Support for Puppet and Chef with Azure and VM that continue to expand--The future of Office 365 that doubles

On June 9, Microsoft Japan explained the latest features of IaaS / PaaS "Microsoft Azure" and SaaS "Office 365". The company recently generically referred to Azure and Office 365 under the name "Microsoft Cloud Services," and is following the "Cloud First" strategy set out by Satya Nadella, CEO of the US headquarters, for cloud services. It shows the attitude of accelerating investment.

Azure continues to expand

Regarding Azure, he mentioned that the name was changed from Windows Azure in April, and Ayako Tani, Cloud Application Business Department, Microsoft Japan Server Platform Business Headquarters, said, "This name change can utilize open languages ​​other than .NET. By giving the name of the company as well as the product name, it is an expression of the intention to invest in this field as a company. "

Ayako Tani, Cloud Application Business Department, Server Platform Business Headquarters, Microsoft Japan

"Azure has continued to have many new features since the beginning of 2014, and in the" Service Update Information "that can be viewed on the official website, the number of new features that does not fit on one page even in May alone. Introducing new features through blogs in 33 in April and 29 in May. "

Initially, Azure data centers started in eight locations, four in the United States, two in Europe, and two in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore), but now they have two in Japan, two in China, two in Australia, and one in Brazil. (Started June 5th), and 16 locations are in operation, including a dedicated data center for US government agencies.

In Japan, two data centers in the East Japan region and the West Japan region will be operational from February 26th. This will enable data retention and disaster countermeasures in Japan, and delays will be more than three times better than those via overseas.

In addition to setting up Cloud Direct, which is a free consultation service for cloud introduction, we have established a cloud introduction and migration support service, and a 24-hour failure support system in Japanese. "In the future, I would like to announce one after another examples of utilizing Japanese data centers."

PaaS provides features such as automatic scaling, staging, Web Jobs, and Traffic Manager support for Azure Web Sites for websites. Mobile Services, also for mobile, enabled back-end development in .NET and Node.js, as well as provided flexible data access to Table Storage, SQL Database, and more, broadcast notifications, and Active Directory support.

In the database service area, the maximum capacity of SQL Database has been increased from 150GB to 500GB. It has increased the SLA from 99.9% to 99.95%, and also offers self-service recovery and active geo-replication. From the conventional Web and Business Edition forms, we have changed to three types, basic, standard, and premium, classified by performance level. "It's not just the capacity, but the performance level index that makes it easier for users to predict performance."

In terms of storage, it provides features such as Azure Files and read access geo-redundant storage. Increased the storage capacity limit for existing and new accounts to 500TB. Media Services, a media-related function, provides functions such as live streaming, dynamic packaging, and dynamic encryption. "Media Services will provide new functions while coordinating widely, including partner applications."

IaaS supports A8 and A9 as VM sizes for Azure virtual machines. In addition to supporting anti-malware agents, it also supports VM capture, which enables batch capture of multiple disks, and VM configuration with software "Puppet", "Chef", and "PowerShell / DSC" that automate implementation and provisioning. In the virtual network, in addition to multi-support such as point-to-site VPN and site-to-site VPN, it also supports dynamic routing.

The new Azure portal, available as a preview, emphasized that one portal can support all DevOps-related processes such as service health, billing information, and Application Insight.

Shinichi Yoneda, Office 365 Strategy, Microsoft Office Business Headquarters, Japan

Office 365 that doubles with games

About 60% of Nikkei 225 stock companies have already introduced Office 365. In the field of education, he explained that the number has exceeded 1.7 million, which is one in three in higher education institutions. Shinichi Yoneda, Office 365 Strategy Manager, Microsoft Office Business Headquarters, Japan, said, "Office 365 has shown that it is doubling in games every quarterly earnings announcement in the United States, but it is also growing rapidly in Japan." I cut it out.

He mentioned that he released 49 types of functions from January to May with only major new functions. "In Office 365, new functions are available from 6 areas: device support, experience, social, communication, insight, and control. However, about half of the new features provided in the last 5 months are in the control area. When introducing the cloud, we are focusing on the part that customers can use with confidence. "

As a specific new function, OWA has started to provide a hierarchical address book that was provided for Japanese users on-premises, and the expanded API of Mail Apps enables powerful control. (Outlook Web App) There are various enhancements related to it, and "Office 365 Message Encryption" that allows you to exchange encrypted emails with email addresses outside your organization.