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5 reasons to join us at Securely Migrate and Optimize with Azure

Did you know you can lower operating costs by 40 percent1 when you migrate Windows Server and SQL Server to Azure versus on-premises? Furthermore, you can improve IT efficiency and operating costs by 53 percent by automating management of your virtual machines in cloud and hybrid environments2. To maximize the value of your existing cloud investments, you can utilize tools like Microsoft Cost Management and Azure Advisor. A recent study showed that our customers achieve up to 34 percent reduction in Azure spend in the first year by using Microsoft Cost Management3. To learn more about how to achieve efficiency and maximize cloud value with Azure, join us at Securely Migrate and Optimize with Azure digital event on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at 9:00 AM–11:00 AM Pacific Time.

When migrating to the cloud, consider that Windows Server and SQL Server perform best on Azure. Using managed Azure SQL Server in the cloud can help maximize performance and value. Azure SQL meets your mission-critical requirements up to 5 times faster and costs up to 93 percent less than AWS4. Additionally, you can cost-effectively retire legacy workloads that are reaching end-of-support by reducing your technical debt in a secure way with free Extended Security Updates on Azure for Windows Server 2012/R25. Plus, save up to 85 percent over the standard pay-as-you-go rate by bringing your Windows Server and SQL Server on-premises licenses to Azure6.

Maximize the value of your existing cloud investments by controlling cloud spend, improving workload efficiency, and optimizing workload costs. Microsoft Cost Management helps you understand your Azure bill, provides data analysis to costs, sets spending thresholds, and identifies opportunities for workload changes to optimize your costs. Azure Advisor provides personalized best practices for you to optimize your Azure workloads. Use guidance within the Cloud Adoption Framework and Azure Well-Architected Framework to ensure your teams follow Microsoft best practices for cost optimization throughout the cloud journey.

Drive market differentiation and emerge stronger with intelligent apps infused with AI. When you modernize using App Service you get built-in infrastructure maintenance, security patching, and scaling so you can quickly build apps instead of managing infrastructure. Production-ready cloud AI services enable you to infuse intelligence into your cloud apps and drive new efficiency and market differentiation for common business processes and unlock new scenarios with Azure AI.

Here are five reasons why you should attend this event:

Get expert guidance to gain efficiency by securely migrating and optimizing your Windows Server and SQL Server workloads.
Maximize cloud value with tools, resources, and expertise from Azure to optimize your existing cloud investments.
See demos with step-by-step guidance on how to stay secure and manage complex hybrid IT environments.
Get a walkthrough of tools for self-guided migration including how to discover, assess, and migrate with Azure Migrate.
Ask the experts by posting your questions during the live chat Q&A. This event features a live forum so you can exchange questions and answers with subject matter experts.

Learn more

Learn more from Azure experts on how to increase efficiency and maximize the value of your Windows Server and SQL Server investments. Discover best practices and tips to migrate, optimize, and modernize your infrastructure, apps, and data in the cloud with Azure. Hear customer success stories and learn how to make a business case for migration. And get hands-on experience with demos on how to discover, assess, and start migrating your Windows Server and SQL Server workloads. Register for Securely Migrate and Optimize with Azure free digital event today and join us on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 9:00 AM–11:00 AM Pacific Time.

Source:

1 The Business Value of Microsoft Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server Workloads

2 The Business Value of Migrating and Modernizing with Azure

3 The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Cost Management and Billing

4 Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance (principledtechnologies.com)

5 Free Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2012/R2, only on Azure

6 Azure Hybrid Benefit
Quelle: Azure

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Manage your APIs with Azure API Management’s self-hosted gateway v2

Our industry has seen an evolution in how we run software. Traditionally, platforms were running in on-premises datacenters but started to transition to the cloud. However, not all workloads can move or customers want to have resiliency across clouds and edge which introduced multi-cloud scenarios.

With our self-hosted gateway capabilities, customers can use our existing tooling to extend to their on-premises and multi-cloud APIs with the same role-based access controls, API policies, observability options, and management plane that they are already using for their Azure-based APIs.

New to the self-hosted gateway, how does it work?

When deploying an Azure API Management instance in Azure customers get three main building blocks:

A developer portal (also called user plane) for allowing internal and external users to find documentation, test APIs, get access to APIs, and see basic usage data among other features.
An API gateway (also called data plane), which contains the main networking component that exposes API implementations, applies API policies, secures APIs, and captures metrics and logs of usage among other features.
Finally, a Management Plane, which is used through the Azure Portal, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Azure Software Development Kits (SDKs), Visual Studio and Code extensions, and command-line interfaces (CLIs) that allow to manage and enforce permissions to the other components. Examples of this are setting up APIs, configuring the infrastructure, and defining policies.

Figure 1: Architecture diagram depicting the components and features of Azure API Management Gateway.

In the case of the self-hosted gateway, we provide customers with a container image that hosts a version of our API Gateway. Customers can run multiple instances of this API Gateway in non-Azure environments and the only requirement is to allow outbound communications to the Management Plane of an Azure API Management instance to fetch configuration and expose APIs running in those non-Azure environments.

Figure 2: Architecture diagram depicting the components of a distributed API Gateway solution using the self-hosted gateway.

Supported Azure API Management tiers

The self-hosted gateway v2 is now generally available and fully supported. However, the following conditions apply:

You need an active Azure API Management instance; this instance should be on the Developer tier or Premium tier.

In the developer tier, in this case the feature is free for testing, with limitations of one active instance.
In the Premium tier, you can run as many instances as you want. Learn more about pricing at our pricing table.

Azure API Management will always provision an API Gateway in Azure, which we typically call our managed API gateway.

Be aware that there are differences in features between our various API gateway offerings. Learn more about the differences in our documentation.

Pricing and gateway deployment

In the case of the self-hosted gateway, we can define a self-hosted gateway by assigning a name to our gateway, a location (which is a logical grouping that aligns with your business, not an Azure region), a description, and finally what APIs we want to expose in this gateway. This allows us to do physical isolation of APIs at the gateway level, which is only possible in the self-hosted gateway at this moment. This combination of location, APIs, and hostname is what defines a self-hosted gateway deployment, this “self-hosted gateway deployment” should not be confused with a Kubernetes “deployment” object.

For example, using a single deployment, where the same APIs are configured in all locations:

Figure 3: Architecture diagram describing the pricing model for a single deployment of a self-hosted gateway.

However, you can also create multiple self-hosted gateway deployments to have more granular control over the different APIs that are being exposed:

Figure 4: Architecture diagram describing the pricing model for two deployments of a self-hosted gateway.

Supportability and shared responsibilities

Another important aspect is the support, in the case of the self-hosted gateway, the infrastructure is not necessarily managed by Azure, therefore as a customer you have more responsibilities to ensure the proper functioning of the gateway:

Microsoft Azure

Shared Responsibilities

Customers

Managed service service level agreements ( SLA), for the management plane, access to configuration and ability to receive telemetry.

Securing self-hosted gateway communication with Configuration endpoint: the communication between the self-hosted gateway and the configuration endpoint is secured by an access token, this token expires automatically every 30 days and needs to be updated for the running containers.

Gateway hosting, deploying, and operating the gateway infrastructure: virtual machines with container runtime or Kubernetes clusters.

Gateway maintenance, bug fixes and patches to container image.

Keeping the gateway up to date: regularly updating the gateway to the latest version and latest features.

Network configuration, necessary to maintain management plane connectivity and API access.

Gateway updates, performance, and functional improvements to container image.

 

Gateway SLA, capacity management, scaling, and uptime

 

 

Keeping the gateway up to date, regularly updating the gateway to the latest version and latest features.

 

 

Providing diagnostics data to support, collecting, and sharing diagnostics data with support engineers

 

 

Third party open-source software (OSS ) software components, adding additional layers like Prometheus, Grafana, service meshes, container runtimes, Kubernetes distributions, proxies are customer responsibility.

New features and capabilities of v2 and v1 retirement

When using the latest versions of our v2 container image, tag 2.0.0 and or higher, you would be able to use the following features:

Opentelemetry metrics: the self-hosted gateway can be configured to automatically collect and send metrics to an OpenTelemetry Collector. This allows you to bring your own metrics collection and reporting solution for the self-hosted gateway. Here you can find a list of supported metrics.
New image tagging: we provide four tagging strategies to meet your needs regarding updates, stability, patching, and production environments.
Helm chart: a new deployment option with multiple variables for you to configure at deployment time like backups, logs, OpenTelemetry, ingress, probes, and also Distributed Application Runtime (DAPR) configurations. This helm chart together with our sample Yaml files can be used for automated deployments with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI and CD ) tools or even Gitops tools.
Artifact registry: you can find all our artifacts in our centralized Microsoft Artifact Registry for all the container images provided by Microsoft.
New EventGrid events: a new batch of supported EventGrid events related to the self-hosted gateway operations and configurations. The full list of events can be found here.

Please remember that we will be retiring support for the v1 version of our self-hosted gateway, so this is the perfect time to upgrade to v2. We also provide a migration guide and a guide for running the self-hosted gateway in production.
Quelle: Azure

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How 5G and wireless edge infrastructure power digital operations with Microsoft

As enterprises continue to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and AI to analyze processes and data from their equipment, the need for high-speed, low-latency wireless connections are rapidly growing. Companies are already seeing benefits from deploying private 5G networks to enable their solutions, especially in the manufacturing, healthcare, and retail sectors.

The potential of 5G and multi-access edge computing (MEC) has evolved substantially. As they are fully ready to enable the next-generation of digital operations, it is important to highlight some recent successful deployments that provide high speeds and ultra-low latency.

These findings have been included in the latest Digital Operations Signals report. Where our previous industry trends report, IoT Signals, gave insight for audiences into IoT, we thought it was important for this latest report to go beyond IoT and into the world of digital operations. The report now encompasses the business outcomes that organizations are pursuing to unlock the next level of improvements in efficiency, agility, and sustainability in their physical operations utilizing AI, machine learning, digital twins, 5G, and more.

As 5G connections and mobile edge computing continue to advance, so does the demand for its adoption. Interestingly, the Digital Operations Signals report found that cloud radio access networks (C-RAN), private Wi-Fi networks, and MEC technologies are not just continuing to develop, but they are also likely to converge. This means we could see more unified on-site network architectures with faster, more powerful computing.

What can 5G infrastructure deliver?

Traditionally, local connectivity in business sites—such as hospitals, clinics, warehouses, and factories—was provided by Ethernet and Wi-Fi. While Wi-Fi is still in common use for enterprise on-premises connections, it doesn’t always offer the bandwidth, latency, security, and reliability needed for demanding IoT solutions, particularly for rugged operational environments. The wider availability of 5G connectivity is spurring growth in new edge solutions and an increasing number of IoT device connections. It is now possible to have higher throughput and latency as low as 100 milliseconds or less for a device to respond to a hosting server’s request.

But the adoption of 5G is more than just a network upgrade. Instead, it’s ushering in a new category of network-intelligent applications that can solve problems that were once out of reach. With 5G, you can deploy edge applications based on cloud-native distributed architecture for solutions that demand low latency and dedicated quality of service. By using 5G and leveraging APIs to interact with networks, these applications can deliver high-performing, optimized experiences.

How is 5G being used by enterprises today?

In factory settings, for example, AI requires low latency to improve control processes and robotic systems, recognize objects through advanced computer vision, and effectively manage warehouse and supply chain operations. In this scenario, 5G and MEC can help power computer vision-assisted product packing and gather near-real-time data on any mistakes. This opens the potential to improve on-site quality assurance for logistics and supply chain companies and reduce processing times.

In healthcare, 5G connections support AI’s use in medical diagnoses, health monitoring, predictive maintenance and monitoring of medical systems, and telemedicine applications. In retail operations, low-latency connections allow AI to help with real-time inventory management, in-store video traffic, and in-store real-time offers.

The 5G architecture consists of three different network tiers—low band, midband, and millimeter wave (mmWave) high band—that offer different advantages and disadvantages in coverage distances and speed. Additionally, key 5G services specialize in providing different features:

Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB): By defining a minimum level of data transfer rate, eMBB can provide ultra-high wireless bandwidth capabilities, handling virtual reality, computer vision, and large-scale video streaming.
Massive machine-type communications (mMTC): Designed for industrial scenarios and other environments requiring numerous devices to be connected to each other, mMTC could be used with IoT solutions or large spaces with a variety of devices that would need to communicate together.
Ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC): This is designed for use cases that require extremely low latency and high reliability. This would benefit situations where responsiveness is critical, such as public safety and emergency response uses, remote healthcare, industrial automation, smart energy grids, and controlling autonomous vehicles.

Using these services to achieve high speeds and performance, however, requires businesses to upgrade network technology and update their older wireless and edge architectures. To help overcome these challenges, enterprises are turning to the right combination of hardware, software, and cloud services that can optimize 5G at the edge.

How are Microsoft and Intel empowering 5G solutions?

Microsoft and Intel understand the many challenges that enterprises face. By working with telecom hyper scalers, independent solution providers, and other partners, we are providing 5G infrastructure and network services that are easily adaptable for use cases in many sectors. Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC) helps operators and system integrators simplify the delivery of ultra-low-latency solutions over 4G and 5G netwworks. By reducing integration complexity, enterprises can innovate new solutions and generate new revenue streams.

Intel has designed a range of hardware to power 5G edge network activities and improve content transmission and processing. By providing foundational technology to run 5G, they are working to help standardize and simplify its use and create more unified edge applications and services. By helping customers securely and efficiently deploy 5G across industries, they can reap the benefits of 5G without complicated or extended timelines.

Learn more about 5G at the edge

For the manufacturing industry, 5G can bring compute power closer to challenges that need to be solved. While 5G adoption is still in its early stages in many industries, Microsoft and Intel are advancing the evolution and growing deployment of 5G and supporting the development of new solutions and use cases with their hardware, software, and services.

For additional insights on the current trends and recent findings, check out the Digital Operations Signals report.

We also have smart factory use cases available, and you can download the business use case and technical use case for more information on the value drivers, total cost of ownership, and technical design. Enterprises interested in any of the solutions listed above can contact our partners via Azure Marketplace, or contact the Azure private MEC team.

Finally, to learn more about how Microsoft is helping organizations adopt 5G with connected applications, sign up for news and updates delivered to your inbox.
Quelle: Azure