This Week I Learned - Week #51 2020

This Week I Learned - 

* Azure Stack and Outposts are not multi-cloud products but extend many common public cloud services from their respective platforms unlike Google Anthos. Because Anthos is essentially a Kubernetes distribution that can run on a mixture of different cloud infrastructures at once -- and is not tied to GCP specifically -- it fully supports multi-cloud architectures and offers the most flexibility. Outposts is a managed service that will only work on a hardware device designed, sold and installed directly by AWS. Azure Stack works only with servers that are certified by Microsoft to support the platform. 

* Hybrid clouds always involve both private and public solutions. On the other hand, a multi-cloud always involves more than one public cloud, but it can also include virtual and physical infrastructure.

* AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive)  is a UNIX operating system sold by IBM.  AIX is based on the RISC processors (that is, IBM Power PC, IBM z-series, Sun SPARC), and most Linux systems are based on the Intel x86 processor.  Cloud Native Services are based on x86 processor architecture, so the migration path from AIX requires some refactoring. An application that runs on AIX in a JVM can be ported with minimal changes to a JVM in another UNIX-like system , such as Linux, or even to Microsoft Windows Server. Native AIX applications do not run on the x86 platform. Besides rearchitecting, the alternative option is to run in an emulator on Azure. Moving AIX workloads to the cloud can be a significant step toward datacenter modernization. 

* Azure Spring Cloud is a fully managed service that allows you to run Java-based application in a cloud-native Java environment. 

* Device42 is a CMDB with features like auto discovery, application dependency mapping, Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM), IT asset management (ITAM), IP Address Management (IPAM).

* Skytap offers self-service, multi-tenant Azure service to migrate and run applications based on IBM Power Operating Systems including AIX, IBM i, and Linux, natively in Microsoft Azure with minimal changes. Skytap runs on Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host (bare metal). Skytap is the only cloud service on Azure to support AIX, IBM i, and Linux on Power as well as x86 VMs.

* As a best practice, Microsoft recommends that you assign this role to fewer than five people in your organization.

* Azure Information Protection (AIP) is a cloud-based solution that enables organizations to discover, classify, and protect documents and emails by applying labels to content. AIP is part of the Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) solution, and extends the labeling and classification functionality provided by Microsoft 365.

* Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS) is the protection technology used by Azure Information Protection. Azure RMS is a cloud-based protection service that uses encryption, identity, and authorization policies to help secure files and emails across multiple devices, including phones, tablets, and PCs. Protection settings remain with your data, even when it leaves your organization's boundaries, keeping your content protected both within and outside your organization.

* Azure AD Premium P2 is the license that is required to implement and use Identity Governance (Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Access Reviews, Entitlement Management) and  Identity Protection (Vulnerabilities and risky accounts detection, Risk events investigation, Risk based Conditional Access policies)

* A lab tool like WebPageTest or Lighthouse can tell you thousands of facts about how the page was built and how quickly the page loaded from its perspective. This makes lab tools irreplaceable for inspecting and diagnosing performance issues.

* You can use Update Management in Azure Automation to manage operating system updates for your Windows and Linux virtual machines in Azure, in on-premises environments, and in other cloud environments.  Update Management can be used to natively deploy to machines in multiple subscriptions in the same tenant.

* Each Azure geography contains one or more regions and meets specific data residency and compliance requirements.

* Azure Key Vault features multiple layers of redundancy to make sure that your keys and secrets remain available to your application even if individual components of the service fail. The contents of your key vault are replicated within the region and to a secondary region at least 150 miles away, but within the same geography to maintain high durability of your keys and secrets. You can't back up a key vault in one geography and restore it into another geography.

* Forrester Research has named Microsoft Azure Sentinel as a “Leader” in The Forrester Wave™: Security Analytics Platform Providers, Q4 2020.

* While Kubernetes has many advantages, it also brings new security challenges that should be considered.

* The MITRE ATT&CK® framework is a knowledge base of known tactics and techniques that are involved in cyberattacks.

an ATT&CK-like matrix comprising the major techniques that are relevant to container orchestration security, with focus on Kubernetes.

* According to Google, more than 6 million companies used G Suite (now known as Google Workspace) as of March 2020. Google experienced an authentication system outage on 14th December for approximately 45 minutes due to an internal storage quota issue. Services requiring users to log in experienced high error rates during this period.

* In machine learning, explainability is the study of how we can make models more interpretable, so that we can understand, at least to some extent, why they make the predictions they do—an improvement from taking the predictions of a deep neural net at face value without understanding what contributed to the model output.

* "The speed, precision, and scale of AutoML Tables allowed Fox Sports to create an entirely new experience for millions of cricket fans across Australia. By training our model on the multiple variables of historical cricket matches we could predict when wickets would fall 5 minutes before it happened on the pitch" . Dubbed Monty, the model was trained on a year’s worth of historical data on cricket matches and designed to parse 83 variables within seconds after a ball is hit. During this prediction window, it also factors in data on recent shots in a game, so that it understands what is happening on the pitch to make its predictions.

* In early February 2021, you’ll be able to renew your role-based and specialty certifications by passing a free renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn.  To help you prepare, you’ll also have the option to access a free collection of curated learning modules for each renewal assessment. Starting in June 2021, the the validity for role-based and specialty certifications to one year from the date you earned it for newly earned certifications. 

* Cognizant is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner with five AWS Competencies. Cognizant is also a member of the AWS Managed Service Provider (MSP) and AWS Well-Architected Partner Programs

* A nation state is a state in which a great majority shares the same culture and is conscious of it. The nation state is an ideal in which cultural boundaries match up with political boundaries

* B.R.A.T is an acronym used to describe children whose parents are career military personnel: B - being R - relocated A - all (the) T - time

* Of the more than 300 passenger cruise ships around the world, nine are captained by women

* OYO Hotels & Homes was founded by Ritesh Agarwal, the first resident Asian to be accepted to the Thiel Fellowship (started by Paypal founder Peter Thiel) in 2013. 

* Page Industries Ltd. is the exclusive licensee of Jockey International in India. Page Industries is also the exclusive licensee of Speedo International for the manufacturing, marketing and distribution in India. Jockey International and all its subsidiaries exclusively use WRAP certified or equivalent factories and requires all licensed partners to comply with Jockey standards and maintain WRAP certification. Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) is a non-profit organisation focused on the sewn products sector and it certifies socially responsible facilities.

* The $2.5 trillion (2019) clothing industry employs 43 million people in Asia alone. Covid-19 has been the third major disruption to globalization within the past twelve years. The 2008 American financial system meltdown and the trade war between China & USA have been the other big hits.

* Singapore Airlines dropped out of the bidding in 2001 when Air India expected partial privatisation to wipe out its $70 million debt and raise money for a long overdue aircraft upgrading.

* Michael Soussan is the author of the 2008 book Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy, about the widespread corruption and financial abuse, at the highest levels, that he found while working for the Oil-for-Food Program under the United Nations in Iraq. 

* Google employs about 10% of the IIT-JEE toppers and rank holders of the past four decades. Google is followed by Microsoft and Facebook, where 4% and 3% of the rank holders work, respectively. Other companies include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, Adobe, Intel and Uber. - ToI

* Van Gogh painted a number of self-portraits in 1886, possibly because of his difficulty in getting models to sit for him. He was in poor health and his teeth were falling out, prompting him to grow a moustache to conceal them.

* As he lay on his death bed, having apparently shot himself, Vincent Van Gogh is said to have uttered the final words, "The sadness will last forever". It was Van Gogh's nephew, Vincent Willem, who would ultimately inherit the enormous collection of paintings and sketches. Dutch law meant that if he gave them over to his children they would be forced to pay an enormous inheritance tax, and they would be forced to sell some of the paintings just to cover it. And so he devised a plan. In 1962 he established the Vincent Van Gogh Foundation, and in 1973 a museum devoted to his works was opened in Amsterdam. Today, no descendent of Vincent personally owns any of his work.