As many businesses continue migrating to Microsoft Azure, the pace of transition can seem slow despite the platform's maturity. This blog explores the key factors influencing migration decisions, such as legacy investments, platform maturity, and strategic conflicts. It also discusses how businesses can overcome these barriers and successfully adopt cloud native solutions.

As organisations adopt cloud native platforms they must safeguard their environments against the pitfalls of organic growth, including cloud sprawl, misconfigurations, and technical debt. These challenges can hinder efficiency, increase security risks, and impact overall performance. In this blog, we provide several recommendations to help avoid these challenges, including implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC), right-sizing environments based on actual usage, and regularly assessing cloud platforms. By prioritising these practices, organisations can achieve a more secure, optimised, and resilient Azure deployment that supports their growth and innovation goals.

After a decade of experience building Azure hosting platforms, we have identified three key factors for cloud success: leveraging Azure’s native services, embracing automation, and establishing strong platform foundations. To meet evolving customer needs, we've developed Azure Accelerator Packs, which simplify and speed up cloud deployment while maintaining high-quality results. Read more.

Terraform has significantly evolved its testing strategies over time. Initially, testing Terraform code involved time-consuming manual checks or third-party tools, often leading to inefficiencies and errors. Recognising the need for better testing methodologies, HashiCorp have now introduced a native framework that streamlines the testing process by allowing test assertions within the Terraform codebase itself, using native HCL. This shift towards more integrated and less cumbersome testing is particularly useful within automated build pipelines and can be employed in both root and child module use cases.

Learn how to detect and clean up leaked secrets in your Git repositories. This how-to guide covers the use of tools like GitLeaks and Trufflehog for secret detection, and the BFG Repo-Cleaner for removing sensitive data from your Git history. Ensure your CI processes and repositories are secure with step-by-step instructions, all using Bash scripting.

YakChat’s fifth podcast episode is now available. In this episode, we are joined by Alex Durieu, Senior Sales Manager Azure Digital & App Innovation for Enterprise Commercial at Microsoft, for a discussion with BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, on the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in today's digital landscape. They explore various facets of AI, including advancements in machine learning, the evolution of Artificial Intelligence methodologies, the rise of OpenAI, and the accelerating rate of adoption across businesses.

YakChat’s fourth podcast episode is now available. In our new episode, Craig Hurt, Cloud and DevOps Lead, joins BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, to discuss why Azure automation is central to modern business transformation and a critical driver for digital success.

As organisations move more of their sensitive workloads to the cloud, the issue of security becomes increasingly important, particularly as they implement DevSecOps to formalise defences. Here are our top six security considerations as you strengthen your protections in the Microsoft Azure cloud.

We help clients to fill capability and experience gaps to accelerate Cloud and DevOps strategies bringing IP (e.g. designs, patterns, frameworks) to speed up deployments. With this engagement, customers will get a foundational view of their Azure DevOps and IaC maturity highlighting business problems, objectives and drivers.

YakChat’s third podcast episode is now available. In our new episode, Ollie Gayton, Head of Professional Services, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, discuss application modernisation on Azure and the critical role that platform modernisation and automation plays in modernising business services to support digital transformation.

YakChat’s second podcast episode is now available. In our second episode, Stuart Anderson, Chief Engineer, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, discuss the evolving landscape of container technology and why businesses are turning to container technologies to bolster their digital transformation and application modernisation strategies.

Launching YakChat, a podcast by BlakYaks. In our first episode ‘Modern Cloud Operations’, Neil Allgood, Cloud Engineering and Operations Lead, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, explore the changing nature of cloud technology operations and how businesses can realise the full potential of their cloud deployments.

Our SpecOps team represents a forward-looking service function explicitly crafted to support the dynamic landscape of cloud platforms, workloads, and services. We understand the pivotal role that cloud technology plays in shaping the future of businesses. Our team takes on the responsibility of meticulously managing all Azure platforms, employing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to harness the full potential of Azure.

Explore the transformative concept of Platform Engineering, bridging the gap between innovation and DevOps. It simplifies infrastructure provisioning, allowing developers to concentrate on code, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. While it offers simplicity, it complements, rather than replaces, DevSecOps strategies.

Microsoft has taken AKS ingress to the next level with the latest addition to its Application Gateway family. With its advanced traffic distribution, SSL termination, and MTLS capabilities, Azure Application Gateway for Containers ensures seamless and secure traffic routing, optimising and simplifying app delivery for Azure customers. Read our new technical blog by Craig Hurt, Cloud and DevOps Lead at BlakYaks, to discover how this update not only aligns perfectly with Azure and AKS but also elevates your cloud native platforms to new horizons.

Short blog article on a couple of noteworthy features in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) that recently became generally available: Azure CNI Overlay & Azure CNI Powered by Cilium.

Having used Azure AD Pod Identity for the last couple of years, Microsoft have now made the replacement product - Azure AD Workload Identity (AZWI) - generally available. With the GA release of AZWI, Azure AD Pod Identity has been deprecated, and will officially stop receiving security patches in September 2023. If you're using the legacy solution in production, now would be a good time to start planning its replacement.

Security is a top priority for organisations in today's rapidly evolving threat landscape. That's why DevSecOps has gained traction as a critical approach to building secure software products. Unlike traditional DevOps, DevSecOps incorporates security practices right from the development phase, addressing security issues as they happen. In this blog, we delve into the nuances of DevSecOps and explore why organisations should consider adopting this approach.