Yes, it's me again. This week on the show
Windows Server Hybrid Associate certification is done cooking, low RPO is here for Azure Files,
and we look at the future of telecommunications on Azure. I'm Lars Klint. This is Azure This
Week. And you are about to click that subscribe button. Don’t make me a liar.
Have you heard of the Windows Server Hybrid Associate certification?
Announced back in September, 2021 and covered on this show too, this new Azure certification
is made up of two exams: AZ-800 and AZ-801. It is aimed at the audience that is managing
on-premises infrastructure and is now moving into a hybrid cloud architecture. Until now you've been
able to take these certification exams in a beta version, but the cert is finally in production.
Now I sat both 800 and 801 being well, completely out my comfort zone. Mm. There was a lot of
details on Azure Active Directory, VM, containers, hybrid services, security, and so much more. Now I
still think the level of associate given by Microsoft is a bit optimistic. In my book,
whatever that book is, this is definitely an expert exam. And if you do want to try your
hand at it, I would recommend doing AZ-104, Microsoft Azure Administrator and AZ-500
Azure Security Engineer Associate first. If you are after more information on how all the Azure
certs fit together and can help you on your cloud journey, check out the Azure Cert Guide
and the end of 2021 update as well, that I made, using the links in the description.
They're good and stuff. Well watch, if I say low recovery point, objective, you say?
I'm sorry. What? That's just rude.
Low RPO is a key requirement for business critical data in Azure Files. RPO means
the maximum targeted period during which transactional data is lost
due to a major incident. Now, keeping it low means you lose less data when various things
hits well, a fan. And you can now achieve low RPO on Azure using multiple snapshots
per day of your file share. This feature has been missing for quite some time
for critical file shares. So it is nice to see it finally coming into general availability.
You can configure it through the Azure portal as well as PowerShell and the Azure CLI.
Now the last couple of years has pushed technology innovation to whole new heights.
We've communicated more on video than ever before. And a lot of services have made the transition to
online. Now, some of the technologies that have enabled that is 5G telecommunications,
VR, AI, flux capacitors, IoT, and edge computing. Now all this background work
that has been done to improve infrastructure to allow this has made Azure create Azure for
Operators. This is a push to get telecommunication operators to use Azure for extending their reach
and capabilities. After the first two rounds of operator integration into Azure in September,
2020 and June, 2021, this latest initiative called Azure Operator Distributed Services,
"meets the security, resiliency, observability manageability, and performance needs required
by operators to achieve meaningful results from digital transformation."
As Microsoft marketing eloquently puts it. Basically they want mobile operators to use
Azure for their customers and products. Now, while this announcement might not have any
direct impact on you, it will lead to more efficient networks, data flows, processing,
and ultimately make your tweet sends just that little bit, teeny weeny times faster. I think.
We made a lot of ground this week covering certifications, backups, and the entire
telecommunications industry...sort of. So what do you think was the best part? Let me know.
Personally, I am hoping the AZ-800 and AZ-801 exams will provide a segue from on-premises, to
hybrid, to full cloud for a lot of learners. Next week, Brian Roehm is going to take you through
the latest Azure in the cloud candy shop. I'll see you in the cloud. Keep being awesome Cloud Gurus.