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AWS Cloud Migration Services To Move From On-Premise Infrastructure To the Cloud
When it comes to cloud migration, the real question isn’t whether you should move your applications and workloads to the cloud but when? Moving to the cloud brings a plethora of benefits: faster time to market, reduced operational costs, ability to grow more quickly, etc. so why not make the switch as soon as possible? But before you jump on board with one of the many migration services providers out there or decide to handle it in-house it’s important to know what your options are and what each provider offers.
How Do AWS Cloud Migration Services Work?
AWS Cloud Migration Services make it easy to migrate workloads from on-premises infrastructure to AWS. There are two primary AWS migration services: AWS Site Recovery and AWS Database Migration Service. The first allows you to maintain your existing data center's disaster recovery strategy, but with a managed service that lets you seamlessly fail over from your on-premises data center to an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). The second gives you access to enterprise database migration capabilities for moving Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and other databases into Amazon RDS or Amazon DynamoDB. Moving away from on-premises infrastructure is no longer a daunting task; it can be done in four steps. Below is a short explanation of each step along with tips and tricks for completing them quickly and effectively.
What Is AWS Snowball Edge?
AWS Snowball Edge is a new service that lets you migrate massive amounts of data and applications to AWS, securely and cost effectively. With Snowball Edge, data can be transferred via transfer devices with up to 100 TB capacity that get plugged into an on-premise network or portable router within minutes. After loading your data onto a transfer device, it's shipped to Amazon S3 using standard shipping options such as UPS or FedEx. You pay only for what you use; there are no upfront commitments or penalties for transferring less than all of your data into AWS.
What Is an AWS Snowmobile?
AWS Snowmobile is a secure, climate-controlled truck that allows you to transfer data from your on-premises servers or storage devices to AWS. The truck uses an internet connection to create a high-speed link between your data center and AWS using AWS Direct Connect. Once your data has been loaded onto AWS Snowmobile, you can use standard shipping carriers such as FedEx and UPS to ship it securely to any location in North America. Shipping rates are calculated by how much data you’re transferring and where you’re transferring it to, but in most cases shipping charges will be less than $100 per petabyte of data transferred. If you have multiple petabytes of data, getting started with AWS Snowmobile is more affordable than it may seem at first glance.
Key Differences Between AWS Snowball And AWS Snowmobile
The AWS Snowball and AWS Snowmobile services are two tools provided by Amazon Web Services that allow you to migrate data from an on-premises location to Amazon Web Services' cloud environment. You can use them to move large amounts of data quickly and securely into AWS, or back again. The main difference between these services is their size: The Snowball service consists of a petabyte-scale appliance, while a single Snowmobile container is capable of carrying 100PB of data. This difference in scale makes them suitable for different kinds of migration projects.
What Is AWS Storage Gateway?
The AWS Storage Gateway service makes it easy to set up a cloud-based storage location. In conjunction with an on-premises software gateway, you can move data from your existing network storage area network (SAN) or direct attached storage (DAS), for example to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Using the gateway means no changes to your applications, operating systems, or server configuration. The AWS Storage Gateway automatically creates point-in-time snapshots of on premises volumes. Every few hours those snapshots are transferred to Amazon S3, where they are stored and backed up.
Similarities Among The Solutions
AWS provides solutions to move your on-premises applications and workloads to AWS. All of these solutions make it easier for you to manage your applications, data, and infrastructure while delivering IT operations that are consistent with enterprise standards. There are three main solutions that allow you to move existing workloads (i.e., build a new application or migrate an existing one) from on-premises environments to AWS: Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), and Auto Scaling. Amazon EC2 also supports migration services for its own instance types, including Windows instances and Oracle Database instances.
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5 Reasons VMware is the best
When deciding on an IT service provider, there are many to choose from these days. The list of features and benefits they provide can seem overwhelming and deciding which one to choose can be difficult. Here are five reasons why VMware is the best choice for your business’s virtualization needs.
1) Combining virtualization and cloud computing
With VMware, you can take advantage of cloud computing and virtualization in one comprehensive technology platform. If you are already utilizing cloud computing and want to seamlessly integrate it with a virtualized data center environment, then VMware has what you need. The same goes for virtualization: if you have an established datacenter full of physical servers and are looking to move some workloads to a more efficient and cost-effective infrastructure, then using VMware will help your organization make that transition. With everything from hybrid IT environments to application mobility solutions available from VMware, it’s easier than ever before to build a foundation for success.
2) Power of vSphere
With vSphere, you get incredible system and network management capabilities that make it easier to deploy, optimize and manage your virtual environment. In fact, it's so easy to use that even an average IT jobs can learn how to deploy a multi-site virtualized network in no time. Plus, as your infrastructure grows with new applications and more devices being added all the time, vSphere scales seamlessly with you. You'll never be stuck running out of resources when your business needs grow. With an estimated 50%+ TCO savings by virtualizing core enterprise servers like servers and storage, there's a reason why nearly 90% of Fortune 500 companies use vSphere for their mission-critical workloads.
3) VMware Cloud on AWS
VMware Cloud on AWS, an extension of VMware's enterprise cloud platform, vSphere, running in AWS. This technology enables customers to run their existing applications in a familiar environment that’s been integrated with native AWS services to deliver cloud-like agility and elasticity. Since vSphere administrators are comfortable managing ESXi hosts on-premises, they can easily manage similar operations in a public cloud using familiar tools and processes with no need for specialized training. This approach not only reduces initial cost and risk but it also allows organizations to make more efficient use of their infrastructure, staff and time so they can accelerate application delivery across hybrid environments.
4) Cross-cloud migration with NSX
There are plenty of reasons to want to migrate workloads from one cloud platform to another, but the sheer number of moving parts networks, servers, storage and so on in a traditional migration project can be daunting. But what if there was a way to easily move workloads from public cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure or private clouds like OpenStack over to an enterprise’s VMware-based datacenter? With NSX Cloud, you can quickly and seamlessly move any workload across any hybrid cloud environment. Basically, whatever your current setup may be public or private clouds running on any vendor’s hardware or software you can use NSX Cloud to ensure smooth integration between all your cloud computing infrastructures and get your resources onto VMware hardware in no time.
5) How VMware simplifies automation with SDDC
The digital transformation of IT continues to speed up, creating a growing need for automation. Cloud environments like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure have added numerous tools and features to make IT as automated as possible. But it’s still not quite enough; you still need to deploy custom code, write scripts or implement other manual tasks. That's where VMware comes in its virtualization infrastructure makes it easy to automate your entire software-defined data center (SDDC). Using vRealize Automation, a product developed by VMware, you can set up self-service portals so users can request resources, launch instances of cloud applications and more without any IT intervention.
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How to Log Into the AWS Management Console
The AWS Management Console provides a central location where you can access and manage all of your AWS resources, including Amazon S3 buckets, EC2 instances, DynamoDB tables, and more. But what if you’re not sure how to log into the AWS Management Console? Fortunately, the console offers several simple ways to get started.
What are Cloud Computing Services?
Cloud computing services are delivered over a network and provide users with access to different applications and storage capabilities. The benefits of cloud computing include time savings, reduced cost and an increase in productivity, as well as scalability. Some cloud-based solutions, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), come with their own management consoles that allow users to easily manage their accounts, configure virtual servers and set up new services. If you’re interested in setting up a cloud-based service on your server or workstation, such as those offered by AWS, it’s important to learn how to log into the AWS Management Console first. Once you’ve logged into your account or console, you can then find all of your information through one interface.
Amazon S3 - Simple Storage Service
S3 is a web service for storing any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to inexpensive storage and allows user programmatic access. Put simply, Amazon S3 can be thought of as a cloud-based hard drive. You use it to store stuff (much like you would use your own hard drive) but with much higher availability and durability than an ordinary disk or server will ever have.
Amazon EC2 - Elastic Compute Cloud
The Amazon EC2 service is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale cloud computing easier for developers. The Amazon EC2 service offers easy-to-use APIs and functionality for large-scale parallel computing clusters, such as Hadoop and Cassandra, running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). You can run applications on Amazon EC2 by using either Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud APIs or command line tools. For more information about using these tools, see Running Applications on Amazon EC2 with Command Line Tools or Running Applications on Amazon EC2 with API Calls in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide.
Amazon VPC - Virtual Private Cloud
The Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) service allows you to launch an isolated section of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) web service within your own AWS account. You can launch EC2 instances and connect them using virtual private networking (VPN). You also have direct access to routing tables and network configuration, so that you can control how traffic flows between your resources. Any changes you make are isolated to your VPC, and are not visible or accessible from other parts of your account or from outside of AWS.
Launching an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Logging into AWS gives you access to a variety of consoles and options for managing your resources. The console you'll use most often is likely the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Management Console, which enables you to create, manage, and monitor your resources. To start using an AMI in Amazon EC2, you'll need an active Internet connection and a valid credit card. You can also launch or stop instances from running on demand if they're not needed at present time; however, stopping and starting instances can be pricey if you're not careful.
Configuring Security Settings in EC2
To get started, log into your management console. Then head over to Security Groups in your EC2 dashboard. By default, EC2 instances are launched with no security groups associated. You can either create a new group or modify an existing one. Give it a name and choose whether or not you want to allow ingress traffic, which specifies what connections will be allowed (or denied) through that particular firewall. For example, if you wanted an instance of Apache web server listening on port 80 which is probably something you would want for hosting a website then specify TCP protocol and port 80.
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Five Things to Know about Cloud Computing Hosting
Cloud computing hosting, in layman’s terms, is simply the process of storing files and programs on servers you don’t own, as opposed to having your own hardware that runs everything under your control. If you’re trying to decide whether cloud computing hosting is right for you or not, there are several things you should know first before making that decision. In this post, we’ll cover the five most important things you need to know about cloud computing hosting services before signing on with one provider or another.
Is my website hosted on the cloud?
Cloud computing is a great way for individuals and companies to host their website. However, there are some key things you should know before making your choice. First, different cloud providers offer various features. Second, understanding how cloud computing hosting differs from other types of web hosting can help you determine which provider is best for your business. Third, some advantages offered by each provider may fit your company better than others so it’s important that you compare each one carefully before making a decision.
Does my current hosting provider offer cloud hosting services?
Cloud hosting involves a complex network of resources (the cloud), which are accessed and managed by leveraging public, private, or hybrid cloud computing. Cloud services include infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). If your current provider doesn’t offer cloud hosting services, consider switching to one that does. This can help you save time on account management while making it easier for you to scale up storage and bandwidth quickly when necessary.
There are also security benefits to cloud hosting; because everything is done in an off-site location, attacks against your server will have less impact on performance than if they were directed against your own equipment. Cloud servers can also be more cost-effective: You don’t need to pay upfront for hardware purchases or data center space; it all comes at a lower rate.
Do I have access to my data at all times?
There are many benefits to cloud computing, but one important detail that you should know before making your decision is whether or not you’ll have access to your data at all times. When choosing a cloud computing hosting provider, make sure they have a backup and recovery plan in place. If they don’t, start looking elsewhere because without failover redundancy set up on a host server, you won’t be able to access your files when something goes wrong with the cloud computer hardware.
The best cloud computing providers will automatically backup their customer’s files for them as part of their monthly service packages. These backups can also be made available via the cloud so you can access these stored copies online if you ever need to; however, these stored copies aren’t always updated instantly like they would be if they were stored locally through conventional hard drive storage solutions.
What happens if I need 24/7 support?
Providers vary in terms of support. Some only offer email support, while others provide chat or telephone. If you’re looking for round the clock support, make sure your provider can meet your needs when you need it. Also consider what happens if a site goes down: some providers will automatically attempt a fix, while others might require that you submit a ticket before they take action.
What do I need from my hosting provider in terms of uptime?
Your hosting provider should provide you with a service level agreement (SLA) that states how much uptime they offer. In reality, however, not many of them actually do. If it’s important to you that your website be available at all times, make sure you find out how much downtime your provider offers and what they will do in order to ensure uptime. This is especially critical if you run an e-commerce site, where every minute a website is unavailable costs money. Most hosts do offer some sort of guarantee so ask for one that meets your needs and remember it doesn’t hurt to ask about getting more redundancy or faster bandwidth.
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AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: Which is best platform?
AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are all great cloud hosting platforms with plenty of resources and power behind them. But if you’re trying to decide between them, which one should you choose? This article will answer that question and more by explaining the basic pros and cons of each platform so you can make the best choice based on your specific needs.
AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers an extensive range of services to its customers. Their most popular offerings are AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3, and AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS). In addition to these general-purpose services, AWS also provides a range of products and services specific to each sector that they operate in, including healthcare and energy. These include EMR, Redshift, QuickSight and others. For more information about any of these services, please click on one of our video links above for an in-depth video walkthrough of every AWS service we offer. For more information about pricing specifically or if you’re ready to get started with any or all cloud computing solutions offered by Amazon Web Services, don’t hesitate to contact us! We can help you start your free tier so that you can try out any of their services at no cost. At Digital Prime Solutions, we pride ourselves on being able to work with organizations large and small across many different industries because we believe everyone deserves high quality enterprise-level IT Support no matter what size their business is. To learn more about how Digital Prime Solutions can help your business develop its own IT strategy, schedule a complimentary meeting with one of our AWS experts today.
Azure
Before we dive into comparing Azure and AWS, it’s important to take a step back and recognize how far these two platforms have come. At one point, choosing between these two juggernauts would have been like picking between Facebook and Myspace—and while there’s still technically an argument to be made that AWS is currently more user-friendly than Azure, Microsoft has made significant investments in their infrastructure to make it comparable with AmazonSNS. As they say, only time will tell what lies ahead for both cloud platforms, but if history repeats itself then there may not even be much of a contest. After all, you know who else was once bested by Amazon... It seems like every few years we hear about the year of Linux on servers. Companies seem ready to throw away Windows servers and replace them with low-cost Linux options—but as anyone who has ever used Windows knows, replacing something takes time! Fortunately, some new technologies are making life easier on developers (and IT admins) attempting to shift gears towards open source options; Docker containers are especially useful here because they allow devs to run apps across any OS or host system.
Google Cloud
When it comes to cloud computing, there are three big players in town. Though Microsoft was once a non-player in that arena, it has joined its competitors with a robust, growing cloud service of its own. Now, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud (as well as many others) have launched public cloud services for companies who do not want to deal with IT infrastructure on their own. But which one is right for you? In general, any company just starting out will get more bang for its buck from AWS or Google; both providers offer generous credits for startups. Once you’re up and running with these two, though, it might be worth switching over to Microsoft Azure’s enterprise-oriented business model—the lower costs could help your company grow faster by letting you stretch your budget further into other areas like marketing or R&D. In short, it depends upon what you need at each stage of your business’ growth. There is no one size fits all.
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8 things you need to know about AWS Lambda
With AWS Lambda, you can run code without provisioning or managing servers. You pay only for the compute time you consume there is no charge when your code isn’t running . There are quite a few things you need to know about AWS Lambda in order to make the most of it, and this article helps you master everything from creating your first function to using triggers to set off your code to integrating with other AWS services like S3 and DynamoDB. Here are 10 things you need to know about AWS Lambda.
1) Who uses AWS Lambda?
Many different types of developers use AWS Lambda. It can be used by anyone who wants a server, but doesn’t want to manage it. For example, companies that offer mobile app backends to their users might choose to implement their backend on AWS Lambda so they don’t have to worry about allocating servers for new users and additional traffic. Developers of IoT applications may also use AWS Lambda because its cloud-based nature allows them to take advantage of always-on data from devices connected in homes or cities without having an entire computer dedicated for each device. As with most other Amazon Web Services (AWS), developers pay only for what they use; however, unlike many other services, there is no setup cost for using AWS Lambda.
2) What do you pay for with AWS Lambda?
The container is deleted after executing your function so that there are no leftover processes running. However, on premises-software information about how many requests were made during each session, along with which request triggered the start of that session as well as its duration.By default, we have 32 parallel containers running at any given time to process incoming events as quickly as possible and reduce latency between events being received and starting new sessions.
3) How much does it cost?
AWS Lambda pricing is based on two factors: (1) number of requests and (2) duration of execution. An execution can be triggered by many different events, such as an Amazon S3 upload, an Amazon Kinesis stream record, or a DynamoDB table update. To get started with AWS Lambda, use a free tier option or one of its pre-built sample applications. After creating a new function in your account, visit Step 3 to learn how to set up your code for deployment in just a few minutes. It’s easy! You don’t even have to manage servers! It's also secure; it works with IAM roles so that your code executes only when authorized resources access it from within your account.
4) Does my code run on Amazon EC2 or directly in AWS Lambda?
If your code needs access to an existing Amazon EC2 instance, or a software service running on it, then you should use Amazon EC2. If your code doesn’t need direct access to a resource in Amazon EC2, and instead is triggered by some other event (such as receiving an email message), then using AWS Lambda can reduce your costs by avoiding idle server costs.
5) How is scaling done with AWS Lambda?
Serverless computing is executed without traditional servers, so unlike applications that run on a server infrastructure, there is no single compute capacity or memory limit. Since your code runs in response to events and automatically scales up or down as required, it’s important that you design your code using best practices. For example, if a function accepts an input object that contains data that exceeds a predefined size threshold (128K by default), Amazon Web Services (AWS) will return an error message in your service logs.
6) When would I want to use AWS Fargate instead of AWS Lambda?
You might want to use Fargate instead of Lambda if your function runs best in a container environment, such as a Docker container. You don’t have control over which instance types or operating systems are used for your compute resources with Fargate. Also, applications that require a customized server environment may not work well with Fargate. For example, if your application needs native libraries installed in order to run, it might not work properly with Fargate because containers do not typically include native software.
7) What languages are supported by AWS Lambda?
Currently, AWS Lambda supports Node.js (JavaScript), Python 2.7, and Java 8. The amount of time for your function to run depends on the language you choose. For example, a function written in Java takes longer than one written in Node.js because Node uses Google’s V8 engine. If a Node function takes 100 milliseconds to run and it is invoked 1,000 times per hour (an average scenario), then it will run 1,000 instances of your code every hour with each instance running 100 ms in duration resulting in an hourly billed rate of $0.01 if using AWS Free Tier services tier (which is not free).
8) How do I get started with AWS Lambda?
The first step is creating a role in your account. Once you do that, click Create function , and then click Author from scratch . You'll get to choose where in your account your new function will reside. Don't have an account yet? Go ahead and create one, using any supported region. Once created, navigate back to your list of functions and get started. There are several ways you can trigger an event in AWS Lambda: via Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon API Gateway or HTTP/S endpoints, TCP endpoints (for continuous input), or invocation from another AWS service via its request signing mechanism.
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Azure Virtual Machines: all the basics you need to know
Writing effective, high-quality code takes more than knowing how to write code in the first place, especially when working with Azure Virtual Machines. This article covers all of the basics you need to know about Azure Virtual Machines (VM), including what they are, how to manage them, and how to monitor their resources. And if you’re not sure what VMs have to do with writing code in the first place, don’t worry that’s also covered here.
What is an Azure VM?
An Azure VM is a virtual computer that lives in Microsoft's cloud. It's run by an operating system, just like a laptop or desktop PC. You can install and run Windows Server software on it, just as you would on any physical server; but unlike with a physical machine, there's no hardware for you to buy and maintain. Instead, Microsoft allocates your VM with memory and CPU resources from its central pool of servers.
Where do I start?
Most people start by creating a Virtual Machine (VM). While Azure VMs are extremely flexible, they’re also one of several types of on-demand, scalable computing resources available. In fact, Azure provides more than just VMs. Our simple pricing structure helps you get started quickly and scale up or down as needed, so it’s easy to find a plan that fits your workload. You pay only for what you use; there are no hidden charges or up-front commitments. When you’re ready for even more power and flexibility, we have options to help meet your needs. You can easily convert an existing VM into any other compute resource type you don’t have to start over from scratch with a new resource.
How do I choose between VMs?
Choosing between a VM and other types of Azure resources can be tricky. For example, if your workload has relatively low resource requirements, a VM may be overkill. In that case, it might make more sense to use an Azure App Service plan instead for free. On the other hand, if your project needs are truly demanding or there are financial considerations (such as being charged by core-hour), then an Azure VMs is probably your best bet. Each type of computer service has pros and cons; use our table below as a guide for when one should be used over another. Here’s some additional information about VMs.In fact, virtual machines have been around since 1975 the concept was conceived in IBM research labs during its famous chess match against Garry Kasparov.
What are some features I should consider?
Two of my favorites are Linux virtual machines and paravirtualization. The former gives you access to additional software that works in Linux environments, like Docker. Paravirtualization isn't for everyone, but if your company relies on resource-intensive enterprise applications that don't function well under public cloud configurations, it might be a good fit. It takes a bit more time to set up initially, but it can boost performance significantly over standard Hyper-V VMs.
How much does it cost?
Azure virtual machines are billed in accordance with their size and usage. On-demand VMs start at $0.00 per hour, while pre-configured VMs start at $0.005 per hour the smallest machines, of course, cost less than their larger counterparts. Pre-configured VMs can be used immediately; on-demand VMs have a provisioning period of up to 20 minutes before they're ready for use. You can learn more about Azure pricing here .
Where can I read more about VMs?
There’s a lot of information out there about Azure virtual machines, but Microsoft has written some pretty good primers on how they work and how to get started. Check out Learn more about Azure VMs, for example, where you’ll find articles such as Build your first VM in minutes and Install Node.js with Azure VM from command line. Or look at resources from our sister site TechNet, like How to create a Windows VM in Azure. Microsoft also offers several tools for managing VMs, including PowerShell cmdlets and Visual Studio Tools for Azure. You can use these tools individually or use them together.
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What is Amazon S3?
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is a scalable, high-speed, web-based cloud storage service. The service is designed for online backup and archiving of data and applications on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It’s important to use the right tool for the job and Amazon S3 has features that make it ideal as an object store. Here are some things you should know about it.
Why Use Amazon S3?
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is a scalable, high-speed, web-based cloud storage service. The service is designed for online backup and archiving of data and applications on Amazon Web Services. By storing your data on Amazon S3 you can have easy access to all your files in case of server failure or for an upgrade to one of their other services. This allows you to focus on what matters, your business! In addition it allows you to scale quickly as your application grows without having to spend any time figuring out how and where you’re going to host it. On top of that is there really anything cooler than using real-life fulfillment centers to store your digital assets? I don’t think so. So if you haven’t already start building with them today! It will cost you $0.15 per GB per month with no minimum fees for the first year and then it goes down from there depending on usage.
Getting Started with Amazon Simple Storage Service
As one of today’s fastest growing cloud computing services, it’s easy to forget just how quickly cloud technology is advancing. And as you dive deeper into AWS and its services which include (Amazon EC2), Simple Queue Service (SQS), Simple Storage Service (S3) and othersit becomes apparent that not only has cloud technology grown up in a relatively short period of time, but AWS itself has come a long way since its inception. Getting started with Amazon Web Services isn’t as hard as you might think the hardest part may be remembering just how complex AWS really is. So let’s start from square one: What exactly is Amazon Simple Storage Service? How does it work? Why use it? Where can I use it? Read on for answers to these questions and more. We’ll cover everything from Amazon S3 buckets to versions & lifecycle policies, storage class analysis and even developer tools so that you can get up to speed on AWS like a pro!
Frequently Asked Questions about Amazon S3
What is it and how does it work? How do I store my data on Amazon S3? How long will data be stored on Amazon S3? What type of data can I store on Amazon S3 and what isn’t supported? How much does storage cost for my business or organization using AWS services like Amazon EC2, AWS Load Balancing, and Auto Scaling groups, etc.? Do I need to download software to use AWS Storage Gateway with Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012 operating systems ? Can I transfer files to an EBS volume in another Availability Zone or region? Can I access an encrypted file over SFTP if it resides in an Amazon EC2 instance launched with a key pair that belongs to a different region than my SFTP client application? Will Amazon S3 encrypt data transferred via HTTP/HTTPS? If so, what encryption algorithm is used? How do I protect myself from malicious requests when accessing websites through AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)? Is there anything else I should know about pricing before setting up billing reports for Amazon S3 storage costs ? How should I price usage of Amazon Glacier archival storage? When calculating total monthly charges for your bill by adding together your estimated monthly volumes and estimated monthly retrievals.
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7 Steps to Get Started with Azure DevOps Services
Just getting started with DevOps Services? If you’re looking to get the most out of your software development process and want to improve collaboration, visibility, predictability, and speed, check out these seven steps to get started with Azure DevOps Services today. It’s easy to begin with a free 30-day trial and no credit card required so you can try it risk-free. Learn more about DevOps Services at the official website or read about additional resources below for more information about how to get started with the latest release of Azure DevOps Services.
1) Sign up for an Azure account
Before you can get started with Azure DevOps, you’ll need an Azure account. If you already have one, skip ahead to step 2. If not, go ahead and sign up for a free trial on your Microsoft account dashboard. (You should be prompted during sign-up to create a new Microsoft account if you don’t already have one.) There are several tiers of paid subscriptions available based on your needs, but we recommend starting off small so you can always upgrade later. You'll also want an Azure subscription that includes support for VSTS hosting so that your team can run their own code in VSTS or use features like Git integration.
2) Access Azure Cloud Shell
To get started using Azure DevOps, you’ll need an Azure subscription and a GitHub account. If you don’t have one already, you can easily create both in seconds. Then all you need to do is log into Azure Cloud Shell, which gives you access to a terminal window and features like PowerShell and Git that can help set up Azure DevOps Services in minutes. To log into it, type azure login on any device. When prompted for your username or email address, simply enter them (no password needed). Once Azure confirms your identity, then you’re ready to launch Azure Cloud Shell just type shell and hit Enter. The last step before getting started with Azure DevOps is downloading Visual Studio Code.
3) Explore the Azure Dashboard
Azure DevOps Services, or Azure DevOps for short, is a set of cloud infrastructure development and testing services from Microsoft Azure. It's essentially a web portal that brings together all of your project management and collaboration tools like Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Team Foundation Server (TFS), GitHub, Azure Repos, and much more into one unified experience. In addition to streamlining your workflow, VSTS also offers an integrated repository for file storage and code sharing. There's even a task board for managing sprints and their associated tasks, along with rich dashboards that let you monitor important team metrics. With just a few clicks you can configure both private workspaces and shared accounts across teams so everyone can work together securely on your software projects.
4) Create your first team project
Use Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) as your centralized source for team collaboration and project management. Whether you are working on a group project or just need a central repository for your own personal projects, VSTS offers a great way to manage your work from start to finish. To create your first team project, log in to VSTS using your Azure account credentials. After you’ve logged in, click New Project under My Projects on the left navigation bar of Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services homepage. From there, select Create Project and give it a name; that's it! You have created a new VSTS project congratulations!
5) Add users to your project
You’ll need an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant to add users in your subscription. Azure AD lets you manage users and groups, control access, and set up single sign-on. You’ll use it here to add project contributors at any level of your organization. If you don’t have an Azure subscription yet, you can use a free trial or create a free account. When you're ready, you can pay for subscriptions using one of many payment options.
6) Get going with Git version control
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. While it's not mandatory, many developers prefer Git as their version control system (VCS). And that means if you're working on a team, either internally or in an open source community, your development workflow will be smoother if you embrace Git. The great thing about Git is that it stores data efficiently and allows easy branching. You can access a list of features here .
7) Enable continuous integration (CI)
CI is a development practice where you integrate code into a central repository several times a day. Each check-in is then verified by an automated build, allowing teams to detect problems early. With Azure DevOps Services, setup CI in minutes using your GitHub account and run builds on Linux or macOS. Set up Git so that every time you push code changes to your private repo, a build is automatically triggered.
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Tips on clearing AWS Certified Developer Exam
The AWS Certified Developer Exam can be quite difficult to pass and clearing it might require some specific preparation. In this blog we’re going to talk about the AWS Certified Developer Exam syllabus, things you need to study and tips on how to get the most out of your time during the exam. Follow our steps and you should have no trouble clearing the AWS Certified Developer Exam!
Where to start
To prepare for the AWS Certified Developer Exam, it is essential to have a conceptual understanding of AWS as well as real-world experience implementing solutions based on AWS services. You should have a good understanding of AWS services and have practical experience building applications using these services. Before you take your exam, you should review basic cloud computing concepts and get some hands-on experience with common cloud computing scenarios such as identity management, resource provisioning, scalability, availability, and disaster recovery. The list below provides additional information that can help you prepare for taking AWS Certification exams:
The sections that follow cover the exam objectives by service area. These sections present learning objectives specific to each service area and identify what you should be able to do after completing each topic. Within each section, lessons are presented in sequential order.
What you need to know?
The AWS Certified Developer Associate exam (Amazon says it’s called two separate certifications AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Associate and AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional but to avoid confusion, we’ll just call it Developer) tests your understanding of how to create new infrastructure resources and service-based applications in Amazon Web Services. This can be a valuable credential for technology professionals who want to stand out from their peers when looking for work. It also is required if you intend to become an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate, which requires that you first pass the Developer test. The examination costs $150 per attempt.
How do you study?
Studying to pass an exam is a lot different than studying for a degree or even taking a class. What you need to do is to make sure that you are studying efficiently. There are some guidelines below that can help you study properly and give you an idea how AWS Certified Developer Exam will be organized, what type of questions it will include and so on. In general, don’t try memorizing everything at once - break down your material into manageable portions and focus on important things first. For example, if there are multiple items in a question like List 4 types of storage, you have no way of knowing which ones to list. So, better start with something like Using volumes with EFS (Elastic file system) and How does EBS Volume compare with S3? Using snapshots.
What happens after passing AWS Certified Developer exam?
After you pass an exam, your status in the program changes from In Training to Registered. While you are in training, you can earn up to 70% of your total Professional Education Unit (PEU) requirements for your certification; once registered, all PEUs must be earned through work experience. If you do not receive a passing score or withdraw from an exam, it will appear on your record as a failure and it will not count towards completion of any AWS certification. You may retake an exam after two months have passed since you last took it. When re-taking exams, you cannot take them again until two months after that second attempt.
Awesome things about passing AWS exam
There are many good things about passing AWS Certified Developer Exam! Here are just some of them: You get to really feel satisfied with yourself for achieving a goal. You can also start job hunting at better paying companies which may or may not be using Amazon Web Services. Now that you have an AWS certification, employers will see that you have specialized in a given technology, and therefore they’ll pay you more for your knowledge.
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AWS Developer vs AWS Architect: Which Certification is Better for a Fresher?
AWS Developer vs AWS Architect: Which Certification Is Better For A Fresher? We all know that there’s no better way to enter the IT industry than getting certified, especially if you want to be ahead of the curve and get your foot in the door of big corporations. But not all certifications are created equal, and it’s important to know what kind of position you want to obtain before deciding on which one you should get.
AWS Developer - AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
As an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate, you’ll be able to describe and use foundational architectural principles. You’ll have in-depth knowledge of solutions that utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) technologies to support cloud-native applications. Design scalable architectures with ease using well-established patterns and practices based on industry best practices. Plus, gain in-depth technical skills related to services such as EC2, S3, VPCs, IAM, Auto Scaling Group and AWS CloudFormation. AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Level: After earning your AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Level certification, continue your education by earning your AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Level certification. In addition to learning about design strategies and building scalable architectures, you’ll be prepared to sit for the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer exam or prepare yourself for architect roles within different organizations.
AWS Solutions Architect - AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional
In addition to theoretical information, you must also have hands-on experience with developing and implementing AWS solutions. The Solutions Architect - Professional exam evaluates your ability to design distributed applications and systems using popular AWS services like AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, etc. (70% of total questions) AWS Developer - AWS Certified Developer – Associate: A foundation level certification that allows one to develop custom applications and code deployable in AWS. Besides AWS foundational knowledge, candidates are evaluated on their implementation skills of AWS components like CloudFormation, IAM, Route 53 and more.
Benefits of each certification
AWS Architect certification acts as an added advantage when it comes to proving technical skills and experience with AWS products. On top of that, AWS Certified Solution Architect includes exam content relating to more complex services such as Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing. In contrast, AWS Developer certification gives you a solid foundation on designing applications using cloud computing architectures.
Read more about the certification process
According to AWS’s website, applicants can test out as an AWS Certified Solutions Architect. But what exactly does that entail? How do you get your hands on one of these coveted certificates and most importantly, what will it do for your career? We dive into each of these questions below to provide you with all of the information you need in order to make an informed decision about whether or not becoming certified as an AWS Solutions Architect is right for you. What are AWS Certifications? AWS certifications come in four flavors: Solution Architect, DevOps Engineer Professional, Professional Cloud Practitioner and SysOps Administrator. There is also a specialist certification for EMR (Elastic MapReduce). In general, there are two levels of certification - associate level and professional level which require passing exams specific to either level.
How to prepare for the exams
Students who are new to cloud computing can get AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate and AWS Certified Solutions Developer-Associate certifications. Before you start your preparation, it is recommended that you prepare yourself with some initial groundwork. Here's how you can go about it. At first, you need to gain knowledge about AWS core services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), etc. This would be beneficial as on one hand it will help in deepening your understanding of topics covered in exams while on other hand there is a high probability of finding same/similar questions being asked in real exams also.
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Five Things You Should Know About Amazon Redshift Spectrum
mazon Web Services announced Amazon Redshift Spectrum at its Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas on November 30, 2017. Spectrum, according to the company, gives customers the ability to query data within Amazon Redshift using familiar SQL-based business intelligence tools. Here are five things you should know about this new addition to the Amazon Redshift data warehousing service.
How Amazon Redshift Spectrum Works
Spectrum runs queries against data sources to give users insights about what's happening in real time. For example, a retail chain might want to know how their product inventory is changing over time or how their sales stack up against competitors. Using a graphical interface, analysts could perform ad hoc queries on these datasets as they're updated. It will also integrate with cloud services like Google BigQuery and Microsoft Azure Data Lake Analytics. The service integrates with Spark and Presto for data analysis via SQL database and Python respectively, though there are other options. For more information on how to access your data sources with Apache Spark and Presto with Amazon Redshift Spectrum click here.
Why Amazon Redshift Spectrum Is So Powerful
Before diving into specific features, it’s important to understand what makes Amazon Redshift unique. First and foremost, it's incredibly fast: queries return results in seconds rather than minutes or hours. It is also very simple to use. While other data warehousing services have a steep learning curve and are difficult to scale, Amazon Redshift doesn't require much maintenance (or any maintenance at all), so getting up and running is quick and easy.
How to Access Amazon Redshift Spectrum
There are several ways to access Spectrum. First, if you’re already using Amazon S3, you can connect to it through various services. If you want to connect your existing applications directly, you can use any of its supported APIs or take advantage of one of a few SDKs provided by AWS partners like Qubole and Databricks. It also integrates with other big data tools such as Apache Spark and Presto for quick querying and machine learning capabilities via TensorFlow for deep learning. It’s worth noting that there is no cost to utilize these tools with Spectrum.
Some Basic Tips on Loading Data
First, there are a few quick rules you need to follow if you want your data to load correctly. Put all attributes with similar data types in a single table. If you’re working with an event-related dataset, put timestamps into columns by themselves. When you import CSV files into Redshift, make sure there are no empty rows and no trailing or leading empty columns, because they will cause errors when loading your data. Finally, check that your delimiters match up; if they don’t, these can cause problems during upload as well.
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How to store data on Azure Block Blob
The azure block blob is a scalable storage service that can be used to store massive amounts of unstructured data in the cloud. In this article, I will demonstrate how to store data on the azure block blob and also will give some information about the azure block blob pricing model.
First you have to create an Azure Storage account from the portal.
Go to Microsoft Azure Portal . If you have not registered for it yet, please click here [ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/registration/ ] for details about registration in the azure site page.
After registering a new or signed into azure portal site page , please go to New menu -> Data + Storage -> Quick Create menu button in azure portal site page.
You will see an azure prompt window like in the image below and it asks you to give an azure storage account name and select subscription type (MSDN) and click on the Create button.
After creating an azure storage account, the azure portal site page will show a new datacenter with your azure storage account name as the following screenshot.
Now let's go back to Visual Studio 2012 -> New Project Menu -> Select Core code -> Console Application project . and paste the azure storage connection string in "app setting" section of your application or local machine web.config file as the following screenshot.
As you can see above, my Azure Storage Connection String value is pasted in the "app setting" section of the azure storage account which is created in the azure portal site page.
After hitting F5 key to debug your code, Console application will execute Azure Storage Sample class with the azure storage connection string as outlined below.
As you can see above programmatically an azure blob is used for storing data on an azure block blob.
Now let's go back to the azure portal site page and go to the container section then click on "Blob Containers' ' menu button -> Create menu button -> From Gallery and select the Blob Container option from the drop down list as shown in the following screenshot.
A new window will popup and it asks give a name of azure blobs such as "Azure Blobs", give azure storage account (which is created in azure portal site page), select azure storage access tier as "cool" and click on the OK button.
You will see an azure container after clicking the OK Button . Now, go to the container section , click on "Containers' ' menu button , then copy the azure blob container URL which is displayed under the blob name as shown below screenshot.
Now paste this azure blob container URL which you have copied in your browser window and hit enter key. It will ask for azure storage account login credentials so please provide azure storage account login credentials which are used for storing data on azure block blob.
After successful login it will show all the blobs saved in your azure block blob as shown below.
Now let's go back to azure portal site page , click on container section then select azure blob container menu button and click on Upload menu button and upload image file in azure block blob as shown above screen shot. After successfully uploading, the azure block blob will show the uploaded image under the azure block blob. Now, let's try to retrieve data from azure block blob by clicking on the azure block blob name and it will display contents of associated Azure Blob Container which is saved in azure blobs as the following screenshot shows.
As you can see above contents of azure blobs are displayed now please note that this value does not contain any dynamic content so if you want to save dynamic data in azure blobs azure in-memory cache is used to store content of azure block blob.
To save static content Azure Cache is used so please visit how to set caching for azure block blobs to learn about saving static content on azure blobs .
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AWS Cloud Formation Explained
You might have heard of AWS Cloud Formation, but are unsure of how to use it in your application. In this article, I will explain how to use the service, why you would want to use it, and how it can help you be more productive in your work with AWS resources.
What Is AWS CloudFormation?
AWS Cloud Formation is a service that helps you model and set up your AWS resources so that you can spend less time managing those resources and more time focusing on your applications that run in AWS. With AWS Cloud Formation, you define your application’s resources using JSON or YAML syntax files. You don’t need to install or configure any software on your local machine to create these application templates. And once you save these files, AWS manages every aspect of resource creation, configuration, and maintenance for you. For example, with a single command in one of these syntax files (called a template), AWS will provision Amazon EC2 instances running Ubuntu Linux in multiple Availability Zones across multiple regions if needed and load-balance traffic between them automatically as needed.
What Is Infrastructure as Code?
Infrastructure as code means that you can take an abstract, high-level view of what your infrastructure will look like. You can code it. The real infrastructure is created automatically based on your template. If a server goes down or needs to be updated with security patches, you change your template and let AWS re-create it with new resources. At its core, infrastructure as code means that you describe what resources are needed in a way that makes sense to humans (and machines), then let AWS worry about how to make those resources available to you.
Benefits of Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
You get a lot of benefits with IaC. It helps teams work together better and avoid mistakes like typos. You don’t have to learn a new syntax or language, since you can use your favorite languages and tools to describe your Cloud infrastructure. Code gives you version control, documentation and testing, which help you make changes safely over time. With code, you can reuse your work if you need to change what is already set up instead of rewriting it from scratch when something changes (such as when adding new instances). Finally, with IaC for AWS resources, there are libraries that make coding easier than writing all of it from scratch in Python or another language.
Practical Considerations for IaC
Many people assume that Infrastructure as Code (IaC) only makes sense for large-scale enterprise environments, but in fact, it can be just as beneficial for small projects and even for an individual developer. As I always say, there’s no point in doing something manually if you can automate it and there are ways to use IaC to your advantage even with smaller projects and a single developer.
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