SECTION 2: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLOUD SERVICES THAT ARE AVAILABLE

Question 1

Information as a Service (IaaS)

Answer 1

IaaS offers computing power to companies that are looking to move things out in the cloud and to allow a cloud company to host their servers online. All of it can be hosted in Azure. Concepts in IaaS allow the hosting of virtual servers, virtual machines, virtual guest operating systems, and make them all available to users.

Consumers pays for computing power, the CPU, the RAM, the storage, networking, and for what resources the consumer uses.

The cloud provider virtualizes your equipment on their hardware, and provides firewall and load balancing if requested.

Question 2

Four Types of Cloud Services

Answer 2

Information as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Serverless

Question 3

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Answer 3

The agreement between the cloud provider and the consumer.

Question 4

Benefits of IaaS

Answer 4

IaaS scales up and down with demand. The consumer only pays for what is used. The consumer avoids the expense and complexity of buying and managing physical servers and other datacenter infrastructure. Each resource is offered as a separate service component and a particular component is only rented for as long as needed.

The cloud provide manages the infrastructure while the consumer purchases, installs, and configures all software and operating systems.

Question 5

Platform as a Service

Answer 5

PaaS is a step up from IaaS and falls between IaaS and SaaS. The cloud provider handles the data center, the networking, the power, the storage, the infrastructure, the OS, and tools consumer needs to provide their own services. Databases, web portals, interfaces, etc.

PaaS is a complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, with resources that enable the consumer to deliver everything from simple cloud-based apps to sophisticated, cloud-enabled enterprise applications. Your purchase the resources you need from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-you-go basis and access them over a secure internet connection.

Question 6

MS Platform Tools

Answer 6

MS offers a set of platform based tools that each consumer can configure and use for their own environment. Some is pay for what you use and some is licensing fee.

Kubernetes is a tool for generating containers and managing instances of those containers. It allows scaling a virtual service to multiple users with potential spikes and can scale up and down as needed.

Development Tools are offered on PaaS. Developing companies that develop software offer all the tools to do that.

Question 7

Benefits of PaaS

Answer 7

PaaS allows the consumer to avoid the expense and complexity of buying and managing software licenses, the underlying application infrastructure and middleware, container orchestrators such as Kubernetes, or the development tools and other resources. The consumer manages the applications and services it has developed, and the cloud service provider typically manages everything else.

Question 8

MS365 as a Service

Answer 8

MS365 is a PaaS and a SaaS. MS365 offers a web-based platform for managing applications and allowing access to a consumer’s users. The idea is that any tenant (subscriber to MS365) can get an instance of a particular platform where they can use the MS365 services. PaaS can be pay as you go, pay what you use, or a flat licensing fee (Office365 services). MS365 is the main PaaS and Office365 is a mix but primarily SaaS.

Question 9

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer 9

SaaS allows users to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the internet. Common examples are email, calendaring, and office tools (Office 365).

SaaS offers a piece of software as a service which will be maintained by MS. Office365 is their main SaaS and allows the deployment of Word, Excel, and other apps. The cloud provider handles everything including the application itself. Software can be web hosted or downloadable.

The consumer is renting the app, even if it is downloadable. Apps for Enterprise is Office 365. If you don’t pay the monthly license fee, the software will be deactivated.

SaaS is license fee based.

Question 10

First Concept of Microsoft’s Cloud

Answer 10

• Things are constantly changing.
  
  • You must be agile in utilizing MS’s cloud services.
  • It’s impossible to stay on top of every change.

Question 11

MS365 Admin Center

Answer 11

portal.azure.com
The portal to Azure AD. MS365 stores all user information in Azuer AD, including users, groups, licensing, passwords, etc.

Azure AD Connect provides an on-premise connection with the cloud which allows for a hybrid environment. Data is located on the consumer’s physical server and in the cloud.

portal.microsoft.com
The main portal to MS365 for users and admins. There is a separate dashboard for admins to use.

Question 12

portal.office.com

Answer 12

Where users can go to interact with MS365. The <Install> button is on the upper right. The Waffle shows all apps, online and desktop. Admins can control applications from the admin center, even if downloaded on machines.</Install>

Question 13

Dynamics 365 within Azure

Answer 13

Dynamics 365 is a set of intelligent business applications that help you run your entire business and deliver greater results through predictive, AI-driven insights.

Question 14

Dynamics 365 Sales

Answer 14

• Activate digital selling
  
  • Empower sellers to build relationships remotely
  • Boost sales productivity with seamless tools
  • Improve coaching and sales performance
  • Increase sales profitably
  • Innovate with sales solutions built to evolve

Geared to scale with usage.

Question 15

Dynamics 365 Customers Intel

Answer 15

• CRM-based customer management
  
  • Activate real-time insights with turnkey integrations
  • Embed customer profile card in your business applications
  • Automate customer-centric experiences
  • Build custom applications with embedded insights
  • Enable real-time decision making

Export insights to destinations including marketing automation, advertising, and customer engagement platforms from MS and other providers.

Question 16

Dynamics 365 Marketing

Answer 16

• Test and choose the right content
  
  • Use simple words and natural language
  • Prioritize leads
  • Improve marketing effectiveness
  • Better understand customer needs

Compare message effectiveness using built-in A/B testing with fully rendered dynamic content. Improve open rates using automated scheduler and spam score.

Question 17

Identity

Answer 17

Identity=Account
MS refers to user identity vs. user account.

Azure AD is the central directory services store. Identities can be synced with the consumer’s on premise Active Directory (ADDS).

Question 18

Single Sign On (SSO)
Seamless Single Sign On (SSSO)

Answer 18

SSO ties ADDS to Azure AD cloud services. A user signs on to one service and is automatically signed in to both.

Azure AD Connect ties on premise AD and the cloud to create a hybrid scenario. User credentials are entered and it is authenticated to the on premise domain and the Azure cloud domain, which are synchronized.

Question 19

Federation

Answer 19

MS’s term for authenticating a user identity with third-party services. Amazon and Android are examples of possible federated services.

Question 20

Pros and Cons of SSO

Answer 20

Passwords log users into both services at the same time.
If a password is changed in the cloud, it is also changed in the ADDS.

The danger is in someone learning the user’s one password and accessing everything. MFA MUST BE USED in conjunction with an SSO password.

Question 21

Multiple Ways to Manage Identities

Answer 21

• Azure AD Portal (portal.azure.com)
• Microsoft 365 Admin Center (admin.microsoft.com or portal.microsoft.com)
• FOR HYBRID On-Premise Active Directory Domain Services with accounts synced through Azure AD Connect
• Powershell

Question 22

Licenses

Answer 22

Licenses allow the admin to enable or disable features the user can utilize.

MS365 is a subscription service. A license must be purchased for each user.

Question 23

Roles

Answer 23

Roles give the user rights to perform actions, including administrative controls in your environment.

Question 24

Creating User Identities Using the Azure AD Portal

Answer 24

portal.azure.com
The menu bar is on the left.

<Azure>
<Users>
<New>
Add user name.
<Name> is the visible name, not the username.
Then create or auto-generate the password.
Assign the user to a group and/or a role.
Block sign-in if desired.
Add usage location--REQUIRED. (e.g. the United States)
The add the job title and the department.
Click <Create>

Admins can edit the user identity, including address, job title, role, etc.
</Create></Name></New></Users></Azure>