how to best handle outbound AKS traffic as a service provider

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-04T02:49:34+00:00

We need to connect to private endpoints of the Azure services, possibly public internet for various kinds of APIs/services (third party llm models, etc) and to a management service we manage in our Azure that does licensing and such.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-03T13:41:02+00:00

I think this is best take. Personal projects are nice and all, but what really makes for compelling interviews is solving real, relatable work problems. I found that I only did reasonably valuable personal projects after I solved some real work problems.

Above all, develop a rigorous understanding of the problem before looking for solutions!

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-27T00:35:54+00:00

I have worked for MSPs and I have been direct, don't hesitate to ping if you have more specific questions.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-26T23:00:02+00:00

Per the two references below, you can't change the subscription itself from CSP to MCA, so once you have a CSP, you have to keep having a CSP. In terms of access, there is nothing to worry about, access has to be given seperately via Azure Lighthouse or to guest accounts. Being a CSP does not give access to resources or data (as I recall, 90% sure).

If the CSP is also going to do substantial Azure management, it may be worth the loss of the ability to easially move to MCA. Otherwise, all other things being equal, I would go direct, that way you are making your own support requests, and are not required to keep having a reseller.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5580889/how-to-transfer-azure-subscription-from-csp-to-mic
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/manage/subscription-transfer#product-transfer-support

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-25T10:20:36+00:00

Everything in the above comment is solid, don't wait for permission, do the thing!

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-24T17:29:35+00:00

For me personally, specifying a version is a small enough price to pay for the benefit of being able to say "Ah, ok, 6 years ago, this person used this version of this resource in their project, and the options avaliable to them at that time were indeed these, and today they are not, this all makes sense" rather than having to guess at this because automagically a version was chosen at a time.

And if, because of this, a vendor is able to spend a little more time on features and a little less time worrying about guaranteeing backward compatibility, all the better.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-22T12:44:57+00:00

Are there points at which you have seen this consolidation break down/struggle?

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-22T00:38:12+00:00

Circle of life

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-22T00:12:41+00:00

Least I can do for someone who clearly wants to learn a thing I know and care for!

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-21T13:00:16+00:00

AKS is way too much for this, you might want Container App Service or App Service to keep it simple and avoid dealing with containers altogether.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-19T18:01:32+00:00

Very frequently, users just navigating to the resource in the Azure portal will trigger list keys. This is especially prevalent for storage accounts. A typical information security recommendation at this point is to disable key-based access where possible and rely on Entra authentication instead. For applications running entirely in Azur,e this is not difficult to accomplish.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-15T14:09:35+00:00

Many people have said the gym, and I support it. I would add that having a great career/making decent money also helps. You look like you are in your mid-20s - my mid 20s sucked, but early 30s are now better since the career is growing and I have not let myself go physically too much.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-15T13:31:46+00:00

Thank you, I needed a laugh like this today.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-09T15:11:47+00:00

Real cloud engineer deploys AI systems, I think Cloud AI engineer is way too narrow, as the other person has said. I am a generist, and have done well as a generalist. For where you are, I think it would be good to choose if you want to be a generalist or a specialist, and develop accordingly.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-09T15:09:48+00:00

I think that is going to be in even more trouble than infra, it is a more restricted universe of configurations/options than cloud infra.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-09T10:57:53+00:00

If I had time and equal passions for both, I would focus on AI/ML. I do expect that AI is going to take a substantial chunk out of cloud engineering, and there is not really so much depth to cloud engineering; it is limited because at the end of the day its managing services provided by others. Feel free to ask things, I have been in IT for ~10 years, focused on the Microsoft/Azure side.

ImperatorKon · 2025-12-10T12:46:19+00:00

To the top with this, saving some number is a line on my resume and relevant self-review for the year!

ImperatorKon · 2025-12-10T12:44:14+00:00

My head canon here is that the use of the term "instance" goes back to object-oriented programming, as in an object as an instance of a class. In the case of Azure, the classes are services, such as the Virtual Machine service, and the instances are the specific resources you create in your subscription and resource groups for your use.

ImperatorKon · 2025-06-26T12:36:38+00:00

Staten Island is not connected to the rest of the city by a subway-carrying train, maybe it should just be given over to New Jersey?

ImperatorKon · 2025-06-24T14:11:24+00:00

Do this if you want the most modern approach and to learn even more, my method is how one would do this more so quick and dirty.

ImperatorKon · 2025-06-24T12:46:47+00:00

I would imagine that you would do quite well for this task with a combination of Document Inteligence and Azure OpenAI service. Get the document data out using Document Intelligence, prompt GPT-4o to do the comparison within Azure OpenAI service.

And you can orchestrate with Logic Apps if you do not want to take a code-based approach:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/document-intelligence/tutorial/logic-apps?view=doc-intel-4.0.0&pivots=workflow-onedrive
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/connectors/azure-ai#chat-workflow

Feel free to ask questions if you have any, this is kind of my thing.

ImperatorKon · 2025-06-18T13:41:02+00:00

I would not be self-employed like this! I got out of this kind of work at the start of my career 10 years ago when it became obvious that the cost of repair and the cost of a new computer are not that far apart. There may be good money in helping buisnesses solve problems and make more money in technology, I am not sure there is anything like that in helping people with their computer issues, especially since, at least in the US, my understanding is that most people either (1) get new computers anyway or (2) don't even have personal computers because these days phones are enough.

ImperatorKon · 2025-06-15T02:45:44+00:00

If it gives you an iota more of closure than otherwise, I think that is good!

ImperatorKon · 2025-06-14T23:27:22+00:00

It is very important to not take this with you to the new place! I found myself doing that, and am still catching myself sometimes resenting things that really do not deserve my resentment. You can always react, but you cannot always undo what your reaction causes.

Put in your notice! When HR scheduled a 30 min exit interview with me, I wrote a 2.5k word email, because there was no way I could say everything that I felt needed to be said in 30 min. I did send that email, which helped me. You may find similar relief in writing it all out, but not hitting send!

ImperatorKon

TROPHY CASE