Optimizing costs – Enterprise Design Considerations
Cloud solutions can be built with incredible flexibility around the resources they consume. We can create systems that dynamically respond to usage so that they scale automatically as needed. Serverless options also allow for solutions that cost near zero when not being used. By way of an example, services such as Azure functions are billed …
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Understanding performance requirements – Engaging with Real-World Customers
Performance is not just your solution’s ability to respond in a timely manner, but its ability to change in response to varying levels of demand. Cloud solutions provide the ability to scale out and up dynamically, but this of course comes at a cost. If demand is directly related to generating revenue, then we may …
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Exploring common goals – Engaging with Real-World Customers
Microsoft Azure advises following what is known as the Well-Architected Framework, which covers the five key pillars that need to be considered when designing solutions. Following these areas is a great way to ensure that your design has captured the main points and provide a starting point for your requirements gathering. As a refresher, the …
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Gathering requirements – Engaging with Real-World Customers
There are many examples of projects that have overrun budgets and timeframes, and quite often this is because of a lack of, or at least understanding of, requirements. The choice of an agile delivery method over a waterfall approach is sometimes driven by the fact that it is difficult for customers to know what they …
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Working with customers – Engaging with Real-World Customers
In the last chapter, we completed the logging and monitoring topic, and the part of the book that covers the AZ-304 exam requirements. In this chapter, we’ll look beyond specific design considerations and look at more general working practices in cloud architecture. What we cover in this and the next chapter will not be included …
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Looking at Azure DevOps – Scripted Deployments and DevOps Automation
Throughout this chapter, we have been looking at how we can encode infrastructure in script files and ARM templates that then allow us to automate deployments using those artifacts. This process is often referred to as Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and fits well with agile-based delivery mechanisms as it provides the ability to build solutions …
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Understanding ARM templates – Scripted Deployments and DevOps Automation-1
Just as other tools are simply wrappers for the Azure REST APIs, everything that is built in Azure is defined as an ARM template. Whether you create a service through the Azure portal, PowerShell, REST APIs, or the CLI, ultimately that service is described within an ARM template. An ARM template is a JSON-based text …
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Choosing between PowerShell and the Azure CLI – Scripted Deployments and DevOps Automation
When we start to consider automating the deployment and management of resources in Azure, the first option would be using the command line, and here we then have two further options: PowerShell and the Azure CLI. PowerShell and the CLI are very similar: they both run from a command prompt, they both allow access to …
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Understanding the data archiving options – Developing Business Continuity
Many organizations have a requirement to hold some data for longer periods of time. This may be for compliance reasons or simply for long-term record retention. Although backup solutions do offer long-term retention options, for archival purposes Azure Storage offers a specific archiving tier. We covered the storage tiers in Chapter 9, Exploring Storage Solutions, …
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Understanding recovery plans – Developing Business Continuity
Using recovery plans allows you to have far greater control over what is failed over and when. Using this mechanism, you can have more direct control over the timing of failovers for individual services. Typically, you would group applications into a recovery plan; for example, if you have a web application consisting of a VM …
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