Showing all posts tagged: 'Azure'

A 66-post collection

Upgrade Ghost blog running on Azure Web Apps

I've been caught by this time and time again so it's time I blogged about it. My Ghost blog is running on Azure Web Apps and it usually runs flawlessly, unless I do something stupid to break it. And since I like shiny new things, this happens quite frequently because I like to upgrade as often as I can. However, upgrading my blog hasn't proved that easy or smooth as I would like it to be because there's a good chance I may miss a step or 2. So the best way to ensure that this doesn't happen again is …[read more]

The new Azure Powershell Resource Manager - 1.0 Preview

The new Azure PowerShell preview module is out. I use PowerShell on Azure to automate many tasks and it's something that we use in the team quite frequently. Yes, you can use the Azure Portal (website) to accomplish the same tasks but I like using PowerShell for a few reasons: Create repeatable and consistent tasks Share the files and knowledge that comes with it Automate all the things! This preview release is the first major version taking it to 1.0. Unfortunately, it brings some breaking changes with it. For this reason, it's imperative that you read the documentation before …[read more]

TechMeetup Edinburgh - Getting Started with Microsoft Azure Development

Yesterday I had a great time talking to the TechMeetup user group in Edinburgh. The event was hosted by SkyScanner in their fanky and cool-looking offices and we had a very interesting and enthusiastic audience. The format was slightly different to what I'm used to when speaking to user groups and I will explain now. Firstly, the meetup opened with introductions, something that you don't usually see in larger user groups. Everyone in the room got a chance to introduce themselves and speak briefly about what they do and what they're looking to get out of the session. For me, …[read more]

Azure Key Vault - the new security service from Microsoft

Azure Key Vault is a new(ish) service offered by the Azure team. This Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) feature, now in general availability(GA), allows you to securely manage and protect cryptographic keys and secrets which can be used by cloud-enabled applications and services. There are 2 compelling reasons why someone may choose to use Azure Key Vault: It can be used to encrypt keys and secrets (authorisation keys, storage account keys, data encryption keys, etc) using the keys that are stored within the Azure Key Vault service and are protected by Hardware Security Modules (HMS). Alternatively, the stored keys can be …[read more]

Azure Web Apps - Testing in production

I use Azure Web Apps (formerly Websites) a lot. I run a few production sites, I run test sites and proof of concept projects. The whole process of publishing to Azure has become so easy and so FREE, that I have all but eliminated all other options. You can manage your sites from the portal(GUI), FTP, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Command Line, you name it. Everything can be scripted and everything can be automated so what's not to love about the platform? One important aspect of working with clients on new products or new features is testing. Testing in QA …[read more]

Learn how to harness the power of Azure Virtual Machine Extensions

Do you use Microsoft Azure? Do you have an Azure account? Did you know that you can get one for free here? If you are already an Azure account and you are using the Virtual Machine (VM) services, then I you are at the right place, because in this post I will show you how to take your VMs to the next level with help of VM Extensions. VM Extensions are relatively new to Azure. They were announce at the //Build2014 conference and since then there has been a steady growth. Extensions rely on Puppet and Chef. Puppet is a …[read more]

TechEd 2014 Europe Keynote Recap - What is new?

Are you following the announcements at TechEd 2014? Unfortunately I have been unable to attend in person this year due to a new family member, but I'm still following and watching the sessions at TechEd live thanks to Channel9. Tuesday (Oct 28 2014) was the first day of the conference, so things kicked off with the Keynote. The keynote recording is already available over on Channel9. However, if you don't want to sit through 3 hours of talking, here is a quick recap of the major announcements: Windows 10 New features in Windows 10 were announced for standard users, power-users …[read more]

A C# Encryption provider for Azure Websites

Azure.Security, my second OSS project has been released! 1. What is Azure.Security? Azure.Security is an Azure specific piece of software designed to provide cryptographic services to an application deployed to Azure Websites platform. One of the issues that you may come across when using this platform is data encryption and key management. Luckily, Azure Websites are happy to run code from the System.Security namespace, but there is no easy way to securily manage private key(s). And that's where this project comes to fill in the gap. Azure.Security uses a number of Azure features in …[read more]