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Matt Allford's Newsletter | Issue 14
Published almost 2 years ago • 2 min read
Hey, it's Matt.
Well, it's quarter two of 2024 already, I swear we just finished January, but here we are.
As usual, I wanted to share a few pieces with you that I've recently come across in the realm of cloud and technology that I've found interesting, and I hope you do too!
Hope you're well, and talk soon.
GitHub Hosted Runner Azure VNET Integration
If you're using GitHub Actions as your CI/CD tooling of choice, and need your workflows to access resources that are only available via private networking contracts in Azure, you've pretty much been limited to using self-hosted runners. Self-hosted runners do have some benefits, but also some drawbacks from a management, cost, and autoscaling perspective.
GitHub have had beta functionality for a few months that allowed you to connect GitHub hosted runners to your Azure VNET, and this functionality has now gone generally available.
The runners get attached to your Azure VNET by deploying a NIC in to a subnet you manage which is connected to the runner, but the runner itself is still managed by GitHub. This also gives you the flexibility to control the networking policies via constructs such as NSGs and firewall rules.
One of the best parts? GitHub have now made this functionality available on the Team plan, whereas previously it was only available to those using GitHub Enterprise!
I'm working on a YouTube video as a walkthrough of this functionality. Make sure to throw me a subscribe (links at the very bottom) to get notified when it's released!
Navigating Your Career at 20, 30, and 40: A Guide by Ethan Banks
I recently enjoyed reading a short article titled "Career Advice I'd Give To 20-, 30- and 40-Something Year Old Me" by Ethan Banks on Packet Pushers. It offers personal and practical career advice for different stages of life, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's goals, workplace dynamics, and personal growth.
The sharings from Ethan are a bunch of one liners, and some will make you stop and reflect quite deeply.
Are your Azure environments as secure as you think? I cam across a post recently from Karol Pieciukiewicz, highlighting the potential pitfalls in the management of Azure Managed Identity tokens.
This article dives into how these tokens can be exploited, offering a reminder of the importance of security measures and the principle of least privilege.
Azure's new Storage Actions is a game-changer for serverless storage data management. It's all about making your data handling smarter and more automated, thanks to its event-driven approach. Think less hassle and more efficiency for anyone needing a dynamic storage solution. It's a big step up for Azure Storage users, simplifying data management big time.
Did you know I author content over on the Pluralsight platform?
If you're a subscriber, this is a shameless plug to check out my courses! I publish content in the IT Ops and Cloud spaces, make sure to give me a follow on the page below to get alerted when I release a new course.
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Screaming in the Cloud is a must listen if you haven't stumbled across it already. It's a weekly podcast with a fantastic balance of snark, information, and entertainment, usually around the 30 minute mark which makes for an easy listen.
Corey gets a range of fantastic guests on the show to talk cloud, networking, development, security, personal growth, and everything in between. Seriously, there's likely not an IT topic that's gone untouched in the catalogue of hundreds of episodes (and counting).
As usual, click the image below to go to the main site, or search for it in your favourite podcatcher.
Follow and connect with me on the social platforms below.
Hey, it's Matt. I hope you've all been out there vibe coding your ideas into MVPs. I'm looking forward to a bit of a break over Easter. The family and I are going away for three nights down to a spot on the east coast of Tasmania. I've got a couple of books lined up to read that I've found myself not getting to this year, but fingers crossed the weather holds out as it is starting to cool off down here as we approach Winter! I've pulled together a few resources I've seen recently, and thought...
Hey, it's Matt. And there goes January - that was quick! Down here in Tasmania it's been great weather, and the kids are about to go back to school (finally!). I spent a bit of time today putting together a list of tech I want to dive into and learn this year, and before I knew it the list was massive! This really is such a broad field with a lot going on. I don't know about you, but I often feel overwhelmed with the amount of technology flying across my socials that I have no idea about. But...
Hey, it's Matt. Whoops, it's been a little while. Hoping you've had a great Christmas, and maybe able to step away from work for a week or two! I've got a goal to get this newsletter on a proper cadence in 2025. Hopefully fortnightly, but at least monthly is my initial goal. As usual I've collected a few pieces of information below that I hope you find helpful, as well as the usual podcast recommendation at the bottom. Talk soon, Matt. Azure CDN from Edgio Retiring on Jan 15 2025 As well as...
