Monitoring applications and infrastructure on Microsoft Azure

Microsoft's cloud service, Azure, provides a plethora of services to choose from when it comes to running your solutions on the cloud. By now, most of us are aware of the PaaS, IaaS and SaaS variances. The image below provides a good summary, in case you're new to this. The trick with the cloud is how to choose the right service or combination of services to make your solution as flexible, scalable and performant as possible while cutting down on costs. However, if there's one thing you need to be careful about is that you should avoid the "lift …[read more]

Exploring the Azure CLI 2.0 with Windows Subsystem for Linux

The new Azure CLI 2.0 was released a few weeks ago so it was time for me to upgrade and take it for a spin. I [blogged](GHOST_URL/install-and-run-the-azure-cli-on-the-windows-subsystem-for-linux-wsfl" target="_blank) a while ago on how to install the "old" CLI which was based on Node.js but this is a whole new beast so let's get started. This is a true 2.0 in so may ways! Installing I decided to install it on my WSL because I can take advantage of my very limited Linux skills and showcase to customers the capabilities …[read more]

Azure Functions improvements with WebPack

[Azure Functions](GHOST_URL/devops-with-azure-functions-a-holistic-approach/" target="_blank) are great for creating solutions built on top of serverless architecture. In the past I've talked about the various deployment options but today I want to focus on performance improvements. The team recently introduced pre-compiled Functions which, in my mind, is a fantastic enhancement. Because it promotes good design by allowing you to decouple your implementation from the Function call itself and make your code a lot more testable. Some may digress because this may also cause Function code to explode in size. My answer to this is that you need …[read more]

Working for Microsoft as a Premier Field Engineer

It's been a full year since I joined Microsoft as a Premier Field Engineer (PFE). As I sit in my hotel room preparing for my session tomorrow, I thought that I should take some time to give my 1-year retrospective and explain what it is that I do in my team. Before I start, I want to say a special thanks to my wife and kids for being so understanding and supportive. My wife is the real hero holding everything together and looking after our 2 young daughters as I travel up and down the UK with work visiting customers …[read more]

Azure LogicApps tooling in Visual Studio 2015

[Azure Logic App Service](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/logic-apps/" target="_blank) or simply Logic Apps are a great integration and workflow orchestrator. Think of IFTTT for the enterprise (and for non-enterprise projects of course). Logic Apps, like Azure Functions, offer a great set of tools which are built-in on the Azure portal. These tools allow you to create, run and monitor your integration workflow using a variety of connectors, conditions and actions. When creating Logic Apps in the portal you have the option to switch between the designer and the code editor with ease. However, a …[read more]

Serverless Architecture with Azure

Last week I published an article on Serverless architecture on Azure. The post can be found on the Simple Talk website and I was honoured to be invited to have my piece published. You can read all about it here: https://www.simple-talk.com/cloud/cloud-development/serverless-architecture-azure/ Feel free to leave a comment here or at Simple Talk. …[read more]

Getting started with DevOps

DevOps, micro-services, containers, Agile etc. All these terms are widely (ab)used in the developer circles and for many developers they are the norm. There's no tech conference today that doesn't have a track on at least one of these and for a good reason. They are the new and, almost, established way of working with code. Some of them have been around for a while, so they are well established. Others are just getting into the enterprise world - think of containers here. DevOps is definitely not new. If you're a developer, you've been doing DevOps for a long …[read more]

Securing ASP.NET Core application settings using Azure Key Vault

Azure Key Vault is one of my favourite services, competing for first place with Azure Functions. And .NET Core is my favorite framework for writing applications. Imagine, then, my suprise when I found out that my favorite tools can now work together! [Azure Key Vault](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/key-vault/key-vault-get-started" target="_blank ) is a cloud service for storing sensitive "secrets" and (encryption) "keys". Key Vault is simple, easy and indispensible when developing secure applications. It helps avoid the complexity of storing sensitive information in configuration files. This can be API passwords, …[read more]