By Val Bakh 2.4.3 Load Drivers in WinPE Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) is one of the most important enhancements to Windows 7. WinPE’s first version was released with Windows Vista. Version 3.0 is the version that comes with Windows 7. WinPE is a small starter OS that can be loaded from any removable media or…
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Deployment Images & Activation
By Val Bakh2.3.1 Installation images You just need to insert the Windows 7 DVD you purchased, click Install Now and answer a few simple questions. It’s done in less than half an hour. It becomes more difficult if you are an IT professional and need to deploy Windows 7 on dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of…
Read moreActivation and Custom Image Deployment
2.3.2 Activation & Custom Image Deployment. How does activation work with custom image-based deployments? It all depends on which activation method you choose. If you only have retail product keys, you are limited in your options. You can either give each end user a product key or assign the keys using a special administrative tool…
Read more2.8 Security
2.8.1. Windows Firewall – Part 1 By Val BakhThis article provides a high-level overview of firewalls and Windows Firewall (WF). This article provides a simplified conceptual view of the relevant functionalities. It is not intended to be an instruction manual for IT professionals, but as a light-reading material. This material will be easier to understand…
Read more2.8.5. EFS – Part 3
2.8.5. EFS – Part 3 by Val Bakh. In Parts 1 and 2, we discussed the main concepts and explained how EFS encrypts or decrypts files. We also described how you can share those files to trusted colleagues and how a data recovery agency (DRA) can retrieve your files if you lose your private key….
Read moreNew AWS SaaS Subscriptions Make Access and Billing Easier
Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) is now offering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscriptions to simplify the access and billing processes for the bevy of SaaS wares on the AWS Marketplace. Independent software vendors (ISVs), which offer more than 800 SaaS products, had to previously set up billing and metering systems or rely on third parties to do…
Read moreNew AWS Offerings: Security Security was the main focus of several new Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), offerings that were announced last week at the AWS Summit in San Francisco. Security is a constant concern for AWS and its corporate customers. However, security has been given more attention due to recent data breaches and a spate of well-publicized revelations of wide-open, unencrypted data storages housed in AWS Cloud. Here are some security announcements that were made last week.
After last year’s string security company announcements, Amazon EFS AWS has increased its encryption guidance. Encryption is still a focal point, as demonstrated by new encryption-in-transit functionality announced for the Amazon Elastic File System, designed for cloud-native applications requiring shared access to file-based storage. This new functionality, combined with the existing support for encrypting data…
Read moreAWS New Migration Tool Announced There are many options available to assist with data and system migrations to Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), but a new tool is now available for any type of workload. Hystax Acura Live migration to AWS was announced recently by Hystax, a Dutch specialist in cloud migrations and disaster recovery. The tool allows for automated migrations of all types of workloads to AWS cloud. This is in addition to the Acura line, which also targets Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and many other platforms. The workloads include machine data and business applications. Machine metadata is also included for automated migration and preservation of network settings. Hystax outlined four steps to complete cloud migration.
Subscribe to Hystax AcuraLive Migration to AWS via the AWS Marketplace, or by submitting an AMI request. Then deploy it. Start replication by downloading and installing replication agent for selected machines. Make an auto-generated migration plan. Set orchestration rules. You can run unlimited test migrations before you perform a final migration. This tool joins a…
Read moreAWS Lambda Monitoring Tool Leverages Artificial Intelligence Instana has announced that it has expanded the reach of its performance monitoring tool, which leverages artificial intelligence (AI), to include AWS Lambda as well as many other AWS services. The company is an Application Performance Monitoring (APM), specialist in monitoring dynamic microservice applications. Instana announced last week that its tool supports AWS products, including AWS Lambda which is the Amazon cloud’s serverless computing platform. “More business applications operate in hybrid environments, incorporating traditional monolithic apps, wrapped with a new microservices stack, and using native AWS Services.” Instana CEO Mirko Novakovic stated that customers are now using AWS Lambda Functions to access specific microservices. AWS services support continuous automatic discovery and collection of configuration, performance, and health information for Lambda and other AWS components. It also provides application performance metrics across the entire environment. According to the company, its solution uses AI to automatically monitor and visualize application performance for dynamic microservice applications. According to the company, accurate performance analysis can be achieved by aligning the application service map with each change immediately. AI is also used to alert and identify the likely root causes of each incident. Instana sensors are monitoring the following AWS native platforms in addition to Lambda:
S3 — Amazon’s Simple Cloud Storage Service is a Web-scale storage solution that supports Web applications. SQS — The AWS messaging middleware platform RDS — The AWS native relational data database Dynamo — The AWS NoSQL Database Kinesis — A streaming optimization platform for AWS-based apps
Read moreAWS IoT Events – Detects Changes In Sensor Data, Automates Responds. AWS IoT Events is now generally available on Amazon Web Services Inc.’s (AWS) cloud. It is a fully managed service that joins a portfolio of services and products that are based on Internet of Things implementations. The service detects changes to data patterns and automatically responds using code in AWS Lambda, or with notifications. This allows organizations to quickly address any problems or situations. There are many uses for AWS IoT Events, including:
Malfunctioning machinery Stuck conveyor belt Slowdown in production Robot arm misaligned Detected motion after hours Temperature changes due to freezer door not sealing properly Motor operations that exceed tolerance levels The company stated that the service will simplify the process of responding to such events. AWS announced that it will be detecting events using data…
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