DevOps, Micro, SRE +

DevOps, Micrservices, API, Kubernetes (K8s), SRE -- Azure vs Tetrate.

• Tetrate Service Bridge (TSB): 

  1. -- BLUF: Tetrate helps large, complex organizations with a mix of legacy and modern applications securely and efficiently manage their network and application communication in a hybrid, multi-cloud environment. They serve clients in highly regulated sectors like government and finance, who need to meet strict security and compliance standards.

  2. -- Does: (1) Service Mesh: This is a key concept. A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer for handling service-to-service communication within a microservices architecture. It manages network traffic, provides security, and offers observability (monitoring and logging) for your applications. (2) Built on Open-Source: Tetrate was founded by the creators and maintainers of popular open-source projects like Istio and Envoy Proxy. These are the foundational technologies for service meshes. Tetrate takes these open-source projects and builds an enterprise-grade platform on top of them, adding features that are critical for large organizations.

  3. -- Key Functions: Designed to: (1) Manage Complexity: It simplifies the management of applications that are spread across multiple clusters, different clouds (multi-cloud), and even on-premises environments. (2) Enhance Security: It's a critical tool for implementing Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), which assumes no user or device is trusted by default, even if they are inside the network. Tetrate enforces security policies and provides tools for compliance. (3) Provide Observability: It gives you a single view of all your services, allowing you to monitor their health, traffic flow, and performance. (4) Bridge Workloads: It helps organizations modernize their application architecture by allowing them to connect and manage both legacy applications (monoliths and virtual machines) and newer, cloud-native microservices within the same platform.

• Azure Suite of Services. -- 

  1. -- BLUF: Azure doesn't have a single, direct product that's a 1-stop (Monolithic) equivalent of Tetrate Service Bridge (TSB), it offers a suite of services that, when combined, provide similar functionality for managing and securing microservices.

  2. -- Microservices, Kubernetes (K8s) -- 

     1. 1. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): -- [Kubernetes (K8s)] -- This is the foundation. AKS provides a fully managed Kubernetes environment, which is where your microservices will run. The AKS control plane is where you'll deploy and manage your applications.

           • Istio on Azure AKS: You can install Istio as a service mesh directly onto your AKS cluster. While Istio is an open-source project, many of its capabilities—like traffic management, security policies, and observability—are central to what Tetrate offers. Tetrate's value is in making the management of Istio and multi-cluster setups much easier, and you can even find Tetrate's own offerings directly on the Azure Marketplace.

        2. Azure Service Fabric: -- [Microservices] -- A distributed systems platform. It's a solid choice for building and managing microservices, especially stateful applications (it remembers past interactions). It has built-in features for lifecycle management, health monitoring, and scaling. While it's a great option, the industry has largely converged on Kubernetes, so AKS is a more common choice for modern applications.

  3. -- Containers -- (2)

     1. 1. A container -- Like Docker or Azure Container Instances (ACI)  is a standardized unit of software that packages code and all its dependencies (libraries, configuration files) together. Run on any system that supports the container format. -- Analogy: Think of a container like a shipping container (self-contained, portable, can be deployed on various systems, standardized, and isolated). It holds all the cargo (your code and its dependencies) needed for an application to run, regardless of the ship (the underlying computer system) it's transported on.

        2. Azure Container Instances (ACI): -- [Serverless Container] -- [CaaS] ---- Create a single, self-contained container by using the Azure portal or CLI, configuring resources like CPU and memory, and deploying it directly from a public registry like Docker Hub or a private one like Azure Container Registry (ACR). -- Simple, quick deployments and is a serverless (Headless).

           • In Azure ACI, all resources like application data, configuration files, or logs, are stored in an external solution called the Azure File Share.

           • Deployment types for "Small / Development Level":

             1. * ACI to External ACI -- Common practice. Moving app between external Azure subscriptions, regions, or Vnets The container image, which holds your app, is pulled from a registry (like Azure Container Registry) and deployed into a new ACI instance with its own configuration. 

             2. ACI to Docker -- The container is fully compatible. One simply use "Docker Pull" and "Docker Run" cammands.

             3. ACI to Server -- A "customer app" in a Container can run on an external Server by moving the container image, not the Azure Container Instances (ACI). 

             4. ACI to User Desktop -- A "custom app" (the code) NEEDS to be packaged as a native desktop app (.exe or .mis) to download and install in a desktop.

        3. Azure Container Apps (ACA): -- [Serverless / Deploys Microservices] -- Deploy microservices and event-driven applications that require scaling. You first create a container app environment, then configure and deploy your containerized app to that environment, managing settings for traffic, scaling, and revisions.

           • Deployment types for "Large / Full Package & Ready Level"

  4. -- Networking and Security -- For ZTA and security networking tools.

     1. 1. Azure Virtual Network (VNet): -- [Private Networks] -- This is the fundamental building block for your private network in Azure, providing network isolation and segmentation.

        2. Azure Application Gateway & Azure Front Door: -- [Firewall, API] -- These act as API gateways and provide web application firewall (WAF) capabilities, protecting your applications from common web exploits. They handle ingress traffic (north-south traffic) and provide centralized security.

        3. Network Security Groups (NSGs): -- [Filters Traffic to a Resource] -- These are simple but effective tools for filtering network traffic to and from Azure resources.

  5. -- Monitoring, Logging, and Tracing -- 

     1. 1.  Azure Monitor: -- [Metrics & Logs] -- Collects metrics and logs from your applications and infrastructure.

           • Application Insights: -- [App Performance] -- A feature of Azure Monitor that provides detailed insights into application performance and helps you diagnose issues across your services.

        2. Centralized Management: -- [Governance & Centralized Views] -- Azure's various management and governance tools provide a centralized view across your environment.

        3. Azure Policy: -- [Rules & Standards] -- Enforces rules and standards for your resources, ensuring compliance with security and governance requirements.

  6. -- Automation -- 

     1. 1. Azure Resource Manager (ARM): -- [IaC] -- Allows you to manage your infrastructure as code (IaC), ensuring consistency and repeatability across deployments.

           • Azure ARM can automatically create an Azure Resource Group, Vnet, Subnet, Storage, and VMs automatically with a single command. -- To Do: search for "Deploy a custom template";  -- YouTube.

           • Terraform is used to manage resources in multiple cloud environments, like a mix of Azure and AWS.