Introducing Virtual Machine restore points – a simpler way to protect Azure workloads
Virtual Machine restore point are now generally available. Customers and Azure partners who are looking to build business continuity and disaster recovery solutions can use VM restore points to capture app consistent and crash consistent backups natively on the Azure platform. This can then be used to restore disks and VMs during scenarios such as data loss, data corruption or disaster recovery.Azure Speed Test - find the nearest Microsoft Azure Data Center
Hi All, me... new member here from Thailand. Not sure is that anyone share this tip? Before we setup Azure backup, Azure VM, etc. As our site are located around the world. I will run Azure speed test. To find a nearest Microsoft Azure Data Center base on our Server/Site location. This way we will make sure to put Azure Services to the right Microsoft Azure Data Center. To avoid latency and slowness to what we need on Azure. simply go to http://azurespeedtest.azurewebsites.net/ from your site or server that need Azure services. It will show you the nearest Microsoft Azure Data Center. *in photo shown Singapore is the nearest Microsoft Azure Data Center, from Thailand. hope this useful. Cheers, SKProtecting Your Data: How to Back up a Virtual Machine in Azure
Backing up a virtual machine (VM) in Azure is a critical step in protecting your data. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can ensure that your virtual machine is regularly backed up and your data is protected. Nonprofits can use this feature to safeguard their critical data and ensure that they can continue to serve their mission even in the face of a disaster.AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Study Guide
The AZ-500 certification provides professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to secure Azure infrastructure, services, and data. The exam covers identity and access management, data protection, platform security, and governance in Azure. Learners can prepare for the exam with Microsoft's self-paced curriculum, instructor-led course, and documentation. The certification measures the learner’s knowledge of managing, monitoring, and implementing security for resources in Azure, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Azure Firewall, Key Vault, and Azure Active Directory are some of the topics covered in the exam.
Azure Backup for AKS: Cloud native, Enterprise ready, Kubernetes aware backup
Kubernetes has emerged as the leading platform for deploying containerized applications, and many organizations are turning to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to enjoy a managed and efficient container orchestration experience. Thanks to the continuous innovations driven by the Kubernetes community, it has become easier to store state within Kubernetes clusters and even run mission-critical databases within these clusters. As more businesses adopt stateful AKS clusters, it is imperative for IT administrators to implement robust data protection measures to safeguard their applications against accidental deletion, malicious actors, and ransomware attacks. In response to this need, we are excited to announce the General Availability of Azure Backup for AKS, a simple, cloud-native solution that enables you to protect your AKS clusters via backing up Kubernetes workloads deployed along with the application data. How Azure Backup for AKS Works Customers running stateful AKS clusters previously relied on the native Azure Disk Backup service to protect their applications stored in Persistent Volumes. While this service offered a convenient way to back up data, restoring these snapshots to the cluster required substantial effort from the customers. Furthermore, customers were not only interested in protecting volumes but also sought an application-centric approach. They wanted to back up the entire application, including both the cluster state and volumes, in a Kubernetes-aware manner. With a "Linux first" mindset, we developed a solution leveraging Velero, an open-source software that provides backup and restore capabilities for Kubernetes cluster resources and persistent volumes. Azure Backup complements this by offering orchestration and management features to our customers. This combination of open-source innovation and enterprise-grade data protection capabilities within an easy-to-use Azure-native experience significantly reduces the total cost of ownership and provides peace of mind to our customers. Getting started with Azure Backup for AKS is a breeze. You only need to install the Azure Backup extension in your cluster, and it's ready to be backed up. After installation, you can configure backups from the AKS Portal or enjoy the convenience of a single pane of glass view from the Backup Center to manage your AKS backups alongside other Azure workloads such as virtual machines and SQL Server. Key Features of Azure Backup for AKS With Azure Backup for AKS, you can configure scheduled backups for both your cluster state and application data, including persistent volumes. The cluster state is stored in a blob container, while the persistent volumes (based on Azure Disk) are backed up as snapshots in a Kubernetes-aware manner using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver. This flexibility allows you to leverage backups for operational recovery or to recover from accidental data deletion at any time. One of the standout features of this solution is the fine-grained control it provides. You can choose to back up a specific namespace or an entire cluster, making it ideal for organizations with shared cluster architectures used by multiple application teams or departments. With granular namespace-level control, you can configure backups for each application based on your required Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) using backup policies. In terms of restores, the backups taken from your AKS cluster can be restored to the original cluster or to an alternate cluster, even in a different Azure subscription. This unlocks various scenarios where you can use backups to clone production environments for testing or migrate applications across clusters as part of a blue-green deployment strategy. For customers running database workloads as containers, such as MySQL, Postgres, or MongoDB, Azure Backup for AKS provides the confidence to define specific customizations for these databases during backup, ensuring application consistency. With Azure Backup for AKS, customers can now confidently run stateful applications within their AKS clusters, benefiting from the advanced orchestration capabilities of Kubernetes managed by Azure while also having their data backed up using Azure Backup. As more organizations start operating mission-critical applications in a stateful manner on AKS, Azure Backup empowers IT administrators to have a peaceful night's sleep, knowing that their applications are well-protected. This solution represents another step forward in Azure's commitment to providing robust, integrated tools for the Azure Kubernetes Service, and it ensures that your data is safe, secure, and always within your reach. Learn more Check out this article to learn more about Azure Backup for AKS and start protecting your applications running on AKS today.Azure Backup: Best Practices for Secure Data Protection and Restoration
Azure Backup is a powerful and flexible backup solution that can help protect your critical data and applications in a scalable and cost-effective way and can be easily integrated with other Azure services for a comprehensive data protection strategy.Generally Available: Simplifying at scale BCDR management with Azure Business Continuity center
In the contemporary digital landscape, the establishment of robust business continuity strategies is imperative for organizations navigating the complexities of technology. Given the heavy reliance on digital infrastructure, fortifying these systems against potential disruptions is crucial. In response to this challenge, we are thrilled to introduce the General availability of Azure Business Continuity (ABC) Center, across all regions. Azure Backup center has now evolved into Azure Business Continuity Center, with advanced and powerful BCDR management capabilities. With the Azure Business Continuity Center, enterprises can seamlessly govern, monitor, operate, and analyze protection at-scale. This release includes support for the following key features: Insights into Protection Estate: Gain comprehensive insights into the protection estate across solutions such as Backup and Azure Site Recovery for both your Azure and Hybrid (VMware) resources. Explore more in Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 1: Understand Protection Estate Summary - Microsoft Community Hub Identify and Protect Resources: Easily identify resources that are not currently protected and take proactive measures to secure them. Refer to Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 2: understand your protectable resources inventory - Microsoft Community Hub. Centralized Resource Protection: Ensure the protection of resources and execute actions from a single, centralized location. Detailed information is available in Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 3: understand your protected items inventory - Microsoft Community Hub Optimize Security Configuration: Safeguard your resources against scenarios like ransomware threats, malicious attacks, and rogue admin activities. Learn how to optimize security configurations in Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 4: optimize security configuration - Microsoft Community Hub Unified Monitoring: Attain quick visibility into failures in meeting business continuity SLAs through unified monitoring. Utilize various views, such as jobs, to monitor from a central location and configure alerts and notifications for timely awareness of any SLA violations regarding critical resources. Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 5: Monitoring protection - Microsoft Community Hub Ensuring Compliance: Leverage inbuilt Azure Policies to govern resources for business continuity and ensure compliance. Obtain a detailed compliance list of all assigned Azure Policies, including the number of resources within the scope of assignment that are compliant or non-compliant. ABCC seamlessly integrates with Azure Policy, empowering customers with robust compliance capabilities. Oversight of BCDR Artifacts - Efficiently create and oversee the lifecycle of artifacts such as vaults. Automate common and standard use cases, including the lifecycle management of schedules and policies established for both Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery. Obtain Insights - For analyzing historical trends and gaining deeper insights on your protection across Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery. Reports offer the following capabilities: Allocating and forecasting of cloud storage consumed. Auditing backups and restores. Identifying key trends at different levels of granularity. Gaining visibility and insights into cost optimization opportunities for your backups. Learn more about ABC Center to understand how it can revolutionize your business continuity journey for the resourcesPublic Preview: Azure Business Continuity Center is now available in all regions
In the contemporary digital landscape, the establishment of robust business continuity strategies is imperative for organizations navigating the complexities of technology. Given the heavy reliance on digital infrastructure, fortifying these systems against potential disruptions is crucial. In response to this challenge, we are thrilled to introduce the Public Preview of Azure Business Continuity (ABC) Center a groundbreaking initiative designed to enhance your business's resilience across all regions. With the Azure Business Continuity Center, enterprises can seamlessly govern, monitor, operate, and analyze protection at scale. This release includes support for the following key features: Insights into Protection Estate: Gain comprehensive insights into the protection estate across solutions such as Backup and Azure Site Recovery for both your Azure and Hybrid (VMware) resources. Explore more in Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 1: Understand Protection Estate Summary - Microsoft Community Hub Identify and Protect Resources: Easily identify resources that are not currently protected and take proactive measures to secure them. Refer to Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 2: understand your protectable resources inventory - Microsoft Community Hub. Centralized Resource Protection: Ensure the protection of resources and execute actions from a single, centralized location. Detailed information is available in Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 3: understand your protected items inventory - Microsoft Community Hub Optimize Security Configuration: Safeguard your resources against scenarios like ransomware threats, malicious attacks, and rogue admin activities. Learn how to optimize security configurations in Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 4: optimize security configuration - Microsoft Community Hub Unified Monitoring: Attain quick visibility into failures in meeting business continuity SLAs through unified monitoring. Utilize various views, such as jobs, to monitor from a central location and configure alerts and notifications for timely awareness of any SLA violations regarding critical resources. Explore unified monitoring in Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 5: Monitoring protection - Microsoft Community Hub Ensuring Compliance: Leverage inbuilt Azure Policies to govern resources for business continuity and ensure compliance. Obtain a detailed compliance list view of all assigned Azure Policies, including the number of resources within the scope of assignment that are compliant or non-compliant. ABCC seamlessly integrates with Azure Policy, empowering customers with robust compliance capabilities. Learn more about ABC Center to understand how it can revolutionize your business continuity journey for the resources
