Kategorie: Microsoft Azure

Introducing Azure Orbital: Process satellite data at cloud-scale

Data collected from space to observe Earth is instrumental in helping address global challenges such as climate change and furthering of scientific discovery and innovation. The cloud is central to both modern communications scenarios for remote operations and the gathering, processing, and distributing the tremendous amounts of data from space.

Today we’re announcing the preview of Azure Orbital. The new ground station service enables satellite operators to communicate to and control their satellites, process data, and scale operations directly with Microsoft Azure. With Azure Orbital, the ground segment, including the ground stations, network, and procedures, becomes a digital platform now integrated into Azure and complemented by many partners.

Amergint, Kratos, KSAT, Kubos, Viasat, and US Electrodynamics INC. and have joined the ecosystem of Azure Orbital partners, each of them bringing their unique value and expertise for the benefits of our customers.

Microsoft is well-positioned to support customer needs in gathering, transporting, and processing of geospatial data. With our intelligent cloud and edge strategy currently extending over 60 announced cloud regions, advanced analytics, and AI capabilities coupled with one of the fastest and most resilient networks in the world—security and innovation are at the core of everything we do.
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Azure Orbital scenarios

Earth observation and IoT

Satellite images are used in many industries. Areas such as meteorology, oceanography, agriculture, geology, and defense and intelligence most often use satellites that are in a non-geostationary orbit (NGSO), including low-earth orbit (LEO) or medium-earth orbit (MEO). As the satellites are orbiting, a substantial amount of ground stations are required to establish contact within a specific time window to downlink the data to Earth.

Azure Orbital enables satellite operators to schedule contacts with their spacecrafts and directly downlink data into their virtual network (VNet) in Azure. Azure Virtual Networks are isolated, highly secure, and governed by Microsoft's more than 90 compliance certifications covering applications and datasets.

Azure Orbital on-ramps your data directly into Azure, where it can immediately get processed with market-leading data analytics, geospatial tools, machine learning, and Azure AI services.

Contact scheduling will be available for Microsoft owned and operated ground stations in X, S, and UHF band frequencies via shared high gain antennas. We are also directly interconnecting our global network with our partner's ground station networks for easy scheduling with your preferred Teleport operators while maintaining the benefits of direct integration with Azure.

Whether you choose to use Microsoft or partner ground stations, the digitized Radio Frequency (RF) signal from the antenna to the cloud can be transmitted using the VITA Radio Transport (VRT) format (VITA-49) and then subsequently be demodulated using custom modems or cloud modems offered by the platform.

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Global communications

In-flight connectivity (IFC), maritime, connected cruise, mobility, and video broadcasting are examples of communication scenarios addressed by the space industry. Leveraging Azure Orbital, satellite operators can go beyond selling network capacity with the accelerated building of managed services. Azure Orbital offers interconnection of your existing ground stations and colocation of dedicated antennas close to our network PoPs or Datacenters. Orbital enables you to take full advantage of our global network and services infrastructure to build new product offerings and service chains with the edge, 5G, SD-WAN, and AI while continuously optimizing your operations and footprint.

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SES has selected Microsoft Azure to collocate the ground stations (including Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Systems) of their next-generation SES O3b mPOWER communication system. SES has designed a cloud-scale operational environment and will leverage Azure Orbital as a core platform to scale and build managed services and streamline order and service delivery management processes.

"In the last 12 to 18 months, our focus has been to accelerate our customers' cloud adoption plans. We are pleased to have found an ideal partner in Microsoft with its new Azure Orbital system. This partnership leverages both companies' know-how—SES's experience in satellite infrastructure and Microsoft's cloud expertise—and is building blocks in developing new and innovative solutions for the future," said JP Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks."we are thrilled that we will be co-locating, deploying and operating our next-generation O3b mPOWER gateways alongside Microsoft's data centers. This one-hop connectivity to the cloud from remote sites will enable our MEO customers to enhance their cloud application performance, optimize business operations with much flexibility and agility needed to expand new markets."

The ground segment is a significant part of any satellite operator's investments. An ecosystem of partners has joined our Managed Service Providers (MSP) program to enrich the platform by selecting services and technology integrations. Cloud modems optimized for Azure, Mission Control Operations are examples of third-party cloud-native services provisioned on-demand when your business needs it.

Azure Orbital is now in preview. For questions, feedback, and interest to participate in the preview, please contact MsAzureOrbital@microsoft.com. Please visit our product documentation to learn more, share feedback, or express interest in participating in the preview.

Learn more about Azure Orbital

Introduction to Azure Orbital
What’s new in Azure networking

Azure. Invent with purpose.

Quelle: Azure

AT&T powered guardian device with Azure Sphere enables highly secured, simple, and scalable connectivity from anywhere

In July 2019, Microsoft and AT&T entered a strategic alliance to lead innovation and deliver powerful new solutions in some of the most transformative technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT). Today, we are sharing that as part of that partnership, AT&T is introducing a new IoT solution consisting of a cellular guardian device powered by their network, security, and support services, and built with Azure Sphere.

As a global leader in telecommunications and network security, AT&T is deeply invested in providing resilient solutions that free their customers to innovate with confidence. When looking for an IoT platform to build upon, they were uncompromising in their quest to balance ease of use with best-in-class device security. They wanted renewable security to guard against emerging threats and keep devices secured over time. They chose Microsoft Azure Sphere for device security.

The cellular-enabled guardian device powered by AT&T combines the fully supported multi-layered security of AT&T’s core network with Azure Sphere’s integrated silicon, software, and cloud services. The Azure Sphere components work seamlessly together to deliver ongoing device security updates for more than ten years. The guardian device physically attaches to brownfield equipment with little to no equipment redesign, delivering edge-to-cloud communication via the AT&T secured cellular network.

AT&T’s guardian device is a transformative example of how Microsoft is working with industry leaders, like AT&T, to achieve more and, in turn, to deliver innovation and opportunity to their customers. Organizations in over 200 countries and territories can now connect their various devices directly to their own cloud network to securely manage and monitor them remotely, unlocking:

Direct connection to their own clouds bypassing the need for Wi-Fi.
Device connection in remote areas without Wi-Fi access.
Devices which are mobile without the need for disconnection and re-pairing to multiple Wi-Fi networks.

A new connectivity option for enterprises

Cellular connectivity is a great addition to the Wi-Fi connectivity option natively offered through Azure Sphere. Cellular presents a compelling opportunity for enterprise customers to solve real world business problems through data and insights.

For instance, retail organizations with embedded or franchised stores (such as convenience stores, fast food restaurants, coffee shops, located in grocery stores, airports, hospitals, or remote locations) with third-party owned Wi-Fi, are now able to simply retrofit a cellular guardian module with Azure Sphere to their equipment and connect securely and directly to their cloud environments to improve product quality and customer service and to reduce operating costs.

Delivering on the vision of securely connected devices and data

As enterprises set their sights on what can be achieved through innovation, the precautions organizations must take when connecting their essential equipment to the cloud are well warranted. If not secured adequately, infrastructure can become vulnerable to exploitation, leading to equipment being rendered useless or controlled for malicious purposes, data pollution or confidential information being compromised.

IoT attacks put organizations at risk and can be so disruptive that they jeopardize long-term business value and objectives. With fully supported network security from AT&T, and device level security from Azure Sphere, organizations can leverage the benefits of secured bi-directional data transfer between devices and any cloud. AT&T provides front-end security, including wireless network security, professional services, and support to the guardian device. Azure Sphere provides the back-end security, protecting the device or equipment connected to the guardian device. This combination empowers enterprises to protect their devices while transforming their business with connected experiences.

Streamlined and scalable connectivity​

AT&T’s extensive global network makes it possible for customers’ data to travel via cellular with fast activation out of the box. The cellular guardian device with Azure Sphere enables device connections in any market, with seamless and agile deployments. The AT&T Global SIM allows customers to utilize the same AT&T subscription across more than 200 countries and territories without the need to re-credential.

Azure Sphere’s mission is to empower every organization on the planet to connect and create secured and trustworthy IoT devices. Everything we do is organized around this mission. AT&T’s offer complements our mission; at its core, it’s designed to accelerate IoT transformation by delivering anywhere, anytime access to secured connectivity.

AT&T wants to make IoT easier for their customers. Mo Katibeh, EVP-Chief Product and Platform Officer, puts it nicely, “With the combined solutions from AT&T and Microsoft, we’re offering our customers the means to accelerate their innovation and business problem-solving – simply. This is about creating simple customer experiences that remove connectivity complexity. With cellular, devices just work without the customer having to do Wi-Fi pairing or managing issues with Wi-Fi networks that are not under their control.”

Organizations can streamline their IoT deployment process by leveraging the suite of AT&T’s professional services through the AT&T powered guardian device with Azure Sphere. Features include enhanced support, priority care and monitoring from a single provider, and simplified device connectivity process. By taking advantage of these services, organizations can scale their cellular connectivity deployment, ultimately reaching more end customers.

Get started today

AT&T has introduced a truly unique offering to the market by providing network security and services for a cellular guardian device. It’s exciting to see a network leader back their cellular guardian device with a commitment to security—AT&T is paving the way for customers to achieve more through scalable cellular-enabled IoT deployments.

Explore more about cellular connectivity with Azure Sphere and connect with this AT&T team to explore the opportunities the AT&T powered guardian device with Azure Sphere can bring to your business.

Azure. Invent with purpose.
Quelle: Azure

Build rich communication experiences at scale with Azure Communication Services

The global situation today has truly transformed how we communicate with each other. While we woke up one day and the world was different, business hasn’t stopped. Customers are still needing to connect with businesses. Whether it’s providing real-time virtual assistance or enabling curb side pickup we’ve had to rethink how we engage without physical interactions.

In this remote-first world, businesses are looking to quickly adapt to customers’ needs and connect with them through engaging communication experiences. Building new communication solutions or integrating them into existing applications can be complex and time-consuming. Often requiring considerable investment and specialized expertise. That’s why we’re excited to announce, Azure Communication Services, the first fully managed communication platform offering from a major cloud provider.

Azure Communication Services is built natively on top a global, reliable cloud—Azure. Businesses can confidently build and deploy on the same low latency global communication network used by Microsoft Teams to support over 5 billion meeting minutes in a single day. It also enables developers to easily tap into other Azure services, such as Azure Cognitive Services for translation, sentiment analysis and more. Additionally, companies benefit from all communications being encrypted to meet privacy and compliance needs, such as HIPAA and GDPR.

"One of our customers in the construction industry was looking for a solution that would give project managers more visibility and communication with people on site. Using Azure Communication Services we were able to get a proof of concept deployed in days vs. weeks, easily integrating voice, video and messaging for our customers in a secure way." -Erik Lagerway, Founder Snapsonic

Azure Communication Services makes it easy to add voice and video calling, chat, and SMS text message capabilities to mobile apps, desktop applications, and websites with just a few lines of code. While developer friendly APIs and SDKs make it easy to create personalized communication experiences quickly, without having to worry about complex integrations. These capabilities can be used on virtually any platform and device.

Azure Communication Services capabilities

One example of how we see Azure Communication Services come to life in this remote-first world is customer service. Imagine a maintenance or installation call right now. There’s a problem but a technician is unable to go to the customers’ home. While some problems can be addressed remotely, troubleshooting over the phone can be a challenge. There aren’t many tools, that are easy to use and deploy, which connect a service rep and end user over video especially built right into a company’s app or home page. With Azure Communication Services, integrating voice and video calling into a multichannel communication experience is simple.

Every day, we find a new challenge that changes customer, developer, and business needs. Our goal is to meet businesses where they are and provide solutions to help them be resilient and move their business forward in today’s market. We see rich communication experiences—enabled by voice, video, chat, and SMS—continuing to be an integral part in how businesses connect with their customers across devices and platforms. Azure Communication Services brings together the best of communication technology, development efficiency, cloud scale, and enterprise-grade security. So, businesses can start creating more meaningful customer interactions on a secure, global platform in days, not months.

Get started today:

Visit the Azure Communication Services website
Attend the Microsoft Ignite session on Azure Communication Services
See how it works in my Mechanics show with Jeremy Chapman
Try the APIs on GitHub

Azure. Invent with purpose.

Quelle: Azure

Microsoft’s newest sustainable datacenter region coming to Arizona in 2021

 

On our journey to become carbon negative by 2030, Microsoft is continually innovating and advancing the efficiency and sustainability of our cloud infrastructure, with a commitment to use 100 percent renewable energy in all of our datacenters and facilities by 2025. Today, we are taking a significant step toward that goal, revealing plans for our newest sustainable datacenter region in Arizona, which will become our West US 3 region.

 

Companies are not only digitally transforming their operations and products to become more sustainable—they’re also choosing partners with shared goals and values. In developing the new West US 3 region, we have water conservation and replenishment firmly in mind. Today, Microsoft announced an ambitious commitment to be water positive for our direct operations by 2030. We’re tackling our water consumption two ways: reducing our consumption and replenishing water in the regions we operate. Since we announced our plans to invest in solar energy in Arizona to build more sustainable datacenters last year, we have been working with the communities of El Mirage and Goodyear on water conservation, education and sustainability projects to support local priorities and needs.

 

 

Sustainable design delivering the full Microsoft cloud for global scale, security and reliability

Our datacenter design and operations will contribute to the sustainability of our Arizona facilities. In Arizona, we’re pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, which will help conserve additional resources including energy and water, generate less waste and support human health. We’re also committed to zero waste-certified operations for this new region, which means a minimum of 90 percent of waste will be diverted away from landfills through reduction, reuse and recycling efforts.

The new datacenter region will deliver enterprise-grade cloud services, all built on a foundation of trust:

Microsoft Azure, an ever-expanding set of cloud services that offers computing, networking, databases, analytics, AI and IoT services.
Microsoft 365, the world’s productivity cloud that delivers best-of-breed productivity apps integrated through cloud services and delivered as part of an open platform for business processes.
Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, the next generation of intelligent business applications that enable organizations to grow, evolve and transform to meet the needs of customers and capture new opportunities.
Compliance, security and privacy, Microsoft offers more than 90 certifications and spends $1 billion every year on cybersecurity to address security at every layer of the cloud.

To support customer needs for high-availability and resiliency in their applications, the new region will also include Availability Zones, which are unique physical locations of datacenters with independent power, network, and cooling for additional tolerance to datacenter failures.

Our construction partner Nox Innovations is helping build these sustainable datacenters with the help of Microsoft HoloLens 2, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Microsoft mixed reality partner solution VisualLive, to visualize building information modeling (BIM) data in the form of holograms and overlay the 3D assets in the context of the physical environment. VisualLive’s solution is powered by Azure Spatial Anchors, a new Azure mixed reality service that maps, persists and restores 3D experiences in the real-world, VisualLive’s solution. The hands-free and remote work environment enabled by HoloLens 2 and cloud services enables virtual collaboration that has led to greater efficiency, safety and accuracy.

Delivering renewable solar energy and replenishing water in Arizona

Our commitment in Arizona includes a sustainable datacenter design and operations as well as several local initiatives to support water conservation. First, Microsoft is collaborating with First Solar, an Arizona-headquartered global leader in solar energy, on their Sun Streams 2 photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant, which will offset the day one energy usage of the new campus, available in 2021, with solar energy once the facility is operational. Clean solar PV energy displaces the water needed in the traditional electricity generation process. First Solar’s lowest carbon solar PV technology does not require water to generate electricity and is ideally suited to meet the growing energy and water needs of arid, water-limited regions. By displacing conventional grid electricity in Arizona, First Solar’s Sun Streams 2 Project is expected to save 356 million liters of water annually.

Microsoft’s Arizona datacenters will use zero water for cooling for more than half the year, leveraging a method called adiabatic cooling, which uses outside air instead of water for cooling when temperatures are below 85 degrees Fahrenheit. When temperatures are above 85 degrees, an evaporative cooling system is used, which is similar to “swamp coolers” in residential homes. This system is highly efficient, using less electricity and a fraction of water used by other water-based cooling systems, such as cooling towers.

For the last year, we have also been investing in water conservation to have a longer-lasting impact on replenishing water in Arizona to sustain water levels in Lake Mead, with the goal of supporting the state to meet its Drought Contingency Plan Commitments. Microsoft’s investment in this project has also generated a one-to-one cash match from the Water Funder Initiative that will support the state’s efforts and further expand project impact. The project will benefit the Colorado River Indian Tribes, ultimately resulting in more water in Lake Mead and more efficient water infrastructure.

Lastly, Microsoft and Gila River Water Storage, LLC are recharging and replenishing groundwater levels in the Phoenix Active Management Area with long term storage credits dedicated to the cities of Goodyear and El Mirage to balance a portion of Microsoft’s future water use, contributing an estimated additional 610,000 cubic meters. Microsoft is also collaborating with The Nature Conservancy to support water conservation in the Verde River Basin, installing a new pipe in the leakiest part of the Eureka Ditch to increase resilience for local farmers.

Supporting local growth, opportunities in Arizona

Through our Datacenter Community Development initiative, we are actively engaged in El Mirage, Goodyear, and across Arizona to advance community priorities in education, workforce development and further community connection. These investments in local projects total more than $800,000 and employee volunteer time as well as community partnerships to clean up the Gila River, provide WiFi connectivity for 1,000 students across the Navajo Nation and support the expansion of Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) to serve 1,500+ middle school and high students across Arizona. In addition, Microsoft is collaborating with two Maricopa Community Colleges, including Estrella Mountain Community College in Avondale and Glendale Community College in Glendale, to develop workforce training that prepares workers for jobs in the IT sector, including work in Microsoft datacenters.

The new datacenter region and related work is expected to create over 100 permanent jobs across a variety of functions, including mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and datacenter technicians, when the facilities are fully operational, and more than 1,000 construction jobs over the initial building phases. Once the datacenters are operating, they’re expected to have an annual economic impact of approximately $20 million across communities in Arizona.
Quelle: Azure

Azure Container Instances – Docker integration now in Docker Desktop stable release

We’re happy to announce the new stable release of Docker Desktop includes the Azure Container Instances – Docker integration. Install or update to the latest release and get started deploying containers to Azure Container Instances (ACI) today.

Azure Docker integration

The Azure Docker integration enables you to deploy serverless containers to Azure Container Instances (ACI) using the same Docker Command-line (CLI) commands from local development. Use docker run to spin up a single-container or docker compose up to deploy multi-container applications defined with a Docker Compose file. You can also view logs, attach a shell, and perform other actions against the containers running in ACI, just as if those containers were running locally. In addition, you can now use Compose to attach Azure File Share volume mounts to your containers in either a local or ACI context.

With Azure Container Instances (ACI), you can run your dev/test or production containers in the cloud without needing to set up any infrastructure. ACI caters to developers who need to quickly run containers in the cloud with minimal operational overhead, therefore there is no infrastructure or platform management overhead. ACI integrates with other Azure services for your production workload needs, such as Azure File Share volumes to persist your data and Log Analytics for your monitoring needs. ACI has a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which means you will only be billed for CPU and memory while containers are running, and not one second more. 

Docker extension for Visual Studio Code

In addition to Docker releasing an update to Docker Desktop, Microsoft has released an update to our Docker extension for Visual Studio Code. With the new 1.6 release of the extension, you can now right-click on an image from Azure Container Registry (ACR) or Docker Hub and deploy it directly to Azure Container Instances (ACI).

As you can see in the following animation, the extension first prompts you to select an existing ACI context or create a new one. This context is then set as the active context, and the tools use the docker run command to spin up a container in ACI. Prior to running the container, the extension inspects the image to determine if any ports should be opened. This way your running container can be accessed by the port(s) expected.

This new feature is in addition to other Azure Container Instances (ACI) features we have added in past Docker extension releases. This latest release provides a complete toolset for creating, deploying, and diagnosing containers in ACI from within Visual Studio Code.

Try it today

If you haven’t already, be sure to download the Visual Studio Code Docker extension and the stable release of Docker Desktop and get started deploying containers to Azure Container Instances (ACI) using the Docker CLI or Visual Studio Code. A great way of getting started is to use the Azure Container Instances (ACI) quickstart. We encourage you to leave your comments below or submit an issue on the GitHub repo.
Quelle: Azure

Better outcomes with AI: Frost & Sullivan names Microsoft the leading AI platform for healthcare IT

In early 2020, Frost & Sullivan recognized Microsoft as the “undisputed leader” in global Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms for the Healthcare IT (HCIT) sector on the Frost Radar™. In a field of more than 200 global industry participants, Frost & Sullivan independently plotted the top 20 companies across various parameters indicative of growth and innovation, available for consumption here.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the global AI HCIT market is on a rapid growth trajectory, with sales of AI-enabled HCIT products expected to generate more than $34.83 billion globally by 2025. Government agencies will contribute almost 50.7 percent of the revenue (including public payers), followed by hospital providers (36.3 percent) and physician practices (13 percent). Clinical AI solutions will drive 40 percent of the market revenue, with financial AI solutions contributing the same, and the remaining 20 percent coming from sales of operational AI solutions. Globally, Microsoft earned the top spot because of its industry-leading effort to incorporate next-generation AI infrastructure to drive precision medicine workflows, aid population health analytics, propel evidence-based clinical research, and expedite drug and treatment discovery.

Figure 1: The Frost Radar, "Global AI for Healthcare IT Market", 2020

We’re seeing providers deploy chatbots in their virtual portals to extend 24/7, personalized care to patients, helping them triage a larger volume of inquiries and even extend care services to previously inaccessible remote areas. With the power of predictive analytics, care teams can predict patient volumes and provide preventative care to provide timely escalations of care and prevent unnecessary readmissions. AI has provided tools for scientists at the forefront of precision medicine, accelerating drug discovery, while aiding public health officials with modeling and predicting the progression of disease. In BioPharma and MedTech, AI is being used to provide real-time insights around equipment use for manufacturing R&D departments, while also deploying field technicians to service costly equipment via predictive maintenance and enabling healthcare customers to track inventory and medication across supply chains with greater transparency and agility.

The report cites numerous recent innovations from Microsoft, including the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare offering, announced in 2020. The Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare brings together trusted and integrated capabilities for customers and partners that enrich patient engagement and connects health teams to help improve collaboration, decision-making, and operational efficiencies. It makes it faster and easier to provide more efficient care and help ensure end-to-end security, compliance, and accessibility of health data.

At Microsoft, we are focused on trust and on empowering our healthcare customers—never monetizing customer or patient data. The Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare also offers an infrastructure built on industry leading scale, with over $15 billion invested in cloud infrastructure and over 1 million physical servers across over 60 global regions. Furthermore, Microsoft has the largest partner ecosystem in the market, with global partners equipped to work with health organizations of all sizes.

Healthcare AI at Microsoft

Microsoft’s growing portfolio of healthcare AI offerings also includes specific services such as:

The Microsoft Health Bot enables health organizations to build and deploy AI-powered, compliant conversational healthcare experiences. With built-in medical intelligence and natural language capabilities, and extensibility tools, the Health bot enables health organizations to build personalized and trusted conversational experiences across digital health portals. Customers such as Premera Blue Cross have leveraged the Microsoft Health Bot to create their own chatbot, Premera Scout, to help customers quickly obtain information on claims, benefits, and other services offered by Premera across their digital portals. In another instance, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) incorporated the Microsoft Healthcare Bot to add a COVID-19 Risk Assessment capability to their website, helping customers quickly find answers to common questions.
Text Analytics for Health is a feature of Azure Cognitive Services that helps health organizations process and extract insights from unstructured medical data (such as; doctor’s notes, medical publications, electronic health records, clinical trial protocols, and more). This enables researchers, analysts, and medical professionals to unlock scenarios based on entities in health data, such as matching patients to clinical trials and extracting insights from large bodies of clinical literature, as was the case when the University College London (UCL) leveraged Text Analytics for health to build a system that identifies relevant research for reviews as and when they are published.
Azure Cognitive Services offers easy-to-deploy AI tools for speech recognition, computer vision, and language understanding. Nuance, a leading provider of AI-powered clinical documentation and decision-making support for physicians, leveraged the Azure Cognitive Services platform to develop their Dragon Medical One platform, one of the leading services of Ambient Clinical Intelligence. The platform allows doctors to enter and search for relevant patient information in electronic health records, using dictation. This enables physicians to reduce time spent on administrative capabilities and redirect more time toward interacting with the patient. The platform can also mine a patient’s medical history with new reported symptoms at an appointment to provide recommendations of potential diagnoses for the doctor to consider.

Partners empowering healthcare AI

We’re also proud to see many of our healthcare partners recognized in the report, with whom we have partnered to design and build our portfolio of AI services and who, in turn, leverage our platforms to infuse AI in their solutions. These include, but are not limited to:

Nuance is partnering with Microsoft to deliver ambient clinical intelligence (ACI), paving the way for the exam room of the future. Take a look at our partner spotlight, Microsoft and Nuance partner to deliver ambient clinical intelligence.
GE Healthcare is developing advanced solutions for secure imaging and data exchange built on Azure.
Optum, the Health Services platform of UnitedHealth Group, joined forces with Microsoft to launch ProtectWell, a return-to-workplace protocol that enables employers to bring employees back to work in a safe environment. Leveraging clinical and data analytics capabilities, as well as the Microsoft Healthcare Bot service for AI-assisted Covid-19 triaging. Take a look at our partner spotlight, UnitedHealth Group and Microsoft join forces to launch ProtectWell.
Allscripts extended their long-term strategic alliance to harness the power of Microsoft’s platform to develop Sunrise, an integrated EHR that provides a clinician-friendly, evidenced-based platform with integrated analytics for delivering better health outcomes in hospitals. Connecting all aspects of care—including; acute, surgical, pharmacy, and laboratory services, to revenue and patient administration systems.
Philips is empowering providers through image-guided, minimally invasive therapies, bringing live imaging and other sources of data into 3D holographic environments controlled by physicians. Take a look at our partner spotlight, Microsoft HoloLens 2: Partner Spotlight with Philips.

We’re honored to have been recognized as a leader in the healthcare space and are proud to work with a growing ecosystem of partners and customers that are building the next generation of healthcare solutions. Together, we’re extending the reach of healthcare services, unlocking new clinical insights, and empowering care teams to drive better outcomes for the communities they serve. Innovation is a journey without end, and we’re committed to building the trusted tools and platforms to help healthcare organizations be future-ready and invent with purpose.

Next steps with Microsoft AI

To learn more about Microsoft AI offerings, explore the following resources:

Microsoft AI for Health page.
Learn more about the Azure AI platform.
Explore even more Azure for Health offerings, from IoT to Mixed Reality.
Read the latest updates on the Microsoft Healthcare blog.
Learn more about the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.

Quelle: Azure

NFS 4.1 support for Azure Files is now in preview

Azure Files is a distributed cloud file system serving file system SMB and REST protocols generally available since 2015. Customers love how Azure Files enables them to easily lift and shift their legacy workloads to the cloud without any modifications or changes in technology. SMB works great on both Windows and UNIX operating systems for most use cases. However, because some applications are written for POSIX compliant file systems, our customers wanted to have the same great experience on a fully POSIX compatible NFS file system. Today, it’s our pleasure to announce Azure Files support for NFS v4.1 protocol!

NFS 4.1 support for Azure Files will provide our users with a fully managed NFS file system as a service. This offer is built on a truly distributed resilient storage platform that serves Azure Blobs, Disks, and Queues, to name just a few components of Azure Storage. It is by nature highly available and highly durable. Azure Files also supports full file system access semantics such as strong consistency and advisory byte range locking, and can efficiently serve frequent in-place updates to your data.

Common use cases

Azure Files NFS v4.1 has a broad range of use cases. Most applications written for Linux file systems can run on NFS. Here is a subset of customer use cases we have seen during the limited preview:

Linux application storage:

Shared storage for applications like SAP, storage for images or videos, Internet of Things (IoT) signals, etc. In this context, one of our preview customers said:

“T-Systems is one of the leading SAP outsourcers. We were looking for a highly-performant, highly available, zone redundant Azure native solution to provide NFS file systems for our SAP landscape deployments. We were thrilled so see Azure Files exceeding our performance expectations. We also see a huge cost saving and a reduced complexity compared to other available cloud solutions.”  – Lars Micheel, Head of SAP Solution Delivery and CTO PU SAP.

End user storage:

Shared file storage for end user home directories and home directories for applications like Jupyter Notebooks. Also, some customers used it for lift-and-shift of datacenter NAS data to the cloud in order to reduce the on-premises footprint and expand to more geographic regions with agility. In this context, one of our preview customers said:

“Cloudera is well known for our machine learning capabilities, an industry analyst firm called us a “machine learning – machine” when they named us a leader in a recent report. We needed a high performance NFS file system to match our ML capabilities. Azure Files met all the requirements that Cloudera Machine Learning has for a real filesystem and outperformed all the alternatives. Because it is integrated with the Azure Storage stack, my expectation is that it’s going to be cheaper and far easier to manage than the alternatives as well.”  –  Sean Mackrory, Software Engineer, Cloudera

Container-based applications:

Persistent storage for Docker and Kubernetes environments. We are also launching the preview of CSI driver for Azure files Support for NFS today.

Databases:

Hosting Oracle databases and taking its backups using Recover Manager (RMAN). Azure Files premium tier was purpose-built for database kind of workloads with first parties taking dependencies on it.

Management

You get the same familiar share management experience on Azure Files through Azure portal, PowerShell, and CLI:

Create NFS file share with a few clicks in Azure portal

Security

Azure Files uses AES 256 for encryption at rest. You also have the option to encrypt all of your data using the keys that you own, managed by the Azure Key Vault. Your share can be accessed from within a region, from another region, or from on-premises by configuring secure virtual networks to allow NFS traffic privately between your volume and destination. Data coming to NFS shares has to emerge from a trusted VNet. All access to the NFS share is denied by default unless access is explicitly granted by configuring right network security rules.

Performance

The NFS protocol is available on Azure Files premium tier. Your performance will scale linearly with the provisioned capacity. You can get up to 100K IOPS and 80 Gibps throughput on a single 100 TiB volume.

Backup

Backing up your data on NFS shares can either be orchestrated using familiar tooling like rsync or products from one of our third-party backup partners. Multiple backup partners including Commvault, Veeam, and Veritas were part of our initial preview and have extended their solutions to work with both SMB 3.0 and NFS 4.1 for Azure Files.

Migration

For data migration, you can use standard tools like scp, rsync, or rsync. Because file storage can be accessed from multiple compute instances concurrently, you can improve copying speeds with parallel uploads. If you want to migrate data from outside of a region, use VNet peering, VPN or an ExpressRoute to connect to your file system from another Azure region or your on-premises data center.

Pricing

This offer will be charged based on premier tier pricing. You can provision shares as small as 100GiB and increase your capacity in 1GiB increments. See premium tier pricing on Azure Files pricing page.

Get started

NFS 4.1 support for Azure Files is in a select set of regions today and we will continually add more regions to this list in coming weeks. Get started today by following these simple step-by-step instructions!

Next steps

We would love to hear your feedback as we continue to heavily invest in adding more features and improving the performance of the NFS v 4.1 offer. For direct feedback and inquiries, please email us at: azurefilesnfs@microsoft.com
Quelle: Azure

Azure NetApp Files cross region replication and new enhancements in preview

As businesses continue to adapt to the realities of the current environment, operational resilience has never been more important. As a result, a growing number of customers have accelerated a move to the cloud, using Microsoft Azure NetApp Files to power critical pieces of their IT infrastructure, like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, SAP applications, and mission-critical databases.

Today, we release the preview of Azure NetApp Files cross region replication. With this new disaster recovery capability, you can replicate your Azure NetApp Files volumes from one Azure region to another in a fast and cost-effective way, protecting your data from unforeseeable regional failures. We’re also introducing important new enhancements to Azure NetApp Files to provide you with more data security, operational agility, and cost-saving flexibility.

Azure NetApp Files cross region replication

Azure NetApp Files cross region replication leverages NetApp SnapMirror® technology therefore, only changed blocks are sent over the network in a compressed, efficient format. This proprietary technology minimizes the amount of data required to replicate across the regions, therefore saving data transfer costs. It also shortens the replication time so you can achieve a smaller Restore Point Objective (RPO).

Over the next few months of Azure NetApp Files cross region replication preview you can expect:

Multiple replication frequency options: you can replicate an Azure NetApp Files, NFS, or SMB volume across regions with replication frequency choice of every 10 minutes, every hour, or once a day.
Read from secondary: you can read from the secondary volume during active replication.
Failover on-demand: you can failover to the secondary volume at a time of your choice. After a failover, you can also resynchronize the primary volume from the secondary volume at a time of your choice.
Monitoring and alerting: you can monitor the health of volume replication and the health of the secondary volume through Azure NetApp Files metrics and receive alerts through Azure Monitor.
Automation: you can automate the configuration and management of Azure NetApp Files volume replication through standard Azure Rest API, SDKs, command-line tools, and ARM templates.

Supported region pairs

Azure NetApp Files cross region replication is available in popular regions from US, Canada, AMEA, and Asia at the start of public preview. Azure NetApp Files documentation will keep you up-to-date with the latest supported region pairs.

Getting started

Join the preview waitlist now. Once your subscription is enabled for the preview, you can find the feature from the portal (Figure 1) and within a few clicks, you'll be able to configure your first Azure NetApp Files cross region replication (Figure 2).

Figure 1: You can add cross region replication by selecting "Add data replication" from Azure NetApp Files volume management view.

Figure 2: Cross region replication is successfully configured for an Azure NetApp Files volume.

Learn more about Azure NetApp Files cross region replication through the Azure NetApp Files documentation.

Learn more about our pricing

During preview, Azure NetApp Files cross region replication will be offered at full price. Pricing information will be available on the Azure NetApp Files pricing page. You can learn more about the Azure NetApp Files cross region replication cost model through the Azure NetApp Files documentation.

Volume snapshot policy

Azure NetApp Files allows you to create point-in-time snapshots of your volumes. Starting now, you can create a snapshot policy to have Azure NetApp Files automatically create volume snapshots at a frequency of your choice. You can schedule the snapshots to be taken in hourly, daily, weekly or monthly cycles. You can also specify the maximum number of snapshots to keep as part of the snapshot policy. This feature is free of charge (normal Azure NetApp Files storage cost still applies) and is currently in preview. You can register for the feature preview by following the volume snapshot policy documentation.

Dynamic volume tier change

Cloud promises flexibility in IT spending. You can now change the service level of an existing Azure NetApp Files volume by moving the volume to another capacity pool that uses the service level you want for the volume. This in-place service-level change for the volume does not require that you migrate data. It also does not impact the data plane access to the volume. You can change an existing volume to use a higher service level for better performance, or to use a lower service level for cost optimization. This feature is free of charge (normal Azure NetApp Files storage cost still applies) and is currently in public preview. You can register for the feature preview by following the dynamic volume tier change documentation.

Simultaneous dual-protocol (NFS v3 and SMB) access

You can now create an Azure NetApp Files volume that allows simultaneous dual-protocol (NFS v3 and SMB) access with support for LDAP user mapping. This feature enables use cases where you may have a Linux-based workload that generates and stores data in an Azure NetApp Files volume. At the same time, your staff needs to use Windows-based clients and software to analyze the newly generated data from the same Azure NetApp Files volume. The simultaneous dual-protocol access feature removes the need to copy the workload-generated data to a separate volume with a different protocol for post-analysis, saving storage cost, and operational time. This feature is free of charge (normal Azure NetApp Files storage cost still applies) and is generally available. Learn more from the simultaneous dual-protocol access documentation.

NFS v4.1 Kerberos encryption in transit

Azure NetApp Files now supports NFS client encryption in Kerberos modes (krb5, krb5i, and krb5p) with AES-256 encryption, providing you with additional data security. This feature is free of charge (normal Azure NetApp Files storage cost still applies) and is generally available. Learn more from the NFS v4.1 Kerberos encryption documentation.

Azure Government regions

Lastly, we’re pleased to announce the general availability of Azure NetApp Files in Azure Government regions, starting with US Gov Virginia, and soon in US Gov Texas, and US Gov Arizona. Take a look at the latest Azure NetApp Files regional availability and region roadmap.

Get it, use it, and tell us about it

As with other previews, the public preview features should not be used for production workloads until they reach general availability.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on these new capabilities. You can email us feedback at ANFFeedback@microsoft.com. As always, we love to hear all of your ideas and suggestions about Azure NetApp Files, which you can post at Azure NetApp Files feedback forum.
Quelle: Azure