Windows Admin Center: Strengths, Weaknesses, Enterprise Readiness and Everything Else You Need to Know

Windows Admin Center, formerly known as Project Honolulu, provides IT administrators with a unified management interface for Windows Server Management tools that were once only accessible through disparate management tools. To date, Windows Admin Center has over 250,000 unique connection instances across 25,000 customer deployments and over 50,000 downloads.

We’ve been kicking the tires of Windows Admin Center (WAC) for almost a year when we first got wind of the preview at Microsoft Ignite. Since then, we’ve monitored its progress, evaluated its strengths and weaknesses and taken a look at how it might sit in an enterprise environment. I also considered what organizations would need to complement its functionality. Continue reading

What Is Microsoft Azure – A Complete Guide

In a 2017 survey, Microsoft Azure was identified as the most-used public cloud, and the one most likely to be purchased or renewed, according to 28% of survey respondents—the highest percentage for any public cloud provider. With results like this, it’s no wonder the number of businesses interested in Azure continues to climb. Continue reading

New Podcast – MVPITPro by Andy Syewicze & Rob Corradini

This is the start of an awesome podcast series called MVPITPro.  I am excited to be working with MVP Andy Syewicze from Altaro Software to produce this series of podcasts for all the IT Pros out there. Episode one is with my fellow MVP and friend Symon Perriman of FanWide, and 5nine Software before that. 🙂 So sit back and enjoy the ride!!!  And maybe you learn a little bit about being an MVP!!

YouTube player

MVPITPro

Enjoy, until next time, Rob Corradini, MVP, Cloud & Datacenter

Azure’s New Virtual Machine Serial Console Brings Needed Features for VM Users

Sometimes Microsoft Azure virtual machine admins need alternative access points to help configure and diagnose problems that the standard Azure tools can’t deliver. 

That’s where the public preview for Microsoft’s new Azure Serial Console for Virtual Machines can help by providing direct access through a COM1 serial port to address code or system problems that have become unresponsive. Continue reading

The Benefits and Limitations of Running Linux on Hyper-V

Choice is good.

In my 20+ years of experience in the IT industry, I’ve seen few—if any—clients who use a Windows environment exclusively. It’s a heterogeneous world. The reality is, most organizations prefer to choose from a variety of operating systems, software, hardware and hypervisors; depending on what best suits the information needs of the organization. In this day and age, it’s necessary to have a cloud solution flexible enough to support it all.  Continue reading

Azure Security Center: A Complete Guide

To realize the full benefit of any cloud computing platform—Azure, AWS, or any other—you need to implement best practices related to security and compliance. All too often, data center security takes a backseat to data center design, which puts businesses at a disadvantage when it comes to keeping up with data regulations and preventing data breaches. A 2017 report from Intel Security notes that only 23% of organizations completely trust public clouds to keep their data secure. But with the right resources, it is possible for your organization to achieve both compliance and security in the cloud—without high costs, special expertise, or performance setbacks. Continue reading

Azure vs. AWS: Determine Which You Need

Looking to take your on-premise data center or private cloud to the next level? Maybe you’re looking for a better way to allocate your infrastructure resources based on changing workload requirements. Or maybe you want to extend your data backup and recovery capabilities, or need a resiliency solution that is more cost-effective than the system you’re currently using.

Whatever your reasons, migrating to the public cloud has lots of advantages, including substantial cost savings, elasticity, and easy scalability. If you’re ready to take the next step, the question to consider is this: What cloud service should you go with? Continue reading