Tech

The Linuxifacation of Microsoft

REnerd

“Linuxifcation.” Is that a word? Probably not, but I’m making it one. Whatever you want to call it, Micro$oft has taken a turn towards the open-source side.

It was not that long ago that the idea of open-source software was anathema to the boys and girls in Redmond. However, in the last few years, Microsoft has taken a kinder, gentler approach to the open-source world and started incorporating Linux into its technology sphere. So, let’s look at some events and talk about what might be coming for our new Linux loving Microsoft friends.

Ubuntu in AD and Intune

With the release of Ubuntu’s desktop operating system 23.04, Canonical announced Azure AD authentication support on the desktop OS. Your users can now use the same Azure credentials for their Azure assets as their Ubuntu desktop, bringing those desktops closer into the fold.

Additionally, in October of 2022, Microsoft announced support for Ubuntu clients in Intune. This allows Ubuntu client’s configuration to be managed alongside Windows clients in a single pane inside of Azure’s management panel. Intune allows for custom reporting and conditional access for Ubunutu clients specifically.

Microsoft buys GitHub

GitHub is a well know code and development repository home to projects for droves of developers around the world. In 2018 when the acquisition of GitHub by Microsoft was announced for $7.5 billion, many people were scratching their heads as to why Redmond would pay so much for an organization valued at roughly $250 million. Roughly four and a half years later, it would appear that Microsoft wanted a platform to reach and endear themselves to that coding community, many of which are the creators of open-source projects.

Windows Subsystem for Linux

The Windows Subsystem for Linux(WSL) added a whole subsystem to Windows to allow devs, or sysadmins, to run Linux GUI and command line tools directly on their Windows workstation without spinning up a virtual machine. All of the familiar command line, and even some GUI tools, in Linux, become natively available by adding WSL to your system.

Edge and Teams for Linux

In 2019 Microsoft a native Linux app for Linux, its first full office app for the platform. Some speculated this was the beginning of Microsoft bringing the full Office suite to Linux. Sadly, in December 2022, Microsoft announced it was dropping support for the Linux client in favor of a PWA version of the Teams app. The caveat with the PWA version is that it requires Chrome, or Microsoft prefers Edge, to run the application.

That brings us to another point, Edge on Linux. The initial release was several years ago, but the full release came in Nov 2021. This gave MS a fully supported browser to base their PWA apps on, a direction they’ve been bullish on for quite some time.

Linux in Azure

Since its inception, Linux has been a supported server choice in Azure. Now, Microsoft has been cagey about exactly how much of the overall server population in Azure is Linux, but we do know that it makes up over 50% of the population. The real number is most likely higher when you consider that Linux is used very heavily worldwide on the server side.

Why the love?

So, you might think, “Why the change of heart, Microsoft?” That’s a legitimate question, and the answer is somewhat simple. Market changes.

Azure has taken off since its inception. As Azure’s success has risen, the desktop versions of Windows have made up less and less of Microsoft’s bottom line. Since so many Azure instances are Linux based, it would be foolish not to be more friendly toward that base. Additionally, embedded systems like game systems, voice assistants, smartphones, etc. are gaining popularity. Almost all of those systems run some sort of Linux. At this point, it’s sheer pragmatism, if nothing else. Redmond realizes it can’t dominate every market, despite its best efforts.

Where’s it heading?

Microsoft has gotten neck-deep into the Linux and open-source community for the betterment of Microsoft. I’m a big open-source fan, but I’m a bigger fan of the right tool for the right job at the right time. That varies from organization to organization at different times as they grow and contract. Anytime the tools, whether open source or proprietary, work together, it’s better for the user.

My favorite MS/Linux rumor is that Microsoft is moving toward scrapping the traditional Win32/64 code base and moving to a Linux-based Windows OS. This is definitely interesting and technically possible. Microsoft has its own Linux distro, Mariner, created mainly for Azure use. Microsoft has introduced systemd into WSL, which won’t make it easier to make a Lunix-bas Windows, but it does introduce a way for Windows admins to get more use to using systemd. The bit of information that lends the most credence to this rumor is the supposed “Windows Mode” in Linux.

Windows mode is a Windows subsystem for Linux that allows Win32 API into a Linux distribution, which is brewing. Until recently, the only way to run Windows applications on Linux was to use Wine, which has never been a great experience. I’m not trying crap on the efforts of the Wine developers. They did good work for many years, but it would never be as good an initiative as Microsoft threw its support behind if it came to fruition.

Do I think we will be looking at a Linux-based version of Windows? Probably not unless something major shifts at Microsoft. However, if we do see development and support for the Wind32 API on Linux, then there’s no technical reason it couldn’t happen.

What’s your take on Microsoft cozying up to the open-source community?

Disaster Recovery: Securing Your Data

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Intro

Data is the foundation of any brokerage, just as it is for any business. What would you do if you started your workday, be it in an office or from home, and files or data that you expected to be present was gone? What if your organization was a victim of Ransomware?

You need to have a plan in place should, more accurately, when a data disaster happens to your brokerage.

Disaster Recovery vs. Business Continuity

Let’s start by discussing what disaster recovery is and isn’t. It’s often used interchangeably or in conjunction with business continuity. While the two terms are related, they both serve different functions.

Disaster recovery, at a fundamental level, is defined as:

The process of reestablishing vital infrastructure and systems
following some form of a disaster event

Disaster recovery focuses on keeping your data and systems safe when a disaster occurs. Business continuity focuses on keeping your systems and data at a minimum functioning level during a disaster.

What is a disaster?

So, let’s talk about what a disaster is. When the term disaster is used, most people think of things like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, or wildfires. All destructive natural events fall into the category of disasters, and certain types of disasters may be more prevalent in your area. For example, in Florida, you must contend with hurricanes; in California, you must worry about wildfires.

As destructive as natural disasters are, there are two other types of disasters that people don’t always consider arguably more common and potentially more devastating to an individual business: hardware failure and human action.

A hardware failure disaster occurs when equipment that supports your information infrastructure stops functioning or malfunctions. This can be a server becoming unresponsive from a failed drive or system board, a network switch or firewall failure, or even an outage from your Internet Service Provider. Any hardware failure that prevents you from accessing data or the system to perform business operations is considered a disaster event.

Human action is the most common and potentially most damaging form of disaster. This category covers many situations, but they are all human-induced. This type of event could be Tom from accounting accidentally deleting a financials folder from the server, a ransomware attack, or deliberate sabotage from an employee.

Does this really affect me?

In short, yeah. It affects everyone. Because you don’t live in an area typically subject to natural events, be a disaster victim. Every company can have a fire break out at their office, have their server/network room flood, or be a victim to a bad actor. So let’s look at some numbers to consider the frequency and impact of disasters on businesses today.

  • 75% of data loss is due to human error
  • 2 out of 3 midsized businesses suffered a Ransomware attack in the past 18 months
  • The average cost of downtime is $1,410 per minute
  • 93% of companies that experience a major data loss do not have a plan for recovery
  • 60% of companies that suffer a major data loss will be out of business within six months

Data disasters, in some form or another, will affect every company, regardless of size or type of business. You need to ensure your company is ready for the inevitable.

But…But…the cloud!

I know what many of you are thinking. “but I use the cloud!” I have some good and bad news for you.

Don’t let cloud-based solutions give you a false sense of security. Those applications are still running on the same type of systems as traditional on-premise systems and are subject to the same hardware failures and human errors as those systems. Cloud providers suffer data loss and cloud outages too. However, there’s one major difference when it happens to cloud providers….

The shared responsibility model

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and most other cloud providers have some form of what’s called a shared responsibility model that you agree to during your service’s setup. The exact name and terms of the model vary by provider, but the general premise that we’re concerned with here is that they make you, the user, responsible for the data stored on their platform.

They agree to ensure the platform is stable and available, and you agree to take responsibility for the data you input into their platform and its integrity. That doesn’t mean they don’t have fail-safes to prevent data loss on their platform; they do. However, the agreement absolves them of responsibility should the worst happen.

What to do to protect your data

You can do a few things to ensure your data is safe should you suffer a disaster. Work with your technology staff and partners to determine how your data is protected and recovered. Review your agreements with your cloud vendors to discover exactly what your responsibilities are for the integrity of your data.

If you’d like a simple checklist to start building your disaster recovery plan, you can find one below.

DR-ChecklistDownload