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May 12, 2023
Exercise 2 – using the TCO calculator – Azure Cost Planning and Management

Exercise 2 – using the TCO calculator

This exercise will create a cost comparison; for example, a typical on-premises environment moving to Azure. You could substitute this with the details of an actual on-premises infrastructure and any workloads you have details of.

Task – accessing the TCO calculator

  1. Open a browser and enter the following URL: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/tco/calculator.

Task – defining your workloads

  1. From the Define your workloads section, click on the information icon next to each selected field.
  2. From the Server section, select the following information or use your example data:
    • Enter a name for the workload or use the provided default.
    • Workload: Windows/Linux Server.
    • Environment: Virtual Machines.
    • Operating system: Windows.
    • Operating system license: Datacenter.
    • VMs: 100.
    • Virtualization: VMware.
    • Cores: 4.
    • Ram: 8.
    • Optimize by: Memory
    • Windows Server 2008/2008 R2: Off
  1. Add any additional server workloads as required.
  2. From the Databases section, enter the following information or use your example data:
    • Enter a name for the database, or use the provided default.
    • Source Database: Microsoft SQL Server.
    • License: Standard.
    • Environment: Virtual Machines.
    • Operating system: Windows.
    • Operating system license: Datacenter.
    • VMs: 15.
    • Virtualization: VMware.
    • Cores: 8.
    • RAM: 32.
    • Optimize by: Memory.
    • Windows Server 2008/2008 R2: Off.
    • Destination Service: SQL Database Managed Instance.
    • Managed instance tier: General purpose.
    • Managed instance cores: 8.
    • SQL Server storage: 100.
    • SQL Server backup: 100.
  1. Add any additional databases as required.
  2. From the Storage section, enter the following information or use your example data:
    • Enter a name for the storage or use the provided default
    • Storage type: Local Disk/SAN.
    • Disk type: SSD.
    • Capacity: 2 TB.
    • Backup: 2 TB.
    • Archive: 8 TB.
    • IOPS: 4,000.
  1. Add additional storage as required.
  2. From the Networking section, enter the following information or use your example data:
  • Outbound bandwidth: 100 GB

10. Click Next.

Task – adjusting your assumptions

  1. From the Adjust assumptions screen, review all the options and alter them as required. Alternatively, leave the default assumptions as is.
  2. Click Next.

Task – viewing the report

  1. From the View report screen, review the cost savings report.
  2. You can modify your entries by scrolling to the bottom of the screen and clicking Back.
  3. You can download, share, and save the report.

In this exercise, we created a cost comparison for an on-premises environment moving to Azure. Now, let’s summarize this chapter.

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May 12, 2023
Azure compliance documentation – Azure Privacy and Compliance

Azure compliance documentation

As its name suggests, the Azure compliance documentation is an online documentation site that provides detailed information and resources about legal, regulatory standards, as well as compliance an organization has on Azure. The documentation can be accessed at https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/compliance:

Figure 10.7 – Azure compliance documentation

In this section, we looked at the Azure compliance documentation. The following section looks at Azure Sovereign Regions.

Azure Sovereign Regions

Azure supports what is referred to as Sovereign Regions; these support greater compliance for specific markets. These regions, as shown in the following diagram, operate isolated instances of the Azure cloud computing platform that run dedicated hardware and isolated networks:

Figure 10.8 – Azure Sovereign Region cloud

As outlined here, the Sovereign Region platforms also have portals with different URLs and service endpoints in DNS:

  • Azure Government: This is a separate instance of the Azure platform that Microsoft operates; it is for the sole use of US government bodies (and partners):
    • The service endpoints to connect to in DNS are in the form of *.azurewebsites.us.
    • You can find more information at https://azure.microsoft.com/global-infrastructure/government.
  • Azure China (21Vianet): This is a separate instance of the Azure platform operated by 21Vianet; it is for compliance with Chinese government regulations:
    • The Azure portal can be accessed via a dedicated URL: https://portal.azure.cn.
    • The service endpoints to connect to in DNS are in the form of *.chinacloudsites.cn.

In this section, we looked at the Azure Sovereign Region clouds. The following section looks at a thought exercise.

Thought exercise

Returning to our online pizza company MilesBetter Pizza, they wish to know where they should look to determine whether they need to be compliant with regulatory standards such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) as they handle online transactions. They also don’t want to fall foul of any Microsoft product terms for Online Services they have.

In addition, in preparation for an audit, they have been asked to provide evidence in the form of information on the compliance, security, and privacy statements from their cloud service provider of the data stored in Azure. The following diagram visualizes all the resources that are required that were covered in this chapter:

Figure 10.9 – Azure privacy and compliance resources

The following URLs will be required to explore, collate, and present the required audit information:

In this section, we looked at a thought exercise covering privacy and compliance. In the next section, we will complete a hands-on exercise.

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