Category: Business

Today, businesses are becoming a combination of on-premises and cloud applications. Users require access to those applications which are hosted both on-premises and in the cloud. Managing users both on-premises and in the cloud poses challenging scenarios.

Microsoft’s hybrid identity solutions span on-premises and cloud-based capabilities, creating a single user identity for authentication and authorization to all resources, regardless of location or device.

Azure AD Connect integrates any user who is present or being created in an on-premise Active Directory to Azure AD. This means you have a single user identity for accessing resources present on-premise, in Azure, O365 & your SaaS applications.

Business Benefits of Hybrid Identities:

• An increase in productivity by providing access anywhere, anytime
• Create and manage a single identity for each user across all your data center-based directories, keeping attributes in sync and providing self-service and SSO for users.
• Keep resources productive with self-service password reset and group management for both data center and cloud-based directories.
• Organizations have complete visibility and control over security and monitoring to help reduce inappropriate user activity and spot irregularities in user behaviors
• Enforce strong authentication to sensitive applications and information with conditional access policies and multi-factor authentication.
• Federate identities to maintain authentication against the data center-based directory.
• Provide SSO access to hundreds of cloud-based applications.

 

The Three Hybrid Authentication Solutions:

While hybrid identity may seem like a complex issue when it is up and running, it makes accessing data and services both internal and external while collaborating with partners and customers much simpler. To achieve hybrid identity with Azure AD, three authentication methods can be used:

1. Password Hash Synchronization (PHS):

Password hash sync is the simplest way to enable authentication for on-premise AD objects in Azure AD. Users can use their existing on-prem credentials for accessing cloud-based applications on Azure. Active Directory DS stores the password in a hash form which is synced to Azure AD. When a user tries to login to Azure AD, the password is run through a hashing process and the hashed value is matched with the hash value present on Azure AD. If the hash values match, the user is allowed access to the resources.

2. Pass-Through Authentication (PTA):

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Pass-through Authentication allows your users to sign in to both on-premises and cloud-based applications using the same password. While deploying the Pass-through Authentication solution, lightweight agents are installed on your existing servers. These agents should have access to the on-premise AD domain controllers and outbound access to the internet. Network traffic is encrypted which is limited to authentication requests only.

3. Federation Authentication (AD FS):

With the Federation authentication method, you can federate your on-premises environment with Azure AD and use this federation for authentication and authorization. This sign-in method ensures that all user authentication occurs on-premises. Azure AD redirects the users to Active Directory Federations Services (ADFS) as the authenticated domain configured as a federated domain. The ADFS server authenticates the user with on-premise AD and returns a security token to authenticate with Azure AD. The configuration of this solution is much complex as it would require one or more ADFS Proxy servers, one or more ADFS Servers and SSL certificates for implementations.

Potential Reference Architecture Diagram:

Why SNP?

SNP Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of innovative technology solutions, specializing in harnessing the power of cloud services to drive business transformation. With a focus on delivering comprehensive solutions in AI, ML, and cloud services, SNP Technologies partners with clients across various industries to enhance operational efficiency and achieve their strategic objectives. We combine elements from our ISO certifications and Microsoft specializations as well as the most efficient and innovative technology tools and platforms to help our clients become more agile, more customer, and more operationally efficient. For more information, contact us here.

In 2023 Microsoft announced major updates to its Azure data platform. While their OpenAI service has been dominating the headlines, questions about Microsoft’s new, comprehensive analytics solution Fabric have been just as central in our customer discussions.

Adoption of a new data analytics platform is no easy feat, with concerns around skilling, tool integration, obsolescence, security and so forth. The concerns and path forward will vary depending on the organization’s circumstances – from those having a legacy SQL Server implementation on-premises to those having an advanced, cloud-native analytics deployment, and everywhere in between. That said, these four high-level questions should be in mind for any organization evaluating the Fabric potential:

1. Should we consider exploring Microsoft Fabric given our existing data platform maturity and investment?
2. Which Fabric capabilities would be the most suitable and beneficial for my organization?
3. How can I preserve my current data platform investment while capitalizing on the advantages offered by Fabric?
4. What steps are necessary to establish governance and cost management in this new platform?

Before we continue with our recommendations to address these questions, let’s take a few minutes to level-set on what Fabric is and is not.

The Microsoft Fabric Ecosystem

At its core, Fabric is software-as-a-service (SaaS) integrating three Microsoft products: Azure Data Factory, Power BI and the Synapse data platform for an all-in-one suite designed for performance, scalability and ease of use. Underlying Fabric is the OneLake unified data foundation and Microsoft Purview for persistent data governance.

Source: What is Microsoft Fabric – Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Facets of the Microsoft Fabric Platform:

• Data Engineering: Empowers data engineers to transform and democratize large-scale data through Apache Spark within a lakehouse.
• Data Factory: Equips business and technical users with tools for data integration, offering over 300 transformations (including AI-based) via 200+ native connectors while managing data pipelines.
• Data Science: Integrates with Azure Machine Learning, enabling data scientists to develop and deploy ML models and leverage SynapseML for scalable ML pipelines.
• Data Warehouse: Natively stores data in the open Delta Lake format separate from compute to promote scalability and performance for analytics workloads.
• Real-Time Analytics: Facilitates querying and analysis of observational data, including real-time streams, unstructured/semi-structured data, and IoT data.
• Power BI: An integral component of Fabric, providing data visualization integrated with Microsoft 365 apps and within Power BI.
• Dataflows Gen 2: A new generation of dataflows accelerates authoring with a no-code/low-code experience.

While Fabric is a SaaS offering, it is still a resource installed in an Azure subscription. As such, a landing zone with prerequisite identity, networking, security, and governance must be in place.

While a Fabric analytics solution can be fully composed with Fabric tooling, within the Azure tenant an organization can integrate Fabric with Azure resources that sit outside Fabric, for instance Cosmos DB, Azure AI Services and Azure Monitor.

For more information about Fabric, please see the Resources section at this end of this blog.

Microsoft Fabric Evaluation Criteria

When working with our customers, SNP recommends the high-level success criteria below be evaluated when contemplating Microsoft Fabric as their Data & Analytics platform:

• Seamless Integration: Evaluate how Fabric, with external tools, should be achieve data sharing and workflow orchestration without disruption to your established ecosystem.
• Improved Efficiency: The true value of any platform lies in its ability to simplify processes. Microsoft Fabric should reduce the time and effort required for data engineering, data science, and analytics tasks. Evaluate how migrating the workloads to Fabric will increase efficiency and productivity across data engineering services and also result in faster time to derive insights in BI apps.
• Data Democratization Microsoft Fabric empowers business users and data scientists alike, offering self-service access to data and analytics capabilities. Evaluate how this feature can help in extending the utility of data throughout your organization.
• Scalability: As your organization grows, so do your data needs. Evaluate Microsoft Fabric’s ability to scale effectively, accommodating increased workloads without compromising performance.
• Cost Optimization:  Financial considerations are paramount. Evaluate how Fabric can help in cost reduction, optimized resource utilization, and improved cost management capabilities, when compared to your existing data platform architecture.
• Enhanced Data Governance: Data governance is critical, especially in today’s regulatory environment. Evaluate how Fabric facilitates effective enforcement of data governance policies, ensuring data quality, and maintaining compliance standards.
• Data Security: With data breaches an ever-present threat, success means strengthening data security and privacy, especially for sensitive or regulated data. Evaluate the Security features of Fabric to over the risks and implement tighter security policies.

Conclusion

In this blog, we’ve explored the evaluation criteria that can guide your organization’s adoption of Microsoft Fabric as your Data & Analytics platform. By keeping these criteria in mind, you can maximize the value of this platform alongside your existing investments, leading to more effective decision-making and a competitive edge in your industry.

Your Next Steps:

If you like what you’ve read so far, let’s move forward together with confidence. SNP recommends the following approach to start understanding, exploring, and evaluating Microsoft Fabric for your business: We’re here to help at every step. Contact SNP’s Data & AI experts here

Three Key Scenarios for Transforming your Outdated Systems:

Microsoft Power BI (business intelligence) is a powerful analytics tool that helps companies of all sizes analyze data and share insights. With this technology, enterprises can monitor their business more closely and get instant answers with rich dashboards available for every device.

Power BI is broken down into multiple tools:

• Power Query to extract and transform.
• Power Pivot to model and analyze.
• Power View and Map to visualize data.

Key features and benefits of Microsoft Power BI include:

• The Q&A function. Sometimes the fastest way to get an answer from your data is to ask a question using natural language, and that’s exactly what Q&A allows users to do, making this feature a top cited benefit in achieving self-service business intelligence.
• Dashboards, reports, and datasets are at the heart of Power BI. Users can create personalized dashboards, which combine on-premises and cloud-born data in a single view, allowing them to monitor their most important data enterprise wide and from all their business apps.
• The ability to easily embed BI and analytics in the app to deliver interactive reports and geo-map visualizations empowered by Bing maps.
• With SQL Server analysis services on-premises and Azure analysis services in the cloud, users can build robust, reusable data models, enabling consistent reporting and analyses.
• Power BI is available in three separate national cloud data centers, each offering the same level of security, privacy, compliance, and transparency as the global version of Power BI.
• The ability to connect to nearly any application or data source (literally hundreds of options), no matter whether those resources live in the cloud or on-premises. A few examples include Excel spreadsheets, GitHub, Mail Chimp, SharePoint, and Google Analytics.
• Very little engineering resources are needed to use Power BI. In fact, some instances don’t require any engineering at all. Managers simply need to create an API key and plug it into the software. If your organization already uses Microsoft systems (such as Office 365), using Power BI will feel natural as it integrates easily with Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams.
• Power BI is simple to use. Even basic users will find it to have a short learning curve.
• Fast turnarounds and low costs. By analyzing the most recent data, businesses can make informed decisions regarding which markets are growing and which ones are underperforming. Plus, the business retains ownership of the data always and can perform the analysis internally to save money.
• Constant innovation. The Power BI product is updated nearly every month with new features and functions.

Are you ready to get started on the Power BI Suite? Contact the SNP team here.

SNP Technologies brings the power and ease of OpenSource Platform as a Service (PaaS) to your data workloads

Azure Database for MariaDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL services offer fully managed database services built on the proven relational database services foundation which also delivers Azure SQL Database to millions of databases worldwide. Users can provision a new instance in minutes and quickly scale the compute power needed online to respond to their dynamic business needs.

Quickly respond to demand with built-in high availability and scalability, and high-security features to keep your data safe and compliant. Users can provision a new instance in minutes and quickly scale the compute power needed online to respond to their dynamic business needs.

Each of these databases as a service comes with automated patching, the highest level of security & protection, high availability, and is fully supported by Microsoft from the all the way through database engine.

Key Features Include:

• Built-in high availability
• Dynamic scaling
• Meet on-demand fluctuations in performance demand
• MySQL 5.6 – 8.0 supported version
• PostgreSQL 9.5-11 supported version
• MariaDB 10.2-10.3 supported version
• Limit access by IP Address
• VNet integration supported
• Data-in replication for hybrid data and multi-cloud synchronization
• MySQL Workbench compatible
• SSL connections supported
• Server monitoring

Business Benefits:

• Eliminate hardware costs and reduce administrative costs.
• Pay-as-you-go with options to scale up or out for greater power with zero interruption.
• Enterprise-ready open-source database engines.
• Native integration with Azure PaaS.
• Meets high availability requirements with 99.99% uptime SLA from Microsoft.

For more information on SNP’s Azure Database for MariaDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL – Fully Managed Service, contact us here.

Businesses know that shifting to the cloud can reduce costs, boost performance, and enable them to scale based on rising (or falling) traffic. However, reports show that in 2019, just 22% of enterprise primary workload deployments were on the public cloud. The top issue: complex legacy apps that are resistant to modernization.

Common issues facing IT teams today include:

• Scalability: Existing DevOps infrastructure cannot scale to accommodate growth.
• Infrastructure: VM software requires significant space, limiting potential ROI.
• Potential for Modernization: Internal resources are not equipped to optimize a cloud solution.
• Technical Debt: Technical debt drives incompatibility with cloud solutions.
• Speed: Latency and time to deployment for new apps needs to be reduced.
• Security: Need to improve control over security of app data.

Modern approaches to software development deliver value faster by breaking large applications into smaller containers. These containers make it easier for your team to split a large legacy app into smaller modules that can be built, tested, and deployed.

SNP’s Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) is a fully managed Kubernetes solution that lets you:

• Simplify Operations:  AKS simplifies operations and gives you access to improved security, lower costs, and the innovative potential of the cloud.
• Innovation: Create new revenue opportunities; provide business partners and customers secure access to corporate resources; leverage data analytics and AI to advance business insights.
• Security, Identity and Governance: Leverage Microsoft’s enterprise security by enabling user identity framework and governance solutions.
• Business Continuity &  Disaster Recovery: Leverage Azure’s dynamic disaster recovery capabilities.
• Increase speed-to-market: Accelerate efficiency in an agile application development cycle; enable improved management and scalability; enable rapid development of new business tools and applications.
• Flexibility: Implement co-existence of on-premises and cloud solutions; provide support for customer’s open source development initiatives.

Why SNP?

We Deliver Expertise: SNP helps customers drive  organizational maturity through improved technical agility.

Get IT Done, Faster: We help you make the right decisions  and accelerate  implementation.

Exceptional Azure Know How: Together, SNP and Azure are  leveraging the power of the cloud for digital innovation.

Contact SNP Technologies here