Cloud Marathoner ranked in the Top 100 Azure blogs

Greetings to my dear Cloud Marathoner friends!

We have a piece of great news to celebrate this week as our blog is one of the 100 Best Microsoft Azure Blogs and Websites in 2022 (feedspot.com). Yay 🎉🎉🎉

Actually, our blog post progressed up by one rank, and now it is in the 56th spot.

#CloudMarathoner on FeedSpot TOP 100 Azure Blogs

Could it make it to the TOP 10 Azure Blogs?

Well, I don’t want to speculate on that but, everything is possible with your help 👍👍👍

Yes, YOU – my dearest readers and supporters 💪 of #cloudmarathoner movement!!!

Thank you for all you do 🙌🙌🙌

What is a FeedSpot blog site?

This site has a very selective editorial team and does a very hard job of on objectively deciding which blogs deserve the top spot for the readers.

I was informed that the FeedSpot editorial team extensively searches on Google and social media websites to find the best Microsoft Azure blogs and ranks them based on several factors such as:

  • Blog content quality
  • Post consistency
  • Age of the blog
  • Average number of shares on social sites of the blog posts
  • Traffic of the blog site and more.

Here is the clear text URL below, where you can find more about the TOP 100 Azure blogs: https://blog.feedspot.com/microsoft_azure_blogs/

Conclusion

Check out the links posted above and visit this site, and please like & subscribe to the #cloudmarathoner.

What is new in Azure Bicep v0.6?

Hello freinds,

Thank you everyone who has landed in this page to check out my Global Azure 2022 session – What is new in Azure Bicep language?

I had a great joy while interacting with a number of attendees.
Thank You for checking this blog and please feel free to reach out back with your questions.

What is new in Azure Bicep language?

As you might know, the Azure Bicep language brings a new Infrastructure as a Code (IaC) approach to manage your Azure resources in a clean way.
We also have a classic ARM JSON template that is/was traditionally used to define Azure infrastructure resources in a declarative way.

However, it is not easy to author and maintain ARM JSON templates when your project grows in complexity.

A demo screenshot from the session

But, I have good news for you – Microsoft infrastructure team has been working on new language to ease this process. Thus, an Azure Bicep language is created to simplify management of your infrastructure while re-using the code.

In this, I have introduced new features and capabilities of Azure Bicep v0.5 & v0.6 language. You also see demos on how it is simple to create, manage a modularized Azure infrastructure-as-code, while using familiar tools and extensions on VS Code.

A screenshot from the slides

If you missed this session, no worries, you are covered, as this session was recorded. It is freely availiable on the #cloudmarathoner 🖐 ⏩ YouTube channel here.

The slides and as well as links to the recommended resources are posted on my 🖐 🍴 GitHub repo here.

Please, feel free to check up this GitHub repo, share & fork it as you like 👍

What is the Digital Advertising Fundamentals & how to pass?

Hello Cloud Marathoners,

Two weeks ago, I have earned and shared a Microsoft Advertising badge. I got several request to provide information about the training material and my expereince with the exam.

What is the digital advertising?

Well, if you are you new to digital advertising, then these Microsoft courses will provide you an introduction to the digital marketing industry. You could start learning the foundations and then looking at search, shopping, and display advertising.

Digital Advertising Fundamentals

Earn the Badge

  • By complete the 4 courses in the Learning Path (in any order) you could earn a digital Badge. As you know, it can be shared and verified on LinkedIn or other social media platforms to demonstrate your new knowledge.
  • Keep in mind that each chapter has assessment questions
  • Finally, review all the material and get ready to pass the final assessment

Where you can start?

Checkout the Digital Advertising Fundamentals Learning Path 👉
https://lnkd.in/eu4ciw67 #sharingiscaring ❤

There are several more Learning paths that you can check below:
Choose a Learning Path or event to get started!

I hope you can get all the resources you need to start your own learning journey in Advert space. Good Luck and keep me posted on your progress!

Getting you ready for Azure Architect AZ-305 exam!

Hello Cloud Marathoners,

Thank you everyone who took a time from their busy schedule and attended my Global Azure 2022 session – Getting you ready for Azure Architect exam!

It was great pleasure to interact with each of you, and Thank You for great questions that you brought during the session.

Getting you ready for Azure Architect AZ-305 exam

In this session, I focused on a number of changes in Microsoft Azure Architect exam, as it might be troublesome to get ready for it with all the digital distractions around us.

However, in this lightning talk, I shared bits and tips on how to focus on the AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions exam objectives and help you to prepare for a big day.

A screenshot from the participants comments

As part of this presentation, I have shared free, official and community learning resources that will boost your knowledge, and hopefully help you pass this important exam with confidence.

A screenshot of an official practice exam reference

If you missed this session, no worries, you are covered, as this session was recorded. It is freely availiable on the #cloudmarathoner ⏯ 🖐 YouTube channel here.

The slides and as well as links to the recommended resources are posted on my 🖐 👨‍💻 GitHub repo here.

Please, feel free to check up this GitHub repo, share & fork it as you like 👍

Career Panel Q&A with Streaming Clouds

Hello friends,

Few days ago, I was really honored to receive an invitation to speak at a great “Career Panel” Q&A event from Robin Smorenburg and Kevin Evans. This event was the first organized event of Streaming Clouds.

Oh boy, it was such an interesting and honest discussion where myself and other guests honestly shared experiences and struggles, while addressing questions from the live audience.

Image
Cloud careers with Streaming Clouds

This panel focused on addressing the following hot question: – How to break into a cloud career or how to get your career journey to the next stage?

This event covered the certifications and how to gain hands-on experience, community and personal branding, and mentorship.

Dear friends, this event was recorded and available for re-watch at the following LinkedIn url.

Study Guide for AZ-305: Part 12 –Design for high availability

Hello friends!

Thank you for following series of blog posts on this Study Guide for AZ-305!

This is the final (Part 12/12) of blog post series to help you get ready for the latest AZ-305 exam.

Feel free to check the previous posts listed below, if you did not look into them yet 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is high availability ?

High availability (HA) is an important quality measure of computing infrastructure that is mission-critical for the customer facing applications and overall organization’s systems. High availability permits the computing infrastructure to continue functioning, even when certain components fail.

Thus, cloud solution providers (CSPs) are expected to deliver certain measures and guarantees to claim the high availability of the offered services.

Image showing availability zones that protect against localized disasters and regional or large geography disasters by using another region.
Azure Regions and Availability zones

The diagram below, equates Service Level Agreement (SLA) percentual to actual downtime, measured in seconds per week, month and year.

Measuring SLA table

How to achieve High Availability in Azure?

Azure infrastructure is composed of geographies, regions, and availability zones which in turn limits the impact of a physical server or Sofware update failure and therefore limit potential impact to customer applications and data.

The Azure availability zones construct was developed to provide a software and networking solution to protect against datacenter failures and to provide increased high availability (HA) to the Azure customers.

Infographic: Reliability with Microsoft Azure

Availability zones are playing very important role in designing your HA solution to meet customer needs. Please, read more about the Azure Regions and availability zones here.

High Availability in Azure: App Service, Function Apps | mithun shanbhag's blog

Part 12: Design for high availability

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing HA solutions in Azure. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 😉.

This collection of links is gathered with a focus on the exam objectives of the AZ-305 certification exam.

Regions and availability zones
Azure geographies
Azure services that support availability zones
[Article] Enabling Data Residency and Data Protection in Microsoft Azure Regions
Azure reliability Overview
Build solutions for high availability using availability zones

Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
Reliability Patterns
High availability and disaster recovery scenarios for IaaS apps
Infographic: Reliability with Microsoft Azure
[Tutorial] Design for high availability
[Tutorial] Configure virtual machine availability

[Tutorial] Describe high availability and disaster recovery strategies
[Tutorial] Monitor the usage, performance, and availability of resources with Azure Monitor
[Tutorial] Plan and implement a high availability and disaster recovery environment
[Tutorial] Deploy highly available solutions by using Azure SQL

SUMMARY

This is it folk, we did it!!!

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 12: Design a solution for backup and disaster recovery and completing your learning journey.

Looking forward and ask for feedback.

Study Guide AZ-305: Part 11 – Design for business continuity, backup and disaster recovery

Hi Cloud Marathoners!

Welcome to the 11th blog post (Part 11/12) of the Azure Architect series to help you get ready for the AZ-305 exam. This post starts the last section of this exam – Design Business Continuity Solutions.

And please feel free to check the previous sections & blog posts listed below if you landed on this page for the first time 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is Business Continuity Solutions ?

Simply put, a Business Continuity (aka, BC) solution is based on a plan 🙂
A BC plan is a predefined approach and procedure for how a business will continue to run when dealing with an emergency.

In another words, it is a process of creating systems of prevention and recovery to deal with any potential threats to your company.  These threats could be a natural disasters, such as hurricanes, fires, floods, power outages or an unintended misconfiguration of a system. It could also be a malicious cyberattack as well.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is where-is-server-it-is-crashed-w-backup.jpg

There are many benefits provided by BC planning and Disaster Recovering (aka, DR) planning to your organization when they are drafted and approved across the board, such as:

  • Improved decision-making
  • Risk Management
  • People and Property Protection
  • Morale boost 🙂

The “Morale boost” element is very important piece, because when employees know plans are in place, they may feel safer. Moreover, it does not just boost morale, but potentially increases the business value perception to customers who recognize the high preparedness and responsibilities of the company.

Top 13 Priorities for a Strong Business Continuity Plan

What are the Backups and Disaster Recovery solutions in Azure?

In the case of service disruption or accidental deletion or corruption of data, recover your business services in a timely and orchestrated manner. The Azure backup and disaster recovery solution is simple to architect, cloud-native, highly available, and resilient.

Backup and Disaster Recovery in azure

Azure Backup and Disaster Recovery (DR) services are important services that help you to achieve your company’s reliability goals for all of the system workloads in the cloud or on-premises. It is very important when CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) prioritizes transparency and keep it’s customers informed during and after the service issues.

You could easily target following goals when planning to deliver your Backup and DR services to your most critical customers:

  • Simplified Management across environments
  • Azure built-in security controls
  • Reduced complexity and cost
  • Extent solutions to Azure with our partners
Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery with Microsoft Azure - PEI

Part 11: Design a business continuity solution

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing solutions in Azure. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 😉.

This collection of links is gathered with a focus on the exam objectives of the AZ-305 certification exam.

What is the Azure Backup service?
Overview of operational backup for Azure Blobs
About Azure file share backup
Back up Azure file shares
Full Database Backups (SQL Server)
Differential Backups (SQL Server)

Enable and manage soft delete for containers
Enable soft delete for blobs
Point-in-time restore for block blobs
Lock resources to prevent unexpected changes

Overview of share snapshots for Azure Files
Recover using automated database backups – Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance
Long-term retention – Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance
Auto-failover groups overview & best practices (Azure SQL Database)

An overview of Azure VM backup
About Site Recovery
Azure Site Recovery documentation
Azure Backup service documentation

Recovery Services vaults overview
Azure to Azure disaster recovery architecture
Support matrix for Azure VM disaster recovery between Azure regions
[Tutorial] : Set up disaster recovery for Azure VMs

[Tutorial] : Disaster recovery and backup
[Tutorial] : Design your site recovery solution in Azure
[Tutorial] : Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework – Reliability
[Tutorial] : Describe high availability and disaster recovery strategies
[Tutorial] : Protect your virtual machines by using Azure Backup

How to restore Azure VM data in Azure portal
Recover files from Azure virtual machine backup

[Blog] : Understanding Azure Availability Sets and Availability Zones
Availability options for Azure Virtual Machines
Regions and availability zones

SUMMARY

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 11: Design a business continuity solution.

The next blog post will be continuation with Part 12: Design a solution for backup and disaster recovery.

Study Guide AZ-305: Part 10 – Design a data integration solution

Hi Cloud Marathoners!

Welcome to the 10th blog post (Part 10/12) of the Azure Architect series to help you get ready for the AZ-305 exam. This post finalizes the third section of this exam – Design Data Storage Solutions.

Our next post will be discussing the last section of this exam – Design Business Continuity Solutions.

And please feel free to check the previous blog posts listed below if you landed on this page for the first time 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is the Data Integration ?

It is very natural to wonder – “what is the meaning of data integration”?
In a nutshell, it is a combination of differently sourced data for a high-level overview and analysis. In other words, “Data Integration” – is a common term referring to the requirement to combine data from multiple separate business systems into a single unified view, also known as a single view of the truth.

This unified view is typically stored in a central data repository known as a data warehouse.

Data integration can serve your organization some short- and long-term benefits, including the followings:

✔️ Better Data
✔️ Better Collaboration
✔️ Fast connections between Data Storage
✔️ Increased efficiency and ROI
✔️ Better customer and partner experiences
✔️ A more comprehensive view of your business

Trinamix Cloud Integration solutions with third party software and Oracle Cloud SaaS applications. - Trinamix

What are the Data Integration solutions in Microsoft Azure?

Application integration often requires connecting multiple independent systems, often in complex ways. This white paper explains how the components of Azure Integration Services—API Management, Logic Apps, Service Bus, and Event Grid—work together to provide a complete solution for integrating both cloud and on-premises applications.

Azure Integration Services


There are several Azure services such as Azure Functions, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Logic Apps are just a few of the services that can help you efficiently solve complex data challenges.


Check out the Overview of Data Integration in Azure from this official resource.

Basic enterprise integration on Azure - Azure Architecture Center | Microsoft Docs

Part 10: Design a data integration solution

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing Data Integration solutions in Azure. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 😉.

This collection of links is gathered with a focus on the exam objectives of the AZ-305 certification exam.

What is Azure Logic Apps?
Azure Logic Apps documentation
What is Azure Service Bus?
Azure Service Bus Messaging documentation
[Tutorials] Azure Logic Apps on Microsoft Learn
[Tutorials] Azure Service Bus on Microsoft Learn
Introduction to Azure Functions
Azure Functions documentation
[Tutorials] Azure Functions on Microsoft Learn

About API Management
API Management documentation
[Tutorials] API Management on Microsoft learn
What is Azure Event Grid?
Azure Event Grid documentation
[Tutorials] Azure Event Grid on Microsoft Learn

Azure Data Factory
Azure Data Factory documentation
[Tutorials] Azure Data Factory on Microsoft Learn
Introduction to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
Overview of Azure Stream Analytics Cluster
Azure Stream Analytics documentation

Transact-SQL features supported in Azure Synapse SQL
Introducing data virtualization with PolyBase
Azure Data Lake
Analytics end-to-end with Azure Synapse
[Tutorial] Implement a Data Streaming Solution with Azure Streaming Analytics
Azure Synapse SQL architecture
What is Azure Synapse Analytics?

[Tutorial] Explore Azure database and analytics services
[Tutorial] Data integration at scale with Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Pipeline
What is Azure Databricks?
[Blog] 4 common analytics scenarios to build business agility

SUMMARY

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 10: Design a data integration solution.

The next blog post will be continuation with Part 11: Design a business continuity solution.

Study Guide AZ-305: Part 9 – Design a data storage solution for relational data

Hi Cloud Marathoners!

Welcome to the next blog post (Part 9/12) from the Az-305 series to help you get ready for the AZ-305 exam.

Please, check the previous blog posts listed below, if you landed on this page for the first time 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is a relational data?

A relational data is a set of data that have a certain pre-defined structure. Once this data structure (aka, data schema) is enforced on data then we can start talking about a relational database.

Thus, a relational database (DB) is a collection of data items with some pre-defined relationships. These data items are organized as a set of tables with columns and rows. The tables are used to hold a similar type of information object to be represented in the database.

Explore fundamental relational data concepts - Learn | Microsoft Docs

WHAT is relational data storage in azure?

In Microsoft Azure, relational data could be stored in different forms and shapes. The early approach of storing and running relational databases has been accomplished through Virtual Machine (VM) instances. However, this approach brought a certain operational overhead and required specialized skills within the team to manage those VMs properly.

Nowadays, we could run the relational databases as a managed service (aka, PAAS) in the cloud. In other words, Microsoft Azure helped to offload operational overhead associated with the management of VMs that are assigned to run your database services. All this became possible by the introduction of managed relational Azure Database services like SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB.

In this study guide, you will learn about these managed, relational DB services in depth.

Microsoft's Azure SQL Database named among the top 3 databases of 2020 - MSPoweruser

Part 9: Design a data storage solution for relational data

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing Data Storage solutions for Relational data in Azure. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 😉.

This collection of links is gathered with a focus on the exam objectives of the AZ-305 certification exam.

Elastic pools help you manage and scale multiple databases in Azure SQL Database
DTU-based purchasing model overview
Scale elastic pool resources in Azure SQL Database
Always On availability group on SQL Server on Azure VMs
Transparent data encryption (TDE)
Dynamic Data Masking
Auditing for Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics
SQL vulnerability assessment helps you identify database vulnerabilities

[Tutorial] Explore relational data in Azure
[Tutorial] Provision Azure relational database services
[Tutorial] Query relational data in Azure
[Tutorial] Design a data storage solution for relational data
[Tutorial] Provision an Azure SQL database to store application data
[Tutorial]: Manually configure an availability group (SQL Server on Azure VMs)

[Tutorial] Work with relational data in Azure
[Tutorial] Introduction to Azure Database for MySQL
[Tutorial] Introduction to Azure Database for MariaDB
[Tutorial] Create and connect to an Azure Database for PostgreSQL
[Tutorial] Migrate your relational data stored in SQL Server to Azure SQL Database

SUMMARY

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 9: Design a data storage solution for relational data.

The next blog post will be continuation with Part 10: Design a data integration solution.

Study Guide AZ-305: Part 8 – Design a non-relational storage solution

Hi Cloud Marathoners!

Welcome to the next blog post (Part 8/12) from the Az-305 series to help you get ready for the AZ-305 exam. This post is the first one that is covering the section – “Design Data Storage Solutions” for this exam.

Please, check the previous blog posts listed below, if you landed on this page for the first time 🙂

Table of content (blog series)

What is an non-relational data?

A non-relational data is a set of gathered or existing data that does not have a strict schema (structure) which is a required condition for a relational data. Of course, when we speak about data in business, the first thing that comes to mind is the database 🙂

In contrast to a relational database, a NoSQL database is one that is less structured/confined in format. Thus, we gain more flexibility and adaptability with non-relational data.

A non-relational database is a database that does not use the tabular schema of rows and columns found in most traditional database systems. Instead, non-relational databases use a storage model that is optimized for the specific requirements of the type of data being stored. For example, data may be stored as simple key/value pairs, as JSON documents, or as a graph consisting of edges and vertices.

Non-relational data and NoSQL
AWS Non Relational Databases - Javatpoint

WHAT is non-relational data storage in azure?

In practice, “NoSQL” means “non-relational database,” even though many of these databases do support SQL-compatible queries. However, the underlying query execution strategy is usually very different from the way a traditional RDBMS would execute the same SQL query.

Non-relational data and NoSQL

Check out the following major categories for non-relational (NoSQL) databases below:

  • Document data stores
  • Columnar data stores
  • Key/value data stores
  • Graph data stores
  • Time series data stores
  • Object data stores
  • External index data stores

Microsoft Azure offers a number of services that help you to build these NoSQL databases, and in this post we will cover all of them.

Relational And Non-Relational Datastores In Azure

Part 8: Design a non-relational data storage solution

The references below are taken from official Microsoft docs and focused on designing the non-Relational Data Storage solutions in Azure. You could also find it helpful to check the Microsoft docs and learning paths with [Tutorials] below 😉.

This collection of links are gathered with a focus toward the exam objectives of AZ-305 certification exam.

Storage account overview
Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers for blob data
Blob rehydration from the Archive tier
Time-based retention policies for immutable blob data
Legal holds for immutable blob data
Azure Storage redundancy
Announcing Ultra SSD – the next generation of Azure Disks technology (preview)
Managed Disks pricing
Azure managed disk types
What is Azure Files?
Create an Azure file share
Azure Files scalability and performance targets
What is Azure File Sync?

Security recommendations for Blob storage
Overview of Azure page blobs
Compare access to Azure Files, Blob Storage, and Azure NetApp Files with NFS Storage Accounts and security

[Tutorial] Explore Azure Storage for non-relational data
[Tutorial] Explore fundamentals of Azure Cosmos DB
[Tutorial] Introduction to Azure Cache for Redis
[Tutorial] Implement Pub/Sub and Streams in Azure Cache for Redis

Multi-region web application with Cosmos DB replication
Introduction to Azure managed disks
Azure Storage redundancy
What is Azure Blob storage?
Azure premium storage: design for high performance
Azure Disk Encryption for Linux VMs
Azure NetApp Files
Server-side encryption of Azure Disk Storage
Configure Azure Storage firewalls and virtual networks
Use private endpoints for Azure Storage

SUMMARY

Thank you for visiting the AZ-305 Study Guide and checking the Part 8: Design a non-relational data storage solution.

The next blog post will be continuation with Part 9: Design a data storage solution for relational data.