In my opinion, one of the most significant enablers for consumption of Platform as a Service (PaaS) in Azure has been the launch of Azure Private Link capability. For years, the concept, and successful implementation, of a private network has been a cornerstone of IT security. This is still true, even with an ‘assume breach’ […]
Tag: Microsoft
Microsoft have recently announced the general availability of Immersive Reader, one of the Azure Cognitive Services. Immersive Reader is probably more applicable to schools and, maybe, FE than to universities but is interesting nonetheless: Empowering remote learning with Azure Cognitive Services https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/empowering-remote-lea…. Immersive Reader is an Azure Cognitive Service within the Azure AI platform that […]
Jisc members and customers are under increasing pressure to deliver great user experiences to those who are working or studying remotely. Productivity suites have become an established means of delivering several applications and services remotely, across a range of platforms and devices. Email, calendars and collaboration tools, for example. But with the disruption caused by […]
This is a guest post by Peter Kent who is Head of IT governance and communications at Jisc. Working from home can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, you save time by not commuting which you can use for a few extra minutes in bed, more time spent with loved ones, or for a […]
Unsurprisingly, the world and its dog appear to be shifting large amounts of their collaboration activity (team chat, shared documents, meetings and telephony) into Microsoft Teams right now. Here are our top 10 tips for rolling-out Teams securely. This is particularly important given the large number of people now working from home. Whilst some of […]
With the move of large numbers of university and college staff and students to working from home there has been a significant shift in traffic flows across Janet. Microsoft have released guidance, How to quickly optimize Office 365 traffic for remote staff & reduce the load on your infrastructure, about how to optimise these new […]
As must be clear to everyone by now, there has been a massive spike in demand for public cloud services since the coronavirus outbreak first hit us. Microsoft report that whole countries have gone from zero use of cloud to deliver teaching to 100% coverage of cloud-based remote learning in a matter of weeks. MIcrosoft […]
One of the many things we offer as part of our Managed Azure service is a monthly report with advice on cost savings, security and cloud best practice. Fortunately, the native tool, Azure Advisor, provides personalized information on exactly these categories. However, we had a problem. Although Azure Advisor allows manual export of its reports […]
Are you well-architected?
If you currently work in a UK university or college, then the chances are that somebody, somewhere in your institution is already a customer of AWS or Microsoft Azure. Maybe both? In most cases, that usage of AWS or Azure will be known about and managed by the central IT deparatment, in some cases, possibly […]
The Capex to Opex Shift
Despite all the benefits of cloud, we often hear concerns about cloud. These generally fall into the following 6 categories which can be addressed with skills/knowledge or processes, be that creating or updating. One concern within Business is the capex to opex shift. Whilst on premise kit is treated as capex because they are owned […]