New Azure offerings help speed cloud migration
The cloud offers many benefits including scalability, cost savings, and flexibility, but the migration process isn't always an easy one.
Today at Microsoft Inspire the company is launching two new offerings aimed at making it easier for enterprises to migrate to Azure.
Advanced search, analytics and AI deliver a smarter infrastructure platform
The use of infrastructure as code to define and deploy network and data center architecture has become increasingly common. Whilst it undoubtedly offers many advantages, it can create challenges too.
Pulumi is launching a new tool that unlocks analytics and search across cloud infrastructure, generates infrastructure as code from natural language prompts, and even enables novel AI-driven infrastructure automation.
Microsoft fixes Azure BingBang bug that allowed Bing search hijacking and leaked private data
Microsoft has addressed a serious flaw in Azure Active Directory which was dubbed BingBang by the security researchers that discovered it.
The vulnerability not only made it possible to manipulate Bing search results, but also to access private data from Outlook, Office 365 and Teams. The issue stemmed from an Azure misconfiguration; it dates back to January this year, but Microsoft has only just plugged the hole.
CISA releases open source Untitled Goose Tool to detect malicious activity in Azure, Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365 environments
The CISA has launched a new security tool designed to help protect various Microsoft cloud services. The open source Untitled Goose Tool is available for both Windows and macOS.
The utility was developed by the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories. The aim of the tool is to help to detect and respond to malicious activity in Microsoft Azure, Azure Active Directory (AAD) and Microsoft 365 (M365) environments.
Economic uncertainty puts the focus onto cloud costs
This year marks the first time in more than a decade that managing cloud spend has overtaken security as the top challenge facing organizations, according to the latest State of the Cloud report from Flexera.
The report is based on responses of 750 respondents from a survey conducted in late 2022 and finds optimizing existing use of the cloud (cost savings) is the top initiative (reported by 62 percent of all respondents).
Microsoft announces general availability of Azure OpenAI Service and promises ChatGPT soon
AI services are more than a trend, they are a phenomenon, and every technology company wants to get in on the action. Microsoft is no exception; the company has just announced that its Azure OpenAI Service is now generally available, giving access to a far wider audience.
Microsoft is pushing Azure as "the best place to build AI workloads", and part of this involves harnessing the power of GPT-3-powered natural language. On the horizon is ChatGPT, which is described as "a fine-tuned version of GPT-3.5 that has been trained and runs inference on Azure AI infrastructure".
Microsoft slaps cryptomining ban on Azure users
Microsoft has updated the Universal License Terms for Online Services that apply to Azure to indicate that the service cannot be used to mine cryptocurrency.
The change appears in the Acceptable Use Policy section of the license terms that apply to all Microsoft Online Services, but the ban is not an outright one. While the criteria have not been revealed, it seems that there are circumstances in which the company may be willing to lift the ban on cryptomining.
Public cloud security gaps expose business critical assets
The public cloud has been widely adopted by organizations of all sizes, but a new report from Orca Security reveals some alarming shortcomings in security.
Among the key findings, 72 percent of organizations have at least one Amazon S3 bucket that allows public read access, and 70 percent have a Kubernetes API server that is publicly accessible.
A third of businesses feel locked in to major cloud providers
Hyperscale cloud providers continue to dominate the market, with Azure and AWS in use as the major public cloud provider by 82 percent of businesses.
But new research from Civo shows that 34 percent of users feel locked into the services these major providers deliver, with 65 percent of these saying that data transfer costs are too expensive for them to move off their current cloud.
Enterprise cloud costs up over 90 percent in the past year
Cloud costs are a measure of the services businesses are using, but they also reflect the wider market and the pricing strategies of providers.
Cloud native service provider Civo has carried out a survey into what businesses are spending on cloud and finds that enterprise cloud costs have risen by 93 percent on average in the past year.
New free tool aims to tackle post-pandemic cloud bloat
As enterprises have moved to make their systems more accessible to hybrid working during the pandemic, they have increasingly been turning to cloud-based solutions.
But this rapid growth of cloud infrastructure leads to problems managing and optimizing cloud resources. Which is why cloud networking company Alkira is launching a free tool to expose shadow IT and recommend ways to secure, optimize, and boost cloud deployments.
More than half of DevOps professionals see their cloud provider as a threat
Over 50 percent of DevOps professionals and leaders say their cloud service provider is already a competitive threat to their B2B or B2C business or is expected to become one according to new research.
The study, carried out for cloud provider Linode, by Techstrong Research surveyed over 500 development professionals, managers and senior managers across 20 industries, and finds 75 percent say that their IT infrastructure will be cloud-based by the end of this year.
Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub includes free Azure credits and is now available to everyone, regardless of funding
Microsoft is increasing the support it offers to startups by reducing the eligibility criteria for the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub as the platform is made generally available. With the move, the company is looking to eliminate the boundaries that stand in the way of getting ideas off the ground.
Now billed as being "open to anyone with an idea", the Founders Hub is a startup ecosystem can be used by innovators regardless of whether they have funding or not. The platform gives users access to up to $150,000 in free Azure credits, free access to GitHub and Microsoft 365 as well as potential for mentorship and guidance from experts. There is also $1,000 of credit and more available with OpenAI.
Almost a third of developers turn to alternative cloud providers
Developers are increasingly relying on multiple cloud providers for their infrastructure needs. According to a new study though, 27 percent now use an alternative cloud provider like Linode, DigitalOcean, or OVHcloud.
The research, carried out by SlashData as part of its 21st Developer Nation survey, also shows that usage of alternative cloud providers has nearly doubled over the past four years, while usage of the three largest hyperscalers, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), has only grown by 18 percent.
More than a third of firms hit by unexpected cloud costs
A survey of 1,000 developers at businesses of all sizes finds that 37 percent have been stung by unexpected cloud costs in the last 12 months.
The study by cloud-native service provider Civo finds that half of those affected say it was a mistake or configuration change that led to the unexpected cost as opaque and complicated cloud billing hinders proper cost planning.
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