Today, I attended an incredibly informative session by Jeff Woolsey. During the session Jeff took us on an exhilarating journey into the world of cloud technologies and the power of collaboration between VMware and Microsoft.

Picture this: just a few years ago, it would have been unimaginable to see Microsoft at a VMware event. But times are changing, and in a truly impressive display, Microsoft not only exhibited but also delivered sessions showcasing the incredible synergy between these tech giants.

The session began with Jeff posing a crucial question: What cloud journey are you on? He polled the audience to find out if they were on an all-public cloud journey, all-private cloud journey, or a hybrid cloud journey. The result was eye-opening — 100% of the room raised their hands for a hybrid cloud journey. It's a testament to the industry's direction and the path that businesses are eager to tread.

Throughout the session, Jeff delved into three key areas, offering us practical demonstrations of the technology in action:

1. Azure VMware Solution: Imagine having your VMware environment seamlessly running in Azure. Jeff showcased how this integration is a game-changer for businesses, allowing them to harness the power of VMware within Azure.

2. Azure Arc: Next up was the management of Windows services in Azure. Jeff illustrated how Azure Arc simplifies managing these services, providing a centralized solution that streamlines operations.

3. Azure Arc-enabled vSphere and SQL: Jeff didn't stop there. He demonstrated how Azure Arc takes control of vSphere management, and even delved into the world of SQL, all within the Azure environment.

What truly stood out was the unified portal in Azure that brought everything together. From managing policies to bolstering security, Jeff showed us the incredible capabilities of this consolidated platform. It's a one-stop destination that empowers businesses with comprehensive control over their cloud environment.

Jeff's passion for the subject was palpable, and his captivating presentation style made it a truly enjoyable experience. It's fantastic to witness the partnership between VMware and Azure, as they work hand in hand to elevate the hybrid cloud journey that so many businesses are embarking on.

Stay tuned for more updates and insights as I continue to explore the ever-evolving tech landscape here at VM explore. The future of tech is bright, and together, we're on the cusp of something extraordinary.

Commvault has recently released its semi-annual platform release introducing new capabilities across the hybrid cloud. Check out my video and doodle below for more information regarding what you can expect in this release.

Features within this release include

• Google Cloud Regional Snapshot support

• New Data Protection support for DevOps Protection

• Oracle Compute Infrastructure (OCI) Storage Tiering

• Improved backup times for Hadoop File Systems (HDFS)

• Enhanced security integrations with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms

• Compliance Lock – Protect critical data with immutable storage

• Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP

• New security enhancements & certifications help improve security posture and compliance.

In my doodle below, you can see my thoughts and further information about this release.

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Further to this, Commvault has released a blog post drilling into these features
Commvault Platform Release 2023

You can now watch the Commvault webinar covering this release on demand using the button below.

After a busy week at VMware Explore 2022, we wanted to reflect on our week. We discuss our experience of being back at live events, what sessions we enjoyed, what we have learnt and of course the key take aways.

Check out our video below to hear our final thoughts.

The first session I attended at ChefConf 2022 was the roadmap session with Prashanth Nanjundappa, VP of Product Management Progress Chef.

You can watch the session yourself at the link below.

https://prgress.co/3ARHT6N

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Prashanth was joined by his colleagues to review the progress they have made over the last year and their plans for the year ahead.

Presenting alongside Prashanth was:-

Stephen Blankenship - Principal Product Manager - Infra, Desktop and Application Delivery

Sharan Rayakar - Principal Product Manager - Compliance and Security

Nischal Reddy - Principal Product Manager - Platform and Cloud

Looking Back

Over the last year, it was discussed how there had been a focus on making the products easier to use as well as ensuring they deliver quicker time to value.

To this end the following features have been worked upon or improved over the last year.

1. Flexible deployment models

   1. On-Premises

   2. Chef SaaS

   3. Marketplace Deployments (Azure and AWS)

   4. High-Availability Deployment Models

2. Automation of Infra Views

   1. Allowing users to undertake increased management tasks from the UI rather than just the command interface. This makes the product easier to use and to pick up for inexperienced users whilst advanced users can continue to use the command interface.

3. Data Feed

   1. Send Chef Client Run and Compliance Scan data to 3rd party tools like IT Asset Management and Config management solutions.

      1. Webhook Integrations

         1. ServiceNow

         2. Splunk

         3. ELK

         4. Custom

      2. Storage Integrations

         1. Amazon S3

         2. minio

4. IoT and Edge Management

   1. Using Chef Habitat to manage all applications and dependencies across and IoT estate.

      1. This has been proven to save management time and increase efficiencies.

5. Chef Cloud Security - Chef CSPM

   1. Chef Cloud Security allows users to assess their cloud infrastructures in AWS, Azure and GCP against up-to-date best practise and compliance guidelines.

   2. Container orchestration platforms such as Docker and Kubernetes are also supported.

6. New Audit and Remediation Content for Chef Compliance

   1. A large amount of new audit and remediation content has been added to Chef Compliance, allowing support for new and updated OS’s and Apps.

Looking Forward

As the session turned to look at the roadmap there was a discussion regarding how Progress had engaged with their users and the Chef community to decide upon the roadmap items. The highest voted requests were, Easy upgrades, support for scheduling push jobs, integration with IT operational support systems, support for agentless models and the ability to manage container environments.

Based upon this feedback the forward-looking roadmap is going to focus on the following three areas 1. Ease of Use and Upgrades, 2. Job Orchestration and 3. Hybrid Cloud and SaaS. It was explained how moving forward they are going to take a platform approach building a unified and extendable Enterprise Automation Platform.

Key messages from the roadmap included

• General Availability of Chef SaaS at the beginning of 2023

• Persona-related insights to be added to Compliance and Security, allowing users to identify relevant insights quickly and to remediate as required.

• Chef CPSM will have improved flows with fewer clicks allowing quicker time to value across an increasing number of cloud resources.

• The Chef Client will support rolling updates and centralised management with the ability to support two client versions simultaneously for cookbook compatibility.

• Job Orchestration Service - Will have a push-centric model with granular control allowing jobs to be run on a reoccurring basis with exception supported. It will also support jobs to be run based upon conditions.

• Workstation will have the introduction of a frequent actions UI

  • Based upon user research, it will enable new team members and non “Chef experts” to be productive in Chef faster.

Watch the session: https://prgress.co/3ARHT6N

Conclusion

It was interesting to hear directly from the people managing the products, learning what had been implemented over the last year and the direction of the products moving forward. I was impressed by how the product roadmap had been driven by direct feedback from the users and the community.

It was clear there is a big focus on ease of use and value to the users. I particularly like the sound of the SaaS platform for ease of adoption, the persona-based insights, and the ability to check cloud infrastructure compliance quickly and easily.

You can watch the session yourself at the link below.

https://prgress.co/3ARHT6N

Disclaimer: Tech Doodles through Tech Crossing Limited has been paid by Progress to create content covering ChefConf22. Whilst Tech Crossing Limited and the authors of this blog post have been paid to create the content, there has been no influence or editorial control by Progress.

Recently I joined Commvault to discuss the challenges with data protection as organisations embrace the cloud.

You are able to watch the recent webinar where I spoke on this subject alongside Commvault’s Marc Lucas and Ronnie Kaftal here >> Commvault-Spotlight on Digital Transformation.

The doodle below summarises the areas for discussion in the webinar.

Most of us at the moment are seeing fast adoption of cloud based services such as SaaS like Microsoft 365 or IaaS with platforms like Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and more. Whilst these services help organisations accelerate innovation and remove the burden of many administrative functions, there is still the need to manage and protect the data.

In this situation it isn’t uncommon for many point fix solutions to be implemented. This fixes the problem in a specific area but equally leads to a fragmentation of points of management, policy and monitoring.

This is where Commvault comes in unifying data management and protection across on-premises and the cloud, across tradition applications and modern applications.

Metallic is Commvault’s data management as a service platform, it uses the same code base as the on-premises version but delivered a full cloud service and importantly you have a single point of management on-premises and in the cloud with their Control Center management plane.

Operators further get to choose where the data they wish to protect is stored with three different storage plane options.

1. Full SaaS storage plane delivered as part of the service in a local Azure Region or with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

2. Bring your own storage from private cloud, public cloud or on-premises options.

3. Commvault’s HSX appliances .

During the webinar we saw how the Metallic platform allowed data to be managed across all infrastructure and application areas.

• Demo One - Backup of a VM rom Nutanix being recovered to Azure

• Demo Two - An Azure VM being backed-up to Metallic Cloud Storage and recovered to AWS

• Demo Three - A SQL server database on-premises being recovered to a cloud based PaaS solution

• Demo Four - Kubernetes and Database backup via Metallic.

Conclusion

It has been really good to work with Commvault to understand their offerings for hybrid-cloud management. Commvault aren’t a company that has gone and acquired companies to fix gaps in their portfolio, they have built the integrations from scratch and importantly unlike some others this results in a single management plane.

If you would like to learn more about Metallic you can check out the website below

SaaS Backup & Recovery Solutions for Data Protection & Compliance (metallic.io)

Disclaimer: Tech Doodles through Tech Crossing Limited has been paid by Commvault to create content covering the Metallic product set. Whilst Tech Crossing Limited and the authors of this blog post have been paid to create the content, there has been no influence or editorial control by Commvault.

My doodles below depict my study notes from the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals training delivered remotely to customers and partners by Matt Hester and Garrett Bundy.

Below are my notes covering Modules 1 through 4

Further resources can be found at the links below

• Use the Azure portal

• Customize the dashboard

• Estimate costs with Azure pricing calculator

• Predict and optimize with Cost Management and Azure Advisor

• Estimate the Total Cost of Ownership with the Azure TCO calculator

• Take the Role Based Assessments at Pluralsight

• Sign up for the AZ900 certification exam

• Visit Microsoft Learn for more free education about Azure

• Create an Azure account

• Create a website hosted in Azure

• Configure an App Service

• Overview of Azure Cloud Shell

• Work with Panes

I found the above video by the fantastic John Savill really informative. Make sure to check out his YouTube channel for more fantastic Azure content (1) John Savill - YouTube.

Core Cloud Concepts and Core Azure Services

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Core Azure Services

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Security, Privacy and Compliance

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Pricing and Support

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At vRetreat March 2018 we heard from Zerto regarding their latest release version 6.0. Version 6.0 further increases their functionality as multi-cloud data protection, replication and migration solution.

Below is a whiteboard video that I have recently recorded looking at how the Zerto replication technology works on premises. In the future I will create videos creating the other replication methods. 

In this video Barry talks you through a high level architecture overview of Zerto's software defined VM Replication technology