The content of this blog is provided AS IS; with no warranties, and confers no rights. Use of included samples are subject to the terms specified at Microsoft. © 2014 Yung Chou.
Cloud Computing
Technology Evangelists
Jennelle Crothers – TECHBUNNY
This is a short presentation to introduce Azure IaaS essential features to IT pros. Azure will quickly become transparent for Windows administrators once the basic concepts are in place, which is what this presentation is trying to facilitate.
This is a cross-posting from http://yungchou.wordpress.com.
This was a presentation which I delivered at Stratford University in PDF format. My focus was on bringing clarity of cloud computing to the audiences so we can better articulate the business values of cloud computing and why cloud is or perhaps is not the solution for a business problem.
Additional resources is available at http://aka.ms/selected.
A knowledge portal with free self-training contents of Microsoft products and solutions is Microsoft Virtual Academy at http://aka.ms/MVA1. Developed courses as shown below are presented by topics and products for an individual to develop and customize a learning plan to best fit one’s interests and objectives. And the contents are packaged in modules with presentations, videos, whitepapers, etc. and they are available online as well as for download. Each module ends with a self-assessment to facilitate learning. There are also live events like Jump Start and Virtual IT Camps delivered by subject matter experts offering global IT community an accelerated learning experience on virtualization, hybrid cloud, Azure, Office 365, Application development and more.
For an IT pros in any discipline and at any technical level, Microsoft virtual Academy offers an effective vehicle for developing IT skills profile and maintaining competency. And it is very easy to access the contents. Simply go to Microsoft Virtual Academy at http://aka.ms/MVA1. Pick and start a course of your interest and register/log in with your Microsoft Account which you can sign up one at http://outlook.com, if not already have one. Your Microsoft Account also comes with 15 GB OneDrive (i.e. cloud storage), Outlook-alike Internet email, and Office Web Applications all free.
Once you have registered in Microsoft Virtual Academy, it is now up to you how fast and how far you would like to go from virtualization to Azure, hybrid cloud and DevOps. Do it. Learn it. Enjoy it. And be an IT pro.
Microsoft Azure has provided two pricing schedules, Standard and Basic, and each has a set of configurations available for deploying a VM. This article provides a quick reference while highlighting important considerations for choosing a VM configuration.
Microsoft Azure Standard pricing offers ten defined VM configurations available for deployment. As of July 17th, 2014, Azure portal (https://azure.portal.com in preview as of July of 2014) shows monthly costs from $14.88 for a simple general use A0 machine to $3325.68 for a compute power house of A9 as shown below.
Each VM configuration is defined with the number of core (or virtual CPU in the context of a VM), RAM, maximal number of data disks attachable and IOPS. As highlighted in the following, the more capacities a VM configuration includes, the higher an associated monthly cost is.
These ten configurations are developed for three types of employment. From A0 to A4, there is an across-the-board increase of all capacities from one set to the next. These configurations are intended for general purpose instances. A5 to A7 has significant combined capacities to run memory intensive applications, while A8 and A9 are with massive compute and storage capacities in additional to considerable IOPS for deploying those VMs hosting compute intensive workloads.
Notice the presented pricing model is as dated and you should always check the source for the latest offerings.
Basic and Standard pricings have the same A0 to A4 configurations of core, RAM and max number of data disks attachable. For instance, an A3 VM with either Basic or Standard pricing has a configuration of 4-virtual CPU configuration, 7 GB RAM and up to 8 data disks attachable as shown below.
The significance of deploying a Azure VM with a Standard pricing is that load-balancing and auto-scaling are available as shown above, while those with Basic pricing do not include the two features. Essentially, Basic pricing is for deploying VMs intended for application development or triage, at the same time Standard pricing is for deploying VMs in a production setting where load-balancing and scalability may be critical for some applications.
Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Services is an IaaS solution and a viable platform for managing entire application life cycle with agility and cost-effectiveness as proved by many case studies. For IT pros, Azure has offered a roadmap and Infrastructure Services as accelerator for advancing career in this cloud computing era. To learn Azure, Microsoft Virtual Academy (http://aka.ms/mva1) has provided a Microsoft Azure track to facilitate your learning. As you learn how to employ a VM in Microsoft Azure, assess your applications and deploy/test them to identify an optimal VM configuration.
[This is a cross-posting from http://yungchou.wordpress.com.]
Yung Chou on Hybrid Cloud - Site Home - TechNet Blogs