OPS100: ITOps Talks: All Things Hybrid – Mark Russinovich Keynote

by Contributed | Feb 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Mark Russinovich, CTO and Technical Fellow of Microsoft Azure shares his view of All Things Hybrid with Microsoft Azure. There is a whole spectrum of hybrid capabilities you can enable within your hybrid strategy – Mark zeroes on these three opportunities:

• Azure Stack potfolio, highlting Azure Stack HCI


• Azure Arc for deep on-premises insights aggregated into a single Azure workspace


• Azure Sentinel, your single pane of glass for your security posture

Speaker:

Mark Russinovich, CTO and Technical Fellow of Microsoft Azure

Europe / North America Livestream 7:30 am PST

Asia Pacific  Livestream 7:30 PM PST

On-Demand: 

Europe / North America Q&A (link coming soon)

Azure Pacific Q&A (link coming soon)

Community Chat

Want to chat about the Event? Come join us on Discord! https://aka.ms/ITOpsTalks-General

Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenge Sweepstakes Official Rules

by Contributed | Feb 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenge Sweepstakes Official Rules 

We would like to invite you to participate in the Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenge sweepstakes February 2021 (“Sweepstakes”). These Official Rules (“Rules”) govern the operation of the Sweepstakes. Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA, 98052, USA, is the Sweepstakes sponsor (“Sponsor”). 

In these Rules, “Microsoft”, “we”, “our”, and “us” refer to Sponsor and/or its agents acting on behalf of Sponsor, and “you” and “yourself” refers to a Sweepstakes participant. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate in the Sweepstakes. If you are 18 years of age or older but have not reached the legal age of majority in the jurisdiction of your residence, then you must obtain permission from your parent or legal guardian to enter. By entering the Sweepstakes you (and your parent or legal guardian, if you have not reached the legal age of majority in the jurisdiction of your residence) agree to be bound by these Rules. 

“Forms” refers to prize claim and / or tax forms, as applicable. 

1. ELIGIBILITY 

Employees and directors of Sponsor and its subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising agencies, persons involved in the execution or administration of the Sweepstakes, or the family members (parents, children, siblings, spouse/domestic partners, or individuals residing in the same household) of each above are not eligible to participate in the Sweepstakes. We are committed to complying with government gift and ethics rules and therefore government or public sector employees are not eligible to participate in the Sweepstakes. Void in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Region of Crimea, and where prohibited. 

If you are participating in your capacity as an employee of a company, it is your responsibility to comply with your employer’s gift policies.  

1. PARTICIPATION 

No Purchase Necessary. 

The Sweepstakes starts at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (8:00 p.m. GMT) on February 2, 2021 and ends at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (8:00 p.m. GMT) on February 16, 2021 (“Entry Period”).  

To participate in the Sweepstakes, complete this challenge and tweet a screenshot of your Microsoft Learn ID and the completed challenge to the @itopstalk Twitter account with the #ITOpsTalk hashtag during the Entry Period. 

Participation is limited to 1 entry per person. Attempts to obtain more than 1 entry by using multiple/different accounts, identities, registrations, logins, or any other methods will void all of your entries and disqualify you. Using any automated system to participate is prohibited. We will 1 award one prize per winning person/company. If disputed, entries will be deemed submitted by the “authorized account holder” of the email address, social media account, or other method used to enter. The “authorized account holder” of an account is the natural person assigned to the account by the applicable internet or online service provider or organization responsible for assigning the account. We will not be party to any disputes or related actions. We are not responsible for excess, lost, late, or incomplete entries.  

1. POTENTIAL WINNER SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION 

Within 7 days following the end of the Entry Period, we will select potential prize winners (pending confirmation of eligibility) in a random drawing from among all entries received.  

Within 7 days after the drawing, selected potential winners will be notified via Twitter with prize claim instructions, including any applicable claim deadlines. If you are selected as a potential winner and you are 18 or older but have not reached the legal age of majority in the jurisdiction of your residence, we may require your parent/legal guardian to sign all required forms on your behalf. If a selected potential winner cannot be notified, is ineligible, does not follow the prize claim instructions, or otherwise fails to claim a prize or to return any Forms, the potential winner will forfeit their prize, and we may in its discretion select an alternate potential winner, provided that only five alternate potential winners will be selected for each prize, after which the prize will remain unclaimed and unawarded. 

1. FINAL WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT 

Final winners in the Sweepstakes will be posted to the IT Ops Talks blog (https://www.itopstalk.com). Please submit questions regarding participation or prize fulfilment to @itopstalk on Twitter.  

1. PRIZES 

The following prizes will be awarded: 

3 First Prizes. Winner and up to 4 friends will get an exclusive, 30–minute virtual meeting via Microsoft Teams with Microsoft engineer Jeff Woolsey to discuss topic related to Windows Server/Server Hybrid or Azure Stack HCI. 

5 Second Prizes. Each winner will receive a 30–minute one-on-one career mentoring session with a member of Sponsor’s #AzOps team.  

No prizes exceeding the stated numbers above will be awarded.  

We determine the approximate retail value (ARV) of each prize based on its fair market value. When these Rules are drafted, the approximate retail value (ARV) of each prize is $0.00 USD. The ARV is subject to price fluctuations in the consumer marketplace based on, among other things, any time gap between when these Rules are drafted and when the prize is awarded or redeemed.  

No substitution, transfer, or assignment of prize permitted, except that we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value in the event the offered prize is unavailable or inaccessible in your country of residence. Prizes are awarded “AS IS” with no warranty of any kind, either express or implied“”. Prize winners may be required to complete and return applicable Forms within the deadline stated in the winner notification. Taxes on the prize, if any, are the sole responsibility of the winner, who is advised to seek independent counsel regarding the tax implications of accepting a prize. By accepting a prize, you agree that we may use your entry, name, image and hometown online and in print, or in any other media, in connection with this Sweepstakes, in each case without payment or compensation to you, except where prohibited by law. 

1. ODDS 

The odds of winning are based on the number of entries received. 

1. GENERAL CONDITIONS AND RELEASE OF LIABILITY 

To the extent permitted by law, by entering you agree to release and hold harmless Sponsor and its respective parents, partners, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, and agents from any and all liability or any injury, loss, or damage of any kind arising in connection with this Sweepstakes, your participation thereof or any prize won. 

All local laws apply. Our decisions are final and binding. 

We reserve the right to cancel, change, or suspend this Sweepstakes for any reason, including cheating, technology failure, catastrophe, war, or any other unforeseen or unexpected event that affects the integrity of this Sweepstakes, whether human or mechanical. If the integrity of the Sweepstakes cannot be restored, we may in our discretion select winners from among all eligible entries received before we had to cancel, change or suspend the Sweepstakes. 

If you attempt or we have strong reason to believe that you have compromised the integrity or the legitimate operation of this Sweepstakes by cheating, hacking, creating a bot or other automated program, or by committing fraud in any way, we may seek damages from you to the full extent permitted under the law and ban you from participating in future promotions. 

1. USE OF YOUR ENTRY 

We will use personal data you provide while entering this Sweepstakes or claiming the prizes solely to administer and operate the Sweepstakes, fulfill the prizes, and announce the final winners, in each case in accordance with the Microsoft Privacy Statement. 

1. GOVERNING LAW 

The laws of the State of Washington govern this Sweepstakes, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of the State of Washington for any disputes arising out of this Sweepstakes. 

Migrating SAP on Oracle Workloads to Azure

by Contributed | Feb 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

SAP running on Oracle Database is a very common SAP deployment pattern. We are working with customers to move the Oracle workloads to Azure as their first step to modernize the SAP estate in their business transformation journey. 

This document details the design patterns, recommendations and lessons learnt from some of the largest migrations to Azure. The attached document is a more detailed document to supplement the already published article Azure Virtual Machines Oracle DBMS deployment for SAP workload