August 22, 2013 News Thursday: Windows Azure Receives Security Recognition and more Server and Tools News...

by STB Blogger

Deloitte Recognizes Windows Azure Security, Availability and Confidentiality Trust Principles

Microsoft announced that public auditor Deloitte issued a Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type 2 report for Windows Azure in security, availability and confidentiality trust principles and an assessment against the Cloud Security Alliance’s (CSA) Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM), a set of security principles designed to help customers choose a cloud provider.

Windows Azure is the first cloud provider to receive the CCM attestation as part of its SOC 2 audit as recommended by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and CSA earlier this year. According to the CSA, leveraging combined criteria from the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix and a SOC report will likely meet the assurance and reporting needs of the majority of cloud services users. Customers can be confident that Windows Azure meets a broad range of international requirements, while reducing the time and costs associated with understanding and evaluating cloud service providers.
 
Read the Windows Azure blog post for more information.

What’s New in R2 Blog Series: Enabling Modern Applications

As part of the ongoing series on “What’s New in R2,” Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson’s blog highlighted the importance of consistency across private, hosted and public clouds to enable modern applications. This will be key for IT Pros and developers alike as organizations define their cloud strategy.
 
Examples of this consistency are the improvements made in Service Bus 1.1 for Windows Server and the Windows Azure Pack. With these solutions, customers can now build an application, initially deploy it in a private cloud, and then, move that app to a Service Provider or Windows Azure in the future without having to modify the application. The ability to migrate an app between these environments means that apps and data are never locked in to a single cloud. This allows customers to easily adjust as their organization’s needs, regulatory requirements, or any operational conditions change.

For more information, check out Brad Anderson’s In the Cloud blog. We encourage customers to download the Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 R2 preview software and start evaluation today!

Generali US Branch Successfully Deploys Instec’s Quicksolver Cloud in Microsoft’s Windows Azure

Insurance provider Generali US Branch moved to Windows Azure to achieve a more dependable operating environment with improved system uptime and immediate access to data backups. Generali chose to invest in the cloud to modernize its operational systems and prevent outages like those experienced during 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. In order to achieve these goals, the company migrated its Commercial Auto and Liability business lines to Instec’s Quicksolver Cloud policy administration platform running on Windows Azure.

Read the press release for more information on the benefits Generali has realized with Quicksolver and Windows Azure.