compute

What Is Meant by “Patch Management” When Discussing Migrations?

Marty NickisonLeave a comment

Congratulations!

You have successfully migrated (in this instance) 10 Windows 2016 DataCenter servers. Each runs part of the Supply Chain ecosystem. They are all VMWare Virtual Servers, each with 8 GB of vRam, 2 vCPUs, and a 200 GB Hard Disk.

You migrated the systems to a private cloud instance in the Microsoft Azure subscription using AVS (Azure VMware Solution). This utilized the HCX appliance installed in the common vSphere instance that hosted these guests.

Additionally, an Edge Router was successfully installed at the company’s datacenter. The Edge router was configured with an Express Route set up to transfer migration traffic ALONE. Finally, the Edge Routers at both the local and Microsoft datacenters were set up with Microsoft Enterprise Edge for Express Route Global Reach.

You are now able to log into the newly-created vSphere instance. You see three hosts in this vSphere, and each VMware virtual guest is listed under the hosts.

In the next meeting, you demonstrate this success on a network laptop connected to the room projector. You feel that you have climbed Mount Everest! You are ready to get the ‘GREAT JOB’ and plan the celebration…

…it’s at this time that the CyberSecurity professional on the project asks you, “So, how are we going to keep these new environments patched?”

YIKES!!!

In a fit of panic, you try to review what you remember of the project planning sessions. Was this even discussed? You start looking in the Microsoft Sharepoint repository with all the company contracts for IT — you want to see if that was included in the scope of work — NOPE !!

Ok, so what does this mean for the project?

In an attempt to keep things simple, “patch management” refers to the overall system/process that will successfully ensure all involved hardware and software updates and patches are installed regularly with as little manual intervention as possible.

This presents some challenging questions. How will the following be updated in a timely manner?

⦁ Windows operating systems
⦁ VMWare vSphere operating
⦁ VMWare ESXi on the hosts
⦁ Microsoft Dynamics supply chain (the supply chain base software)

Many answers CAN work, but each solution needs to be presented concerning success rate, cost, budgeting, and testing — POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS can include:

  1. Microsoft Intune (how Microsoft pushes updates for all their software; this includes Windows and Dynamics)
  2. Microsoft AVS (they maintain updates for their hosts ESXi and vSphere instances)

A discussion of options and their plus/delta needs to happen for the next steps to proceed properly.

To conclude, “patch management” refers to the overall system/process that will successfully ensure all involved hardware and software updates and patches are installed.

DISREGARD THIS, AND HACKING RISK INCREASES TREMENDOUSLY!

Why Do Companies Migrate to Azure?

Marty NickisonLeave a comment

In modern business, one of the areas expanding exponentially is Microsoft Azure’s cloud computing. More and more institutions, as well as individuals, are moving their computer-related tasks to Azure. This is part of the cloud computing age, which is going to grow more and more in the coming years.

Now, this raises a question: Why do companies migrate to Microsoft Azure?

There are many answers to this question. However, I will focus on two major reasons why companies migrate to Microsoft Azure: Reducing costs and increasing performance.

REDUCING COSTS

If I could pick one driver for migrating to Azure, it would be reducing costs. Remember, the cloud (including Azure, AWS, GCP, and more) is just a set of large datacenters that you rent to host your Information Technology tools. You pay a recurring cost to have the luxury of using another datacenter to run your tools.

With Azure cloud usage, you can reduce the overall Information Technology costs for some of the following reasons:

  1. No need to purchase and warranty servers
  2. No need to purchase and warranty routers and switches
  3. No need to purchase and warranty network area storage devices
  4. No need to purchase and warranty storage area network devices
  5. A cost reduction as you do not need to purchase and insure a building for a datacenter
  6. A cost reduction as you do not need to purchase and maintain the network connectivity for the building
  7. A cost reduction as you do not need to pay for the electricity to the building

And MUCH MORE…

These costs are given to Microsoft (if you are using Azure cloud), and the overall costs are then divided into hourly/computer-usage units, so you are only charged for what you use. Most businesses only use a small fraction of the total computer power available to them, so the costs are a fraction of what the current spending is.

INCREASING PERFORMANCE

One of the largest advantages that Microsoft Azure presents is its ability to increase performance. Microsoft is continually building more servers across the United States and the world at large.
As these new datacenters are constructed, the latest and greatest physical devices and networking are used to provide users with the best experience in Azure. Additionally, new tools are continuously being made available in the various portals for Azure, which increase the options for performance and optimizing execution.

With Azure cloud usage, you can increase the overall performance of your Information Technology infrastructure for some of the following reasons:

  1. You can increase application compute resources within seconds
  2. You can increase application network resources within seconds
  3. You can increase application storage resources within seconds
  4. You can increase application database resources within seconds
  5. You can increase application security resources within seconds
  6. You can link multiple copies of an application infrastructure (redundancy) for near 100% availability
  7. The supporting platform in Microsoft Azure will have the latest updates, improving performance and stability

And MUCH MORE…

For so many reasons like the ones above, it is easy to see why companies are eager to move more tools to the cloud — YOU ARE GETTING MORE PERFORMANCE FOR LESS COST.

What Is The Cloud ?

Marty NickisonLeave a comment

There are many definitions and explanations for the question, “What is the cloud?” These explanations range from NIST government documentation to various YouTube videos to books such as “Explain The Cloud Like I’m 10” and “Cloud Computing For Beginners With Examples: Dummies Guide to Cloud Computing.” In short, there is no shortage of explanations for what the cloud is.

In the spirit of these events, I want to share my explanation of the common question, “What is the cloud?” Keep in mind, what I am going to respond with is more of a technical approach to this. A way of looking at this is to say it is an explanation for the technical professional.

What is the cloud? The cloud is virtualization in a data center the company does not own. For professionals, we have an awareness of virtualization and what it can do. What is needed for virtualization is a central location, which has computing power, network power, and storage power locally available. With the cloud, virtualization can continue WITHOUT THE NEED TO HAVE A LOCAL computer, network, and storage power. Furthermore, you rent those items as needed from a cloud service provider (such as Microsoft for Azure) on demand.

So, think of cloud computing as using any device with an internet connection to run apps on a set of machines you rent by the hour of computing time – you can run the apps just as if you were directly working with a computer you own; but you don’t have the computer purchase, warranties, and other costs to use a limited amount of the time.

So, in short: the cloud is virtualization in someone else’s data center.