New Azure management and onboarding capabilities for Azure Arc-enabled VMware vSphere - Microsoft Community Hub

Microsoft has announced the introduction of Azure Arc-enabled VMware vSphere, allowing customers to manage their VMware vSphere-based resources anywhere, including the Azure VMware Solution (AVS), using Azure Arc. This update eliminates the need for customers to onboard their resources to Azure Arc-enabled servers, streamlining the process and reducing complexity. With Azure Arc-enabled VMware vSphere, customers can now install agents at scale, enabling Azure management capabilities like Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Monitor, and Azure Update Management. This update brings parity to Azure management services across Azure Arc-enabled VMware and Azure Arc-enabled servers. Existing customers will need to perform a one-time operation to switch to the latest version, while new customers can follow the documentation to connect vCenter to Azure Arc. These updates make it easier for customers to begin their Azure Arc journey from anywhere and leverage the full range of Azure management capabilities. #AzureArcEnabled #VMwarevSphere #AzureManagement #softcorpremium

Organizational Hierarchies and Policies in AWS, Azure, and GCP | by Teri Radichel | Cloud Security | Aug, 2023 | Medium

In this article, Teri Radichel discusses the importance of structuring cloud accounts in a secure and organized manner. She emphasizes the need for proper governance and cost control in large organizations, as well as the importance of tracking costs and allocating them to the appropriate departments. Radichel also highlights the different mechanisms for grouping resources and tracking costs in various cloud services. She suggests that for small teams or services used by one team, cost allocation may not be a concern. The article also mentions the involvement of security teams in defining secure configurations and the role of IAM teams in implementing user accounts and permissions. #CloudGovernance #CostControl #CloudSecurity #softcorpremium

Migrating BigQuery Datasets across regions with dataset replication | by Loh Jia Sin | Google Cloud - Community | Aug, 2023 | Medium

Google Cloud has introduced a new feature called cross-region dataset replication for migrating BigQuery datasets to a region closer to users, reducing latency and cross-region egress costs. This feature allows for dataset migration without changing the dataset name, minimizing disruptions and reconfiguration. The migration process involves replicating the dataset to the desired region, promoting the replica to the primary dataset, and then deleting the original replica. Testing of the migration approach showed that existing connections and applications continued to function without reconfiguration. Additional considerations include testing specific connections, updating configurations for certain tooling, and manually migrating policy tags and associated data policies. #GoogleCloudMigration #BigQueryDatasetReplication #DataMigrationSimplified #softcorpremium

Migration of containerized services from GKE to AKS - Microsoft Community Hub

In the world of cloud computing, organizations have the ability to switch between different cloud vendors, thanks to technologies like microservices and platforms like Kubernetes. One particular migration scenario is moving containers from Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This process involves considering factors such as networking, name resolution, cluster type, security controls, integration with other services, and CI/CD pipelines. The migration process includes pre-check validations, mapping services from GKE to AKS, building the AKS cluster, migrating containers, and post-migration validation. The article provides step-by-step instructions for each stage and highlights the importance of thorough testing and troubleshooting. Overall, the author emphasizes the need for careful planning and attention to detail when transitioning from GKE to AKS. #cloudmigration #kubernetesmigration #AKS #softcorpremium

Quick create Azure Front Door endpoints for Azure Storage accounts

Microsoft has announced a simplified integration for creating and managing Azure Front Door profiles for Azure Storage accounts. Azure Front Door accelerates the global delivery of static content from Azure Storage blobs and provides a secure and scalable architecture. This integration allows for lower latency at a global level and adds an additional layer of security with integrated DDoS and WAF protection. Azure Front Door is a modern cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) that delivers content with security and performance by leveraging Microsoft's global edge network and private WAN. It supports multiple traffic routing methods and provides various security solutions. The integration with Azure Storage allows for custom domains, custom SSL certificates, caching, and more. Azure Front Door is useful for delivering static content for website hosting, file delivery, and other use cases. #AzureFrontDoor #AzureStorage #ContentDeliveryNetwork #softcorpremium

Baidu Reports Q2 Revenue and Profit Growth, Explores AI Opportunities - Pandaily

On August 22nd, Baidu released its unaudited financial report for the second quarter of 2023. The company reported total revenues of $4.70 billion, a 15% increase compared to the previous year. Non-GAAP net profit attributable to Baidu reached $11 billion, a 44% increase year over year. Baidu's core online marketing revenue grew by 15% to $2.69 billion. The company's CEO, Robin Li, highlighted the transformative potential of generative AI and large language models, emphasizing their commitment to constant model improvement and fostering sustainable long-term growth. Baidu's AI-native approach and latest model, ERNIE 3.5, have gained recognition from industry experts. The company also achieved high ESG scores and was recognized in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook's China edition. Baidu's PaddlePaddle developer community reached 8 million members, and the company maintained its position as China's top AI Cloud provider. In autonomous driving, Baidu's Apollo Go ride-hailing service experienced remarkable growth, offering over 714,000 rides in Q2 2023. Baidu's user products, such as Xiaodu smart screens and smart speakers, also performed well, ranking first in shipment volume in China. Baidu is conducting internal testing for AI features in its Search and Wenku platforms and has introduced AI technologies for commercial advertising monetization. Overall, Baidu's financial report reflects its strong performance and commitment to innovation in AI and related fields. #BaiduFinancialReport2023 #AIInnovation #ESGSustainability #softcorpremium

3 ways to upgrade continuous testing for generative AI | InfoWorld

Generative AI tools, such as GitHub Copilot, are increasing productivity and improving the work experience for developers. McKinsey reports that these tools can speed up code documentation, generation, and refactoring by 20% to 50%. However, testing and quality assurance practices often lag behind development advancements. #ArtificialIntelligenceInTesting #ContinuousTesting #GenerativeAI #softcorpremium

IBM Watsonx to use generative AI to translate COBOL code into Java | InfoWorld

IBM is expanding the capabilities of its Watson Code Assistant to include translating COBOL code into Java in order to help customers modernize their applications. This new feature, called Watson Code Assistant for Z, aims to address the shortage of COBOL developers and challenges in developing applications for mainframe systems. The tool will use automated code refactoring to extract business services from COBOL applications and convert them to Java code. IBM is also working on using the Watson Code Assistant to generate content for its Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. The new Watson Code Assistant for Z is expected to be available later this year with additional capabilities. #IBM #WatsonCodeAssistant #COBOLtoJava #softcorpremium

Google launches Pricing API to help enterprises optimize cloud costs | InfoWorld

Google Cloud has introduced a new Pricing API to help enterprises optimize their cloud expenditure during uncertain economic times. The API provides account-specific custom prices and discounts, allowing businesses to analyze costs and make data-driven decisions. It also offers additional information such as SKU groups, geo taxonomy, and product taxonomy, enabling advanced analysis of resources and cost optimization. Google, along with other cloud providers like AWS and Microsoft, recognizes the importance of cost optimization for enterprises, but expects to attract new workloads and customers through AI and other services to offset any lost revenue. #CloudExpenditureOptimization #DataDrivenDecisions #CostOptimization #softcorpremium

Presenting the Evolution of VMware Cloud - VMware Cloud Blog

VMware has unveiled the evolution of VMware Cloud, a multi-cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution that can be deployed on-premises, in public clouds, and through VMware partners. The aim is to simplify the complexity and cost associated with multi-cloud strategies, providing a single cloud-like experience across different cloud environments. VMware Cloud combines VMware Cloud Foundation software with VMware Cloud services, offering customers the best innovations from both on-premises and public cloud software offerings. The solution includes infrastructure and operations services, network and security operations, developer services, and disaster recovery workflows. VMware Cloud Editions, consisting of five purpose-built editions, provide customers with choice and flexibility for their cloud transformation journey. The editions can be deployed in their own data centers, on AWS, or on Equinix Metal. The goal is to modernize, optimize, and protect multi-cloud environments while reducing complexity. #VMwareCloud #MultiCloudStrategy #CloudTransformationJourney #softcorpremium

Amazon Aurora Global Database introduces Global Database Failover

Amazon Aurora Global Database has introduced a new feature called Global Database Failover, which allows for a seamless cross-Region database failover in the event of unplanned events like regional outages. This feature enables users to convert a secondary region into the new primary region within a minute, while still maintaining the multi-region Global Database configuration. Additionally, Amazon Aurora has renamed its \"Managed Planned Failover\" feature to \"Global Database Switchover,\" which is meant for planned events like regional rotations. Amazon Aurora is known for its high performance and availability on a global scale, with full compatibility with MySQL and PostgreSQL. #AmazonAuroraGlobalDatabase #DatabaseFailover #GlobalDatabaseConfiguration #softcorpremium

Building LLM applications with vector search in Azure Cognitive Services | InfoWorld

Microsoft has developed tools like TypeChat and Semantic Kernel that allow developers to build applications around large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. These tools help constrain the LLMs and prevent them from generating false or nonsensical output. Semantic memory, which uses vector search, is a key component of this approach. Microsoft's Azure Cognitive Search, combined with OpenAI and Semantic Kernel, enables the creation of LLM-based applications that provide accurate and sensible answers to user queries. #MicrosoftAI #SemanticKernel #CognitiveSearch #softcorpremium

AWS PrivateLink announces support for user defined IP on VPC endpoints

AWS PrivateLink now supports user-defined IP addresses for VPC endpoints. Previously, VPC endpoints were assigned random IPs upon creation, but now users can select IPv4 and IPv6 addresses within the CIDR range of their VPC. This enhancement allows for better control and management of on-prem workloads and simplifies the assignment of IP addresses to multiple VPC endpoints. The feature is available in all commercial AWS and AWS GovCloud (US) regions and can be accessed through the VPC Console, CLI, and SDK. For more information, visit the Amazon VPC Developer Guide. #AWSPrivateLinkEnhancement #VPCendpoints #softcorpremium

The looming battle over where generative AI systems will run | InfoWorld

A recent survey on generative AI spending shows that while most customers are reporting a modest increase in spending, 36% expect their spending to increase by double digits. The location of generative AI systems, whether on-premises or in the public cloud, is still being determined. Enterprises still have a significant amount of data in traditional data centers or edge computing, which can cause problems when trying to move to the cloud. Hosting AI systems closest to the data may make sense, but it can also contribute to technical debt. Enterprises need to avoid making the same mistakes with generative AI as they did with early cloud computing adoption. While the cloud offers advantages in terms of tools, technology, scalability, and speed, on-premises systems could be more cost-effective if the generative AI systems are collocated with the training data. The choice between on-premises and cloud depends on the specific problem and attributes of the generative AI system. Assumptions about the cloud being more vulnerable to IP leakage or on-premises systems being cheaper may not always hold true. It is important to fully understand the situation before making decisions about the platform for generative AI systems. #generativeAI #cloudvspremises #decisionmaking #softcorpremium

Kubernetes v1.28: Introducing native sidecar containers | Kubernetes

Kubernetes version 1.28 introduces a new feature called native sidecar containers, which allows for restartable init containers. This feature aims to provide native support for sidecars, which are additional containers that extend and enhance the main container in a Kubernetes deployment. Sidecar containers are commonly used for network proxies or as part of a logging system. #KubernetesSidecarContainers #ContainerDeployments #softcorpremium

How to take action against AI bias | InfoWorld

Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing significant advancements, with businesses adopting AI tools like OpenAI's and DALL-E 2ChatGPT at an accelerated rate. However, the rise of generative AI tools has brought attention to the issue of AI bias, where AI models produce biased content based on biased data sets. AI bias can lead to skewed predictions, poor decision making, copyright issues, and even discrimination. Despite concerns, many businesses have not taken steps to reduce bias in their data sets. To address this, data scientists must act as custodians of data and implement ethical practices for data curation. Testing for AI bias requires different tools and processes, and it's important to keep data open to a diverse population of data scientists. Guardrails and new processes should be put in place to avoid harm to businesses and customers. One practice is to pair a red team and a blue team to expose and correct bias before releasing AI-enabled services. It's crucial to continuously test data and models for bias and work with social scientists to better engineer models and algorithms. Businesses must address AI bias now to prevent potential negative impacts. #AIbias #EthicalAI #DataCuration #softcorpremium

Managing the Complexity of Multicloud - VMware Cloud Blog

In a guest blog by Dave McCarthy, Vice President at IDC, he discusses the evolving complexity of cloud infrastructure and the need for a consistent application deployment experience across cloud, edge, and dedicated environments. IDC predicts that by 2025, 75% of organizations will prefer technology partners that can provide this consistency. IDC's research found that a single cloud provider approach did not meet the needs of customers with a mix of traditional and modern applications, leading to the use of multiple cloud providers. However, this approach introduced operational challenges and the need for solutions that offer a consistent experience in infrastructure, operations, and management across different deployment locations. The ideal solution would operate multiple clouds as a single entity with essential services spanning various functions. #cloudinfrastructure #hybridcloud #applicationdeployment #softcorpremium

The Goldilocks Principle of Cloud Management: Striking the Ideal Balance

The article discusses the importance of striking the right balance in cloud management, emphasizing that the cloud is not always the ideal solution for every application and can be costly when used incorrectly. The author highlights the need to analyze performance, address security and data access, understand data management, and take a holistic approach to cloud optimization. They also mention the emergence of \"near-cloud\" solutions that offer near-sub-millisecond access to cloud resources while providing guaranteed availability. #CloudManagement #CloudOptimization #DataPrivacy #softcorpremium

3 keys to making data democratization a reality | InfoWorld

Data democratization, the idea of enabling entire teams and departments to use data for better decision-making, is currently a pipe dream for most executives. Only 32% of available data is being utilized, leaving the remaining 68% untapped. The inability to be nimble and compete on data is a significant threat to businesses. To overcome these obstacles, organizations should focus on building accessible data products, fostering trust in data, and integrating no-code options. #datademocratization #accessibledataproducts #nocodeoptions #softcorpremium

Applying the lessons of open source to generative AI | InfoWorld

Generative AI, which uses pre-trained models to generate content, is facing challenges related to intellectual property and licensing. The lack of transparency in AI models makes it difficult to track the origin of generated content or determine copyright infringement. Various mechanisms, including regulation and licensing, are being explored to address these issues. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is working to establish guidelines for AI systems to be considered \"open source.\" However, the landscape is rapidly evolving, and organizations must stay informed and prioritize the ethical use of AI. #AIcontentgeneration #OpenSourceAI #EthicalAIuse #softcorpremium

7 low code platforms embracing AI | InfoWorld

Many companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, are incorporating AI capabilities into their low-code and no-code development platforms. Airtable has added AI capabilities to its product, allowing users to generate product specs, creative briefs, and job descriptions. Appian Platform includes AI skills for document classification, email classification, and document extraction. Creatio Atlas has integrated a connector that enhances its predictive machine learning models. Mendix offers AI-assisted development with virtual co-developer bots. OutSystems provides an AI Mentor System for coding assistance and quality analysis. Pega AI and GenAI offer decisioning and workflow generation capabilities. UiPath's AI Center allows users to train and deploy machine learning models for use with RPA. Many of these platforms utilize OpenAI's GPT models. #AIinDevelopment #LowCodeAI #MachineLearning #softcorpremium