Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Most of the time the build and deployment pipelines we create will run on compute provided by the Azure DevOps cloud and the only decision we need to make is whether to select a Windows or Linux Agent. Sometimes though, the specification for the VM that Azure DevOps spins up may not be right for our needs. We may need more memory or a particular OS version. This is when custom agents and Agent Pools come into play.

In cloud environments, logs are often spread across numerous services, making it difficult to track down issues or gather meaningful insights. For AWS users, this challenge can become especially time-consuming. Centralized logging in AWS helps by bringing all your logs into a single platform, making management and analysis easier.

One tracks what happened, who did it, and when it happened. The other monitors how your systems are performing so you can see why and do something about it. Knowing the difference between CloudTrail vs. CloudWatch isn’t just helpful for engineers. It’s essential for finance and leadership teams, too. That’s because the two services can quietly rack up costs in the background.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have shifted their workforce to remote and hybrid operations. This transition has birthed a new demand for cloud-based desktop solutions to let employees access their desktops from anywhere. The demand for these solutions spotlights services like Windows 365 vs. Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). These two services move desktop environments to the cloud, facilitating collaboration between teams.

Cloud adoption is at an all-time high but unified network views haven’t kept up. With 98% of organizations using cloud infrastructure and 95% supporting remote workers, what once lived in a controlled environment is now scattered across public clouds, hybrid setups, personal devices, and remote endpoints. The result? A visibility crisis and it’s hitting IP address management (IPAM) hard.

Being the most popular cloud solution provider, AWS needs no introduction. With its powerful and numerous services and solutions, many companies of all sizes and shapes run their applications and/or infrastructure on AWS. With AWS being integrated with other internal services as well as external solutions hosting the business apps, it is crucial to be aware of what's happening across the landscape and beyond, to ensure business continuity. The AWS plugin for SquaredUp helps you achieve exactly that.

Some of your most critical infrastructure runs on AWS EC2, so it's pretty damn important to know when your EC2 instances shut down. Sure, chances are someone in your organisation will start kicking and screaming within 30 minutes of a particularly important instance shutting down, but we can do better than that. When it comes to monitoring and customers (whether inside your org or outside), being proactive wins you a lot of points.

Microsoft Azure offers over 150 cloud services across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. But for many teams, it can be expensive, complex, and hard to tailor to specific needs. If the platform feels like overkill or just isn’t the right fit, this guide covers the best Azure alternatives — and what makes each one worth considering.

If you are fine using a conventional cloud cost management tool, Apptio’s Cloudability can be a helpful tool. It promises to enable DevOps, IT, and finance to optimize cloud resources for quality, speed, and cost. A large business with a high cloud spend, a team of 5-10 engineers, and a budget for expert guidance is an ideal match for Cloudability.