Leveraging the power of Managed Identity in Azure

The authentication landscape in Azure has changed a lot. Traditionally applications used certificates, keys, passwords and many other things to be able to connect to external resources. Sometimes these methods still apply and are valid to use, but most of the time they can be insecure and are very annoying to maintain. These days authentication through identity is very popular and makes maintenance a joke.

In this session I will show you what managed identities are, we will have a look into what the difference is between system-assigned and user-assigned identities and we will dive into an example application which leverages managed identities. We will also dive into using managed identities with Azure SQL Server and the quirks you need to think about.

Prevent data breaches: private connections in Azure

As software developers Initially we all expected to never do so much with networking. With cloud solutions being the go to landing zones most of the time teams are not only responsible for the applications itself, but also the networking. There are multiple resources for networking which all have their own use cases, but how do you really make sure your applications are not publicly available? This is made available with private connections. Private connections are established through the usage of private link and private endpoints.

Do you want your networking to be even more secure and prevent data breaches? In this session I will tell you about the different resources and how to use them. We will discuss why you should use private connections and I'll show you that they are not that complicated when you're familiar with the fundamentals. We will also go through an small architecture in which we will implement private connections.

Creating preconfigured clusters with Azure Kubernetes Service Automatic

Kubernetes is great for running containerized applications in a automated scalable environment. The addition of AKS makes is even easier to running that same cluster in Azure. Running those AKS clusters became even more powerful with features like Kubernetes Event-driven Autoscaling (KEDA), Workload Identity and integrations with Azure services like Azure Key Vault and Azure Policy. The past year also added azure managed resources for Prometheus and Grafana.

These additions are great, but there is still lots of configuration to do before the cluster is production ready. What if all this configuration is done for you? Microsoft felt the same and thus created Azure Kubernetes Service Automatic. With AKS Automatic you are able to create clusters quick and complete with features you want. Do you want a cluster with monitoring and scaling prebuild? AKS Automatic will do that for you.

In this session we will have a look at the features AKS Automatic has to offer and if it is something you could use.

Basic knowledge of AKS and Azure is required.

Mastering DevOps: Improving application development with a buzzword

There are lots of different ways to handle application development. The differences in management style of compancies will make it even harder to create a 'golden standard'. Most of the time companies have some sort software development lifecycle (SDLC). This SDLC describes how you should develop applications. The goal of and SDLC is al about delivering good quality software in a short period of time without having to compromise key concepts like security and reliability.

The creation of an SDLC is mostly done with DevOps in mind. Even though DevOps is mostly used by recruiters and mentioned in vacancies doesn't mean it is just a buzzword. In this session we will be discussing the true meaning of DevOps and specifically what we can learn from it. We will be creating our own project and implement our own SDLC with the usage of Azure and Azure DevOps.

Fortresses in Azure simplified: using Network Security Perimeter

In the past, we only needed knowledge about running applications on Windows servers. Networking tasks were handled by 'the networking guys,' and in-depth knowledge was rarely required. Nowadays, running that same application in Azure demands much more. Even though the network gurus are still around, you'll most likely be responsible for at least part of the network. Another option is to opt-out of using Virtual Networks, but that would make your application less secure.

Using Virtual Networks adds complexity, which impacts the required knowledge of engineers. Setting up a well-functioning Virtual Network also requires multiple components. These components most likely include Network Security Groups and Private Endpoints. Simplifying your own virtual network 'fortress' helps teams maintain control. The newly released resource, Network Security Perimeter, is here to help. In this session, we will explore what features NSP offers and how it can help you simplify your Azure network.