by Shane Schlabach | Jun 5, 2025 | AWS, Blog, Cloud
SUMMARY: Organizations can enhance security and compliance by following distinct, step-by-step procedures to encrypt existing unencrypted AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes, securing data that is not protected automatically by default. Encrypting a data volume...
by Shane Schlabach | Apr 24, 2025 | Azure, Blog
SUMMARY: Microsoft is permanently retiring the Azure Database for MariaDB service on September 19, 2025, requiring all current users to migrate their database instances immediately to prevent permanent deletion and loss of all data, primarily by migrating to the...
by Shane Schlabach | Mar 27, 2025 | Azure, Blog
SUMMARY: XTIVIA’s Virtual-DBA service addresses the escalating costs of traditional database monitoring by replacing rigid, per-instance licensing with a predictable subscription model that integrates automated alerts with expert, US-based human support to ensure...
by Shane Schlabach | Mar 18, 2025 | Azure, Blog
SUMMARY: Microsoft is deprecating TLS 1.0 and 1.1 across Azure to eliminate known security vulnerabilities, requiring organizations to transition their Azure SQL connections to TLS 1.2 or higher by August 31, 2025, to maintain secure data access. While Azure SQL...
by Shane Schlabach | Mar 11, 2025 | AWS, Blog, Cloud
SUMMARY: XTIVIA outlines how administrators can centralize network governance by using the Amazon VPC IP Address Manager (IPAM) to monitor public IP usage across an entire AWS Organization. The setup process involves delegating a specific non-management account to...
by Shane Schlabach | Nov 27, 2024 | Azure, Blog, Cloud, Microsoft
Security and management are essential when managing access to Entra joined machines. Using Microsoft Entra credentials achieves both and is a fairly straightforward setup when logging onto a device locally. Connecting remotely via RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) can...
by Shane Schlabach | Nov 7, 2024 | Azure, Blog
Security and management are essential when managing access to Windows machines in Azure. Using Microsoft Entra credentials achieves both and is a fairly straightforward setup. However, MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) can complicate the process and require some...
by Shane Schlabach | Aug 1, 2024 | Azure, Blog, Cloud, Microsoft
As Azure grows and resources continue to improve, Microsoft will continuously retire old and outdated resources. Any resources not migrated by the retirement date may stop working as Microsoft shuts down the endpoints on which they run. Below is a list of all...
by Shane Schlabach | Jul 11, 2024 | AWS, Blog, Cloud, Databases
When creating an S3 Replication Rule, objects that were uploaded prior to the rule being created will not be replicated. These will need to be replicated manually with an S3 Batch Operation. This can also be used for occasional one-off replications if needed....
by Shane Schlabach | Jul 9, 2024 | AWS, Blog, Cloud
When you create a general-purpose S3 bucket, AWS automatically redundantly saves all data across a minimum of 3 availability zones in the region where the bucket was created. This allows for 99.999999999% file durability, which ensures that you will never lose any of...
by Shane Schlabach | Jan 4, 2024 | AWS, Blog
One of AWS’s excellent features is that public IP addresses, known as Elastic IPs, have been free as long as they were assigned to a resource. That is about to change on February 1, 2024. All Elastic IPs will be charged at $0.005 per hour while allocated to your...
by Shane Schlabach | Dec 21, 2023 | AWS, Blog
You’ve heard of 12 days of Christmas!? Well, below are 12 Tips and tricks for AWS! Enjoy! #1 Require MFA for all users To help secure your AWS environment, it is highly recommended to require MFA for all users logging into the AWS Management Console. Follow the...
by Shane Schlabach | Dec 7, 2023 | AWS, Blog, Cloud
Session Manager is an AWS-managed service that provides users access to their instances without using a Bastion Host or opening inbound ports, such as 3389 for RDP & 22 for SSH. It can also offer access when an instance is unresponsive. There are a couple of...
by Shane Schlabach | Nov 2, 2023 | Blog, Cloud
Choosing a cloud provider can be difficult, with several options, each offering a wide variety of services. The two leading providers are Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, which combine for over 50% of the cloud provider market share. There are several others, but here...
