Another Tech Reviewing done: Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide - 4th edition

Posted by Azure Readiness starts here... on Friday, June 18, 2021

As most of you know, I enjoy writing technical (Azure related) books, but over the last year, I didn’t focus that much on writing myself, but supporting other authors in their writing-journey as well as performing technical reviewing of the book they are writing.

The one I want to highlight in this post, has an interesting back-story. Mid 2019, I got approached by Packt, to write an update to their best-seller title “Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide”, in sponsorship with Microsoft. That was the third edition, which got released Oct 2019. About a year later, I got asked to write another update. As I was a Microsoft employee in meantime, and the book got sponsored by Microsoft, it could be a bit tricky :), so I decided to pull out of the writing process, avoiding conflicts of interest.

Instead, I referred the editor to a few other Azure experts and authors I knew, but still offering my technical skills in a reviewing process.

So here it is, the “Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide”, 4th edition

Azure_Strategy_Implementation_Guide

Don’t let the reference to “fourth edition” fool you, there has been a massive rewrite of several chapters, with fresh new content, more technical information and new chapters were added as well.

As technical reviewer, I mainly took on the responsibility of making sure the content was technically accurate. This involved not only the textual paragraphs and descriptions, but also the reference to any hands-on step-by-step guidance as well. While this book is targeted to cloud architects or cloud solution engineers - who are exploring the cloud transformation for their organization or their customers - , it is not just covering the high-level capability of several Azure services, but also takes the reader onto a journey about different use cases, how different services relate to each other and more.

About the book

By reading through this cookbook, you will be able to:

  • Understand core Azure infrastructure technologies and solutions
  • Carry out detailed planning for migrating applications to the cloud with Azure
  • Deploy and run Azure infrastructure services
  • Define roles and responsibilities in DevOps
  • Get a firm grip on security fundamentals
  • Carry out cost optimization in Azure

This book is designed to benefit Azure architects, cloud solution architects, Azure developers, Azure administrators, and anyone who wants to develop expertise in operating and administering the Azure cloud. Basic familiarity with operating systems and databases will help you grasp the concepts covered in this book.

Microsoft Azure is a powerful cloud computing platform that offers a multitude of services and capabilities for organizations of any size pursuing a cloud strategy. This fourth edition discusses the latest updates on security fundamentals, hybrid cloud, cloud migration, Microsoft Azure Active Directory, and Windows Virtual Desktop. It encapsulates the entire spectrum of measures involved in Azure deployment, including understanding Azure fundamentals, choosing a suitable cloud architecture, building on design principles, becoming familiar with Azure DevOps, and learning best practices for optimization and management. The book begins by introducing you to the Azure cloud platform and demonstrating the substantial scope of digital transformation and innovation that can be achieved with Azure’s capabilities. It then provides practical insights on application modernization, Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) deployment, infrastructure management, key application architectures, best practices of Azure DevOps, and Azure automation. By the end of the book, you will have acquired the essential skills to drive Azure operations from the planning and cloud migration stage to cost management and troubleshooting.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
    • what is Azure, Public, Private, Hybrid Cloud
  2. Automation and Governance
    • How Infrastructure as Code and DevOps help optimizing your deployments
  3. Modernizing with Hybrid Cloud and Multi-Cloud
    • What makes multi-cloud a (successful) strategy
    • Azure Stack on-premises
  4. Cloud Migration Planning
    • Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)
    • Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF)
  5. Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD)
    • Cloud-running desktops with cloud power
  6. Cloud Security Fundamentals to fight cybercrime
    • Azure Security Operations & Monitoring
    • Azure Security Center & Azure Sentinel SIEM
  7. Cost Optimization
    • Cost models and forecasting

200 pages of concise, to-the-point, guidance and best-practices content!

My feedback

I have to be honest, doing technical reviewing of this book was an interesting ride for me. Being an author myself, especially on the same book only a year ago felt weird at first. Since it was an update, parts of the 3rd edition got re-used. So it’s funny to have comments on your own paragraphs and content, but at the same time it’s very rewarding to see how the baseline I set out, helped in making this fourth edition even better.

The authors did a really good job on focusing on the updated content, highlighting the changes happened in Azure in only a year’s time, and showing several of the upcoming changes around WVD and security as prime topics.

Feel free to reach out if you got any more questions on this book or its content. Grab your free (Microsoft sponsored) copy from the Azure web site:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/azure-strategy-and-implementation-guide-fourth-edition/

and happy reading!

Don’t hesitate reaching out in case you should have any questions on this book or Azure in general. peter@pdtit.be or @pdtit on Twitter

Stay safe and healthy you all!

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/Peter