Plan your Azure network

The foundations of any Azure project is to plan correctly the networking stuff. But, man, believe me when I say that most companies are not planning or giving it the appropriate importance. I know, it is very easy to follow the trends, get excited and say: Hey guys! Let's create a subscription and deploy the next project on Azure. Of course, that's something super cool to bring to the next meeting with the CEO and it will be a fancy desk full of clouds. But a project in the cloud doesn't work like that.

 

I recently worked for a client who wanted to implement a System Center solution for its servers. We had the scope and project plan defined and we were about to start the project. We had a kick-off meeting and at some point the next question came to my team: Could it be possible to deploy this infrastructure on Azure? Yes it can be deployed, we answered. That's absolutely possible since all roles are supported to work in Azure.

The client's team got really excited with the idea of deploying this project in the cloud, so they decided to go ahead in this same meeting. As the client wasn't aware of the fact that they weren't ready for the cloud, about the implications of this type of project, we had to explain to them about the foundation, the first consideration before everything: PLAN YOUR NETWORK

 

They didn't realize some of the questions which we had to bring to the table: 

• Are you a big company? A multinational company with branch offices in USA, Europe and Asia?
• How many Virtual Networks do you need? One per region?
• Do you need to reach out from the cloud to all servers on-premises?
• What's the amount of traffic expected? Do you need a Site-to-Site VPN? Do you need an Express route connection? 
• What's the CIDR for the networks? Will the virtual network overlap with on-premises?
• Do you have Gateway devices supported by Azure?

And as we were feared, they didn't know. So, eventually we went ahead to the cloud, but we had to back up and put the project off for a couple of months. Till the NETWORK PLAN was made and ready to deploy in the cloud.

Perhaps another partner would have push through from the beginning without considering the network stuff, simply to avoid those months of waste time and money. But eventually, the problems would have surfaced.

Two takeaways from this post: Plan your network really well and find a good partner!

In the next post, I will go through some Virtual Network configurations in the cloud.

Enjoy! Happy holidays!

Disruptive... What?

I really feel lucky to be part of this new era of Digital Transformation. There are many new doors opening and a lot of opportunities awaits us, but these opportunities will only be for those open to change and, as what usually happens in the IT industry, for those people both well-prepared and keen on refreshing their knowledge.
In almost every meeting I have been to these past months, I have heard two magic words which are becoming increasingly popular: "Disruptive Technology". Researching a bit on this, I found it originated from Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen who coined the term in his book "The Innovator's Dilemma". He defined it as:

A process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.

I am telling you this because, in my opinion, and because of the conversations I’ve had with some of my customers and colleagues, most people don't understand the real meaning of “Disruptive Technology,” even going further as to misunderstand the concept by focusing on highly technical matters.

To clarify, what I mean is that "Disruptive Technology" is not just a very cool term, and that by using it, it shouldn’t be just about adding to the ranks of innovators or techies.

"Disruptive Technology" is about understanding the consequences that technology brings to an industry. It's not about deploying the latest and coolest Azure or AWS service in the private or public Cloud. Again, in my opinion, this is about architecting those magic technologies, discovering a better way to transform processes in the industry, and through this, possibly realizing the popular Silicon Valley saying of:

Let's make the world a better place!

These are my thoughts for today. Remember: Study and understand your industry's needs and be prepared for change.

Change is power! There is not place for a weak company!

See you later!

Windows Azure Pack: Chapter 5 - Using the cloud from the Tenant portal

In this last post about WAP, I will be very brief. I just want to show what a customer sees when entering in the Tenant portal for first time.

Let's follow these quick and simple steps:

Open the Tenant portal from https://localhost:30081/ Introduce an email and password in order to create a user account. Remember that we don't have configured the SSL certificate, and you will get the warning.

The first thing launched is the wizard with the Management Portal Tour. Just follow the steps to be familiarized with the portal.

Click on All Items, click My Account, click Add Subscription and Signup for a new subscription.

Choose the plan which we have previously created in the post.

Wait while subscription is being created.

Once the subscription is created, you will see available Virtual Machine and Network section.

In order to create your first Virtual Machine, click New/Virtual Machine Role/Quick Create.

Complete the form with your Virtual Machine's information and click Create Virtual Machine Role.

Once the process has finished, you will have the Virtual Machine available.

That's all, friends! With this post, we end the series on Windows Azure Pack. After four articles where we showed, step by step, how to deploy this solution for the Private Cloud.

Windows Azure Pack: Chapter 4 - Creating Plans

Windows Azure Pack, as a self-service mechanism provides users the ability to create virtual machines and services themselves. Then, you as administrator will be able to create different plans for the users in order to manage and control the resources available in the infrastructure.

Let's show how to create a plan, shall we?

Creating a Plan

Click on New, click Plan and click on Create plan.

Just follow the wizard. Enter a name for your plan.

Select the services you want for your plan.

Pass through out add-ons. Click the checkmark button.

When wizard finishes, click on your Plan.

Select your VMM server and your Cloud, and set up whatever limitation you want for your plan.

On the Networks section, click Add Network.

Select your VM network and click the checkmark button.

Click Save and wait until plan has been created.

Now click the Plan, click Change Access and click Public.

Confirm that you want to make the plan public.

Click Ok when the process of publication finishes.

That's all for today. We have all the components operative in order to provide services in our Private Cloud. Now, with the Plan published, a customer will be able to create an user and add it to the plan, after that, create virtual machines. In the next and last post about Windows Azure Pack deployment, I will go through these steps from the Tenant portal.

See you soon!