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Introducing Azure Bastion Developer: Secure and cost-effective access to your Azure Virtual Machines

Microsoft Azure is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its growing user base. In response to the feedback and requirements of developers, we have announced a new SKU for Azure Bastion: Bastion Developer. This service, now in public preview, will be a game-changer for developers seeking secure, cost-effective, and hassle-free connectivity to their Azure Virtual Machines. In this blog post, we’ll explore what Azure Bastion Developer is, the problems this new SKU addresses, and why it’s a must-try solution for developers.

What is Azure Bastion Developer?

Azure Bastion Developer is a new low-cost, zero-configuration, always-on SKU of the Azure Bastion service. Its primary mission is to provide secure-by-default Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell (SSH) access to Azure Virtual Machines, allowing users to establish secure connections to a single Virtual Machine at a time without the need for additional network configurations or public IP addresses on Virtual Machines. This service is designed to simplify and enhance the process of accessing your Azure Virtual Machines by eliminating the complexities, high costs, and security concerns often associated with alternative methods.

Addressing developer pain points

Azure Bastion Developer has been developed with the aim of addressing three common issues that developers encounter when connecting to Azure Virtual Machines:

1. Discovery

When developers create standalone Virtual Machines, they may not actively seek out Azure Bastion, and it might not be readily apparent during the Virtual Machine creation process. While IT professionals are familiar with the concept of a bastion host or jump-box server, the average Azure user may not be. This could lead to the use of less secure public IP-based access methods. Azure Bastion Developer solves this problem by providing secure and seamless access directly in the Virtual Machine blade. In the coming months, Bastion Developer will populate as the recommended connectivity option in the Virtual Machine connect experience for available regions.

2. Usability

Setting up Azure Bastion has traditionally required users to deploy a new resource and follow a series of configuration steps, including the creation of a dedicated subnet. While these steps might be manageable for technically savvy users, they can be complex and time-consuming for many. Azure Bastion Developer simplifies the process by offering an easy-to-use, zero-configuration solution. Users can opt-in to use it during Virtual Machine connection, making secure access a breeze.

3. Cost

Azure Bastion Basic, while a powerful tool, may be a potentially expensive choice for developers who spend a few hundred dollars or less in Azure each month, leading them to connect with less secure public IP based options. Azure Bastion Developer addresses this concern by providing an option that comes at a more affordable price point than public IP. This cost-effective pricing will make Azure Bastion Developer the default private connectivity option in Azure, enabling developers to enjoy secure access without breaking the bank. The public preview of Bastion Developer will be free with more details on pricing when generally available.

Connectivity Options with Azure Bastion Developer

Portal-based access (public preview). Bastion Developer will offer support for RDP connections for Windows Virtual Machines and SSH connections for Linux Virtual Machines in the Azure portal.

Native client-based access for SSH (roadmap). Bastion Developer will offer support for SSH connections for Linux Virtual Machines via Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) in the coming months.

Feature comparison of Azure Bastion offerings

Bastion Developer will be a lightweight SKU of the Bastion service, allowing a single connection per user directly through the Virtual Machines connect experience. Bastion Developer is ideal for Dev/Test users who want to securely connect to their Virtual Machines without the need for additional features or scaling. The feature matrix below outlines the differences between Bastion Developer and Bastion Basic and Standard SKUs.

FeaturesDeveloperBasicStandardPrivate connectivity to Virtual MachinesYesYesYesDedicated host agentNoYesYesSupport for multiple connections per userNoYesYesLinux Virtual Machine private key in AKVNoYesYesSupport for Network Security GroupsNoYesYesAudit loggingNoYesYesKerberos supportNoYesYesVNET peering supportNoYesYesHost scaling (2-50 instances)NoNoYesCustom port and protocolNoNoYesNative SSH support via Azure CLIRoadmapRoadmapYesNative RDP support via Azure CLINoNoYesAzure Active Directory login for RDP/SSH via native clientNoNoYesIP-based connectionNoNoYesShareable linksNoNoYes

How to get started

We invite you to preview Azure Bastion Developer in your cloud environment.

Navigate to the Azure portal.

Deploy a Windows or Linux Virtual Machine in one of the regions below. Note that Bastion Developer is currently only available in the following regions:

Central United States EUAP

East United States 2 EUAP

West Central United States

North Central United States

West United States

North Europe

Navigate to the Bastion tab in the Virtual Machine blade and click Deploy Bastion Developer. (Bastion Basic and Standard deployments will be moved under “Dedicated Deployment Options”).

Once your Bastion Developer resource is deployed, enter your Virtual Machine username and password and select Connect to securely connect to your Virtual Machine in the browser.

Learn to configure Bastion Developer.

Learn more about Azure Bastion Developer

Azure Bastion Developer is a groundbreaking solution that simplifies secure access to Virtual Machines for developers. By addressing the common issues of discovery, usability, and cost, Microsoft Azure is once again demonstrating its commitment to user satisfaction and innovation. With Azure Bastion Developer, you can enjoy secure-by-default access to your Azure Virtual Machines without the complexity and high costs associated with traditional solutions. Try it out today and experience a new level of convenience and security in your Azure development workflow.
The post Introducing Azure Bastion Developer: Secure and cost-effective access to your Azure Virtual Machines appeared first on Azure Blog.
Quelle: Azure

What’s new in Data & AI: Prioritize AI safety to scale with confidence

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to speak to some of our partners about what we’re bringing to market with Azure AI. It was a fast-paced hour and the session was nearly done when someone raised their hand and acknowledged that there was no questioning the business value and opportunities ahead—but what they really wanted to hear more about was Responsible AI and AI safety.

This stays with me because it shows how top of mind this is as we move further in the era of AI with the launch of powerful tools that advance humankind’s critical thinking and creative expression. That partner question reminded me of the importance that AI systems are responsible by design. This means the development and deployment of AI must be guided by a responsible framework from the very beginning. It can’t be an afterthought.

Our investment in responsible AI innovation goes beyond principles, beliefs, and best practices. We also invest heavily in purpose-built tools that support responsible AI across our products. Through Azure AI tooling, we can help scientists and developers alike build, evaluate, deploy, and monitor their applications for responsible AI outcomes like fairness, privacy, and explainability. We know what a privilege it is for customers to place their trust in Microsoft.

Brad Smith authored a blog about this transformative moment we find ourselves in as AI models continue to advance. In it, he shared about Microsoft’s investments and journey as a company to build a responsible AI foundation. This began in earnest with the creation of AI principles in 2018 built on a foundation of transparency and accountability. We quickly realized principles are essential, but they aren’t self-executing. A colleague described it best by saying “principles don’t write code.” This is why we operationalize those principles with tools and best practices and help our customers do the same. In 2022, we shared our internal playbook for responsible AI development, our Responsible AI Standard, to invite public feedback and provide a framework that could help others get started.

I’m proud of the work Microsoft has done in this space. As the landscape of AI evolves rapidly and new technologies emerge, safe and responsible AI will continue to be a top priority. To echo Brad, we’ll approach whatever comes next with humility, listening, and sharing our learning along the way.

In fact, our recent commitment to customers for our first-party copilots is a direct reflection of that. Microsoft will stand behind our customers from a legal perspective if copyright infringement lawsuits are brought forward from using our Copilot, putting that commitment to responsible AI innovation into action.

In this month’s blog, I’ll focus on a few things. How we’re helping customers operationalize responsible AI with purpose-built tools. A few products and updates are designed to empower our customers with confidence so they can innovate safely with our trusted platform. I’ll also share the latest on what we’re delivering for organizations to prepare their data estates to go forward and succeed in the era of AI. Finally, I’ll highlight some fresh stories of organizations putting Azure to work. Let’s dive in!

Availability of Azure AI Content Safety delivers better online experiences

One of my favorite innovations that reflects the constant collaboration between research, policy, and engineering teams at Microsoft is Azure AI Content Safety. This month we announced the availability of Azure AI Content Safety, a state-of-the-art AI system to help keep user-generated and AI-generated content safe, ultimately creating better online experiences for everyone.

The blog shares the story of how South Australia’s Department of Education is using this solution to protect students from harmful or inappropriate content with their new, AI-powered chatbot, EdChat. The chatbot has safety features built in to block inappropriate queries and harmful responses, allowing teachers to focus on the educational benefits rather than control oversight. It’s fantastic to see this solution at work helping create safer online environments!

As organizations look to deepen their generative AI investments, many are concerned about trust, data privacy, and the safety and security of AI models and systems. That’s where Azure AI can help. With Azure AI, organizations can build the next generation of AI applications safely by seamlessly integrating responsible AI tools and practices developed through years of AI research, policy, and engineering.

All of this is built on Azure’s enterprise-grade foundation for data privacy, security, and compliance, so organizations can confidently scale AI while managing risk and reinforcing transparency. Microsoft even relies on Azure AI Content Safety to help protect users of our own AI-powered products. It’s the same technology helping us responsibly release large language models-based experiences in products like GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot, and Azure OpenAI Service, which all have safety systems built in.

New model availability and fine-tuning for Azure OpenAI Service models

This month, we shared two new base inference models (Babbage-002 and Davinci-002) that are now generally available, and fine-tuning capabilities for three models (Babbage-002, Davinci-002, and GPT-3.5-Turbo) are in public preview. Fine-tuning is one of the methods available to developers and data scientists who want to customize large language models for specific tasks.

Since we launched Azure OpenAI, it’s been amazing to see the power of generative AI applied to new applications! Now it’s possible to customize your favorite OpenAI models for completion use cases using the latest base inference models to solve your specific challenges and easily and securely deploy those new custom models on Azure.

One way that developers and data scientists can adapt large language models for specific tasks is fine tuning. Unlike methods like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and prompt engineering that work by adding information and instructions to prompts, fine tuning works by modifying the large language model itself.

With Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Machine Learning, you can use Supervised Fine Tuning, which lets you provide custom data (prompt/completion or conversational chat, depending on the model) to teach new skills to the base model.

We suggest companies begin with prompt engineering or RAG to set up a baseline before they embark on fine-tuning—it’s the quickest way to get started, and we make it simple with tools like Prompt Flow or On Your Data. By starting with prompt engineering and RAG, developers establish a baseline to compare against, so your effort is not wasted.

Recent news from Azure Data and AI

We’re constantly rolling out new solutions to help customers maximize their data and successfully put AI to work for their businesses. Here are some product announcements from the past month:

Public Preview of the new Synapse Data Science experience in Microsoft Fabric. We plan to release even more new experiences going forward to help you build data science solutions as part of your analytics workflows.

Azure Cache for Redis recently introduced Vector Similarity Search, which enables developers to build generative AI based applications using Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise as a robust and high-performance vector database. From there, you can use Azure AI Content Safety to verify and filter out any results to help ensure safer content for users.

Data Activator is now in public preview for all Microsoft Fabric users. This Fabric experience lets you drive automatic alerts and actions from your Fabric data, eliminating the need for constant manual monitoring of dashboards.

Limitless innovation with Azure Data and AI

Customers and partners are experiencing the transformative power of AI

One of my favorite parts of this job is getting to see how businesses are using our data and AI solutions to solve business challenges and real-world problems. Seeing an idea go from a pure possibility to real world solution never gets old.

With the AI safety tools and principles we’ve infused into Azure AI, businesses can move forward with confidence that whatever they build is done safely and responsibly. This means the innovation potential for any organization is truly limitless. Here are a few recent stories showing what’s possible.

For any pet parents out there, the MetLife Pet app offers a one-stop shop for all your pet’s medical care needs, including records and a digital library full of care information. The app uses Azure AI services to apply advanced machine learning to automatically extract key text from documents making it easier than ever to access your pet’s health information.

HEINEKEN has begun using Azure OpenAI Service, built-in ChatGPT capabilities, and other Azure AI services to build chatbots for employees and to improve their existing business processes. Employees are excited about its potential and are even suggesting new use cases that the company plans to roll out over time.

Consultants at Arthur D. Little turned to Azure AI to build an internal, gen AI powered solution to search across vast amounts of complex document formats. Using natural language processing from Azure AI Language and Azure OpenAI Service, along with Azure Cognitive Search’s advanced information retrieval technology, the firm can now transform difficult document formats. For example, this means 100-plus slide PowerPoint decks with fragmented text and images, are immediately making them human readable and searchable.

SWM is the municipal utility company serving Munich, Germany—and it relies on Azure IoT, AI, and big data analysis to drive every aspect of the city’s energy, heating, and mobility transition forward more sustainably. The scalability of the Azure cloud platform removes all limits when it comes to using big data.

Generative AI has quickly become a powerful tool for businesses to streamline tasks and enhance productivity. Check out this recent story of five Microsoft partners—Commerce. AI, Datadog, Modern Requirements, Atera, and SymphonyAI—powering their own customers’ transformations using generative AI. Microsoft’s layered approach for these generative models is guided by our AI Principles to help ensure organizations build responsibly and comply with the Azure OpenAI Code of Conduct.

Opportunities to enhance your AI skills and expertise

New learning paths for business decision makers are available from the Azure Skilling team for you to hone your skills with Microsoft’s AI technologies and ensure you’re ahead of the curve as AI reshapes the business landscape. We’re also helping leaders from the Healthcare and Financial Services industries learn more about how to apply AI in their everyday work. Check out the new learning material on knowledge mining and developing generative AI solutions with Azure OpenAI Service.

The Azure AI and Azure Cosmos DB University Hackathon kicked off this month. The hackathon is a call to students worldwide to reimagine the future of education using Azure AI and Azure Databases. Read the blog post to learn more and register.

If you’re already using generative AI and want to learn more—or if you haven’t yet and are not sure where to start—I have a new resource for you. Here are 25 tips to help you unlock the potential of generative AI through better prompts. These tips help specify your input and yield more accurate and relevant results from language models like ChatGPT.

Just like in real life, HOW you ask for something can limit what you get in response so the inputs are important to get right. Whether you’re conducting market research, sourcing ideas for your child’s Halloween costume, or (my personal favorite) creating marketing narratives, these prompt tips will help you get better results.

Embrace the future of data and AI with upcoming events

PASS Data Community Summit 2023 is just around the corner, from November 14, 2023, through November 17, 2023. This is an opportunity to connect, share, and learn with your peers and industry thought leaders—and to celebrate all things data! The full schedule is now live so you can register and start planning your Summit week.

I hope you’ll join us for Microsoft Ignite 2023, which is also next month, November 14, 2023, through November 17, 2023. If you’re not headed to Seattle, be sure to register for the virtual experience. There’s so much in store for you to experience AI transformation in action!
The post What’s new in Data & AI: Prioritize AI safety to scale with confidence appeared first on Azure Blog.
Quelle: Azure

Protect your web apps from modern threats with Microsoft Defender for Cloud

This blog was co-written with Loren Lachapelle, Dotan Patrich, and Assaf Berenson. 

In this era of AI-driven competition, enterprises of all sizes have prioritized the value of migrating their app development from on-premises to the cloud. As developers rapidly publish new cloud applications, bad actors are equally relentless in seeking new ways to exploit misconfigured resources. One question that comes up for enterprise cloud architects is, how can you best protect your cloud deployments from attacks? More importantly, how do you incorporate security practices for cloud systems that may be different from on-premises systems and different between cloud service providers?

That’s where the power of a managed platform as a service (PaaS) with integrated cloud security comes in. Azure App Service provides native security integration with Defender for App Service in Microsoft Defender for Cloud to help protect multicloud and hybrid environments with comprehensive security across the full lifecycle, from development to runtime. In this blog, we will explore another well-kept secret: how seamless and worry-free it can be to safeguard your web applications using the integration with Defender for App Service.

Native security integration with a Zero Trust approach 

Defender for App Service is a Microsoft first-party solution that uses the scale of the cloud to identify attacks targeting applications running in Azure App Service, providing more robust security when you migrate from your on-premises web apps. With this migration to App Service, you receive automatic platform maintenance and security patching so you’re always running the latest versions of the operating system, language frameworks, and runtime software.  

By enabling Defender for App Service, you get an extra layer of protection for your App Service plan that assesses the resources and generates security recommendations based on its findings. Since it seamlessly integrates with Azure App Service, it minimizes the need for deployment and onboarding overhead on your end and requires no alterations to your apps to detect threats.  

Attackers routinely probe web applications to find and exploit weaknesses. Before being routed to specific environments, requests to applications running in Azure go through several gateways, where they’re inspected and logged. Our Zero Trust approach collects signals from your organization’s cloud app usage without any reconfiguration, with Azure Web Application Firewall optionally safeguarding data transmission between your environment and these applications. Defender for App Service then works to detect harmful exploits and malicious behavioral patterns in web apps and web app runtime activity. 

You can use the detailed instructions in these recommendations to harden your App Service resources, meaning your team will also have complete behind-the-scenes visibility into potential threats and misconfiguration. With Defender for App Service integrated with your Azure App Service deployment and managed by Microsoft, your web apps are assured of the latest security protection without necessarily requiring you to first become a hands-on Zero Trust expert.

Enhanced detection and response capabilities at scale 

Security in the cloud provides scalable defenses that are constantly updated and expertly managed. By enabling Defender for App Service in Defender for Cloud, you can implement robust security practices early in the software development process, secure code management environments, and gain valuable insights into your development environment’s security posture.  

Defender for Cloud provides a centralized view of security alerts across all your Azure resources, including App Service. It generates cloud-centric security recommendations after assessing these resources, based on the Microsoft cloud security benchmark. You can then use the detailed instructions in these recommendations to harden your App Service resources. 

Our customers have found that using security benchmarks can help you quickly secure cloud deployments. A comprehensive security best practice framework from cloud service providers can give you a starting point for selecting specific security configuration settings in your cloud environment, across multiple service providers and allow you to monitor these configurations using a single pane of glass.  

These recommendations include two key aspects: 

Security controls: These recommendations are generally applicable across your cloud workloads. Each recommendation identifies a list of stakeholders that are typically involved in the planning, approval, or implementation of the benchmark. 

Service baselines: These apply the controls to individual cloud services to provide recommendations on that specific service’s security configuration.  

Defender for App Service provides tools to help you investigate and respond to security incidents, and because it is natively integrated with Azure App Service, it’s easy to enable with just a few clicks. By utilizing the two services together, Your IT team will be able to quickly identify and fix the root cause of an attack, so that your apps can be brought back online as quickly as possible. 

A playbook for staying ahead of digital threats 

Defender for App Service maps threats according to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a comprehensive list of ways that cyber attackers can try to break into and exploit computer systems. The framework helps cybersecurity experts understand and defend against these attacks by giving them a clear idea of what tactics and techniques bad actors might use.  

Defender for Cloud can also detect ongoing attacks, even if it is deployed after a web app has been exploited. This is because it can analyze log data and infrastructure data together to identify suspicious activity, such as new attacks circulating in the wild or compromises in customer applications. 

In addition, Defender for App Service also partners with the Microsoft Threat Intelligence community to incorporate the expertise of our extended team of security professionals to detect threats. 

Improve the security posture of your web apps running on App Service 

Migrating apps to Azure App Service can help improve security posture in several ways. To recap some of the benefits: 

A secure and hardened platform: Actively monitored and updated by Microsoft, you don’t have to worry about managing the underlying infrastructure, network, or software components. 

HTTPS and TLS encryption: Supported for all communication, both inbound and outbound. You can also enforce HTTPS and disable outdated protocols to prevent unencrypted or insecure connections. 

Restricted app access based on IP addresses, client certificates, or user identities: You can also use the App Service authentication feature to integrate with various identity providers, such as Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), Facebook, Google, or OpenID Connect providers. 

Managed identities: Securely access other Azure resources, such as SQL Database or Storage, without storing any secrets in your code or configuration files. You can also store sensitive app settings and connection strings as secrets in Azure Key Vault, and then monitor your Key Vault using Defender for Key Vault. 

Integrated with additional security products: App Service works with industry-leading features and tools that can help you detect and mitigate threats, such as web application firewall (WAF), Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and Azure Sentinel. 

Enable Defender for App Service in your App Service plan today 

Defender for App Service provides continuous security assessment and recommendations to help you harden your Azure App Service resources and improve your secure score. It detects and alerts you of various attacks, such as user-agent injection, web shell activity, and dangling DNS. You can also view the attack details and mitigation steps in the Azure portal or use Azure Sentinel to investigate and respond to incidents. 

Since Defender for App Service is natively integrated with App Service, you don’t have to install or configure anything. Simply enable it on your App Service subscription and refer to the pricing options to customize your plan.

Discover more of Defender for Cloud’s product portfolio by visiting our homepage.  

New to Azure App Service? Learn more about the features and benefits and try Azure for free. Visit product documentation to learn more about protecting your web applications with Microsoft Defender for Cloud.   
The post Protect your web apps from modern threats with Microsoft Defender for Cloud appeared first on Azure Blog.
Quelle: Azure

Realize the full potential of your cloud investment with Azure optimization

The advantages of the cloud are widely recognized, including enhanced scalability, growth opportunities, and innovation potential. These all hold significant value for most businesses. However, what might be less clear are the optimal strategies and resources that allow you to confidently operate in the cloud while prioritizing long-term efficiency and productivity. That’s why we’re dedicated to helping our customers improve their Azure workloads with resources, tools, and guidance promoting optimization of their cloud investment.

At Microsoft, we understand that customers strive to improve workload reliability and security and optimize their cloud spend so they can accelerate business innovation without worrying about workload vulnerabilities or ballooning cloud costs. We want to help you foster a cycle of continual improvement of your Microsoft Azure workloads and realize the cost benefits of the cloud. Once the key elements of Azure optimization are in place, customers are able to consistently extract maximum value from their cloud investment.

Improve workload reliability and security

Your company can accelerate development in the cloud by leveraging a comprehensive set of guidance that helps you design reliable and secure workloads. The Azure Well-Architected Framework empowers organizations to seamlessly construct, design, and implement cloud deployments that are optimized for security, reliability, performance, sustainability, and cost-efficiency. Importantly, the Well-Architected Framework includes guidance to help you understand the security and reliability tradeoffs associated with cost optimization and reduce unnecessary expenses.

In tandem, the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure provides clear directions for creating and deploying cloud environments that are precisely tailored to meet specific business needs while adhering to best practices. To ensure the seamless operation of these cloud environments and workloads, organizations can establish a Cloud Center of Excellence, facilitating effective management and governance.  

These two frameworks also include documentation specific to hybrid or multi-cloud environments so you can integrate reliability and security anywhere you run Azure workloads. The Cloud Adoption Framework hybrid scenario provides comprehensive guidance for organizations to accelerate cloud adoption, and hybrid Azure Well-Architected guidance helps reduce workload complexity.

Manage cloud spend and optimize costs

Adhering to FinOps best practices can be critical for helping your business manage cloud spend and optimize costs to improve efficiency of cloud operations. FinOps is a framework that establishes a cross-functional team that includes finance, IT, engineers, and business leaders to create a culture of financial accountability where everyone takes ownership of their cloud usage. This collaboration increases visibility into your cloud investment to all levels of the organization, while minimizing costs and maintaining accountability.

Strategically managing your cloud spend can produce long-term gains in efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness. Azure’s optimization products and tools can effectively manage your organization’s cloud expenses and enhance cost optimization through a range of strategic measures. These include taking advantage of various pricing and licensing options, such as the Azure Hybrid Benefit, Azure savings plan, and Azure Reservations, all of which can contribute to reducing the cost of operating in the cloud.

Additionally, Microsoft Cost Management is available to every customer with an Azure subscription and allows organizations to closely monitor, allocate, and optimize cloud expenditures. Earlier this year, we introduced the GPT-powered AI chat capability for Microsoft Cost Management. This feature, currently in preview, makes it even easier to optimize your cloud costs. Further cost optimization insights can be gained through Azure Advisor, another free tool which offers personalized recommendations to optimize cloud resource usage and costs.

For a proactive approach to cost management, the Azure Pricing Calculator and Azure Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator empower businesses to comprehend projected cloud costs prior to deployment, aiding in informed decision-making.

Achieve continuous improvement in the cloud

Once you’ve deployed Azure workloads, we recommend several things to improve workloads and ensure lasting improvement. Aligned to the Well-Architected Framework, Azure Advisor analyzes your workloads, identifies opportunities for optimization, and monitors progress effectively.

Another tool to identify and recommend workload improvement is the Well-Architected Review, an assessment that provides curated and personalized recommendations to guide identified remediations. Azure services recommendations is directly accessible in the portal and is a helpful tool when deploying new services.

Furthermore, you can align your growth trajectory with your business objectives by leveraging proactive services provided by Microsoft Unified. With Microsoft Unified, you can get scenario-specific support services that help you maintain, onboard, and optimize your Azure solution with prescriptive and tailored guidance. It also includes access to experts that proactively help tailor Azure solutions to meet your unique needs.

Optimize your cloud investment and accelerate innovation

The convergence of optimized workloads and effective cost management forms the bedrock of successful cloud adoption. Once you can consistently and confidently design, build, and manage optimized workloads, then you should start thinking about your future business priorities. At that point, you’ll be able to consider how to reallocate cloud spend toward modernization or new business innovation. We call this “an optimization mindset”, and it is what enables future cloud success.

Depending on where you are in your cloud journey, these next steps can help you start optimizing your Azure investment.

If you’re considering adopting Azure, Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate are new offerings that provides access to centralized, comprehensive resources with optimization guidance built in, access to experts, and opportunities for partner funding. These offerings support you at every stage of your cloud journey from migration to innovating with AI.

If you want to optimize your existing Azure workloads, start by using Azure Advisor and the Well-Architected Review.

Keep in mind that no one is expecting you to do this on your own. To help with the decisions and tradeoffs that will arise, we always recommend using the expertise of a Microsoft partner, reaching out to a Microsoft consultant, or engaging with your Unified Support account manager about services for optimization.  

Visit the Azure Optimization Collection to explore a range of optimization tools and resources, and discover training opportunities to support your optimization journey.
The post Realize the full potential of your cloud investment with Azure optimization appeared first on Azure Blog.
Quelle: Azure