Welcome to The NAS Guy Blog

In the ever-evolving world of technology, where data rules supreme and innovations abound, finding your way through the digital labyrinth can be a daunting task. Whether you’re a seasoned tech enthusiast, a curious newcomer, or just someone looking to make sense of the rapidly changing tech landscape, “The NAS Guy” is here to be your guiding light.

Welcome to my tech-savvy haven where we unravel the mysteries of cloud computing, dive deep into storage solutions, explore the intricacies of data backup, and navigate everything in between. If you’ve ever found yourself lost in the jargon of terabytes, cloud migrations, or RAID arrays, fear not – you’re in the right place!

Recent Blog Posts

  • Installing DISA STIG Hardened Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Veeam Hardened Repository
    Since I wrote my blog post about how to install and harden Ubuntu Linux for Veeam Hardened Repository about a year ago, I get questions on how to do the same with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The reason why this blog post took so long to write is that Veeam Backup & Replication fully … Read more
  • Amazon WorkSpaces Pools: Cost-effective, non-persistent virtual desktops
    You can now create a pool of non-persistent virtual desktops using Amazon WorkSpaces and share them across a group of users. As the desktop administrator you can manage your entire portfolio of persistent and non-persistent virtual desktops using one GUI, command line, or set of API-powered tools. Your users can log in to these desktops … Read more
  • Introducing end-to-end data lineage (preview) visualization in Amazon DataZone
    Amazon DataZone is a data management service to catalog, discover, analyze, share, and govern data between data producers and consumers in your organization. Engineers, data scientists, product managers, analysts, and business users can easily access data throughout your organization using a unified data portal so that they can discover, use, and collaborate to derive data-driven … Read more
  • Amazon CodeCatalyst now supports GitLab and Bitbucket repositories, with blueprints and Amazon Q feature development
    I’m happy to announce that we’re further integrating Amazon CodeCatalyst with two popular code repositories: GitLab and BitBucket, in addition to the existing integration with GitHub. We bring the same set of capabilities that you use today on CodeCatalyst with GitHub to GitLab.com and Bitbucket Cloud. Amazon CodeCatalyst is a unified software development and delivery service. … Read more
  • Small Business Backup Strategy Made Simple
    Let’s face it, data is crucial for all businesses. It powers everything from customer relationships to financial management. Having a solid backup strategy in place  to protect this data from threats like accidental deletion, cyberattacks, and hardware failures, is essential. This guide will help you understand the steps you need to take in order to … Read more
  • Veeam Backup for AWS v8: A Leap Forward in Cloud Data Protection
    Veeam, the global leader in Data Protection and Ransomware Recovery, has recently announced the release of Veeam Backup for AWS v8. This new version marks a significant advancement in cloud data protection. It introduces support for Amazon Redshift Clusters, and Amazon FSx alongside multiple user interface enhancements and scalability improvements for large deployments. Let’s look … Read more
  • 4 Myths of Kubernetes Data Protection, Debunked
    Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration platform, has gained widespread adoption due to its ability to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Based on the April 2023 ESG survey, “Measuring the Current State and Momentum in the Enterprise Market for Kubernetes Protection”, by Christophe Bertrand, practice director at ESG, Kubernetes is maturing. In … Read more
  • Optimizing Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) for speed and scale
    After several public betas, we launched Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) in 2006. Nearly two decades later, this fully managed service is still a fundamental building block for microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications, processing over 100 million messages per second at peak times. Because there’s always a better way, we continue to look … Read more
  • AWS Weekly Roundup: Claude 3.5 Sonnet in Amazon Bedrock, CodeCatalyst updates, SageMaker with MLflow, and more (June 24, 2024)
    This week, I had the opportunity to try the new Anthropic Claude 3.5 Sonnet model in Amazon Bedrock just before it launched, and I was really impressed by its speed and accuracy! It was also the week of AWS Summit Japan; here’s a nice picture of the busy AWS Community stage. Last week’s launches With many … Read more
  • Veeam: It Just Works! 
    While almost everything is ever-changing in IT, the need for reliable backups has been a constant throughout my entire career. When I started working in IT way back in 1985, data, data storage, and data backups were already central for many businesses. I remember vividly working with tapes back then. And today at FHNW University … Read more
  • Microsoft 365 Data Protection: A Practical Guide
    Safeguarding the sensitive information within your Microsoft 365 environment is more important than ever. From accidental deletion and ransomware attacks to costly compliance failures, the consequences of inadequate data protection can be severe. While Microsoft offers a suite of built-in security tools, understanding their capabilities — and their potential limitations — is crucial for ensuring … Read more
  • AWS CodeArtifact adds support for Rust packages with Cargo
    Starting today, Rust developers can store and access their libraries (known as crates in Rust’s world) on AWS CodeArtifact. Modern software development relies heavily on pre-written code packages to accelerate development. These packages, which can number in the hundreds for a single application, tackle common programming tasks and can be created internally or obtained from … Read more
  • Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet model now available in Amazon Bedrock: Even more intelligence than Claude 3 Opus at one-fifth the cost
    It’s been just 3 months since Anthropic launched Claude 3, a family of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) models that allows you to choose the right combination of intelligence, speed, and cost that suits your needs. Today, Anthropic introduced Claude 3.5 Sonnet, its first release in the forthcoming Claude 3.5 model family. We are happy to … Read more
  • Announcing the general availability of fully managed MLflow on Amazon SageMaker
    Today, we are thrilled to announce the general availability of a fully managed MLflow capability on Amazon SageMaker. MLflow, a widely-used open-source tool, plays a crucial role in helping machine learning (ML) teams manage the entire ML lifecycle. With this new launch, customers can now effortlessly set up and manage MLflow Tracking Servers with just … Read more
  • Veeam Kasten for Kubernetes: Back to Basics
    In the previous post in this series, we got Veeam Kasten for Kubernetes up and running on our local development cluster. If you’re picking up from there, you should have a dashboard that looks like this: In this post I will walk you through this dashboard, highlight some key features and functionalities, and show you … Read more
  • NIS2 Directive Explained: Duty of Care for Data
    What is the Network and Information System Directive 2? In the digital age, cybersecurity is not just about protecting data; it is about ensuring the very fabric of our critical infrastructure remains intact and resilient against threats. The introduction of the Network and Information Security Directive 2 (NIS2) by the European Union marks a significant … Read more
  • AWS Weekly Roundup: Passkey MFA, Malware Protection on Amazon S3, and more (June 17, 2024)
    Last week, my alma mater Standard Bank Group (SBG) hosted a Software Engineering Conference and invited me to be one of the keynote speakers. SBG has presence throughout Africa and this hybrid conference was attended by almost 2,000 engineers from across the continent. It was amazing to reconnect with long-time friends and former colleagues, and … Read more
  • Multi-Cloud Strategy: Secure Data & Compliance 
    Businesses are increasingly turning to the cloud for agility, scalability, and innovation. While relying on a single cloud provider was the norm in the past, many organizations recognize the advantages of a multi-cloud strategy. A multi-cloud approach involves utilizing services from multiple cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud … Read more
  • Veeam and Nutanix AHV: Navigating the Hypervisor Landscape
    At one point, the hypervisor of choice was essentially non-debatable when it came to enterprise data estates. Market share and competitive prices made the choice much simpler in many cases; and if public cloud offerings were not in the mix, the choice often boiled down to three-or-so hypervisors. Today, anyone in the industry, whether an … Read more
  • Accelerating Success: The Veeam Partner Onboarding Journey
    Welcoming new partners to our Veeam family is a top priority! Partners have made the choice to grow with us as a strategic decision to enhance their business and provide unrivalled solutions to their customers. In this blog, we will explore the Veeam partner onboarding process and shed light on how it adds value, empowers … Read more
  • The State of Stateful v. Stateless Kubernetes
    I’m in a state of disbelief (pun intended) when, in 2024, I often hear platform operators talk about Kubernetes being for stateless workloads only — or that they don’t require data protection as “all of our apps are stateless.” In this article, I’ll provide background on where states exist in our applications, the rise of … Read more
  • In the Works – AWS Region in Taiwan
    Today, we’re announcing that a new AWS Region will be coming to Taiwan by early 2025. The new AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch, and will give AWS customers in Taiwan the ability to run workloads and store data that must remain in Taiwan. Each of the Availability … Read more
  • Enhancing Cyber Resilience Through IT and Security Collaboration
    Cybersecurity threats are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated and pose significant risks to organizations of all sizes. This evolving threat landscape includes a range of challenges such as advanced persistent threats (APTs), ransomware, phishing attacks, and zero-day vulnerabilities. These threats are often orchestrated by well-funded and highly skilled adversaries who employ sophisticated techniques to breach … Read more
  • AWS Audit Manager extends generative AI best practices framework to Amazon SageMaker
    Sometimes I hear from tech leads that they would like to improve visibility and governance over their generative artificial intelligence applications. How do you monitor and govern the usage and generation of data to address issues regarding security, resilience, privacy, and accuracy or to validate against best practices of responsible AI, among other things? Beyond … Read more
  • Simplify AWS CloudTrail log analysis with natural language query generation in CloudTrail Lake (preview)
    Today, I am happy to announce in preview the generative artificial intelligence (generative AI)–powered natural language query generation in AWS CloudTrail Lake, which is a managed data lake for capturing, storing, accessing, and analyzing AWS CloudTrail activity logs to meet compliance, security, and operational needs. You can ask a question using natural language about these … Read more
  • Introducing Amazon GuardDuty Malware Protection for Amazon S3
    Today we are announcing the general availability of Amazon GuardDuty Malware Protection for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), an expansion of GuardDuty Malware Protection to detect malicious file uploads to selected S3 buckets. Previously, GuardDuty Malware Protection provided agentless scanning capabilities to identify malicious files on Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes attached … Read more
  • IAM Access Analyzer Update: Extending custom policy checks & guided revocation
    We are making IAM Access Analyzer even more powerful, extending custom policy checks and adding easy access to guidance that will help you to fine-tune your IAM policies. Both of these new features build on the Custom Policy Checks and the Unused Access analysis that were launched at re:Invent 2023. Here’s what we are launching: … Read more
  • AWS adds passkey multi-factor authentication (MFA) for root and IAM users
    Security is our top priority at Amazon Web Services (AWS), and today, we’re launching two capabilities to help you strengthen the security posture of your AWS accounts: First, we’re adding passkeys to the list of supported multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) users. Second, we started to enforce MFA … Read more
  • AWS Weekly Roundup: New AWS Heroes, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Q and more (June 10, 2024)
    In the last AWS Weekly Roundup, Channy reminded us on how life has ups and downs. It’s just how life is. But, that doesn’t mean that we should do it alone. Farouq Mousa, AWS Community Builder, is fighting brain cancer and Allen Helton, AWS Serverless Hero, his daughter is fighting leukemia. If you have a … Read more
  • Hybrid Cloud Analytics: The Cornerstone of Modern Data Management 
    Hybrid cloud computing has emerged as a powerful strategy for organizations to streamline their IT infrastructure and achieve data-driven success. It brings the flexibility of public clouds and the control of private environments into a unified ecosystem. However, this convergence introduces challenges around data security, management, and analytics. Hybrid cloud analytics, a critical aspect of … Read more
Scroll to Top