Some month ago, Microsoft released a new Azure feature allowing to deploy service catalogs right in the public cloud. What is that thing for? To make teamwork in Azure a breath! Now, thanks to prebuilt templates and controlled parameters, your teams can deploy web apps or VMs so that they won’t break your budget (if you set everything right, of course).

Learn how to deploy service catalogs in Azure in the full article by Florent Appointaire, a Microsoft Engineer specialized in Cloud Technologies.

Fully cloud-based infrastructures are a hot topic in modern IT. However, some companies cannot go entirely-cloud due to availability, security, and management concerns. So, these guys run production on the hardware that cannot ensure decent scalability and disaster recovery and, what is more important, limits innovation. There’s a great workaround for these guys – hybrid cloud.

Learn from the video why and how to build hybrid cloud infrastructure with Microsoft Azure and StarWind Virtual SAN

Not that long time ago, Microsoft released Cumulative Update 10 for Exchange Server 2016. Its new version brings not only some functionality updates but also better security and remedy to some quality issues reported by users. But, this update is not only about improved functioning and user experience! Installation prerequisites are the most remarkable change here, so take your time and find out more about them before updating.

Check out the recent article by Karim Buzdar, a Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate for Server Infrastructure, to learn more about new Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 10 installation prerequisites and how to install the update.

Windows Server 2019 is coming, and it should bring some cool features to Windows-powered IT environments. These changes are not only about Windows Server itself but also Storage Spaces Direct, Microsoft’s software-defined storage solution. Why be excited? Microsoft finally brings the long-awaited data deduplication on ReFS! In other words Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2019 will become fast and flexible without compromising storage utilization efficiency.

Read the full article by Romain Serre, a Senior Consultant, to learn more about new S2D features and why you may need it.

Typically, Content Libraries are used for keeping VM templates, vApp templates, ISO files, and all that jazz you typically share within your network. With such capability, that thing makes vSphere admins’ life easier allowing them to ensure consistency within the infrastructure under workloads. So, if you have never used it before, it may be high time to learn more about Content Libraries.

Learn the basics of working with Content Libraries in VMware vSphere 6.5 in the full article by Paolo Valsecchi, Veeam Vanguard System Engineer and VMware vExpert.

For many companies, tapes still remain the media of choice for long-term archival purposes. But, wait, if you are a Veeam Backup & Replication user, there’s a better way to ensure business continuity and unlock Hyper-Availability – StarWind VTL. And, the nice thing about the solution is that you can streamline the backup environment and extend it to Microsoft Azure without changing the entire thing!

Find out how to extend tape-based data to Microsoft Azure with Veeam and StarWind in the upcoming joint webinar.

Register now!

For many companies, tapes still remain the media of choice for long-term archival purposes. But, wait, if you are a Veeam Backup & Replication user, there’s a better way to ensure business continuity and unlock Hyper-Availability – StarWind VTL for Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Just set up both solutions and Azure, and you are ready to go! The nice thing about the StarWind VTL is that you can streamline the backup environment and extend your tape-based backups to Microsoft Azure without changing the entire thing.

Find out how to extend your archival options to Microsoft Azure in the full article by Andrew Zhelezko, a Veeam Technical Product Analyst.

Hybrid cloud is trendy these days, but a few virtualization experts know what VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX) is. VMware HCX is a platform to erase boundaries between your on-prem infrastructure and public cloud. It delivers app mobility by creating hybridity across vSphere 5.0 and higher. So, if you are going to build hybrid-cloud environment that’s high time to learn more about VMware HCX!

Learn more about what VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension is and why you need in it the full article by Askar Kopbayev, the Senior Consultant at VMware.

Picking a Software-Defined Storage solution for a VMware vSphere environment may be a hard nut to crack due to tough licensing, strict hardware compatibility lists, and need for special skills to deploy and manage that thing. For all admins familiar with those pains our solution is Linux-based StarWind VSAN – hardware-agnostic, minimalistic and cost-efficient solution to ensure high apps availability in vSphere environments.

Learn from our recent video how to promote availability of your applications running in VMware vSphere with Linux-based StarWind Virtual SAN.

Even though hybrid cloud is quite trendy these days, there are very few VMware admins who use VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX). This platform removes boundaries between your on-prem infrastructure and cloud one. So, if you intend extending your environment to the cloud one day, take your time and learn more about VMware HCX benefits and how this solution is deployed.

Check out the full article by Askar Kopbayev, the Senior Consultant at VMware, to find out more about VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension deployment, and solution benefits.

Back in April 2018, Microsoft announced Azure Container Instances for production usage. Wait, what is that thing, actually, for? Azure Container Instances offers the fastest and simplest way to run a container in Azure. You need just one command to run a container, and, you do not need to provision a VM or deploy a container host anymore.

Read the full article by Nicolas Prigent, Microsoft MVP in Cloud and Datacenter Management, to learn how to create Azure Container Instances and how to use it

Security is always a hot topic, and you, a sysadmin, are a guy to ensure it. You, typically, should not only save your data from being stolen or compromised but also prevent any possible security breaches at all. True, having services down due to some DoS attack may be just as bad for your business as losing data… So, that’s why you, probably, should learn more about how to ensure your virtual environment security.

Check out the full article by Andrea Mauro, a virtualization expert and architect, to learn how to find and cover your virtualized environment security gaps.

Database uptime is a must. Data loss is a definite “no no”. Consider a disaster recovery (DR) site to ensure your production uptime and guarantee data integrity and availability no matter what happens to your main site.

In our upcoming free webinar, we discuss the technology that may come in handy.
Find out how to build a disaster recovery (DR) site and ensure your database availability with SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AGs).

Register here!

VMware vSphere 6.7 features persistent memory support – the non-volatile data storage technology that is fast enough to cover the performance difference between RAM and Flash/SSD. It is the perfect fit for IOPS-intense applications and high-loaded databases. Well, we guess that’s high time to learn how to create VMs with persistent memory disks.

Read the full article by Alex Samoylenko, a virtualization technology professional, to find out more about how fast persistent memory is and how to use it in VMware vSphere VMs.

Double Fine Productions is the company specialized in game development. Working in this industry, Double Fine requires a powerful environment to proceed and store all those tons of media data that it generates. Using just directly attached storage and VMware ESXi, the company could not achieve high performance. So, they were looking for storage to ensure decent applications performance, fast recovery rates, and effective load balancing. However, guys at Double Fine did not want to change the existing hardware... because it was a far way smarter just to deploy a Software-Defined Storage solution on top of what they already had!

Check out how Double Fine dramatically enhanced the overall infrastructure performance with StarWind.

Database availability and production uptime are things that you, a database admin, are to ensure. Well, sure, you need some tools for that mission. This video sheds light on the technology that may come in handy.

Build a disaster recovery site with Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups to preserve business continuity. Watch the full video here.

Public cloud is a pretty trendy thing these days. Many use the cloud for disaster recovery purposes while others go even further and build all-cloud IT infrastructures. And, Microsoft Azure is often the public cloud of choice. Why? It is popular, fast, flexible, and reliable. With all those Azure benefits in mind, let’s look at how you migrate VMware vSphere VMs there!

Find out in the full article by Florent Appointaire, a Microsoft Engineer specialized in Cloud Technologies, how to set up and use Azure Site Recovery to migrate your VMware vSphere VMs to Azure.

For any business, Microsoft SQL Server databases are critical workloads that require the lowest possible recovery point objective. In other words, databases are the thing an admin would like to keep always at hand, just in case something goes wrong at the main site. This task becomes fairly easy with Azure Backup – a SQL Server backup solution that requires zero infrastructure. No sophisticated backup infrastructure on premises. No management agent. Azure Backup delivers you a single point of management for backups. And, here’s the quick guide how to back up and restore your databases with Azure Backup.

Read the full article by Florent Appointaire, a Microsoft Engineer specialized in Cloud Technologies, to learn how to back up Microsoft SQL Server databases to Azure and restore them with Azure Backup.

We will introduce a solution that provides unprecedented storage performance and maximizes the efficiency of existing IT infrastructures. Storage Field Day is intended to bring together innovative IT product vendors and independent thought leaders to share information and opinions in a presentation and discussion format.

Join us on September 20, at 1pm PDT. Get more details here.

Sutton Group is a set of companies covering footwear retail with more than 40 physical stores and an e-commerce website. Many do shopping online these days, so The Group wanted its Hyper-V SAN to bear intense workloads. Specifically, the company wanted to ensure decent IT infrastructure performance and make its IT-related routines easier.

Learn how StarWind helped to remediate The Sutton Group’s IT-related pains.