[Book Review] What you need to know about Cloud Native Software 🔐 Security Handbook ⁉ 🤔

Hello, Cloud Marathoners!

A couple of days ago, I received a book from Packt – “Cloud Native Software Security Handbook”, authored by Mihir Shah and in this post, I will review and share my observations and impressions with the #cloud#community.

This book starts covering the Foundations of Cloud Native by exploring the tools and platforms offered by CNCF while providing a high-level stage for the rest of the book. Subsequently, the author dives into explaining AppSec culture and how to approach security implementation in cloud-native environments primarily using toolings like K8S, Calico, K9s, Falco, OPA Gateway, and others which I will be mentioning below.

I liked the Cloud Security Operation chapter where open-source tooling sets like Elasticsearch, Fluentd, Kibana, Prometheus, Helm, and K8S have been used to streamline security operations with automation playbooks to minimize human interventions and errors.

In addition, this book covers legal, compliance, and vendor management aspects of cloud-native software security by emphasizing its hidden cost and importance as important as mastering technical skills.

This book also provides code samples, available for online access which is a big plus.

My suggestion would be the addition of more advanced use cases and code samples in the second edition of this book.

Did you read any related book recently that made an impact on you❓
Please, share your feedback in the comments 💬

Please, check my LinkedIn post to share your feedback. Thanks!

Should you consider Azure 🚀 Blueprints for your new ⛅ projects ⁉ 🤔

Hello friends,

During my recent project engagement, I was checking on status of the Azure Blueprints – a service which is still in Preview. I was surprised and alerted with the note I saw on the documentation page. Namely, service is scheduled to be deprecated.

What is Azure Blueprints (Preview)?

First thing first, this is a service that we use in Governance of Azure resources. This preview service allows the engineers and architects to sketch a project’s design parameters, by enabling cloud architects and central information technology groups to define a repeatable set of Azure resources that implements and adheres to an organization’s standards, patterns, and requirements.

What to do if you are using it?

No worries here. If you already using this service, then plan to migrate your existing blueprint definitions and assignments to Template Specs and Deployment Stacks. Your existing Blueprint artifacts could be converted to ARM JSON templates or Bicep files used to define deployment stacks.

When is the deadline?

Well, all the Blueprints (Preview) will be deprecated on July 11, 2026. Thus, you should have enough time to make the transition to Template Specs and Deployment Stacks.

📌 Reference to Microsoft Learn page on this announcement.
📌 Reference to the LinkedIn post 👉 Should you consider Azure 🚀 Blueprints for your new ⛅ projects ⁉ 🤔

what is next?

Are there any other cloud services ⛅ that will be deprecated soon ⁉🤔
Please, share below in the 💬 comments section.

🔔 If you see any recommendations or suggestions to use Azure Blueprints on Microsoft Learn pages, please ping me back.

Thank you in advance 😉

Thankful to be renominated for Microsoft Azure MVP in 2023

Hello, Cloud Marathoner community!

This week was huge, as we celebrated the 4th of July my eyes were on inbox for notifications to see the MVP nomination response from Microsoft.

MVP AWARD ANNONCEMENTs

I am thrilled and humbled to share with all of you that we are renewed as Microsoft Azure MVP for another year. YAY!!!


The email that I received was one of the best notifications of 2023 so far. Finally, an email below came out with an invitation to us (#cloudmarathoners) to accept the Microsoft MVP Award.

AWARD notification to CloudMarthoner

The email notification below is the highest recognition of the value and continues support that we (#CloudMarathoner) community do provide to everyone who is going through #cloudjourney and the career transformation process in their life.

-Microsoft MVP award notification email

YOU are all MVPs

Yes, that is right, this nomination and reward belongs to all of us. Because we are a unique community that shared interesting and informative posts and encouraged everyone to start their cloud journey.

Congrats to Martin on becoming Microsoft MVP

As you might know, an active member of our #cloudmarathoner community, Martin Dimovski, became an MVP just a few weeks ago. I have congratulated him on social channels as he truly embraced the #cloudmarathoner community and become one of the vocal people in our community. So, please join me in congratulating him.

What it takes to be an MVP

The MVP Award is a global program of recognized technology experts and community leaders who actively supporting technical communities through unique, innovative, and consistent knowledge sharing. These community leaders actively contribute to support the developer and IT Pro communities worldwide, helping them learn, build, and use our products. Learn below what the Microsoft MVP Program seeks for recognition of future community leaders.

Demonstrate community leadership and influence

Our program finds strength in diversity, inclusion, and positive influence. In all our interactions, we aspire to embody and champion these values as a program and as a community. Qualifying applicants must demonstrate leadership and ability to facilitate the sharing of knowledge with others, promote inclusive activities, and advance social good to support the community and under-represented groups.

Be a technical expert

Community leaders must have deep knowledge and expertise aligned to a Microsoft product or service or related open-source technologies. Through community work, qualifying applicants should be able to demonstrate their technical expertise.

Be a great advocate for the community

Leverage your technical expertise to advocate in the technical community. Qualifying applicants should generate local and global awareness that supports adoption and learning of Microsoft products & services through authentic connections, online/offline activities, and community enablement.

Contribute to the success of our products

Qualifying applicants should use their ability to discover and recommend improvements to Microsoft products & services through Microsoft official feedback channels (e.g., GitHub, Tech Community, etc.) or work on open-source extensions within the ecosystem.

Microsoft MVP page

massive Thank you for support!

I just want to say a massive, heartfelt thank you to all of you phenomenal individuals and organizations (T-REX Solutions, Cloud Lunch and Learn, MVP Community and LinkedIn community) for being my cheerleaders, my mentors, and my friends throughout my Microsoft MVP work and cloud journey. Your continued support has not only made me leapfrog personal and professional milestones but has also injected me with a hefty dose of confidence and determination.

I feel incredibly blessed to have such an extraordinary network of rockstars supporting me, and I can’t wait to keep on growing, learning, and rocking the tech world alongside each and every one of you! Sending you all a virtual bear hug filled with gratitude and joy!

What is Next?

I am still in a pleasant shock, and simply to say that “I am proud and humbled to receive this award” is an understatement. I am truly proud to be recognized along the way with the rest of the #MVP community while helping the #CloudMarathoner community to grow and prosper.

I am really happy to continue this cloud journey and invite you – the Cloud Marathoners ⛅🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ to join as well and be an important part of this community!!!

Our #CloudMarathoner community is over 1600+ members strong 💪

Hello, Cloud Marathoner friends!

We started the #CloudMarathoner community and cloud learning journey approximately 3+ years ago with few posts and followers. My main intention in starting this hashtag is to help everyone learn the #cloud #fundamentals & #architecture while sharing training resources that could help you in your awesome #cloud journey.

We ARE GROWING every month

Thank you for your continued feedback and support!
Our #CloudMarathoner community is over 1600+ members strong and we are growing it every month. This community of contributors and members like Hugo Barona, Jackson Feldon, new MVP – Martin Dimovski, John Lokerse and many other leaders are able to reach and inspire many more people every day and week.

#CloudMarathoner on LinkedIn channel

IN summary

Thank you.. Thank you… and Thank you so much for ALL you do!


For being a true #cloudmarathoner in learning the #cloud and sharing it with your community!

Please, check the #CloudMarathoner #tag on LinkedIn or Twitter and share information that you find helpful.

How could you easily create new pre-configured 🚀 Azure subscriptions that meet your organization’s specific needs ⁉ 🤔

Hello, dear #CloudMarathoner community!

If you have been implementing your customers with the management of enterprise subscriptions and policies, then it is a pretty common need to automate the provisioning of those subscriptions in a controlled and secure manner.

The good news is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and do everything from scratch. The Microsoft team that is behind the Azure Landing Zones implementation has a good reference that could tremendously help you.

Microsoft Global Customer Success team

Have you ever checked the subscription vending IaC Modules from the Microsoft Global Customer Success team (the same team behind Azure Landing Zones)?

Subscription Vending IaC Modules

Well, if not then Subscription Vending IaC Modules are available for you in two popular infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools: Bicep and Terraform.
AND designed to help you implement the best practices for subscription provisioning.

Why use these modules?

Using these modules, you can quickly and easily provision new Azure subscriptions that are pre-configured to meet your organization’s specific needs. The modules include parameters/variables for Role-Based Access Control, Networking, Tags, and more.

📌 Check out the Bicep 💪 Landing Zone vending module for Azure a GitHub repo 👉 https://lnkd.in/dJRiK5yG

📌 Check out the Terraform landing zone vending module for Azure a GitHub repo 👉 https://lnkd.in/dtndsfXr #sharingiscaring ❤️

In Summary

So, what is your preferred way to provision Azure subscriptions ⁉ 🤔
Please, share your feedback 💬 in the comments or in the following LinkedIn post.

How could you implement microservices in practice with Node.js, Docker 🚀 in Azure with 💪 Bicep power ⁉ 🤔

Hello #CloudMarathoner community!

Recently, I have been asked for a reference on how to implement a microservices architecture from code to production, using an open-source stack with Azure.

Node.js Microservices Workshop

I am really glad to discover and test the following workshop >> Microservices in practice with Node.js, Docker and Azure.

In this workshop, you will build a complete application including a website with authentication and 3 microservices, deploy it to Azure using a CI/CD pipeline, monitor and tune the scaling of our services, and use log tracing to debug issues.

And yes, all that is done without needing to use Kubernetes while using the #AzureBicep 💪 for #infrastructureascode (IaC) and deployment!

💡 Check the details in the GitHub repo 👉 https://lnkd.in/eBZTMw5V #sharingiscaring ❤️

Alternative Approach

This workshop approach is one of many ways to get started with Node.js Microservices in Azure. But, I am interested to hear from you.

What is your preferred way to implement microservices in Azure ⁉ 🤔
Please, share your feedback 💬 in the comments or in the following LinkedIn post.

In Summary

I hope you will enjoy this reference architecture and the @GitHub code repo. More importantly, you got a chance to learn something new. Hopefully, you’ll be able to take this knowledge back to your projects and improve your solutions.

How could you remotely manage all the Linux and Windows Servers ⁉ 🤔

Hello, my #cloudmarathoner friends!

Let’s focus on answering the main question of this post. And some of you may suspect that we will allude to Azure Arc, right?

Microsoft Azure Arc

Yes, with the Microsoft Azure Arc, you can manage servers running on-premises, at the edge, and in multi-cloud environments. And with the latest updates, now, you also get SSH access to your Linux and Windows Servers running anywhere using Azure Arc-enabled servers.

Direct Network Connectivity

Even though direct network connectivity (like SSH connection into the server) can be a challenge in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Azure Arc-enabled servers enable this unique capability for you.

What are the Helpful References?

Well, let me mention the following important three references that will get you going in your Azure Arc journey, ok?

1️⃣ SSH access to Azure Arc-enabled servers 👉 https://lnkd.in/eMd_yceR

2️⃣ Troubleshoot SSH access to Azure Arc-enabled servers 👉 https://lnkd.in/ePjcGUcv

3️⃣ SSH access to Azure Arc-enabled servers and how to set up one, check out the following blog post from Thomas 👉 https://lnkd.in/eMJy_zRZ #sharingiscaring ❤️

In Summary

I hope this provides you with a good overview and resources of how you can manage and SSH access your Linux and Windows Servers anywhere using Azure Arc. And if you feel like you got a question, please, feel free to leave a comment on my LinkedIn post.

Microsoft DevOps 🚀 Engineer Expert certification renewal

Hello, my dear friends!

I am very glad to renew the Microsoft DevOps 🚀 Engineer Expert certification for another year 👍

The #cloudjourney and learning never stops ⛅❗🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♀️

What is included in the annual assessment?

This exam assesses the following DevOps skills:
✔ Configure processes and communications
✔ Design and implement source control
✔ Design and implement build and release pipelines
✔ Develop a security and compliance plan
✔ Implement an instrumentation strategy

Your Support is Appreciated!

Thank you 🙏 T-Rex Solutions, LLC for a strong and relentless learning culture and for supporting my Microsoft #MVP journey 👏

In Summary

What is your next #certification#renewal ⁉ 🤔
Please, share in the comments 💬 below or on my LinkedIn post page.

How to automate consistent resource naming in Microsoft Azure?

Hello, my dear Cloud Marathoner community!

Anyone who manages Azure resources knows that consistent naming is key to understanding what a service is, where its location and purpose, and to whom it belongs to.

Are there any tools?

In a recent couple of days, I was exploring a tool/framework that could help me with consistent naming of cloud resources issues. And I was nicely surprised to find the Azure Naming Tool v2.


“The Azure Naming Tool was created to help administrators define and manage their naming conventions while providing a simple interface for users to generate a compliant name.”

What is it for?

The tool was developed using a naming pattern based on Microsoft’s best practices. Once an administrator has defined the organizational components, users can use the tool to generate a name for the desired Azure resource.

📌 Check out the “Azure Naming Tool v2” 👉 https://lnkd.in/etHZf64z #sharingiscaring ❤

Demo video?

Yes, it has a nice demo video that demonstrates how to install and configure this tool as a container for your unique needs.

📌 Video link 👉 https://youtu.be/Ztmxx_KhZdE

These recent updates come with globally optional components, multi-type name generation, some style and/or layout updates, and more.

Summary

The Azure Naming Tool was designed to be as extendable and functional as possible. In order to accommodate that flexibility, several architectural aspects were implemented.

The ANT team will continue to improve the tool and publish updates to the GitHub repository. All feedback is welcome, and feel free to submit a code change if you have a better idea for any part of the tool. Good luck!

The #CloudMarathoner community is approaching to 1400 members

Hello, Cloud Marathoner friends!

We started the #CloudMarathoner community and cloud learning journey approximately 3.5 years ago with few posts and followers. My main intention in starting this hashtag is to help everyone learn the #cloudcomputing and share training resources that could help you in your awesome #cloud journey.

We continuously GROWING

Thank you for your continued feedback and support!
Our community is almost 1400+ members string and we are able to reach and empower more people now.

Many Thanks to each of you, who has #shared and commented on #CloudMarathoner posts on social media.

summary

Thank you.. Thank you… Thank you..
For being a true #cloudmarathoner in learning the #cloud and sharing it with your community!

Please, check the #CloudMarathoner #tag on LinkedIn or Twitter and share information that you find helpful.