What is Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF)? Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) filters, monitors, and blocks HTTP traffic. It uses Open Web Application Security Project® (OWASP) rules to protect your application. It also provides centralized protection to web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities and protects against threats and intrusions. Supported Services We have three different options to create a WAF in Azure: Azure Front Door: Global, scalable entry-point that uses the Microsoft global edge network to create fast, secure, and […]
SharePoint has been a widely adopted and popular content management system for many large organizations over the past two decades. From SharePoint Portal Server in 2001 to SharePoint Server 2019 and SharePoint Online, the ability to customize the user experience (UX) has evolved dramatically, keeping pace with the evolution of modern web design. SharePoint Framework (SPFx) is a page and web part model that provides full support of client-side SharePoint development with support for open sources. SPFx works in SharePoint […]
Today, let’s talk about network isolation and traffic policy within the context of Kubernetes. Network Policy Specification Kubernetes’ first-class notion of networking policy allows a customer to determine which pods are allowed to talk to other pods. While these policies are part of Kubernetes’ specification, tools like Calico and Cilium implement these network policies. Here is a simple example of a network policy: In the above example, only pods with the label zone: trusted are allowed to make an incoming […]
The business intelligence, automation, and enterprise application landscape is changing dramatically. In the previous incarnation of enterprise technology, line-of-business owners were forced to choose between pre-baked commercial off the shelf (COTS) software, which was difficult to customize and often did not truly meet the business’s unique needs, or custom solutions that (though flexible and often tailor-made to the business needs of the moment) cost more and were far riskier to develop and deploy. Furthermore, certain classes of applications do not […]
Accurately identifying and authenticating users is an essential requirement for any modern application. As modern applications continue to migrate beyond the physical boundaries of the data center and into the cloud, balancing the ability to leverage trusted identity stores with the need for enhanced flexibility to support this migration can be tricky. Additionally, evolving requirements like allowing multiple partners, authenticating across devices, or supporting new identity sources push application teams to embrace modern authentication protocols. As organizations expand their user […]
Azure Web Apps Background I’ve been working with Azure Web Apps for a long time. Before the launch of Azure Web Apps for Containers (or even Azure Web App on Linux), these web apps ran on Windows Virtual Machines managed by Microsoft. This meant that any workload running behind IIS (i.e., ASP.Net) would run without hiccups — but that was not the case with workloads which preferred Linux over Windows (i.e., Drupal). Furthermore, the Azure Web Apps that ran on […]
Did you know you can build an intelligent twitter bot and run it for just pennies a month using Azure’s Logic and Function apps, coupled with Microsoft’s Language Understanding Intelligence Service (LUIS)? LUIS can “read” a tweet and determine the tweet’s sentiment with a little help from you. Run selected tweets through your LUIS app, determine their meaning, and then use that meaning to create a personalized tweet back at the original. Here’s how… Step One: Select a Twitter Query […]
Two years ago, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) came to AIS with an outdated online budgeting tool called the “Texas Reality Check” for middle and high school students. The application, designed to give students a clear sense of how much their desired future lifestyle will cost and what education and career choices will support it, was plagued by performance and accessibility issues…and its young target demographic was simply tuning it out. AIS modernized the site for teen sensibilities, streamlined the […]
If you need managed services to maintain peak IT network operations, consider us here at Applied Information Sciences. We’ll manage all your IT services for a predictable cost so you can focus on more strategic investments. AIS’ Managed Services Practice provides ongoing responsibility for monitoring, patching and problem resolution for specific IT systems on your company’s behalf. Capabilities Patching Monitoring Alerting Backup and Restore Incident Response AIS’ Managed Service Practice has up to 24×7 coverage for initial responses to incidents through […]
AIS recently completed work on a complete revamp of the Texas Workforce Commission’s “Texas Reality Check” website. Texas Reality Check is an Internet-available, fully accessible, responsive, mobile-first and browser-agnostic design. This website was tested for accessibility, performance, vulnerability scans, and usability. Background Texas Reality Check (TRC) is targeted at students on a statewide basis, ranging from middle school to high school (with some colleges and universities making use of the tool for “life skills” classes). The goal is to inspire students to […]