This Week I Learned - Week #269

This Week I Learned -

* AWS supports Windows Server 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 and 2016 on a variety of Amazon EC2 instance types. You can use your own licensed software on dedicated infrastructure, even without Software Assurance (SA). The use of Microsoft software is subject to Microsoft's terms.

* Users are responsible for complying with Microsoft licensing.AWS provides updated, fully patched Windows AMIs within 5 business days of Microsoft’s patch Tuesday (second Tuesday of each month).

AWS lets you choose between multiple editions of SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2016.

AWS supports Microsoft software running on AWS. Issues with Microsoft applications running on an AWS instance should be submitted to Microsoft support.

All Microsoft software covered by the Microsoft Product Terms can be deployed on AWS using Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts. Examples include:
Microsoft Windows Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (user CALs)
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft SharePoint Server
Microsoft System Center
Microsoft Dynamics products
MSDN

* Since AWS shifted from by-the-hour to by-the-second pricing for its EC2 and EBS services in the Autumn of 2017, bringing it into line with Azure and Google.

* Microsoft guarantees at least 99.99% of the time customers will have connectivity between their single or elastic Basic, Standard, or Premium Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Microsoft's Internet gateway. GCP Cloud SQL & AWS RDS offer SLA of at least 99.95% during any monthly billing cycle

* Unlike Azure which offer SLA of 99.9% for single instance virtual machines using Premium storage for all OS & data disks, AWS & GCP don't have a similar provision

* A longstanding AWS customer is Netflix, which eventually decided to shut all of its data centres in a final move to the cloud in 2016. During Snapchat's IPO process it was revealed that the company is committed to a $2 billion five-year deal with Google for cloud services, as well as a $1 billion deal with AWS over five years - Computer World UK

Typically we pay for Azure virtual machines on a per minute pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis. However, Enterprise Agreement (EA) and direct (credit card/MOSP) customers have had the option to pre-pay for virtual machines to get substantial discounts using a system called reserved instances (RIs). Now, this system has come to an important growth market for Microsoft called Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) where the sale and deployment go through a Microsoft partner - Petri.com

Decision tree for Azure Compute Selection [Image Credit: Microsoft]
* Takeaways from the Bitglass 2018 Cloud Adoption Report:
- Companies use SaaS than use IaaS and PaaS combined
- 13.8 percent of the companies examined make use of AWS. AWS is the top IaaS cloud
- The tech industry is the top user of AWS, with a usage rate of 21.5 percent, followed by the education sector at 19.7 percent.

5 Key Considerations When Selecting a Public Cloud Service:
- Ease of Use - Difficult-to-use cloud portals can lead to sensitive workloads being exposed because of misconfigured security permissions.
- Open Source Friendliness - Google is particularly strong in this area
- Cost - When evaluating a public cloud service for competitive costs, customers should understand the types of discounts available. For example, while GCP positions itself as a cost leader in the market, its discounts are per-service rather than over the contract.
- Technical Support - Customer service with 24/7 availability and account managers are table stakes at this point when it comes to public cloud service providers. Some vendors, like Google and Microsoft, offer a lower level of support by default, but allow customers to pay extra for enterprise-class support.
- Strong Partner Ecosystem - Public cloud service providers that do not have an ISV, consulting partner and MSP ecosystem will only be useful for narrow use cases, Gartner says.

Petrol prices in India typically peak in the third quarter

* The Telangana Web Directory currently lists details of 325 state government services

Amid growing concerns over rising pollution levels and traffic congestions, the number of four-wheelers in Hyderabad has been growing at a rapid pace and racing towards the million mark...both two and four-wheelers, which constitute about 90 per cent of city’s total vehicles or around 50 lakh or 5 million...placing Hyderabad in the fifth position after Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai.

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