Free eBook – The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure

Microsoft have now released a new version of their developer guide to Azure as a free ebook

Free eBook – The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure

The book authors are Michael Crump and Barry Luijbregts

The book is 62 pages and downloaded as a PDF

Introduction from the book itself

"We created The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure to help you on your journey to the cloud, whether you’re just considering making the move, or you’ve already decided and are underway.

This e-book was written by developers for developers.

And it is specifically meant to give you, as a developer, a fundamental knowledge of what Azure is all about, what it offers you and your organization, and how to take advantage of it all."

Enjoy

Free Access to Azure Services and Training

In my role as a Microsoft Certified Trainer I deliver courses on Microsoft Azure (Microsoft's Public Cloud).

Obviously I would like people to books courses and come and have a chat, but sometimes it's good to have access to additional resources.

With The above in mind Microsoft have a useful resource:

Microsoft Azure Essentials

"You've arrived at the best place to get started with Azure and learn new skills. Whatever your level of expertise, Azure Essentials can help you take it further. Choose a topic and use the curated set of demo videos, hands-on labs, and product trials to learn about and try Azure at your own pace. Azure Essentials also offers multiple learning paths, Azure certification, and support. Best of all, we'll guide you every step of the way."

Sign up, it's worth a look.

Webinar: Accelerate your cloud transformation with Microsoft Azure

In my day to day job I deliver both VMware and Microsoft courses, and as such I can see the benefits and flaws of these technologies.

Microsoft Azure can help you transform your VMware environments by delivering cost-effective economics, modernising your workloads with a truly consistent hybrid cloud approach, and streamlining the Azure migration process.

On Wednesday, December 13th 1:00pm PST Microsoft are running the following Webinar:

Accelerate your cloud transformation with Microsoft Azure

The webinar will cover the following:

In this webinar, learn how to transform your VMware workloads and apps on Azure while saving money for your organization. More specifically, we will cover how you can:

• Migrate your VMware workloads to Azure using migration tools and services for your apps, infrastructure, and data
• Use Azure to modernise your VMware workloads using the latest cloud architectures
• Integrate/Inter-operate your VMware workloads with Azure services for backup, replication, management, networking, etc.

Free eBook - Enterprise Cloud Strategy - Microsoft Press

Over the last two days, I've been presenting a Microsoft Azure Fundamentals course. This course covers the fundamentals and reasoning of the journey to, or utilisation of Microsoft Azure public cloud.

With the above in mind, the following ebook is a nice bit of additional reading.

Enterprise Cloud Strategy - Microsoft Press, written by Barry Briggs and Eduardo Kassner

Learn about the basics of adopting a cloud computing strategy for your enterprise. The second edition of the cloud computing e-book, Enterprise Cloud Strategy, covers essential information for planning and executing your enterprise cloud migration. In this executive summary of the 140-page e-book, you’ll get introduced to the strategic importance of the cloud for your business, as well as:

• Find key takeaways from the book, including resources to support your migration.

• Get familiar with cloud computing terminology, concepts, and options.

• Learn about building a roadmap for your journey to the cloud.
  
  
  
  

VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure—Now Available

I have long been a user of VMware Horizon in one form or another, I've always liked the centralised features of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

With the announcement that VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure moving to GA, Customers can now connect their own instance of Microsoft Azure to our incredibly intuitive Horizon Cloud control plane, to create a secure, comprehensive, cloud-hosted solution for delivering virtualised Windows applications and session desktops.

Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure includes a robust feature set and delivers a number of key benefits:

• Multi-Cloud Deployments: Gain the flexibility to choose between cloud capacity managed by VMware or bring-your-own infrastructure with Microsoft Azure.
• Low-Cost, Hourly Billing for Microsoft Azure Capacity: You have the ability to pair consumption-based pricing on public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with your Horizon Cloud service subscription.
• Global Footprint: From a single instance, manage deployments across Microsoft’s 40+ global data center regions.
• Easy Deployment: Automate deployment of Horizon Cloud service components. Integration with Microsoft Azure Marketplace allows you to import a Windows Server image on which the necessary agents get automatically applied.
• Simplified Management: Always maintain the latest version of Horizon Cloud. Self-schedule upgrades, under five minutes, for components on Microsoft Azure via Blue-Green upgrades.
• Superior Architecture: Get a multi-tenant architecture built for the cloud, a cloud control plane separate from the data path—avoiding unnecessary latency and maintaining business continuity—and Unified Access Gateway—deployed automatically in Microsoft Azure.
• Simple Offer: Included in one, simple offer are remote published desktops and applications, VMware Unified Access Gateway and VMware User Environment Manager.

For more information visit the VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure product page.