Having watched some of AzureCon recently, it is clear to us that Microsoft is working exceptionally hard to make their Azure platform more secure, more feature-rich and much easier to live and work with. There were a few announcements at this years’ event that showed us that the Redmond giant really means business.
Considering the scale of the competition from Google and Amazon, it’s a wonder so much is going on. The growth of the cloud demands constant innovation and so far Microsoft is delivering it.
Some of the highlights of the upcoming features announced at AzureCon are:
Azure Security Center
The Azure Security Center makes managing the system far easier than it used to be. From here you can manage security policies, configurations and a number of controls. It also has an advisor capacity designed to help IT admins identify threats and false alarms which will prove very useful.
The Azure Security Center is the same technology used to protect Microsoft’s own Bing, Hotmail and MSN services, so should be up to the job.
Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and Suite
Microsoft Azure IoT Hub is where you can control the Internet of Things. It manages connectivity, provisioning, updates and looks after any numbers of IoT devices. The
Microsoft Azure IoT Suite takes care of integration and interfaces with apps such as DocumentDB, Event Hubs, Stream Analytics and Event Hubs to bring everything together into a productive whole.
Azure Mobile Engagement
Azure Mobile Engagement allows businesses to analyse mobile segmentation, analytics and notifications. It works with Microsoft Azure Mobile Services to deliver extra analytics to manage and refine mobile campaigns of all shapes and sizes. With mobile marketing increasing, this element of Azure is going to be popular!
Azure File Storage
You can’t have too much file storage and Azure File Storage knows it. Using SMB 3.0, systems can store data in the public cloud via persistent connections. That data can be accessed by authorised machines and virtual machines across an infrastructure. Designed for legacy systems, it leverages IaaS and PaaS to offer extra file sharing options to businesses that use Azure.
Azure Container Service
Finally, the Azure Container Service is designed to manage micrsoservices across an enterprise. It will work with Docker and Apache Mesos and allows Azure to provide Container as a Service (CaaS) services. It will also work with Mesosphere’s Datacenter Operating System (DCOS), which will benefit anyone who runs datacentres.
These latest Azure announcements are great news for anyone who uses the platform. Some of these features are already available in some markets while others are on their way. Contact us here at Excalibur if you would like to know more.
