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If you want to migrate your data to a new cloud service and are looking for some techniques to speed up the process a bit, this guide has got you covered.

If you run a retail business and are unsure how safe using the cloud will be for your consumer data, this blog post will put your mind at ease.

If you are considering a multi-cloud strategy for your cloud computing needs, you’ll want to check out this list of pros and cons before getting started.

If you’re interested in cloud computing for your company but unsure how it affects manufacturing, this blog post will straighten things out.

If you want to have the strongest defense possible against cyberattacks, you’ll want to check out security by design services to see if they’re right for you.

If you’re unsure of the differences between WAFs and security groups for protecting your cloud resources, this blog post will be able to help you out.

Using cloud automation can seem like a daunting task when you’re just starting. There are so many things to consider, and it’s easy to make mistakes that can set your project back. This blog post will discuss some early roadblocks...

If you want to speed up the general maintenance for your practice’s cloud services while staying HIPAA compliant, you’ll want a self-service infrastructure.

Due to their cost, many companies avoid using cloud services, such as Microsoft’s AVD. However, we have some tips on reducing the overall expense.

No matter what kind of business you run, you’ll have to follow some official compliances. Whether they’re governmental or professional, you’ll need a way to track these compliances in a way that doesn’t slow down your everyday work output. Fortunately,...

Anyone who’s dealt with vendor lock-ins before will tell you that they’re quite the headache. If you want to avoid that, you’ll want to follow these steps.

When most people think about IoT, they think about Internet-connected devices that collect data. These include security systems, manufacturing systems, electrical grids, distribution systems, Internet-connected cars, among many others. There are quite literally billions of devices connected to the Internet....

Retailers require an ability to remain flexible and agile. The benefits of hybrid cloud services for retail industries make flexibility and agility easier.

Sharing a public cloud requires a proper rollout to be successful. Do things right the first time and your transition to public Azure will be a smooth one.

Which virtual desktop offers the most for your remote teams? Find the answer with this guide to AVD vs. Amazon WorkSpaces: which is better for you.

You have your choices in cloud services. That’s why Microsoft Azure strives to be the best in storage capabilities, security, and ease of use.

Help your employees advance their careers while improving your business by offering Azure developer training so they can be Microsoft Azure certified.

The top advantages of managed cloud services in manufacturing are their ability to ensure proper storage of data, accessibility, and the protection of data.

Messaging between application components and devices is why engineers invented computer networks. The ultimate computer network is the Internet, which has practically connected all the world’s devices to a single network where any one device can send a message to another device.

Key Differences Between IaaS and PaaS

Data protection is important in all businesses today. With data stored in the cloud, security is a priority—especially when protecting patient privacy.

One of the best features of Databricks is that it facilitates transitioning batch pipelines to streaming pipelines.

Security and compliance are essential, and using HIPAA compliance through Microsoft Azure is the best way to assure compliance is met and data is secure.

The benefits of cloud security and compliance for medical care include patient privacy and protection, and a practice that understands laws and regulations.

MDR services go beyond average cybersecurity. Using an MDR service, your assets and data are protected even when common security measures fail.

My previous post introduced two popular algorithms for detecting faces in photographs: Viola-Jones, which relies on machine learning, and MTCNNs, which rely on deep learning.

Databricks is a leading big data processing service available on Azure. One of the nicest features in Databricks is the ability to develop workloads that run in batch or streaming modes.

My previous post demonstrated how to use transfer learning with a CNN trained on millions of facial images to build a facial-recognition model that is remarkably adept at identifying faces.

Not long ago, I boarded a flight to Europe and was surprised that I didn’t have to show my passport.

You are the leader of a group of climate scientists concerned about the planet's dwindling rainforests.

Improve speed and service in your company by considering the ways manufacturing companies can benefit from DevOps services, as they combine IT and development.

Migrating SAP resources to the cloud can bring your business operations to new heights. Learn why you should run SAP on Azure vs. AWS with this guide.

My previous post demonstrated how to use transfer learning to build a model that with just 300 training images can classify photos of three different types of Arctic wildlife with 95% accuracy.

Today's post will cover Databricks Jobs. There is also the concept of a Spark Job which will be covered briefly to try to avoid confusion.

Analyzing your Azure infrastructure helps you save resources and cut costs. Find out where to receive an Azure optimization assessment with this guide.

My post introducing convolutional neural networks (CNNs) used a dataset with photos of Arctic foxes, polar bears, and walruses to train a CNN to recognize Artic wildlife.

AKS is a versatile tool, capable of running all kinds of workloads. Because of this, it makes no assumptions about the kind of jobs it will be running and gives the controls to the user to figure out the best compute model for the workload.

Given a set of images with a relatively high degree of separation between classes, it is perfectly feasible to train a CNN to classify those images on a typical laptop or PC.

Healthcare businesses must prioritize data management and security. Discover the importance of Azure Security management for healthcare data with this guide.

This is a continuation of my series of posts on Databricks where we most recently reviewed the Workspace & Notebooks. Now let's get more familiar with the concept of clusters. Clusters Databricks breaks clusters into multiple categories: All-Purpose Clusters Job...

Computer vision is a branch of AI in which computers extract perceptual information from images.

The more effort you put into your cloud migration, the easier your transition will be. Discover how to seamlessly migrate data to Azure with this guide.

You’ve heard about the advances in the Azure Synapse Analytics service.

Managing sensitive data such as passwords, certificates, and connection strings for application configurations used to be hard without a secrets management solution.

It’s not difficult to use Scikit-learn to build machine-learning models that analyze text for sentiment, identify spam e-mails, and classify textual data in other ways.

Now that you've instantiated the Databricks service within Azure, let's take a tour of the workspace & become familiar with Notebooks. Workspace The above image shows the Databricks homepage of this workspace. The left menu provides the majority of your...

Cloud computing challenges IT professionals to think about compute apart from storage so we can have limitless scalability.

My previous post described how to build a neural network that serves as a binary classifier. Here’s a binary classifier that accepts two inputs, has a hidden layer with 128 neurons, and outputs a value from 0.0 to 1.0 representing...

One of the common uses for machine learning is performing binary classification, which looks at an input and predicts which of two possible classes it belongs to. Practical uses include sentiment analysis, spam detection, and credit-card fraud detection. Such models...

Jekyll and Liquid provide a powerful yet easy-to-use set of tools for creating websites through both the plugins provided by Jekyll and the template markup provided by Liquid. While an integral part of Jekyll, Liquid is a stand-alone project widely...

When running any business, there are multiple considerations to keep in mind. Every business needs a digital presence—but they also need more than that. Many of them benefit from the addition of a cloud network.

Which cloud provider will best meet the many needs of your business? Learn more with the following guide on Azure management vs. AWS management.

Machine learning isn’t hard when you have a properly engineered dataset to work with. The reason it’s not hard is libraries such as Scikit-learn and ML.NET, which reduce complex mathematical manipulations to a few lines of code. Deep learning isn’t...

Need to write an app that uses facial recognition to identify people entering a building?

Proper implementation is just the first step of a successful cloud system. You also need to know how to manage and maintain your cloud solutions. Expert cloud management is the key to creating a system that grows and evolves with the needs of your business.

Over the last decade, there has been a giant leap in the technology available to the market for processing big data workloads.

Professionals experienced in Azure management are a great resource for any business. Read on to learn how an Azure consultant can optimize your digital assets.

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that relies primarily on neural networks. Most of what’s considered AI today is accomplished with deep learning. From recognizing objects in photos to real-time speech translation to using computers to generate art,...

As technology continues to evolve, the potential applications for your business do too. From collecting more market data to speeding up your company’s core procedures, there are a lot of ways that new software can take your efforts one step further.

We know the core of your business relies on technology, and the mission-critical infrastructure that you leverage must remain available. That’s why we offer a full collection of Azure security and compliance solutions to keep you protected from breach events and compliant by industry standards.

Many companies today have aging data architectures. As you look to modernize your traditional ETL pipeline, there is a tool you should keep in mind: Azure Databricks. During your move into Azure, there will probably be a place for Azure...

GitHub Actions is an excellent source for all things automation. For personal accounts, there’s a limited free offering that allows you to run automation jobs. I use GH actions to update my websites. I don’t think I would have written...

Join this webinar to learn some of the essentials of getting started with Blazor WebAssembly, Microsoft's hot, new technology for doing client-side programming with C# in the web browser!

Scikit-learn is arguably the world’s most popular machine-learning framework. The efficacy of the library, the documentation that accompanies it, and the mindshare that surrounds it are the primary reasons more ML models are written in Python than any other language.

https://youtu.be/5-bQPdYzKEk Azure offers a lot of options for moving SQL databases from SQL Server to Azure. Knowing which choice is the best choice for your database can sometimes be challenging. Microsoft provides a tool, the Database Migration Assistant, that assesses...

You can deploy AI/ML solutions in multiple places: IoT devices, at the cloud edge, and in cloud API endpoints, among other locations.

All of the machine-learning models presented so far in this series were written in Python. Models don’t have to be written in Python, but many are, thanks in part to the numerous world-class Python libraries that are available, including Pandas and...

What is cloud security, and why does it matter for your company? See cloud security compliance explained and learn how to improve your business.

A DevOps model grants more efficiency and quality to software development. Improve your development cycle with this overview of DevOps as a service explained.

All businesses have a set of standards to strive for. From how you secure data to how you manage remote devices and applications, compliance regulations help keep your company in line so you can provide the best service for your customers and clients.

Another branch of machine learning that has proven its mettle in recent years is recommender systems – systems that recommend products or services to customers. Amazon's recommender system reportedly drives 35% of its sales. The good news is that you...

Financial organizations need top-tier security for the sensitive data they handle. Learn how MDR security services benefit financial industries with this guide.

Anomaly detection is a branch of machine learning that seeks to identify anomalies in datasets or data streams. Airbus uses it to predict failures in jet engines and detect anomalies in telemetry data beamed down from the International Space Station....

Principal Component Analysis, or PCA, is one of the minor miracles of machine learning. It’s a dimensionality-reduction technique that reduces the number of dimensions in a dataset without sacrificing a commensurate amount of information. While that might seem underwhelming on...

Financial institutions need superior security, accessibility, and mobility. Learn what Windows Virtual Desktop does for the financial industry with this guide.

SAP and Azure work together to revolutionize businesses. Learn how you can improve upon your current network with these benefits of SAP and cloud services.

A successful cloud migration requires meticulous planning. Transition to your new infrastructure with this guide that breaks down the Azure migration process.

Moving to ASP.NET Core: Replacing HTML Helpers that have Dependencies The HTML Helper is born To make it easier to add content to a view, you can take advantage of something called an HTML Helper. You can use HTML Helpers...

This session will provide an overview and introduction to using Git for source control. Attendees will gain a basic understanding of Git and how it works.

Windows 11 made a big splash with the announcement of the new version of the OS that was supposed to never have another version again. In any case, as part of the Windows Insider Program (WIP), I got my hands...

Do you know how Microsoft Azure keeps your business data safe? Learn more about Azure Security and what it consists of to protect your business with this guide.

Finding the right cloud solution is the key to helping your business grow. Learn the differences between public and private Azure with this guide.

Part of managing your Azure infrastructure is keeping your system cost-effective. Learn how to manage and optimize costs with Azure with these tips.

Despite the benefits of Azure, building your infrastructure alone is daunting. Partner with the experts and gain these key benefits of managed Azure services.

Cloud computing continues to change business as we know it, but how did it all start? Find out with this brief history of managed cloud services.

Migrations to another environment can be trivial for some applications, but it's a complex array of different parts that all work together for most of them.

How much do you trust your company’s cybersecurity? Gain peace of mind for your business with these advantages of managed detection and response for retail.

There are multiple ways to host applications on Azure, each with its pro's and cons.

There’s no denying the appeal of Microsoft Azure. A scalable network, streamlined processes and applications, and better cost-efficiency are just some of the ways businesses benefit from migrating to Azure.

If your agency handles Federal Tax Information, you must follow IRS-1075 guidelines. Learn more with these tips for IRS-1075 compliance for your organization.

Financial institutions that use cloud services get better scalability, security, and more. Check out these reasons to use Azure for financial institutions.

Microservices provide a great way to build scalable, manageable, and available applications across vast regions.

CI/CD tools help you build a continuous integration and delivery software development pipeline. Learn about the different types of CI/CD tools with this guide.

PCI-DSS gives you and your clients peace of mind when managing cardholder data. Learn how to ensure your IT infrastructure is DSS compliant with this guide.

The machine-learning model featured in my previous post was a regression model that predicted taxi fares based on distance traveled, the day of the week, and the time of day. Now it’s time to tackle classification models, which predict categorical...

Understand the benefits available to retail organizations when moving off-prem to the Azure cloud

A fair and affordable renewal is the key to keeping your cloud cost-effective and successful. Study these tips for negotiating a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.

Azure App Services is a popular choice for migrating apps to Azure because it gets users out of the business of managing servers. But with App Services, some limitations might mean reconfiguring or refactoring an application. The Migration Assistant utility...

Data volumes are increasing rapidly and with it, insights can be gained at cloud scales.

When you build a machine-learning model, the first and most important decision you make is what learning algorithm to use to fit the model to the training data. In my previous post, I introduced some of the most widely used...

Managing cloud costs requires continuous analysis and work. Implement successful roles and responsibilities for cloud cost optimization with this guide.

Microservices offer a way to create hyper scale applications that can meet the demands of even the most challenging workloads.

How does your IT infrastructure serve your business? Learn the importance of your IT infrastructure and what it should be doing for you with this guide.

The first critical step in migrating anything to Azure is an assessment of what we want to move. The assessment starts with a discovery wherein various aspects of a workload are teased out to expose what composes and supports the workload.

Supervised-learning models come in two varieties: regression models and classification models. Regression models predict numeric outcomes, such as the price of a car. Classification models predict classes, such as the breed of a dog in a photo. When you build...

You need a dedicated team of experts to ensure your database performs at its best. Discover the advantages of database management services with this guide.

When you store data in the cloud, you need to make sure it’s safe from internal and external threats. Learn how to secure your cloud data with these tips.

What does your company do to store and protect customer data? Understand the importance of data security for your retail business with this overview.

This is the first video in a multi-part series on Azure migrations by Wintellect Architect and Azure MVP Blaize Stewart.

Most machine-learning models fall into one of two categories. Supervised-learning models make predictions. For example, they predict whether a credit-card transaction is fraudulent or a flight will arrive on time. Unsupervised-learning models don’t make predictions; they provide insights into existing...

Power BI was originally released as a fully cloud-based, end-user targeted data visualization tool. Now it's both a robust and scalable enterprise-level BI ecosystem.

Power BI adoption growth has been astonishing. And with growing demand, we also have growing needs. The service started as an end-user-driven data visualization tool but is now at the enterprise-grade semantic layer.

A Windows Virtual Desktop tenant is the cornerstone of your company’s virtual desktop infrastructure.

Machine-learning models fall into two broad categories: supervised-learning models and unsupervised-learning models. The purpose of supervised learning is to make predictions. The purpose of unsupervised learning is to glean insights from existing data. One example of unsupervised learning is examining...

Machine-learning models fall into two broad categories: supervised-learning models and unsupervised-learning models. The purpose of supervised learning is to make predictions. The purpose of unsupervised learning is to glean insights from existing data. One example of unsupervised learning is examining...

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming the way software is written and, more importantly, what software is capable of. Developers are accustomed to writing code that solves problems algorithmically. It’s not difficult to write an app that...

Atmosera is a Microsoft-preferred partner for SAP migrations to Azure, and we have the platform expertise to reduce costs, increase security and drive the application performance your business requires.

A good cloud solution supports short-term and long-term business goals. Learn how to align your cloud infrastructure to your business strategy with this guide.

What benefits do you receive from your Cloud Solution Provider? Learn what it means to be a Tier 1 CSP and how it can serve your business with this guide.

Which type of Service Organization Controls report is right for your business? Learn the difference between SOC 1 and SOC 2 with this overview.

Is cloud computing right for your company? Learn how it can help you and your customers with these advantages of taking your retail business to the cloud.

Building and managing containers are a large part of any container deployment. The entire process requires multiple steps and different tools to complete.

Governments utilize VMWare to establish a modern, secure, and efficient IT solution within their organization. The boost in agency performance and improved resource allocation allow governments to achieve their goals faster with more reliability and success.

After three very busy weeks of trying to get a few things done on other projects, I had a chance to circle back around for project Santa Cruz, also known as Azure Precept. (If you haven’t read my Part 1...

For the 5th straight year, Atmosera has been awarded as a 2021 CRN Top 500 MSP, and Top 100 Security Partner. We are honored to once again receive this award, and will be striving to earn these honors again in 2022.

The healthcare industry faces many cyber threats. Learn how to best combat them with these reasons to consider managed detection and response in healthcare.

Lift and shift is a utopia many IT professionals have about moving on-prem resources to the cloud.

Having your own container registry for container images ensures better control over security and quality. Azure Container Registry does this with a turn-key solution with a lot of value-added features.

Atmosera is 100% dedicated to managed Azure cloud services. Our team of Azure experts can show you how to get more from your data management environment, and effectively optimize to find the performance your business requires. Learn more about our services and why customers choose us. Download below!

Is your Azure infrastructure as cost-effective as it can be? Find out how to manage monthly spending with these strategies to reduce Azure expenses.

Is it time for your business to move to the cloud? Make the transition a success with this overview of what to consider when migrating to Microsoft Azure.

Atmosera Acquires Wintellect to create full-service, world-class offerings on Microsoft Azure Portland, Ore, March 9, 2021 - Atmosera, a Microsoft Gold Partner and leading Microsoft Azure Expert MSP providing Azure services on a global scale, announced today that it has...

I started down the rabbit hole of AI a few years back when the idea of AI was coming to the forefront of computing rather than being relegated to a niche corner. I remember building my first AI models base...

Azure automation brings efficiency and stability to your cloud system. Learn more about the advantages of automated Azure infrastructure with this overview.

Are you getting the most out of your Azure solutions? Optimize your system and reap these benefits of using a Microsoft Azure MSP for your cloud system.

A steady and scalable IT infrastructure can boost your company’s success. Learn how to determine what IT infrastructure your business needs with these tips.

When looking at different forms of cloud architecture, you will come across the idea of tenancy. In cloud computing, the term “tenant” refers to a user. In software as a service (SaaS) operations, tenancy comes in two forms: single-tenant or multi-tenant.

Many IT decision makers understand the value of a managed cloud environment, but are also worried about the ability for a managed environment to eliminate the need for their workforce services on behalf of the managed services entity.

In the business world, IT demands are constantly growing and evolving. Companies need the technology and power to keep up. That’s why cloud developers and managed service providers work hard to find solutions that are faster, more powerful, and more secure for their clients.

Continuing from part IV of our series, this post will incorporate the DAPR runtime services into the application. The source related to this post is contained in the azure-and-dapr-identity-example repo. Incorporating DAPR Up to this point, nothing we've done included...

Continuing from part III of our series, this post will walk through setting up simple back-end services, including a configuration service as well as services that require user authentication. It will also include a service that calls the Microsoft Graph...

Our team of Azure experts can show you how to seamlessly deploy and scale Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop Services to simplify support of Remote Desktop (RDS) environments. All deployments include built-in compliance and security features to keep critical data safe. Connect with our team today, and click here to learn more:

Continuing from part II of our series, we will next walk through setting up user authentication using Azure Active Directory. The source related to this post is contained in the adding-authentication branch of the repo. Creating an AAD Application We...

Continuing from part I of our series, we will next step through building a simple, front end web application, deploying it to the Kubernetes cluster, then exposing it to the outside world via a Kubernetes Ingress. The source related to...

Remote work brings a new set of challenges to your office. Get the help you need with this overview of how Windows Virtual Desktop supports your remote team.

Introduction In this series of posts, we will walk you through setting up a static website (SPA), user authentication using Azure Active Directory (AAD), and simple authenticated services, all within a Kubernetes cluster using DAPR services. The source code is...

Learn how to get the most out of your data management environment with help from our team of Azure experts. Starting with a free assessment, we can show you the benefits of a managed Azure environment customized for your business needs. Click here to read more:

If you’re searching for a Microsoft partner to help your business, you want to find the best of the best. Microsoft recognizes its most competent partners with a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner certification. Gold is the highest tier of Microsoft Certified Partners.

Moving full speed ahead in 2021 with the lessons of last year behind us, it will be critical for organizations to normalize what was originally a quick fix in 2020.

Cloud computing is an exciting platform to deliver solutions in a fraction of the time it is used to take. It bypasses the heavy lifting of setting up everything from the power outlet in a data center or data room....

Do you want to use your existing VMWare infrastructure while simultaneously reaping the benefits of a modern cloud solution? Microsoft’s Azure VMWare Solution allows you to migrate your native VMWare workloads to Azure without the cost, risk, and hassle of restructuring your entire system.

Azure provides a rich, out of the box experience for enforcing roles and access to Azure. Sometimes, however, these controls are not enough, and this is where Azure Tagging and Azure Policy come into play.

Over the past several years, most healthcare facilities have transitioned to electronic recordkeeping. Online data storage and management offers several benefits to these facilities and their patients.

Containers are one of the most popular ways to deploy applications. Microsoft has made containers an integral part of the Azure ecosystem. In this video, you'll get a brief introduction to containers and a demo on how to create a container, push it to a registry, and then deploy it to Azure Container Instances.

Financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies, and financial services, handle massive amounts of sensitive client data. Without the right protections in place, a financial organization will lose more than just this information.

As part of your cloud migration, the challenge of gathering Business Intelligence is amongst the most significant transformations being faced by companies today.

Are you ready to take Azure to the next level? Find the best partners in the industry by knowing what to look for in an Azure managed services provider.

When you think of data security, manufacturing plants likely aren’t your first thought. Businesses in the manufacturing industry don’t manage massive amounts of data, private or otherwise, so they often consider themselves to be less of a target to hackers and other cyber threats.

Cloud services allow many industries to modernize their businesses and processes. However, companies aren’t the only entities that can benefit from Microsoft’s flexible, cost-effective services. Azure for government is an invaluable tool for agencies across the nation.

Do you have the cybersecurity needed to achieve your goals? Learn about your options with this guide on managed detection and response security services.

Healthcare facilities strive to provide the best care possible for their patients. While a lot of focus goes into quality treatments or phenomenal communication and bedside manner, these facilities must also invest in their computer systems and data storage.

Like many companies around the world, 2020 has been a year of lessons at Atmosera. The knowledge we gained during the challenges of this year has made us a better Atmosera for the future, helping us adapt more swiftly and provide stronger levels of support for our clients.

Azure has many controls out of the box that helps tailor the experience to an organization on Azure. Such controls include Azure Management Groups for organizing subscriptions, Azure AD with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to manage access to Azure resources,...

Azure out of the box comes with a number of controls that allow users to shape permission on Azure through roles and role assignments. These roles control what actions a user can perform, but it does not limit what these...

https://youtu.be/aWpNiHYEzPo Azure Container Instances provide a no-infrastructure-required platform to host containerized applications. Everything for running containers is handled as a first-class object on Azure and provides tight integration with other services like Azure Storage, Key Vault, and VNets. In this...

Monitoring applications in production can be a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Azure Application Insights takes the pain out of monitoring apps by collating client-side, server-side, and database telemetry. A single portal allows you to see how...

In the past, the traditional data storage mechanisms were often cleanly divided between file storage, NoSQL and relational transactions, and data warehouses. The data warehouse was often a monolithic system, servicing the needs of both customers and internal stakeholders. With...

While telehealth has been expanding over the past several years, the COVID-19 pandemic has sharply increased the demand for telehealth solutions and virtual appointments to provide patient care in a safe manner.

A move to the cloud represents one of the largest technology shifts faced by any organization. As changes occur, many are being forced to rebuild their applications and make them “future proof.” Some of the barriers to cloud adoption are just a matter of perception

Cosmos DB provides a multi-model database for building highly responsive, scalable applications. The key to getting the most out of Cosmos DB is understanding how to design a database that can take advantage of the platform.

GRANDstack - GraphQL, React, Apollo, Neo4j Database LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP MEAN - MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node.js The list above is just a few examples of some popular tech stacks. Tech stacks are practical combinations of technologies and...

Extend the capabilities of SAP by migrating to Azure. Here are a few reasons why Azure is the best cloud platform for SAP.

Considering modernization options for your SQL Server environment? Let’s compare Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services features and capabilities for SQL.

What does it mean to be a “professional” in the field of application development, cloud, or IT in general? In fact, what does it mean to be a “professional” at all?  The word is a common part of our daily...

Azure Functions are Microsoft's serverless solution, providing an event-driven programming model that simplifies developing APIs and integrations. Going serverless helps get developers out of the business of having to configure, maintain, and scale servers while also improving application development agility....

Role-based access control (RBAC) is the centerpiece of any robust, distributed system. The ability to use RBAC allows users to be decoupled from the systems that they use by assigning roles to an individual, then defining privileges based on roles...

As a globally recognized Microsoft Gold Partner, Wintellect is a small powerhouse, that leverages profound expertise to stay ahead in this everchanging technology landscape. Most recently, Wintellect has achieved two Advanced Specializations awarded by Microsoft to distinguish top partners beyond...

A Little History or Why NFS? File shares on computer networks are as old as the concept of a network itself. The idea of being able to access data across a wire by multiple machines was created not long after...

Securing an Azure App Service is a common requirement. If you're not familiar with Front Door, it combines a web application firewall (WAF), content distribution network (CDN), traffic manager, and routing rules into a single service. This makes it a...

With the acquisition of GitHub in late 2018, Microsoft has demonstrated their investment in the developer community and a shift in the way they build software. GitHub provides a world-class platform and collaborative environment that shifts security as far left...

Azure Kudo is an advanced set of tools for working with Azure App Services and supplements the tools in the Azure Portal and Azure CLI. In this edition of Tech on Fire, learn how you can use Kudo to get...

WebJobs give web apps the ability to have background processes. In this video, we'll look at Azure App Service support for WebJobs and how you can easily set one up. https://youtu.be/-A6hsUPSkWU

Setting up a custom domain and certificate in Azure App Services is a cinch. In this edition of Tech on Fire, we'll show you just how easy it is to do. https://youtu.be/BrJtpCV_foU

Azure App Service Deployment Center can be used to create simple Continuous Deployment pipelines for apps running on Azure App Services. When combined with a Continuous Integration service like GitHub, full CI/CD pipelines can be built using only a few...

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that relies on deep neural networks. It is how computers identify objects in images, translate speech in real-time, generate artwork and music, and perform other tasks that would have been impossible just a few short years ago

Azure App Services have deployment slots that allow developers to publish an application into the slot then easily swap that app into production. In this episode, you will learn what they are and how to use them. https://youtu.be/IHeQadtHXxk

Dynamically scaling an application in the cloud is one of the value propositions of using the cloud. Azure makes this easy with Azure App Services and Autoscaling, which enables apps to scale on all kinds of metrics. In this video,...

about any kind of workload that you can throw at it ranging from a simple website to big data that requires access to massively scalable compute.

In this edition of Tech on Fire, you will learn about Azure App Service Plans, which are the foundation for defining your Azure App Service on Azure. This includes the kind of resources needed as well as the scale and...

If one has been around the Kubernetes space for any significant amount of time, one has probably heard the words, “service mesh” mentioned, or at least some implementation of one such as Istio, Linkered, or Consul. At first, one might...

In this edition of Tech on Fire, we'll look at the Azure App Service and how you can use it to host a variety of different kinds of applications on Azure. https://youtu.be/vfLN-P8H0KA

Cosmos DB has quickly become the go-to database as a service for many NoSQL database paradigms, including document databases and graph databases. With these offerings, there are a lot of possible solutions for a variety of different projects. In this...

Money is always important whether you are developing for yourself, your employer, or a client. One way to save money in Azure is to shut down resources at the end of the day. As an Azure data engineer, it can...

For anyone in the technology space, the topic of DevOps has become prevalent across virtually all industries as organizations recognize that DevOps delivers value well beyond their IT department. Technology is changing the way we do business, and in the...

https://youtu.be/L4nqky8qGm8 In this session from DockerCon 2020, Microsoft MVP Blaize Stewart will teach you two different ways to deploy desktop applications. The first, how desktop apps can be deployed to a local machine running Docker, and second how to run...

Cloudflare offers some amazing protection for websites such as DDoS protection, a Web Application Firewall, and End-to-end SSL. In this video, we'll look at how to configure a static site hosted on Azure Blob Storage to work with Cloudflare to...

Background Development on Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly Azure SQL Data Warehouse) is progressing at a rapid pace. Recently, in April 2020, the new workspaces preview was released. This is an exciting update that exposes the world to the Synapse ecosystem....

As I look out on the world right now, I find myself experiencing something rare for me: surprise.  After being in business for over 25 years – and a Microsoft Partner for most of that time – I thought I...

The Windows Subsystem For Linux (WSL) lets Windows users run Linux apps right on top of Windows. QSL offers tight integration with Windows that makes using it easy and installing it is also a cinch. In this video we'll show...

Learn how to use Azure CDN to speed up your page load times, apply custom domains to Azure Websites, and terminate SSL connections in a one-stop shop solution for application delivery. https://youtu.be/-mR3wJ70pRE

In Part 6 of our Building a Serverless Blog on Azure series, we'll show you how to use Azure Blob Storage SAS URLs to upload data and files to Azure Blob Storage. https://youtu.be/Z9HeNZ8lmi4

The ubiquity of Docker Containers has made knowledge of how to write Dockerfles an essential skill for developers, DevOps engineers, and even data scientists that use Docker containers for different kinds of workloads.

If you have an existing Xamarin.Forms app that was not built with Xamarin.Forms Shell, this article is here to help highlight the changes needed to update your app to use Shell. What is Shell? The release of Xamarin.Forms 4.0 brought...

In Part 5 of our series, we will discuss what a single page application is and then show you an example. https://youtu.be/XpPkGP8CHTM

This post continues a series that provides a walkthrough illustrating how to work with Azure Active Directory B2C custom policies by building one from the ground up. As the series progresses, the topics will serve to show how the different...

In Part 4, we'll look at what goes into to writing an Azure Function. https://youtu.be/sm3vo1xFvDE

In Part 3 of our series, we'll do a deeper dive into parts of the application and how it uses table storage and blob storage on Azure. https://youtu.be/8GamBIsdCi4

Microsoft has incorporated containers into many Azure services but figuring out where containers fit into various types of solutions is no simple task. This whitepaper provides a better understanding of when and how to use specific container solutions and how...

In Part 2 of our series, we'll look at Table Storage, Blob Storage, and how the SDK's can be used to move data in and out of Azure Storage. https://youtu.be/chudnrxyTlA

This post continues a series that provides a walkthrough illustrating how to work with Azure Active Directory B2C custom policies by building one from the ground up. As the series progresses, the topics will serve to show how the different...

If you’re in Azure or planning to migrate to Azure, you may have recently read in the news that Microsoft Azure has seen a 775% rise in usage.

Now that most of the Atmosera team has been working remotely for a while, we're sharing some of our tips to stay productive and make the best of it.

In this video, get an overview of the upcoming multi-part series on building a serverless blog with Azure Functions and Azure Storage. https://youtu.be/oitdfD0oHB0

Welcome to Part 2 of Azure functions: What are they good for? In Part 1, we did a quick review of what Azure Functions were and focused on the trigger aspect of Functions.  By focusing on the triggers, we were...

Azure compute comes in many shapes forms and fashions, and it can be used for all kinds of applications, including finding cures for diseases. In this episode, we'll show you an easy way that you can use Azure to donate...

This post continues a series that provides a walkthrough illustrating how to work with Azure Active Directory B2C custom policies by building one from the ground up. As the series progresses, the topics will serve to show how the different...

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is Microsoft’s flagship offering for running containers on Azure. While Kubernetes itself is not too difficult to use, setting up a cluster can be daunting.

In this edition, learn how to use Azure Blob Storage for logging as Blaize creates a custom syslog server that will write Linux logs to an Append Blob. https://youtu.be/d5aw8Z4_ni0

The focus of this article is for you to learn some of the use cases for Azure Functions. Before we dive into those details, let's do a quick review of what exactly are Azure Functions. Azure Functions are an Azure...

In a previous article, I walked through deploying to SQL Server 2017 containers and provided an overview of deploying DACPACs and BACPACs in containers. Since that time, SQL Server 2019 has been released; this requires a few changes to the...

Tech on Fire: How to Host a Static Website on Azure Blob Storage In this edition, you will learn how to create a static website using Azure Blob Storage. https://youtu.be/os4pq8V211A

The DiD model provides a simpler way to approach security in your environment by taking the focus away from the technical elements and instead focusing on the basic design element of layers.

Does your business continuity plan encompass procedures for unplanned events? We are here to help you modernize your underlying infrastructure to improve your readiness for business continuity impacting events with tools like WVD.

This post continues a series that provides a walkthrough illustrating how to work with Azure Active Directory B2C custom policies by building one from the ground up. As the series progresses, the topics will serve to show how the different...

Tech on Fire: Using Azure Blob Storage with Blobfuse to Mount Folders in Linux and Use Nextcloud In this edition, we discuss how to use Blobfuse to mount a blobstorage account into a Linux VM, then use the blob storage...

This blog covers five ways that organizations like yours benefit from migrating to the Azure cloud: improved reliability, disaster recovery, cutting-edge technology, scalability, and cost-efficiency.

This post continues a series that provides a walkthrough illustrating how to work with Azure Active Directory B2C custom policies by building one from the ground up. As the series progresses, the topics will serve to show how the different...

This post continues a series that provides a walkthrough illustrating how to work with Azure Active Directory B2C custom policies by building one from the ground up. As the series progresses, the topics will serve to show how the different...

Tech on Fire: Azure Blog Storage - How to Create A Simple Backup with AZCopy Blob Storage is useful for all sorts of applications -- from hosting web sites, backing up data, and running big data workloads. In this edition...

With software development, there's almost always multiple ways to do things, and sometimes the best solution for a problem is not a technical one, rather a nontechnical one. With DevOps, this is certainly true, as there are increasingly multiple ways...

This post continues a series that provides a walkthrough illustrating how to work with Azure Active Directory B2C custom policies by building one from the ground up. As the series progresses, the topics will serve to show how the different...

Introduction I have been working with the Azure Active Directory B2C (AAD B2C) service since 2016, both integrating it into applications and helping people learn how to use it to add end-user authentication, registration, and management to their applications. Like...

The journey to the cloud can be complicated, expensive, and risky – especially if you’re doing it for the first time. Here are five ways that partnering with an MSP makes it a smooth process.

Cost, security, and disruption are all common concerns about the cloud migration process. This blog discusses how Azure solves those challenges.

Tech on Fire: Azure File Storage In this edition you will learn how to create an Azure File Storage and mount it on Windows and Linux for easy to use file shares. https://youtu.be/-qGxXioZ8sI

This blog takes a dive into four great automation tools for deploying and managing workloads in Microsoft’s Azure platform.

Containers are no longer the best kept secret in IT. Practically everywhere I go, I hear of organizations using containers for everything from small projects to mission critical 24x7 applications with 99.999% uptime SLA’s. These kinds of projects all have...

Tech on Fire: Azure IaaS - Application Gateways In this edition you will learn how Azure Application Gateways provide load balancing and security for highly available web apps. https://youtu.be/Xhk6R-WufAc

Atmosera has developed new security services as a direct result of feedback received from clients about their needs.

Whether you missed the opportunity to attend or want to review the key trends that emerged from the conference, Atmosera has you covered with our highlights from Microsoft Ignite 2019.

Mentoring is a big part of what I do professionally, but my path to being a mentor started with being mentored myself when I was still very young. It all started with my first computer, a Commodore 64, which is...

Many IT investments offer options to be purchased as either CapEx or OpEx models. Which is better?

In this webinar, programmer and trainer Eric Greene will walk you through the essentials of NgRx. As part of the essentials, some of the important principles of Redux and RxJS will be explained.

Continuing from the previous post, SonarQube expects a certain set of files to be present in $(Common.TestResultsDirectory). When it doesn't find the files in the folder, it can prevent it from reporting the results correctly. Because of changes to the...

If you are importing around 10 million rows and no more than 100 MB of data in Power BI, more than likely you don’t have performance issues. But, if you trying to deal with more than 50 gigabytes of data in Power BI, and you have complex DAX measures there is a good chance you’re frustrated with slowness

Trying to reduce Azure costs? Here are four ways to maximize the ROI of your Azure environment.

The customer was having a rough day. They had lots of unit tests, but were seeing an unexpected behavior from Azure DevOps and SonarQube. Because some tests were written in XUnit and others with MSTest, they had separated the execution...

This blog covers five reasons to partner with a Managed Security Services Provider for your information security needs.

In this webinar, you'll learn modern security approaches in Microsoft Azure SQL DB, and how to leverage them in your applications.

Azure Machine Learning service offers an end-to-end platform to build, train, deploy, and manage machine learning models. The service fully supports open-source technologies such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and scikit-learn and can be used for any kind of machine learning, from classical ml to deep learning, supervised and unsupervised learning.

In this 1-hour webinar, we'll show you how easy it is to create ETL pipelines in Python. In this session, we'll spin up a Spark cluster, create a pipeline in a notebook, and talk about why this process is far better than creating pipelines in other frameworks. Migrating to Databricks from SSIS is far easier than you think.

A little over a year ago, I wrote an article about how to do data binding in pure JavaScript. Anyone that read my ramblings about data binding in pure JavaScript probably would know that I’m not a huge fan of...

Vulnerability Management is the process of scanning your environment to find out where weaknesses in security exist that would allow that environment to be compromised.

For more than 20 years, many organizations have relied on Windows server as the operating system of choice for their workloads – but Microsoft is ending extended support and security updates for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 on January 14, 2020, which is right around the corner.

Azure Expert MSP status is achieved by demonstrating a depth of knowledge and expertise across the organization, as well as industry-leading service capabilities and customer satisfaction.

Hosting your own File Sharing service like DropBox or OneDrive is not only possible, it’s actually not too hard. One of the most widely used products for doing just this is an app called Nextcloud. In short, Nextcloud is an...

GoldBrute is a botnet that conducts “credential stuffing” or brute force attacks on Windows machines with exposed RDP connections.

Building web applications is one of Python's true superpowers. Yet, the wide-open ecosystem means there are SO MANY CHOICES for any given project. How do you know whether you're using the right tool for the right problem?

Ready to migrate to the cloud or optimize your existing cloud environment? Consider partnering with a Cloud Managed Service Provider (MSP) to achieve three major IT and business goals.

Tech on Fire: Azure IaaS - Using VHD's with Azure In this edition, learn how to bring your own operating system or virtual appliance to Microsoft Azure with Virtual Machine Hard Disk Images (VHD). https://youtu.be/fVwVq_RGwc0  

Introduction I'm proud to be able to say that I was just renewed for another two-year term in the Microsoft Regional Director (RD) program. I very much love this program and, as always, am honored to be a part of...

Tech on Fire: Azure IaaS - Availability Zones In this edition, Blaize will show you how to use Azure Availability Zones for creating highly available applications on Azure. https://youtu.be/nb86EoXfzG8

Any good system that is targeting the public or the enterprise these days must be built to expect the unexpected. No system is perfect and at some point, something will happen that will render a system inoperative – a fire,...

Tech on Fire: Azure IaaS - Cloud-Init for Azure VMs In this edition, Blaize discusses how to use how to use Cloud-Init with Azure Virtual Machines. https://youtu.be/ZbhQmrfU5NQ

This blog provides a high-level explanation of a Defense in Depth strategy using a Castle Analogy to show how different security elements work together as critical components of a complete security solution.

Tech on Fire: Azure Virtual Machine Extensions In this edition, Blaize discusses Azure Virtual Machine Extensions,which allow you to customize your virtual machine through automation. https://youtu.be/TfVZHV69-g8

Six years ago, we launched WintellectNOW with a just a handful of videos authored by me, Jeffrey Richter, and John Robbins. The goal was to make the same hard-core developer training that we were delivering in person at Microsoft offices...

With the ease of creating resources on Azure, getting a project up and running on the cloud is not only fast but straightforward.  A primary consideration for creating resources on Azure is how those resources are created.  Even though the...

Tech on Fire: Special Edition with Blaize In this edition, Blaize did a talk on IoT with some demos from Azure's IoT suite at the Software Development Meetup in Richmond, VA. https://youtu.be/mCSfx5yI-NQ

"Cloud computing" is typically associated with enterprises looking for a place to move their services to save money and improve availability. While this is certainly one of the major use cases for cloud computing, Azure can be used by anyone...

Tech on Fire with Blaize In this episode, you'll get a deep dive into Networking for Azure Virtual Machines. https://youtu.be/zxTOZ1L2DSE

Every now and then, I get a little nostalgic, and want to play an old computer game that I used to play when I was a kid. I didn’t grow up with consoles like most people my age, rather I...

After my webinar, lots of people have been asking about how I did the motion detection demo wherein I used a Raspberry Pi based motion detector that used the Azure IoT Hub and more broadly other Azure resources. The demo...

Tech on Fire with Blaize In this episode you will learn about the storage options available to Virtual Machines on Azure. https://youtu.be/XHQlhKUD2kU

The digital transformation of business workloads revolutionizes both internal business operations and the customer experience. Connectivity, scalability, efficiency, agility—these resounding value props echo in leadership meetings and entice organizations to undertake the migration of workloads to cloud environments.

Tech on Fire: Special Edition with Blaize In this episode, Blaize will talk about some of the fundamentals of Kubernetes with some nostalgic demos. :) https://youtu.be/7_oFSNi8E_E Meetup Link: https://www.meetup.com/Docker-Richmond/ Code Samples: https://github.com/theonemule/meetups...

Tech on Fire with Blaize In this episode you will learn about the 4 fundamental things needed to make networks work.

I'm someone that is always interested in seeing what's behind the curtain, pulling apart designs to understand the why and the how. When I began working with ARM templates, I noticed there were two parameters that Microsoft always included in...

Tech on Fire with Blaize In this episode, Blaize teaches you how IP traffic routing works across IP based networks like the Internet. https://youtu.be/zZACz6aX2mk

Having a data resiliency strategy is essential for maintaining business continuity.  A good data resiliency strategy includes two factors:  backup and disaster recovery solutions.  Backups provide recovery points for data or systems that are lost in some capacity.  Disaster recovery provides a process by which portion of an environment, or an entire environment that is unavailable can be brought online in another datacenter with minimal data loss and downtime.

If you've been spending much time with Linux VMs, you may have encountered Cloud-Init. Cloud-Init is an easy way to specify the configuration which needs to be applied to a deployed virtual machine. Executed when the machine is first provisioned,...

Scott Harvey, Atmosera’s VP of Engineering joined Roger Strukhoff, Conference Chair for CloudExpo, to discuss the public cloud ecosystem and the cloud’s evolution, challenges, and best practices, as well as the integral role CSPs play in supporting businesses that host operations in the cloud. The transcribed interview is available below, and the video is available here. 

Tech on Fire with Blaize Understand how network security is layered on to improve a network security posture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwRuTkmNf5Y

Tech on Fire with Blaize Learn how IP traffic routing works across IP based networks like the Internet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HED__AWiNIE

Tech on Fire with Blaize In this episode, Blaize will talk about the OSI Model and how it gives taxonomy to network technologies.

According to a 2017 survey of financial services institutions, only 42 percent of respondents consider their organization effective or very effective at managing cybersecurity risks. Comparatively, 80 percent considered their organization effective or very effective in managing more traditional risk types, including liquidity, underwriting, and credit. Indeed, cybersecurity is the new frontier in risk management.

Just say the word “blockchain” and you’re likely to get mixed reactions from all kinds of people. Understanding blockchain and how it works at a conceptual level is key to understanding what uses it has and why one would want...

Tech on Fire with Blaize In this episode Blaize will discuss what Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) entail, and how these relate to cloud computing.

Cloud computing necessitates that businesses redefine their approach to information security, compliance, data back up, and disaster recovery, but there can be some confusion over what security concerns the cloud may pose for data protection. Adapted from Atmosera’s Chief Information Security Officer’s presentation at a SecureWorld conference, this article will attempt to dispel common myths about cloud security.

Moving to a public cloud like Microsoft’s Azure platform affords businesses opportunities to explore and adopt a wide range of new technologies, e.g. machine learning or a distributed NoSQL database platform, without making heavy long-term capital investments.

In order to truly optimize the workflow and create a culture of DevOps, we need to be able to quickly build and deploy databases. To automate this process, we need to rely on improving our ability to utilize infrastructure as...

This project is on GitHub One can never be too paranoid about online security for a number of reasons. Containers are generally considered to be more secure by default that virtual machines because they substantially reduce the attack surface for...

Azure Cosmos DB is Microsoft's globally distributed, multi-model database service for mission-critical applications. It supports turn-key global distribution, elastic scaling of throughput and storage worldwide, single-digit millisecond latencies at the 99th percentile, five well-defined consistency levels, and guaranteed high availability,...

Sometimes, I’ve needed to remove all the resources in a resource group without actually having to remove the resource group itself. In the Azure Portal, it’s not possible to do this other than manually selecting each resource individually and deleting...

Whether they’re on a migration path or are looking at cloud services for the first time, prospects often ask us about the difference between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Just because your software iterations are fast and lean doesn't mean that you shouldn't have good documentation. In fact, with shorter release cycles documentation becomes even more important. Consequently, it's important to have a a process that makes rapid updates...

In the previous post, we went over how to use the Custom Vision Training and Prediction SDKs to programmatically predict image URLs and image files. In this post, we’re going to use those same SDKs to show how to programmatically...

In this webinar, you’ll get an overview of Azure Cosmos DB and all it has to offer. Come learn about these paradigms, and how to use Azure Cosmos DB to solve unique database problems.

Another exciting Microsoft Ignite event has come to an end, but the computing giant’s announcements will have ripple effects for years to come. News ranged from new uses for AI and IoT to developments that will deliver virtually impenetrable security across Microsoft products. Microsoft created a detailed list of its Azure-related Ignite announcements, but we wanted to sum up the news we think will make the most noise in cloud services. Here are the four takeaways you need to know:

Creating a model to classify images would usually involve creating your own deep learning model from scratch. This includes having a very large and diverse set of training images with a portion of them set aside as a test set,...

As companies look to move workloads to the Microsoft Azure public cloud platform, having a well-constructed strategy is critical to realizing the transformative power the cloud offers. Making the first move to the cloud can be intimidating. If an organization starts without the right planning, or without following best practices, the results can lead to a negative cloud migration experience and business setbacks.