills you just received. The amounts all change from month to month, and you can’t really compare them against each other because they all use different formats. To say this is a confusing and frustrating situation to be in is an understatement. Perhaps you’re there now, which is why you’ve searched for advice on multi-cloud cost management.

Introduction to Azure Redis Cache

In the rapidly evolving world of cloud computing, caching solutions have become an essential tool for enhancing application performance, reducing latency, and providing a seamless user experience. One such robust and reliable solution is offered by Microsoft Azure, known as Azure Redis Cache. This advanced caching solution is designed to accelerate the performance of your applications by allowing you to store and retrieve data from fast, managed, in-memory caches.

How to backup Whisper to the cloud

The privacy and security of our communication have become critical digital assets that enterprises should protect. The data can give companies valuable insights and allow them to develop new products and services. However, communication data can hold sensitive information such as personal details, financial records, and confidential conversations. To securely store and protect these data, Whisper, an Ethereum blockchain-based messaging protocol, was born.

Choosing the Right On-Premise Hypervisor

In today’s digital landscape, virtualization has become an integral part of IT infrastructure. On-premise hypervisors play a crucial role in this realm, enabling organizations to consolidate their hardware resources, improve scalability, and enhance overall efficiency. However, with numerous options available, selecting the right on-premise hypervisor can be a challenging task.

Getting the Most Out of Your Azure VMs

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) represent the power of cloud computing, making the infrastructure of the digital age accessible to every business. With Azure VMs, Microsoft has democratized access to virtualized environments, allowing businesses to focus on building their applications without worrying about the underlying hardware. Azure VMs are a part of Microsoft’s Azure platform, one of the most comprehensive cloud platforms on the market.

Decoding Logic App Dilemmas: Nested JSON schema validation

Welcome again to another Decoding Logic App Dilemmas: Solutions for Seamless Integration! This time we selected a problem related to a few tips and tricks I have been writing Message validation inside Logic Apps or JSON schema validation. One of our previous dilemmas addressed this complex topic: Decoding Logic App Dilemmas: How to validate if a JSON property is not an empty string? , of course, describing and addressing a different problem.

CNAPP: A Comprehensive Solution for Cloud-Native Application Security

A unique approach to security is needed when developing cloud-native apps that use microservices, containers, and serverless computing. The specific security issues that these cloud-native architectures provide are the focus of CNAPPs. Traditional security solutions are frequently created to protect on-premises infrastructure and applications. However, new security strategies are required due to the adoption of cloud-native architectures and the migration to cloud computing.

How To Determine The Cost Of Cloud Computing

It came as a pleasant surprise. CloudZero recently discovered over $1.7 million in annualized savings. And, all from our own infrastructure. Otherwise, we would have spent $1.7 million for cloud resources we didn't actually need. Cloud savings stories like this are common with CloudZero customers, and we often find companies spending more than they should in the cloud. If your team is also struggling with managing and controlling cloud spend, then this guide is for you!

Which one to chose, Azure Storage vs GCP Storage

Choosing the right cloud storage service requires an understanding of your needs and the technical capabilities of each platform. In this article, we delve into the specifics of Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) storage services, providing a detailed comparison to help inform your decision.

The State of CloudOps in 2023: FinOps is still a work in progress

Effective CloudOps teams can control costs, improve security, optimize resources, and provide superior services across their cloud environments. These teams can also leverage FinOps, the cross-functional cloud financial management discipline and cultural practice that promotes visibility and collaboration to help organizations manage, optimize, and predict their cloud spend.

Troubleshooting AVD (Azure Virtual Desktop) Connection Failures: A Comprehensive Guide

Today I will cover monitoring and troubleshooting AVD (Azure Virtual Desktop) connection issues and problems. Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a powerful cloud-based service that enables organizations to deploy and manage virtual desktops and applications. It provides users with a seamless remote desktop experience, allowing them to access their resources from anywhere. However, like any technology, AVD can encounter connection failures, causing frustration and disruption for users.

ManageEngine CloudSpend has launched its Reports feature: See what's new

ManageEngine CloudSpend, a cloud cost management tool, is excited to announce the release of its new, Reports feature. CloudSpend’s Reports feature automates report generation for integrated cost accounts, utilizing tags like Region, Service, and Billed Accounts for each one.

The Power of SCCM: A Deep Dive into System Center Configuration Manager

SCCM, standing for System Center Configuration Manager, now known as Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, is a software suite from Microsoft’s stable of products. Often dubbed as the cornerstone of IT administration, SCCM offers a comprehensive management solution. It assists IT administrators in managing the deployment and security of devices and applications within an organization.

How to maximize utilization of AWS spot instances with Elastigroup

The AWS spot instances marketplace provides many options to generate savings. AWS’s cloud ecosystem offers several different instance types, zones, and architectures to support almost any application demand. The abundance of options can overwhelm even experienced cloud professionals and may prevent the organization from fully reaping the benefits of working with spot instances.

Troubleshooting Bad Health Checks on Amazon ECS

Health checks are an important factor when working with containerized applications in the cloud and are the source of truth for many applications in terms of their running status. In the context of AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS), health checks are a periodic probe to assess the functioning of containers. In this blog, we will explore how Lumigo, a troubleshooting platform built for microservices, can help provide insights into container crashes and failed health checks.

Best Cloud Monitoring Tools (Open Source & More)

Cloud monitoring tools are utilized to gather an extensive range of metrics and logs from cloud resources and services. Some commonly monitored metrics include CPU utilization, memory usage, network traffic, disk I/O, latency, and response time. By monitoring these metrics, among others, it becomes possible to gain insights into resource utilization, identify performance bottlenecks, and ensure that the infrastructure operates according to expectations.

The ultimate PaaS guide: build and deploy your applications faster

Building applications and managing infrastructure at the same time is a complex task. It involves managing multiple software and hardware components, plus an evolving ecosystem of dependencies and external tools. There’s also the need to keep up with changing technologies while coordinating different teams and delivering solutions to meet business goals.

Azure File Storage: A Detailed Examination of NFS and SMB Shares

Azure File Storage, a component of Microsoft Azure’s broader cloud services, is a managed file storage service for the cloud. Its fundamental design is to create, manage, and share file systems securely and easily using standard protocols supported by most operating systems. It offers fully managed file shares in the cloud accessible via the industry-standard Server Message Block (SMB) and Network File System (NFS) protocols.

Demystifying System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)

As the digital world continues to evolve, the realm of virtualization is gaining increasing traction. At the heart of this evolution is the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), a pivotal component of Microsoft’s System Center suite. By providing comprehensive management capabilities for virtualized datacenter environments, SCVMM presents a modern solution for today’s complex IT infrastructures.

Densify Talks, Automated Cloud Instance Selection with Josh Hilliker from Intel

On this episode of Densify Talks, Josh and Andrew discuss automated instance selection and the importance of letting machines make the resource decisions as cloud environments scale. Speaking from the perspective of a hardware manufacturer, Josh offers unique insight into some of the criteria that affect the performance and cost of hosting apps in the cloud, and how to leverage “optimization as code” to automate the optimization process.

Log-Free Troubleshooting

With piles of logs generated from every function, container and API in your microservice-based application, how can you easily surface meaningful information so you can debug quickly? You don’t. You let Lumigo do it for you. In this live product training, we’ll share every tip and trick in Lumigo that will save you time and stop you from digging through logs when errors occur. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on any new livestreams and observability content!

Logic App Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks: #36 How to process an Array or a single object JSON structure in the same manner

Today I will speak about another helpful Best Practice, Tips, and Tricks that you must consider while designing your business processes (Logic Apps): How to process an Array or a single object JSON structure in the same manner.

The 4 Types Of Cloud Computing: How To Choose The Best Model

There are three main cloud delivery models (cloud computing services) and four major cloud deployment models (types of cloud computing). Each model is unique, and that affects how it impacts cloud management, data security, and cost management, among other considerations. Here’s exactly what each cloud computing model provides and how to choose the best option for your needs.

Kubernetes Optimization: Focus on the Highest Impact Actions

The ’80-20’ Rule Applied to Kubernetes Optimization. Watch this 20-min session to hear Densify’s experts discuss strategies for optimizing Kubernetes environments while minimizing the required work. During this session Densify will present an analysis of a large scale Kubernetes environment showing how 80% of optimization savings can be achieved by focusing on 20% of the container deployments.

Extending your SaaS with PaaS-hosted applications

In today's rapidly changing technology landscape, businesses need to adapt and evolve to stay competitive. One trend that has gained momentum is the shift from Platform as a Service (PaaS) to Software as a Service (SaaS) models. This article will discuss the challenges and opportunities PaaS vendors face when moving to a SaaS model and how Platform.sh can help in this transition.

7 Essential Factors for a Successful Cloud Migration: A Non-Technical Guide

Are you looking to modernize and migrate your data but have questions about the complex organizational challenges? We recently hosted the webinar: Overcoming Organizational Challenges in Data Modernization and Cloud Migration: A Guide for Senior IT Leaders.

How Is Backup Done in AWS?

Backup in AWS is done using a combination of automated and manual processes. Automated backup can be configured with Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), which are templates that contain all the required software, configurations, and data for launching an instance. Automated backups can also be done with Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) snapshots, which create point-in-time copies of EBS volumes.

The Ultimate Guide to Cleaning and Organizing Your Mobile Device

If one has spent more than a minute searching for apps scattered across their iPhone home screens, it may be worth considering organizing the device for easy access. With thousands of apps available, it's easy for screens to become overcrowded, making it difficult to find specific apps amidst a mishmash of colorful icons. This problem can be solved by dedicating 15 minutes to decluttering phones and finding a personalized organizational structure that suits the individual. It's important to avoid becoming an app hoarder.

Understanding VMware: A Comprehensive Guide

VMware, Inc., a subsidiary of Dell Technologies, is a leading provider of cloud computing and virtualization software and services. Since its establishment in 1998, VMware has been at the forefront of the IT industry, revolutionizing the way businesses operate with its innovative virtualization technology. This article aims to provide an in-depth understanding of VMware, its suite of products, and its transformative impact on the business landscape.

What is Hyper-V?

Hyper-V is a native hypervisor from Microsoft that allows users to create and manage virtual machines (VMs). It’s an integral part of Windows Server and provides a virtualized environment for running multiple operating systems on a single physical machine. This technology has revolutionized the way businesses operate by enabling them to maximize hardware usage, reduce costs, and improve disaster recovery processes.

Redcentric gained flexible monitoring capabilities across multiple cloud environments

Hear Paul Mardling, Chief Technology Officer, and Ed Jackson, OSS Manager, describe Redcentric’s complex hybrid infrastructure and their difficulties with monitoring tool sprawl when their cloud deployments expanded. Redcentric used LogicMonitor to gain flexible monitoring capabilities across multiple cloud environments to keep up with developer needs. Out-of-the-box data sources and fast, agentless monitoring helped them see everything across thousands of devices in their IT estate, with excellent customer support to help at a moment’s notice.