G'ay Cloud Gurus, welcome to Windows Vista This  Week. I'm Wayne Hoggett and I'll be taking you   through what's new and interesting in the world  of Windows Vista, including the latest Windows   era. Ah, interesting. What? I can't rename the  show? But Microsoft renames things all the time.   Apparently, I can't just rename the show whenever  I want. The producer says it's confusing. Let's   stick with this. Welcome to Azure This Week. Let's  take a look at what's been happening in the world   of Azure. In this episode, we'll take a look at  a new and interesting Microsoft platform blog,  

important changes to extended security updates on  Azure and a new Visual Studio Code extension for   Azure Automation Runbooks. Let's jump in. While Windows   Vista might have had a mixed reception, its  server-based sibling Windows Server 2008   included one of the most important Windows  Server features ever. Which feature do you   think I'm referring to? Hyper-V of course!  Hyper-V is Microsoft's virtualization platform,   more commonly referred to as a hypervisor. For  anyone that isn't familiar, a hypervisor allows   you to run multiple virtual machines on a single  physical server. Microsoft recently confirmed that   all Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as  a Service services including Virtual Machines,   Web Apps, Azure Functions and more, all run  on Hyper-V in a blog post on their new Windows   Platform OS Blog. In the post, they detail the  Azure Host Operating System, named Cloud Host,  

which is based on Windows and Hyper-V, but  purpose built to be really good at running   Virtual Machines. Which is kind of important for a  public cloud. It's an interesting read, and there   is even a screenshot of a Cloud Host running  on an Azure physical server with 16 processors.   Imagine how much serverless code you could run  on that server. Check it out in the links below.  If your company like far too many still have  workloads running on older versions of Windows   Server, it's probably important for you to know  that Microsoft will let you run older versions   of Windows Server on Azure or Azure Stack and  receive extended security updates for free.   For anyone still thinking, surely no one still  runs Windows Server 2008, think again. Windows 7  

market share is still estimated to be at least  11%. There is servers hidden away everywhere   running older versions of Windows. For Windows  Server 2008, 2008 R2, and Window 7 on Azure,   extended security updates ended on January 10.  If you don't want your company making headlines   for all the wrong reasons, it's now past time  to migrate those workloads to something more   modern. There are plenty of options. You can  migrate to a newer version of Windows Server,   or maybe there's a Software as a Service solution  that you can use to replace your aging app. 

Or maybe the functionality can be replicated  in a Platform as a Service offering like Azure   App Service. Now, I know it can be hard  to migrate or upgrade those workloads.   See what you can do and good luck getting  those workloads migrated or decommissioned.   Everything you do to help maintain the security  of your customer's data is worth the effort.  All right, and now for something a little newer.  All right, and now for something...teleprompter   wakey, wakey, wakey. All right, and now for  something a little newer. Microsoft has announced  

the release of the Azure Automation Visual Studio  Code extension in preview. For anyone that isn't   aware, Azure Automation is an underrated Azure  service that lets you, among other things,   automate your hybrid computing woes away through  Runbooks. I went into some detail about why I   love Azure Automation in a recent ACG blog  post. Check that out in the links below.  The Visual Studio Code extension for Azure  Automation allows you to not only create,   test, debug and manage Azure Automation  runbooks, but it also lets you manage all   of the associated assets that make Runbooks  so useful like schedules, variables,   and credentials right from Visual Studio  Code. Now, if you are an ACG subscriber and   you are interested in learning more about Azure  Automation, which is one of my favorite services,   in case you missed that, we have a couple of  brand new hands-on labs where you can learn how   to automate hybrid processes or configure  update management using Azure Automation. 

Well, that's all we have time for in this  episode of Azure This Week. If you like this   episode and wanna see more, make sure you  like and subscribe for all the latest Azure   news. Thanks for being with me and until  next time, keep being awesome Cloud Gurus.