Microsoft Workloads on AWS

Category: Best Practices

How to bring existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses to Amazon EC2

Disclaimer: The use of Microsoft software is subject to Microsoft’s terms. When using Microsoft Software as a customer of AWS, you are fully responsible for complying with Microsoft licensing terms. This information is only provided as a guide for your convenience, and you should not rely on its descriptions nor consider it any form of […]

How to automate an in-place upgrade of SQL Server on Amazon EC2

In this blog post, we will show you how to perform an automated in-place upgrade of your standalone Microsoft SQL Server instances installed on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). This solution supports upgrades to SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, SQL Server 2019, and SQL Server 2022. Introduction As new versions of SQL Server […]

How ABFL modernized Microsoft applications on AWS to drive efficiency and agility

In this blog post, you will learn how Aditya Birla Finance Limited (ABFL) adopted a progressive and architecture-driven approach to modernize their legacy Windows-based wealth management platform, Aditya Birla MyUniverse ABMU, and achieve 4X total cost of ownership (TCO) savings. Introduction ABFL, headquartered in Mumbai, India, offers customized solutions in the areas of personal finance, […]

Optimize CPU best practices for SQL Server workloads

In this blog post, we will review the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Optimize CPU feature and provide guidelines for utilizing this feature to reduce Microsoft SQL Server license cost on Amazon Web Services (AWS) without sacrificing SQL Server performance. 1. Introduction Amazon EC2 offers a diverse range of instance types tailored to suit […]

Automate Microsoft web application deployments with GitHub Actions and Terraform

Managing infrastructure deployments and application code releases can be challenging. Manual processes often lead to delays, errors, and inconsistency across different environments. This inconsistency, known as environment drift, makes it difficult to ensure reliable deployments. As a result, teams struggle to maintain a high release velocity. In this blog post, we will show how GitHub […]

Update AWS Tools for PowerShell at scale with AWS Systems Manager

In this blog post, I will show you how to update AWS Tools for PowerShell at scale within your environment by using the AWS Systems Manager Run Command. Manually updating AWS Tools for PowerShell across multiple instances can be time-consuming, inefficient, and error prone. These manual operational efforts typically result in a logistical nightmare, especially […]

How to generate TLS certificates for a highly available Remote Desktop Gateway Farm

Introduction In this blog post, I am going to show you how to generate, import, test, and troubleshoot a properly created Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate for a Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) farm. Secure management of your Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances for Microsoft Windows Server is a top priority for any […]

Accelerate Remote Desktop Gateway deployments with AWS Launch Wizard

Introduction In this blog post, I am going to show you how easy it is to deploy a secure infrastructure to manage your Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) instances for Microsoft Windows Server through the automation provided by AWS Launch Wizard. AWS Launch Wizard offers a guided way of sizing, configuring, and deploying AWS resources […]

Deciding where to host .NET applications on AWS

With Amazon Web Services (AWS), you have three main types of compute to choose from: instances, containers, and function-as-a-service. While all of them can be used to host .NET applications, choosing the right type can help you achieve the best possible architecture for your application. In this blog post, I review a few common types […]

Accelerate Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling for Microsoft Windows workloads

In this blog post, we will present a sample solution and provide recommendations on how to reduce both the cost and time associated with a Microsoft Windows Server instance joining an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Auto Scaling group up to 78%. Customers using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling often desire faster scale-out times to […]