Connecting Cloud Services with Virtual Machines in Windows Azure

2nd of June, 2013 / / 7 Comments

As of Windows Azure SDK 1.7, Microsoft has enabled us to connect a cloud service with a virtual machine in Windows Azure. Now that the general availability of Windows Azure Infrastructure Services has been announced, Microsoft also supports it.

The common scenario for this is connecting from a public ASP.NET web application that is running in a cloud service to a private SQL Server database that is running in a virtual machine via a virtual network.… [Keep reading] “Connecting Cloud Services with Virtual Machines in Windows Azure”

AWS Cloud Architecture Essentials – The Commodity

16th of May, 2013 / / No Comments

AWS Architectures start at the heart of many businesses, customers.

The foundation and principles of AWS have been built on Amazon, a company that was envisaged to be the most customer centric company in the world. “There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.” – Jeff Bezos

These types of requirements are inputs into an ethos that pervades, that underpins the Architecture of AWS.… [Keep reading] “AWS Cloud Architecture Essentials – The Commodity”

Australian IaaS players – a comparison

18th of April, 2013 / / 3 Comments

UPDATE (21/05/13) : Azure announced their plans to expand to the Australian shore yesterday. This blog was updated to include the key changes.

UPDATE (22/10/13) : Updated workload size specification in the IaaS specification comparison table.

There are many blogs comparing the major IaaS providers – however this post focuses more on the Australian market IaaS providers. Organisations of all sizes have begun adopting or investigating Cloud computing making it essential for decision makers to look into what they offer.… [Keep reading] “Australian IaaS players – a comparison”

Azure AD and the Progression of Microsoft Identity and Access Management

16th of April, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Defining Microsoft IDAM

The words ‘Identity and Access Management’ (IDAM) mean different things to different people – and a lot of confusion still reigns about what this area represents to an IT department. However, it’s generally agreed that a good corporate IDAM policy can drive down cost, increase security and provide significant user experience benefits to approved applications as they are introduced to an IT environment.

These improvements can broadly be categorised into the following areas:

• Single Sign On (usually abbreviated to ‘SSO’) – a user provides a single factor (99% of the time a password) and gets access to not just one application but a suite of applications after authenticating once without being prompted again for credentials.… [Keep reading] “Azure AD and the Progression of Microsoft Identity and Access Management”

Cloud Storage AWS and Azure

22nd of February, 2013 / / 3 Comments

Kloud Cloud

Working with new technologies, rapid rates of change, the excitement of the unknown are good reasons to work in IT. The constant change keeps things fresh and interesting.

The thing that gets me excited though, is the business innovation that occurs with the application of the right mix of technology to otherwise everyday business problems. At Kloud we get to do this all the time!!

I’d like to share with you some simple use cases for cloud services that we have recently been a part of that makes IT Managers and Systems Administrators look like stars.… [Keep reading] “Cloud Storage AWS and Azure”

Windows Azure Virtual Machine Domain Provisioning with PowerShell

27th of July, 2012 / / 5 Comments

Windows Azure Virtual Machines preview allows persistent Virtual Machines which retain the same private addresses on reboot. This means that Active Directory can easily run in Azure without worry of the Domain Controller IP changing. This also means that Virtual Machines running in Azure that can be joined to your on-premise Active Directory using a site-to-site IPsec VPN. The Azure VMs then act like a branch network with full connectivity. I covered setting up TMG 2010 as a VPN endpoint (instead of using Cisco or Juniper hardware devices) for Windows Azure Virtual Network in a previous post.… [Keep reading] “Windows Azure Virtual Machine Domain Provisioning with PowerShell”

Windows Azure Virtual Network VPN with TMG 2010

25th of July, 2012 / / 25 Comments

Microsoft announced Windows Azure Virtual Network and Windows Azure Virtual Machines in June 2012 to provide IaaS ‘Hybrid Cloud’ functionality.

What this allows is persistent Virtual Machines (which retain the same private addresses) running in Azure that can be joined to your on-premise Active Directory using a site-to-site IPsec VPN. The Azure VMs then act like a branch network with full connectivity and you can add Domain Controllers in the Azure Virtual Network.

This is still a preview release and Microsoft currently only support specific Cisco and Juniper devices that have been tested.… [Keep reading] “Windows Azure Virtual Network VPN with TMG 2010”