Azure Platform Technical Overview

It has been nearly a year since we did this presentation for the group and the size of the group has doubled in that time to over 800 memebers. Some of you may be new to the group, new to Azure or just a bit out of date. This is for you.

In IT things are clearly moving from a CapEx to an OpEx model where the focus is shifting from internal data center and hosted applications into the Cloud with its consumption-based pricing model. The lure of pay-as-you go pricing is attractive; but it does carry with it some risk. If you choose the wrong applications to move into the cloud it could wind up costing you more than running them locally or at a hosting provider. It also requires increased discipline related to manage the appropriate allocation and deallocation of Cloud resources.

We will start off with a discussion of these considerations, and then dig down into the features supported by the Microsoft Azure public cloud.

The presentation will include an architectural overview of the Azure platform, its features and services. Since Azure is a very broad offering, we will focus on the question of what the Azure Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) features are, and when they should be used to solve specific business and technical problems.

If you are new to Azure, or not conversant with all of its recent enhancements, this presentation will give you a good overview, not too deep, but deep enough to understand what to use when.

Agenda

• What is Azure?
• Why adopt it?
• Azure Resource Management
• Compute Options
• Azure Storage
• Databases
• Business Continuity (Backup and Disaster Recovery)
• Networking
• Security
• Virtual Desktop
• IoT & Analytics
• The Future of Azure

Presenter: Bill Zack

Bill is a Cloud Solution Architect at Stratum Technology Management (http://www.stratum-tech.com/) in Nashville Tennessee where he helps companies adopt Azure the right way. He has been an Azure specialist since before it was called Azure! (~2007 😊) Formerly he was a Principal Architect Evangelist at Microsoft. In that role, he was one of only 24 Azure Subject Matter Experts in all of Microsoft when Azure was launched in 2010.

After leaving Microsoft he was hired as an Architecture Consultant by the Microsoft Azure Product Team to provide Architecture and Technical Support for Microsoft customers and partners.

He also blogs about Azure at CloudyInNashville.com (https://cloudyinnashville.com/), has published books and white papers and presents frequently at community groups and conferences on (what else?) The Cloud and Azure. 😊

Bill founded the Nashville Microsoft Azure Users Group (http://www.NashAzure.com)4 years ago with only 4 members. Today he leads this group of over 800 members.

At this meeting we will be giving away 20 free Azure Pass (https://www.microsoftazurepass.com/) subscriptions to the first attendees who ask for them. If you do not have an MSDN subscription or other Azure access these will give you $100/Month of Azure for Three months.

We will also raffle off two Pluralsight one-month subscription as well

And please remember to park on level P2.