Category: Azure

Unlocking FREE TLS Certificates on your Azure Web App

Tiago Costa / / Azure

In the dynamic world of cloud computing, Azure stands out as a powerhouse, offering many services to meet the diverse needs of developers and businesses alike. A TLS (Transport Layer Security) certificate is an essential component of a secure and trustworthy website. In this article, we’ll explore Azure Tips and Tricks to add a TLS certificate to your Azure Web App without breaking the bank – in fact, for FREE!

Why TLS Matters?

TLS is crucial for ensuring secure communication between users and your website, safeguarding sensitive information such as login credentials and personal data. It encrypts the data exchanged between the user’s browser and your web server, preventing unauthorized access and potential security breaches.

Azure App Service and TLS.

Azure App Service makes hosting web applications, APIs, and mobile backends easy. However, enabling TLS on your Azure Web App traditionally involved purchasing a certificate, which could be a deterrent for smaller projects or developers on a tight budget. But fear is not! Azure offers a fantastic solution to obtain a TLS certificate for free.

Let’s dive into the step-by-step process:

Step 1: Access the Azure Portal

  • Log in to your Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com/ and select the Azure Web App for which you want to add the TLS certificate.

Step 2: Configure TLS Settings

  • In the left-hand menu, under the “Settings” sections, select “Certificates”. Here, you’ll see options for configuring your certificates.

Step 3: Create the TLS Certificate

  • Select “Managed Certificates” and then “+ Add certificate”.

Azure allows you to create a free App Service Managed Certificate, simplifying the process.

Step 4: Add Domain and Validate

  • Select your custom domain name and select “Validate”. Azure will automatically validate your domain, ensuring that you have ownership. After the validation process is completed, select “Add”.

Conclusion:

You’ve just added a free TLS certificate to your Azure Web App, enhancing the security and trustworthiness of your website. Azure’s user-friendly interface and App Service Managed Certificates have made the once daunting task of obtaining and configuring TLS certificates a breeze.

With this knowledge, you can confidently deploy your web applications on Azure, knowing you’re providing a secure environment for your users without breaking the bank. Stay tuned for more Azure Tips and Tricks to unlock the full potential of Microsoft’s cloud platform!

New exam – AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

Tiago Costa / / Azure, Certification

 

There’s a new Microsoft Azure in the house!!! AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions is announced! AZ-305 will be available in November 2021.

Starting with AZ-305 you no longer need the AZ-303 + AZ-304 combo to get the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. But this doesn’t mean that you only need AZ-305. You will be require to earn the Azure Administrator Associate certification as a pre-requisite. So, in resume you will need that Azure Admin cert + the AZ-305 exam.

This are awesome news if you’re already Azure admin certified and want to achieve the Azure Architect cert! AZ-303 and AZ-104 have a lot of content overlapping. This change will simplify the candidates that want to get both the Azure Administrator and Architect certs!

This means that exams:

  • AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
  • AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design

Will retire. The official retirement date is March 31, 2022.

 

Getting the new exam in November and retiring the old exams in the end of March, we will have a “transition” period. During that we have several paths to get the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification:

 

You can also find out more about this at the official blog post – Reimagining the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification – Microsoft Tech Community

What do you think about this change? Leave your comments here!

Re-awarded as Microsoft Azure MVP

Tiago Costa / / Azure, Random words, Speaking

This past Thursday I received the notice that I was re-awarded as Microsoft MVP. This will be my year #6 has a Microsoft Azure MVP. I still remember the exact place I was when 6 years ago on an April 1st I got my first email saying I got awarded! I was working at a customer site in Cyprus. I just had finished to the day and had packed my laptop in the backpack. Then I got an email notification on my phone and then the phone died on me. No more battery… I was like, I must be dreaming, I turn the computer on and stay blocked looking at the computer screen for more than 10 minutes! I was speechless! This is still the feeling I get every single time I got re-awarded. Still surprised and still with imposter syndrome.

I would say it because it’s what, I fell: It’s and huge honor to be among such great minds of the industry!

To all my fellow MVP – You All ROCK! You are amazing and do loads for the #Community! I will not tag or mention anyone, I will for sure forget someone important for me and then I will be feeling bad! You all know who you are!

It has been a crazy year and I hope everything will start becoming normal very soon and that we can start do some in-person events! I’m ready for that!!! I reviewed what I wrote 1 year ago, about some plans for this past year. I felt pretty good… From 8 objectives I got 7 done and one more kid in between. Sounds pretty good for me. I didn’t publish “loads of videos” on my YouTube channel. This is the year!

A special thanks to Cristina Gonzalez Herrero and Irene Pires. They do an amazing work managing the program at my region. Sometimes it’s not easy to manage these strong opinion MVPs, but they do it amazingly well!

I would just like to end with a big thanks to the community and all the other MVP and non-MVP that do the Microsoft Communities a great place to be, learn and network!

Speaking at Microsoft Build!

Tiago Costa / / Azure, Certification, Events

Microsoft Build (https://mybuild.microsoft.com/) takes place on May 25-27, 2021 in a digital format and this year I’m delivering 2 table talks! After speaking at Microsoft Ignite for 5 editions in-a-row it’s now time to speak at Microsoft Build. Super excited for this and more for having such great co-speakers with me. It’s free, you should register today and RSVP to my 2 sessions and have the chance to interact with all of us. We want to answer your questions live! Yes, it’s going to be live, no recordings here!!!

How to build cloud-native solutions

Cloud-native technologies are used to develop applications built with services packaged in containers, deployed as microservices, and managed on elastic infrastructure through agile processes. Join our Table Topic to learn how Azure helps organizations create cloud native solutions. Our community co-hosts will share samples from their experiences building applications and helping customers build innovative world applications. Unmute yourself, turn your camera on – No presentations here! Be prepared for chat and a fun interactive discussion!

📅 Wednesday, May 26
⏰ 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM WET
🔗 https://mybuild.microsoft.com/sessions/7f39ca5d-eaa1-4271-b645-c3fae76e90f4?source=sessions

How the community and certifications can help you achieve more

There are lots of resources you can tap into to help you with your professional development. Connect with the community and our experts to explore resources available to you from content, to community to certifications. Unmute yourself, turn your camera on – No presentations here! Be prepared for chat and a fun interactive discussion!

📅 Tuesday, May 25
⏰ 9:30 PM – 10:00 PM WET
🔗 https://mybuild.microsoft.com/sessions/9d3582b7-4169-4b80-84fa-367dccad3d41?source=sessions

Join us online, have fun and happy learning! We I really believe that next year’s event we can all be in-person toghether! I will be there!!! For now, I just leave here some memories of past Microsoft Conferences. I miss you all!!!

New Azure Management Groups Portal Experience!!!

Tiago Costa / / Azure

It’s quite common to have organizations with many Azure Subscriptions, and it’s hard to manage each Subscription on its own… Azure Management Groups provide a level of scope above Subscriptions so that we can organize our Subscriptions. We can apply Azure Policies or RBAC authorization at the Management Group scope instead of having to do this at each Azure Subscription. This leads to create a hierarchy of Azure Management Groups to respond to the company structure and organization in Azure. There are several best practices on how to create this. I recommend you to ready this article on Microsoft Docs – Management group and subscription organization – Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Docs. It explains how to structure the Management Groups hierarchy using some of the best practices of the Cloud Adoption Framework.

Old Azure Management Groups UI

This was the previous UI in the Azure Portal for Management Groups. Impossible the full tree of Management Groups / Subscriptions. We could only see in the breadcrumb the hierarchy of the current selected Management Group / Subscription.

Introducing the new Management Groups UI

But this blog post is not to talk about the Management Groups features, it’s to talk about a big struggle that Azure Governance professionals have for years. Find an easy way to see a tree view of the Management Groups. Yes, we could see that in other areas of the Azure Portal like Security Center, but I want, and I deserve to see this in the Management Group blade, upppsss, Window! They are called Windows now and not blades!

Our feedback produced amazing results. Look at this amazing new UI Experience in the Azure Portal!

I can now easily check in just one page the hierarchy of my Management Groups and understand why certain policies are affecting some Subscriptions, ….

What do you think? Better this way? Super excited to start to show this to customers and students!