Displaying items by tag: Microsoft Azure

For the past several years, Red Hat and Microsoft have worked together to co-develop hybrid cloud solutions intended to enable greater customer innovation.

Last year, at Red Hat Summit 2019, Red Hat and Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s first jointly-engineered, managed and supported OpenShift service on a leading public cloud.

Further extending their work together in the hybrid cloud, at the Red Hat Summit virtual experience, Microsoft and Red Hat announced the general availability of Azure Red Hat OpenShift on OpenShift 4.

Sathish Balakrishnan, vice president, hosted platforms at Red Hat said, “Azure Red Hat OpenShift enables you to create clusters in minutes, in a self-service fashion. Because this is a fully managed service, there are no VMs for you to manage. Patching, upgrading, repair, and disaster recovery are all handled for you as part of the service with best in class proactive 24/7 management and support from both Microsoft and Red Hat.”

With this release, Red Hat is adding new key features to Azure Red Hat OpenShift.

Cluster-admin support

This feature enables the cluster-admin role on Azure Red Hat OpenShift clusters, enabling full cluster customization capabilities, such as running privileged containers and installing Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs).

Cluster autoscaling

The ClusterAutoscaler and MachineAutoscalers automatically adjusts the size of your cluster to meet current demand. Mix and match virtual machine sizes to your workloads.

Multi-availability zones clusters

To deliver high levels of resiliency, cluster components are now deployed across 3 Azure Availability Zones in supported Azure regions to maintain high availability for your most demanding mission-critical applications and data. Azure Red Hat OpenShift has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99.9%.

Industry compliance certifications

To help customers reach compliance obligations across regulated industries and markets worldwide, Azure Red Hat OpenShift is now PCI DSS, FedRAMP High and HITRUST certified.

Azure maintains a large compliance portfolio both in terms of total number of offerings, as well as number of customer-facing services in assessment scope.

In addition to supporting authentication and authorization using Azure Active Directory, customers can now connect their supported identity providers, for example using OpenID Connect.

Private API and ingress endpoints

Customers will be able to choose between public and private cluster management (API) and ingress endpoints. With private endpoints and Azure Express Route support Red Hat is enabling private hybrid clusters, allowing our mutual customers to extend their on-premises solutions to Azure.

OpenShift 4 is the industry’s most comprehensive enterprise Kubernetes platform, driven by the innovation of Kubernetes Operators to deliver full-stack automation from top to bottom. From Kubernetes to the core services that support OpenShift clusters to the application services deployed by end users; everything is managed with Operators.

This release also brings key innovations from Red Hat OpenShift 4 to Azure Red Hat OpenShift.

Kubernetes 1.16 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS

RHEL CoreOS provides a fully immutable, container optimized, operating system built from the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, delivered and installed as a component of OpenShift.

OperatorHub.io

Red Hat launched OperatorHub.io to provide a registry where users can find curated Kubernetes Operators. Users can now access the Operator Hub through the Azure Red Hat OpenShift console, which includes community as well as Red Hat OpenShift Certified Operators.

OpenShift service mesh

Based on the Istio, Jaeger and Kali projects, OpenShift Service Mesh provides an integrated service mesh for enhanced security and network segmentation of microservices applications.

This enables developers to focus on building business logic while letting the service mesh manage policy-defined microservice communications. They can also use integrated tracing and visualization capabilities to debug issues when they occur.

OpenShift serverless

Built on the Knative framework, OpenShift Serverless enables developers to build functions based applications that have the ability to scale to zero, and only consume compute resources when functions execute.

Integrated Telecom Company (ITC) has launched Microsoft Azure Stack, a hybrid cloud-based computing software solution, in Saudi Arabia.

Azure Stack aims to help companies build their own environment using the same tools and solutions as that of Microsoft Azure public cloud.

With Microsoft Azure Stack platform, ITC will help organizations implement the same capabilities that Azure public cloud offers, within ITC’s data center inside the Kingdom. It is also the safest way to have security and control over businesses’ critical data.

Additionally, with the option of scalability, resources can be increased as per businesses’ needs and demand. ITC provides a full spectrum of Deployment Planning Services for Microsoft Azure Stack Cloud Service.

This service is in addition to the Microsoft Azure Express Route service where ITC provides a direct international link from KSA to the Azure Data Centers globally.

The CCO of ITC , Mr. Radwan Al-Mufleh said,"Microsoft Azure Stack is one of the most essential cloud-based services provided by the company to help its clients experience the benefits of Microsoft cloud with the flexibility and control they need. ITC also provides direct dedicated links to MS Data Centers outside KSA”.

ITC works with a number of leading specialist technical companies to provide telecom solutions, managed services, security services, cloud computing services and connectivity to government, banking and business sectors, making it one of the leading providers of telecommunications and ICT services in the Kingdom.

Instead of going with cloud giants Amazon or Microsoft, Zoom announced it had picked Oracle as a cloud infrastructure partner to support its rapid growth and evolving business needs as the enterprise video communications company continues to innovate and provide an essential service to its extensive customer base.

In a multi-year partnership, Etisalat has announced that it has teamed up with Microsoft to drive public cloud first strategy through a digital transformation program that enables Etisalat to build a digital platform infused with automation and AI providing a simplified network architecture and operations empowering Etisalat subscribers and improving customer experience.

“Today, Etisalat and Microsoft embark together on a bold new digital transformation journey that will allow us to leverage our industry expertise to deliver the next generation of networks,” said Saeed Al Zarouni, Senior Vice President, Mobile Networks, Etisalat.

“Keeping in line with our overall strategy and vision of ‘Driving the Digital Future to Empower Societies, we at Etisalat are committed to nothing less than the total transformation of the consumer and business customer experiences. Etisalat today has transitioned to a digital service provider – the provider of choice for digital services among enterprises and SMB customers, supporting them to monetize services to generate new revenue streams. Together with Microsoft, we are building the communications network of the future.”

Microsoft Azure will power the infusion of AI capabilities into Etisalat’s network by expanding Microsoft Azure solutions into the network, and for Etisalat’s new technologies like Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Network Edge Computing (NEC).  These will significantly speed up computing at the edge, which combined with 5G, will enable new types of applications related to smart cities, autonomous systems, gaming, AR/VR, IoT, and vision computing solutions.

“Our partnership with Etisalat is further demonstration of the trust regional enterprises place in the intelligent Microsoft Cloud,” said Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE.

“Our mission is to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more. Etisalat’s digital transformation journey centers on a public-cloud-first strategy including network workloads. Its partnership with Microsoft is designed to merge its telecommunications capabilities with our intelligent cloud solutions, including artificial intelligence and self-healing networks.”

PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, has launched the Online Cloud Connect service providing connectivity to Microsoft Azure.

This is an innovative Network-as-a-Service product that extends a customer’s MPLS network service to both Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365, benefiting them by providing a service which is insulated from the public Internet with improved and predictable performance and vastly reduced latency.

The Online Cloud Connect service leverages the capabilities of PCCW Global's Software Defined Network (SDN) and is an evolution beyond traditional and existing cloud connect services in the market. Enterprises and institutions gain flexibility, scalability, reliable performance and control over their connectivity to the cloud to fit their requirements at any given time.

Mr. Jordick Wong, Senior Vice President, Product and Vendor Management, PCCW Global, said, “Through an intuitive, easy to manage online service portal, our MPLS customers can now establish their own private connection to Microsoft Azure very easily and conveniently.”

Wong added, “The service portal offers online ordering and automatic provisioning together with flexible subscription packages starting from as little as a one-hour timeslot. Customers can subscribe to the bandwidth they require from a range of 50 to 1000 Mbps at the point of demand, and pay as they go without any human interaction being required.”

The Online Cloud Connect service is in the process of further extending its online ordering and automatic provisioning capabilities to include other major public cloud service providers.

Canada's largest communications company Bell and Microsoft Canada announced the availability of an expanded suite of Microsoft Azure cloud services, including Compute, and Backup and Disaster Recovery, on Canada's largest broadband network for business.

Bell and Microsoft previously announced a partnership in which Bell became the first Canadian communications provider to offer enterprise access to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute through Bell Cloud Connect, a dedicated broadband solution for business customers.

"Bell customers can directly access Microsoft's growing portfolio of Azure cloud services over Bell's unparalleled private broadband network, enabling them to migrate workloads to the cloud securely and cost-effectively," said Tom Little, President of Bell Business Markets. "Bell Cloud Connect and Microsoft Azure enable Canadian businesses to move confidently to the cloud."

"We are seeing more businesses migrate to the cloud and are thrilled to expand our partnership with Bell to provide business customers access to more Microsoft Azure cloud services," said Janet Kennedy, President of Microsoft Canada. "Bell's reach, coverage and experience working with enterprise scale customers, together with Microsoft's leading cloud solutions, will further Canadian business innovation and competitiveness."

Bell has the largest national data centre capacity, offering customers access to 28 highly secure, high capacity centers across the country. Bell's unique hybrid cloud solutions allow customers to optimize workloads and host their business critical data on either public or private cloud by leveraging co-location and virtualized services.

"Canadian organizations' adoption of cloud has shifted dramatically over the last several years," said David Senf, Vice President, Infrastructure Solutions, IDC. "The benefits of an expanded architecture that includes on-premises, hosted and cloud options helps organizations execute faster on new projects, which is critical in the new age of digital transformation. Additionally, network proximity and performance are becoming increasingly critical for hybrid cloud connectivity for strong but flexible security. A strong foundation for cloud performance and security starts at the network."

Bell's Business Cloud ecosystem continues to evolve through new partnerships and services, allowing customers to benefit from additional solutions, enterprise applications and business tools.

Driven by industry-leading innovation and supported by strong expertise, Bell Business Markets offers a comprehensive national portfolio of products and services for large and medium business and government customers, including data centre solutions, unified communications, security and professional services supporting business ICT needs.

With strong business communications expertise and networks that are unrivalled in the industry, Bell designs, builds and operates the critical infrastructures that power many of the largest networked organizations in Canada and around the globe.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance and Microsoft Corp. have signed a global, multiyear agreement to partner on next-generation technologies to advance connected driving experiences worldwide. The companies will work together to develop next-generation connected services for cars powered by Microsoft Azure, one of the company’s intelligent cloud offerings.

These new services will improve customer experience via advanced navigation, predictive maintenance and vehicle centric services, remote monitoring of car features, external mobile experiences and over-the-air updates.

“A car is becoming increasingly connected, intelligent and personal,” said Ogi Redzic, Renault-Nissan Alliance, senior vice-president, Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services. “Partnering with Microsoft allows us to accelerate the development of the associated key technologies needed to enable scenarios our customers want and build all-new ones they haven’t even imagined. We aim to become the provider of connected mobility for everyone with one single global platform.”

The Renault-Nissan Alliance is pioneering autonomous driving and connectivity features on mainstream, mass-market vehicles at affordable prices. The Alliance aims to develop connectivity technologies and features to support the launch of more than 10 vehicles with autonomous driving technology by 2020 with services to maximize better use of newly found in-car free time.

Renault-Nissan will develop and launch new connected services and applications that make it easier for people to stay connected to work, entertainment and social networks, and offer vehicle centric services that will simplify and enhance engagement with the car through usage-based information, remote access, remote diagnostics and preventive maintenance.

Renault-Nissan selected Azure in part because of its enterprise-grade security and Microsoft’s rigorous commitment to compliance. In addition, Azure supports multiple operating systems, programming languages and tools, providing flexibility and choice to build a common platform for Renault-Nissan to deploy services to both Alliance brands.

“While the connected car experience is in its infancy, we believe there’s so much potential to dramatically change the industry. We are partnering to accelerate Renault-Nissan’s mobile and cloud strategies and unlock new experiences for their customers,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, executive vice president and president, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations, Microsoft.