Azure Management Models: ASM vs ARM

Notes from articles around the web:

* Azure Resource Manager and Azure Service Managment "Classic" deployment models are not completely compatible with each other. 

* To simplify the deployment and management of resources, Microsoft recommends that you use Resource Manager for new resources, and, if possible, re-deploy existing resources through Resource Manager.

* The Resource Manager version of Azure PowerShell commands have the format Verb-AzureRmNoun whereas the Service Management version of Azure PowerShell commands have the format Verb-AzureNoun

* Resource Manager added the concept of the resource group. Every resource you create through Resource Manager exists within a resource group. 

* The Resource Manager deployment model provide several benefits:
- Deploy, manage and monitor Azure resources as a group
- Deploy resources repeatedly
- Supports creating templates. Templates can be created to include a set of resources to be deployed as part of a cloud solution
- Allows you to define dependencies between resources so they are deployed in the correct order
- Ability to apply RBAC policies to all resources in a Resource Group
- Ability to specify "tags" to resources for programmatic purposes

* Virtual machines deployed with the Resource Manager deployment model must be included in a virtual network whereas it is not so in the classic deployment model

* Resource Manager is supported in all regions, but the resources you deploy might not be supported in all regions.

* Both the Classic portal and Azure PowerShell version before 1.0 use ASM API calls to manage Azure resources.

* If you use the Classic portal to create or manage Azure resources, you can only work with Classic resources whereas the new Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com allows the ability to work with both Classic and ARM Resources.

Slide from the Pluralsight course Managing Azure IaaS with PowerShell 

AWS vs Azure Services

AWS service	Plain English definition	Azure equivalent	Description
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud / EC2	Host the bits of things you think of as a computer A web service that enables you to launch and manage Linux/UNIX and Windows server instances in Amazon’s data centers.	Virtual Machines (VMs)	Provision Windows and Linux Virtual Machines and applications in minutes
Identity and Access Management (IAM)	Setup additional users, setup new AWS Keys and policies A web service that enables Amazon Web Services customers to manage users and user permissions within AWS.	Azure Active Directory	Synchronize on-premises directories and enable single sign-on
Amazon Simple Storage Service / S3	Store images and other assets for websites. Keep backups and share files between services. Host static websites. Also, many of the other AWS services write and read from S3. Storage for the internet. You can use it to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time, from anywhere on the web.	Azure Blob Storage	Durable, highly available and massively scalable cloud storage
Virtual private cloud / VPC	Overcome objections that “all our stuff is on the Internet!” by adding an additional layer of security. Makes it appears as if all of your AWS services are on the same little network instead of being small pieces in a much bigger network An elastic network populated by infrastructure, platform, and application services that share common security and interconnection.	Azure Virtual Private Network (VPN)	Your private network in the cloud
API Gateway	Proxy your apps API through this so you can throttle bad client traffic, test new versions, and present methods more cleanly.	API Management	Publish APIs to developers, partners and employees securely and at scale
Amazon Relational Database Service / RDS	Be your app’s Mysql, Postgres, Oracle database A web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost­ efficient, resizable capacity for an industry­ standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks.	SQL Database	Managed Relational SQL Database-as-a-service
Route53	Buy a new domain, setup the DNS records for that domain A web service you can use to create a new DNS service or to migrate your existing DNS service to the cloud.	DNS	Host your DNS domain in Azure
Amazon Simple Email Service / SES	Send one off emails like password resets, notifications, etc. You could use it send Newsletter if you wrote all the code, but that’s not a great idea. An easy­ to ­use, cost ­effective email solution for applications.
Cloudfront	Make your websites load faster by spreading out static file delivery to be closer to where your users are. An AWS content delivery service that helps you improve the performance, reliability, and availability of your websites and applications.	CDN	Deliver content to end-users through a robust network of global data centers
CloudSearch	Pull in data on S3 or in RDS and and then search it for every instance of ‘Jimmy’ A fully ­managed service in the AWS cloud that makes it easy to set up, manage, and scale a search solution for your website or application	Azure Search	Fully-managed search-as-a-service
DynamoDB	Be your app’s MongoDB	DocumentDB	NoSQL database for JSON documents optimized for frequent writes
Elasticache	Be your app’s Memcached or Redis	Redis Cache	High throughput, low latency data access to build fast and scalable applications
Elastic Transcoder Cognitor	Deal with video weirdness (change formats, compress, etc.)	Media Services	Encode, store, and stream video and audio at scale
Lambda	Run little self contained snippets of JS to do discrete tasks. Sort of a combination of a queue and execution in one. Currently mostly used for storing and then executing changes to your AWS setup. Also, you can put it behind the API Gateway and expose it that way.
Simple Queue Service (SQS)	Store data for future processing in a queue. The lingo for this is storing “messages” but it doesn’t have anything to do with email or SMS. SQS doesn’t have any logic it’s just a place to put things and take things out.	Azure Queue
Cognito	Give end users - (non AWS) - the ability to log in with Google, Facebook, etc.
Device Farm	Test your app on a bunch of different IOS and Android devices simultaneously
Mobile Analytics	Track what people are doing inside of your app
Simple Notification Service (SNS)	Send mobile notifications, emails and/or SMS messages	Notification Hubs	Scalable, cross-platform push notification infrastructure
CodeCommit	Version control your code - hosted Git	Visual Studio Online	Visual Studio Online offers: - hosted source control system - Team Foundation Service, Git - load testing service - support for agile development with features like continuous integration builds, Kanban boards and virtual team rooms.
Code Deploy	Get your code from your CodeCommit repo (or Github) onto a bunch of EC2 instances in a sane way
CodePipeline	Run automated test on your code and then do stuff with it depending on if it passes those tests
EC2 Container Service	Put a Dockerfile into an EC2 instance so you can run a website
Elastic Beanstalk	Move your app hosted on Heroku to AWS when it gets too expensive
AppStream	Put a copy of a Windows application on a windows machine that people get remote access to.	RemoteApp	Deploy Windows client apps in the cloud, run on any device
Direct Connect	Pay your Telco + AWS to get a dedicated leased line from your data center or network to AWS. Cheaper than Internet out for Data.	ExpressRoute	Dedicated private network fiber connections to Azure
Directory Service	Tie together other apps that need a Microsoft Active Directory to control them	Azure AD Domain Services	Your domain controller as a service
WorkDocs	Share Word Docs with your colleagues
WorkMail	Give everyone in your company the same email system and calendar
Workspaces	Gives you a standard windows desktop that you’re remotely controlling
Service Catalog	Give other AWS users in your group access to preset apps you’ve built so they don’t have to read guides like this.
Storage Gateway	Stop buying more storage to keep word docs on. Make automating getting files into S3 from your corporate network easier	StorSimple	Enterprise hybrid cloud storage solution that provides primary storage, backup, archive, integrated data protection, and location-independent disaster recovery
Data Pipeline	Extract, Transform and Load data from elsewhere in AWS. Schedule when it happens and get alerts when they fail	Data Factory	Orchestrate and manage data transformation and movement
Elastic Map Reduce	Iterate over massive text files of raw data that you’re keeping in S3 A web service that makes it easy to process large amounts of data efficiently. Amazon EMR uses Hadoop processing combined with several AWS products to do such tasks as web indexing, data mining, log file analysis, machine learning, scientific simulation, and data warehousing.	HDInsight	Provision managed Hadoop clusters
Glacier	Make backups of your backups that you keep on S3. Also, beware the costs of getting data back out in a hurry. For long term archiving	Backup	Simple and reliable server backup to the cloud
Kinesis	Ingest lots of data very quickly (For things like analytics or people retweeting Kanye) that you then later use other AWS services to analyze	Events Hub	Receive telemetry from millions of devices
RedShift	Store a whole bunch of analytics data, do some processing and dump it out	SQL Data Warehouse	Elastic data warehouse-as-a-service with enterprise-class features
Machine Learning	Predict future behavior from existing data for problems like fraud detection or “people that bought x also bought y”	Azure Machine Learning	Powerful cloud-based predictive analytics
SWF	Build a service of “deciders” and “workers” on top of EC2 to accomplish a set task. Unlike SQS - logic is setup inside the service to determine how and what should happen
CloudFormation	Build a service of “deciders” and “workers” on top of EC2 to accomplish a set task. Unlike SQS - logic is setup inside the service to determine how and what should happen A service for writing or changing templates that create and delete related AWS resources together as a unit.
CloudTrail	Log who is doing what in your AWS stack (API calls)
CloudWatch	Get alerts about AWS services messing up or disconnecting A web service that enables you to monitor and manage various metrics, and configure alarm actions based on data from those metrics.	Azure Audit Logs	Includes all the provisioning actions performed in the Azure Resource Manager in addition to other actions related to managing Azure resources (ex. Alerts, AutoScaling, deployments etc).
Config	Keep from going insane if you have a large AWS setup and changes are happening that you want to track.
OpsWorks	Handle running your application with things like auto-scaling
Trusted Advisor	Find out where you’re paying too much in your AWS setup (unused EC2 instances, etc.)
Amazon Elastic File System	Managed service to easily set up and scale shared file storage Share files between applications running in your virtual machines using familiar Windows APIs or file REST API.	Azure Files	a shared file system that supports the standard SMB 2.1 protocol.
Elastic Block Store (EBS)	SSD-based storage	Azure Premium Storage	High-performance, low-latency disk support for virtual machines running I/O-intensive workloads
Directory Services Identity and Access Management Key Management Service (KMS)	Authentication and authorization	Azure Active Directory Multi-Factor Authentication Key Vault
CloudFormation	enables declarative provisioning of AWS cloud resources	Azure Resource Manager (ARM) JSON Template	to specify cloud resource definitions in a JSON file so that infrastructure can be deployed as code
Cloud HSM	Compliance	Azure Trust Center
AWS GovCloud	Government Services	Azure Government

References:

• List of AWS Products
• AWS Glossary
• List of Azure Services
• Mapping AWS services to those of other cloud providers

This Week I Learned - Week #145

This Week I Learned -

* The Azure Desired State Configuration (DSC) Extension, which can be used to upload and apply a DSC configuration on an Azure VM, was introduced in August 2014. It is currently at Version 2.13

* Building Azure VM with ARM templates consists of two rough steps: building a JSON template file and executing the New-AzureRmResourceGroupDeployment cmdlet, which then reads all of the logic inside of this JSON template file to feed the Azure API the parameters it needs to provision a VM...a simple Windows VM will require at least a 140 line template

* Installing Azure PowerShell via WebPi/MSI or Install-Module differs in several ways. One difference is that the WebPi/MSI method installs the PowerShell modules to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\PowerShell\, whereas Install-Module downloads them to C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules.

* Resource Manager APIs and PowerShell modules are incompletely (or simply not) documented, and .. many features are missing or half-baked.

* The Visual Studio ALM team maintains a Feature Timeline for TFS and VSTS to augment their UserVoice site.

* The Visual Studio Team Services maintains a Service Blog that tracks outages and reports on service status 

* A Visual Studio Team Services account allows 240 minutes (4 hours) per month of Build (XAML) / Build and Deployment services & 20,000 virtual user minutes per month of  Cloud-based Load Testing. By default, you can run one job at a time. One job can run up to 30 minutes long. To run more than one job at the same time, or to run a single job up to 6 hours long, you can buy Build and Deployment Hosted Agents. You can also buy Private Agents. “Basic” access to 5 users is free with your account

* The "Blank App" template in Visual Studio 2015 isn't really blank after all. By default, it includes a number of NuGet packages you might not want in a simple project. Weston Thayer created a Truely Blank App template that has most of the NuGet packages removed and turns off the frame rate counter as well.

* Is Microsoft (with 2014 revenues of $86 billion and 128,000 employees) truly agile?  The Developer Division is about 4,000 people, working in hundreds of teams, each of 10 to 12 people, working in 3-week sprints.It has implemented Scrum at scale...the Developer Division of Microsoft..is not only implementing the regular practices and methodologies of Agile, Scrum and DevOps for itself but also promoting them for others.

* The free Microsoft Press ebook Enterprise Cloud Strategy shows you how to assess your application portfolio, design the programs and processes, and manage the organizational change as you move your IT ecosystem to the cloud.

* OpenAI is funded by a billion-dollar grant from Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who has been outspoken about the long-term dangers of AI, and other technology heavyweights.

* Rafael Corredoira and Lori Rosenkopf studied the patents filed by semiconductor companies for almost 15 years, from 1980 to 1994. In doing so, they built a database of 154 firms and 42,000 patents. For every patent application filed, the applicant also cites existing patents that the new idea borrows from or builds upon. That allowed the researchers to study linkages formed between companies when talent departed. If employees move from one firm to another, the researchers would be able to see the effect of employees’ ideas on the new firm because those employees would be likely to cite patents from their old firm in their new patent applications..departing employees have a cross-pollinating effect on the ideas of both organizations.

* ..in Malaysia, a country where Islam is the most widely-followed faith but large minorities follow other faiths, including Christianity. In 2007, a court ruled that non-Muslims (and Christians in particular) could not use the word "Allah" although that happens to be the Malay or Bahasa word for God. The Islamic authorities reasoned that Muslims might be confused, and tempted to go astray, if they came across people of other persuasions addressing a deity which only Muslims fully understood - The Economist

* Oscar Pistorius’s (the Paralympic athlete who was convicted of murder) tragic flaw was an excessive paranoia regarding intruders, which manifested itself in an enthusiasm for guns

* Qantas tops the list of safest airlines for the third year running; the Australian carrier has been fatality-free during the jet-engine era (its last crash took place in 1951). It is joined at the top by other big names including United, American, Lufthansa and Emirates

* "If I have seen further it is by standing on the sholders [sic] of Giants" - This has recently been interpreted by a few writers as a sarcastic remark directed at Hooke's appearance. Although Hooke was not of particularly short stature, he was of slight build and had been afflicted from his youth with a severe kyphosis. However, at this time Hooke and Newton were on good terms and had exchanged many letters in tones of mutual regard. Only later, when Robert Hooke criticized some of Newton's ideas regarding optics, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate, and the two men remained enemies until Hooke's death.

* India is the second largest producer (after China) of potatoes. Potato is a modified stem, masquerading as a root vegetable

* State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) revise rates of petrol and diesel on the 1st and 16th of every month based on average oil price and foreign exchange rate in the preceding fortnight.

* On the premium paid for self, spouse, children and parents, the maximum deduction that can be availed is Rs 25,000 a year, provided the age of the individual is not above 60. If the premium paid by an individual is towards health policy for his or her parent who is a senior citizen of age 60 or more, the maximum is capped at Rs 30,000. A taxpayer may therefore maximise tax benefit under section 80D to a total of Rs 55,000 if his age is below 60 while parents age is above 60. For those tax payer individuals who are of age 60 or more and are also paying health insurance premium for their parents, the maximum tax benefit under section 80D would therefore be a total of Rs 60,000 - The Economic Times

* The product of a year and a half of writing, the novel, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851), is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius", and draws on Herman Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. Although the novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation as a Great American Novel grew during the 20th century.

* Sherlock Holmes was weird in too many well-known ways. G K Chesterton's Father Brown, like Singapore-based detective fiction writer Shamini Flint's Inspector Singh, was short, fat and brainy. Like Singh he, too, was also constantly underestimated. Likewise, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot - pronounced Yaircule Poiro - was also short, stout if not fat and brainy beyond measure. And, of course, no one took him seriously. He was always referred to as that "ridiculous little man" by the British.