205: The Cloud Pod decides to Bard or not to Bard. What’s the question?

On this episode of The Cloud Pod, the team discusses the new Amazon Linux 2023, Google Bard,  new features of Google Chronicle Security Operations, GPT-4 from Azure Open AI, and Oracle’s Kubernetes platform comparison. They also talk about cloud-native architecture as a way to adapt applications for a pivot to the cloud.

A big thanks to this week’s sponsor, Foghorn Consulting, which provides full-stack cloud solutions with a focus on strategy, planning and execution for enterprises seeking to take advantage of the transformative capabilities of AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.

This week’s highlights

• AWS: Amazon announces General Availability of Amazon Linux 2023.
• GCP: New capabilities available on Google Chronicle Security Operations
• Azure: Azure announces preview of GPT-4 in Azure Open AI Service.
• Oracle: Oracle compares its Kubernetes platform with that of Hyperscalers. 

Top Quotes

• “The goal of Cloud Native architecture is to develop scalable resilient ports of applications that you can easily deploy and manage in a modern Cloud environment”
• “You maximize the benefits of the platform you’re on and you minimize the weaknesses of it when you design for that platform”
• “There’s nothing that prevents you from going to the cloud if you’re not cloud-native, I just think you don’t get the advantages of the cloud native and what the cloud brings to you”

AWS: Amazon announces General Availability of Amazon Linux 2023.

• Amazon Linux 2023, a Cloud-Optimized Linux Distribution with Long-Term Support
• ️️ This third generation of Amazon Linux Distributions includes security policies to apply the common industry guidelines.

GCP: New capabilities available on Google Chronicle Security Operations.

• 0️⃣ Chronicle Security Operations Feature Roundup
• These New features enable a speedy response to threats.

Azure: Azure announces preview of GPT-4 in Azure Open AI Service.

• 0️⃣ Introducing GPT-4 in Azure OpenAI Service
• As billing starts on the 1st of April, customers can begin harnessing Open AI’s most advanced model.

Oracle: Oracle compares its Kubernetes platform with that of Hyperscalers.

• 0️⃣ Kubernetes cloud cost comparison: Who provides the best value?
• They highlight both serverless and managed K8 services and compare some specific services offered by both.

The Cloud Journey Series; Cloud Native Architecture.

• Cloud-Native architecture is an approach to building and running applications that use Cloud computing principles and technologies.
• Some benefits are scalability, reduced time to market, better utilization of resources, integrated management and monitoring as well as efficiency with large or small-scale work.
• While it is possible to move to the cloud without being cloud-native, the benefits may be reduced and there are no provisions for the typical challenges in the cloud space.

Other Headlines Mentioned:

• Amazon to lay off 9,000 more workers, including at AWS, as cost-cutting effort continues
• Amazon Takes Its Time Delivering Second Round of Job Cuts
• AWS Chatbot Now Integrates With Microsoft Teams
• Try Bard and share your feedback
• AWS announces new AWS Direct Connect location in Muscat, Oman
• Application Auto Scaling now supports resource tagging
• AWS now allows you to bring your Windows 11 licenses to Amazon WorkSpaces
• Amazon VPC Reachability Analyzer now supports 3 additional AWS networking services
• Amazon Corretto 20 is now generally available
• Amazon EMR now supports Amazon EC2 C7g (Graviton3) instances
• Amazon Connect launches support for multiple SAML 2.0 identity providers
• AWS Backup now supports VMware vSphere 8 and multiple virtual NICs
• AWS Database Migration Service now generates an AWS Glue Data Catalog when migrating to Amazon S3
• AWS Migration Hub Strategy Recommendations adds support for binary analysis
• AWS Database Migration Service now supports S3 data validation
• Amazon CloudWatch Logs adds support for new Amazon VPC Flow Logs metadata
• AWS CodeBuild now supports a small GPU machine type
• Amazon GuardDuty RDS Protection for Amazon Aurora is now generally available
• Amazon Kendra releases Microsoft SharePoint Cloud Connector
• Amazon EC2 C6in, M6in, M6idn, R6in, and R6idn metal instances are now available
• AWS Clean Rooms Now Generally Available — Collaborate with Your Partners without Sharing Raw Data
• Google Cloud targets multiplayer game developers with GKE Autopilot
• Pub/Sub schema evolution is now GA
• Introducing time-bound Session Length defaults to improve your security posture
• Announcement: Azure Active Directory backed authentication for JMS 2.0 API on Azure Service Bus
• General Availability: ASP. NET web app migration to Azure App Service using PowerShell Scripts
• Generally available: Encryption scopes on hierarchical namespace enabled storage accounts
• Azure Maps is now HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant
• Public preview: Listener TLS certificates management available in the Azure portal
• Public Preview: PgBouncer monitoring metrics for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server 
• Preview: JSON support for Active Geo-Replication on Azure Cache for Redis
• Azure SQL—General availability updates for mid-March 2023
• General Availability: Performance workbooks for Azure PostgreSQL – Flexible Server
• Azure Load Testing support for JMeter 5.5
• Now available: Azure Kubernetes Service Edge Essentials
• Azure Machine Learning – Generally availability updates for March 2023
• Generally available: Azure Monitor integration with Azure Container Apps
• Generally available: Azure SQL Database offline migrations in Azure SQL Migration extension
• Public preview: Azure Database for MySQL connector for Power Apps, Logic Apps
• Azure Red Hat OpenShift version 4.11 now available
• Generally Available: Durable Functions support of managed identity for Azure Storage
• Public preview: Data API builder instantly creates modern REST and GraphQL endpoints for modern databases
• Public Preview: Collect Syslog from AKS nodes using Azure Monitor container insights
• Public Preview: Performance Plus for Azure Disk Storage
• Azure Red Hat OpenShift March Updates
• Generally available: Azure Ultra Disk Storage in Brazil Southeast, South Africa North and UAE North
• Azure SQL—Public preview updates for mid-March 2023
• Public Preview: Change data capture for Azure Cosmos DB analytical store
• Generally available: ContainerLogV2 Schema in Azure Monitor container insights
• Generally available: Metric charts support for split-by operations on multiple dimensions
• Generally available: Azure Firewall Basic
• Public Preview – Backup for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Public preview: Database connections support in Azure Static Web Apps
• Public preview: Azure Static Web Apps support for A Record
• General Availability: Support for pg_hint_plan and server extensions in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server
• General Availability of Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server on Azure VMware Solution
• Azure Machine Learning – Public Preview updates for March 2023
• Azure Machine Learning – March 2023 Region Expansion Announcement 
• Public Preview: Selective Disk Backup and Restore in Enhanced Policy for Azure VM Backup
• Generally available: Azure Digital Twins Data history supports Graph updates
• Kubernetes at scale just got easier with new Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes enhancements
• OKE virtual nodes deliver a serverless Kubernetes experience
• Kubernetes cluster add-on lifecycle management
• First principles: Making Kubernetes serverless with OCI Virtual Nodes
• Breakthrough computational analysis of grate discharge flow performed by Ansys Rocky DEM-SPH on OCI bare metal GPU shape

After show: Mark Zuckerberg will be laying off 10,000 Facebook employees.

• 0️⃣ Update on Meta’s Year of Efficiency.
• This comes with a manifesto highlighting his key points for making Meta a formidable tech company.