Let's Talk Azure!

Alan and Sam discuss the integration of Microsoft Sentinel into the Defender XDR portal. Alan goes through the benefits of the integration and thing to watch out for when starting the migration. Here are a few things we covered: What is Microsoft’s Unified SecOps Platform? What are the announcements around Microsoft Sentinel’s interface moving? What are the benefits of the integration of Microsoft Sentinel? What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

In this episode, we explore Azure Bastion, Microsoft’s fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution designed to provide secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) access to Azure virtual machines (VMs). This Q&A-style episode dives deep into how Azure Bastion strengthens cloud security by eliminating the need for public IP addresses on VMs, reducing exposure to external threats like port scanning or protocol exploits. Alan poses critical questions about Azure Bastion’s functionality, architecture, deployment options, and integration with Azure’s security ecosystem, while our consultant delivers actionable insights tailored for IT administrators, security professionals, and cloud architects. We cover: Core Functionality: How Azure Bastion enables secure, clientless RDP/SSH access via the Azure portal or native clients, protecting VMs by removing public IP dependencies. Architecture Breakdown: The role of the dedicated AzureBastionSubnet, private IP connectivity, and TLS-based sessions, including support for zonal deployments for high availability. SKU Options: A detailed look at Developer, Basic, Standard, and Premium SKUs, highlighting features like session recording, Private Link integration, and host scaling for different organizational needs. Security Integrations: How Azure Bastion works with Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Entra ID (with MFA and conditional access), Azure Private Link, and Azure Monitor to enforce Zero Trust principles and ensure compliance. Real-World Use Cases: Practical scenarios, such as secure admin access for global teams, compliance for regulated industries (e.g., healthcare, finance), and streamlined dev/test environments, with examples like Metinvest’s global VM management. Best Practices: Tips for deployment (e.g., subnet sizing, VNet peering), security (e.g., MFA, NSG configuration), monitoring (e.g., Azure Monitor logs), and cost management (e.g., SKU selection, scaling strategies). Limitations and Considerations: Key factors like SKU constraints, regional availability for zonal deployments, performance considerations, and cost implications, with guidance on mitigating challenges. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam dive into Defender for Cloud's Protective workload for server. Alan goes through the different plans available and the features that are available. Here are a few things we covered: What is the Defender for Server Protective workload What features does it provide How easy is it to enable How much does it cost What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

This week Alan and Sam discuss Data API builder. It is a powerful tool designed to streamline the process of creating and deploying APIs for data-driven applications. It facilitates the rapid development of secure, scalable, and high-performance APIs that can seamlessly interact with various data sources, including databases, file systems, and third-party services. By automating much of the setup and configuration, Data API builder reduces the complexity and time required to bring data APIs to production, allowing developers to focus on building features and functionality rather than managing infrastructure. This tool is particularly beneficial for organizations looking to enhance their data accessibility and integration capabilities while ensuring robust security and performance standards. _What are CRUD APIs? Why are they important? How do you use it? What are some of the use cases for the solution? How much does it cost? What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure Stack solutions can help bring the capabilities of Azure management plane to your on-premises and edge environments. Sam goes through the three solutions, what their capabilities are and example use cases / workloads. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Microsoft Defender for IoT and why it is a useful tool have in an organisation to reduce cyber risk. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how you can easily discover your device exposure risk and start to prioritise the remediation. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure AD, part of the Microsoft Entra family can secure your identity in the cloud. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains his viewpoint of the product and why we should consider the premium features within Azure AD to secure and manage cloud identity. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.