1 min read
The Ultimate Azure Cost Optimization Checklist for 2026
Start the new year with optimized cloud spend. These changes compound over time into significant savings.
Cloud
36 articles
1 min read
Azure OpenAI vs OpenAI Direct: A 2025 Comparison Guide
One of the most common questions I receive from enterprise clients is whether to use Azure OpenAI Service or OpenAI's API directly. After working with both…
1 min read
AI FinOps: Managing AI Costs at Scale
AI FinOps provides visibility and control over AI infrastructure costs.
1 min read
AI Infrastructure Evolution: From GPUs to AI-Native Platforms
Infrastructure will increasingly abstract away the complexity of AI, making it as easy to add AI as it is to add a database today.
1 min read
Advanced Reasoning Techniques on Azure OpenAI
The AI landscape is evolving rapidly. OpenAI has hinted at improved reasoning capabilities in future models. Build your infrastructure to be flexible and…
1 min read
Cost Optimization for AI Workloads
AI infrastructure costs compound quickly. A few patterns I've been applying with clients to bring Azure OpenAI and Azure ML spend under control: at the API…
1 min read
Azure ML Compute: Choosing the Right Infrastructure
Azure ML offers three distinct compute experiences, and choosing the right one makes a significant difference to both cost and development friction. For…
1 min read
Hugging Face + Azure: Running Open Source Models in the Cloud
Hugging Face and Microsoft's partnership has made the model hub directly accessible from Azure ML, and in August 2023 this is meaningfully useful for Llama…
2 min read
2022 Azure Year in Review: Major Releases and Milestones
The biggest story of the year bringing GPT 3, Codex, and DALL E to enterprise: General availability expanded New models including GPT 3.5 Content filtering…
2 min read
Thanksgiving Reflections: A Year of Azure Data and AI Progress
Enterprise features like private endpoints, managed identity, and content filtering make these models production-ready.
1 min read
Microsoft Ignite 2022 Preview - What to Expect
Official site : ignite.microsoft.com Tech Community : techcommunity.microsoft.com Learn : learn.microsoft.com YouTube : Microsoft Mechanics channel Stay…
1 min read
Azure SQL Database Updates - September 2022
Azure SQL Database's continuous improvements make it an excellent choice for cloud-native applications requiring robust, scalable database capabilities.
1 min read
Azure IoT Hub Updates and New Features in 2022
These IoT Hub updates enable more sophisticated device management and data processing scenarios.
1 min read
Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server Deep Dive
Flexible Server gives you the power of managed PostgreSQL with the flexibility to tune it for your specific needs.
1 min read
Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server: A Complete Guide
Flexible Server provides the enterprise features you need while maintaining the simplicity of a managed service.
1 min read
Kubernetes 1.24 Features: Deep Dive into New Capabilities
Handle node failures gracefully: Configure node shutdown behavior: Control traffic routing for services: Track batch job progress: Stricter API validation:…
1 min read
Microsoft Dev Box Preview: Cloud-Based Developer Workstations
Microsoft Dev Box provides self-service, high-performance, cloud-based workstations pre-configured with project-specific tools, source code, and settings.…
1 min read
Azure Sustainability: Building a Greener Cloud
Microsoft has committed to being carbon negative by 2030. Azure regions are increasingly powered by renewable energy, and new tools help customers measure…
2 min read
Azure Predictions for 2022: What to Expect
Predicting Azure's direction for 2022 from the vantage point of January 1st: the Container Apps/serverless container narrative continues to mature (Azure…
1 min read
Self-Service Infrastructure: Empowering Teams to Move Fast
The future is developers who can move fast within safe guardrails. Self-service infrastructure makes that possible.
1 min read
Platform Engineering: Building the Foundation for Developer Productivity
Platform engineering is about creating golden paths - paved roads that make it easy for developers to do the right thing. It's infrastructure as a product…
1 min read
Green Computing in the Cloud: Sustainability at Scale
Green computing in 2021 became a real consideration, not just marketing. Azure's commitment to carbon negative by 2030 provides the tools; it's up to us to…
1 min read
The Serverless Evolution: Where We Landed in 2021
Serverless in 2021 proved it's not just for simple APIs. Complex, stateful, event-driven applications are running successfully in production. The technology…
1 min read
Azure 2021 Year in Review: The Platform That Kept Evolving
Arc-enabled data services brought Azure SQL and PostgreSQL Hyperscale to any infrastructure, a game-changer for hybrid scenarios.
5 min read
Microsoft Ignite 2021 Recap: Looking Forward to the Intelligent Cloud
Ignite Fall 2021 was dense with announcements—Azure Container Apps, Chaos Studio, Load Testing, Service Connector, Azure Developer CLI, Arc-enabled data…
1 min read
Azure Functions with .NET 6: In-Process and Isolated Worker Models
In-Process: Functions run in the same process as the Functions host Isolated Worker: Functions run in a separate worker process
1 min read
Azure SQL Hyperscale: The Ultimate Database Scaling Solution
Traditional database architectures couple compute and storage tightly together. Hyperscale breaks this coupling by introducing a distributed storage…
1 min read
Azure WebJobs for Background Processing
Understanding when to use each: Feature WebJobs Azure Functions Hosting Part of App Service Standalone or App Service Scaling With App Service plan…
2 min read
Azure Functions Premium Plan - When and Why
The Azure Functions Premium plan is the hosting option I reach for as soon as two of these three conditions are true: the function needs to connect to a…
1 min read
Background Processing Patterns in Azure
Use queues to handle variable load: Scale processing with multiple consumers: Process high priority items first: Coordinate long running business processes:…
1 min read
Azure Database for MySQL: Flexible Server Deep Dive
For larger databases, use Azure Database Migration Service.
2 min read
Azure SQL Managed Instance: Migration Patterns and Best Practices
Azure SQL Managed Instance is the SQL Server target I recommend most for lift-and-shift migrations from on-premises SQL Server. It's PaaS—no OS to patch…
2 min read
Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server - A Deep Dive
Flexible Server is the deployment option I now default to when a client asks "which PostgreSQL on Azure should I use?" The original Single Server mode…
2 min read
Azure in 2021: Predictions and Trends
First post of 2021. The kids are still on summer holidays here in Australia, the home office is half-disassembled for cleaning, and I'm sketching out what I…
2 min read
Azure Year in Review: 2020 Highlights
It's New Year's Eve, the kids are asleep, and I'm wrapping up a year that nobody planned for. 2020 was the year cloud stopped being a strategic conversation…
5 min read
Synology NAS Series – Cloud Sync with Azure Storage
Synology reached out to me to give their new DiskStation DS920+ a review. If you're not yet aware of Synology, they are the leading NAS…