Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #398

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@HowardvRooijen | @endjin

AI + Machine Learning

Covering: Anomaly detector, Azure Bot Service, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Open Datasets, Bing APIs, Cognitive Services, Computer Vision, Content moderator, Custom vision, Data Science Virtual Machines, Face, Form Recogniser, Immersive Reader, Ink Recogniser, Language Understanding (LUIS), Machine Learning Studio, Microsoft Genomics, ML.NET, Personaliser, Project Cortex, QnA Maker, Speaker Recognition, Speech-to-Text, Speech translation, Text Analytics, Text to Speech , Translator Speech, Translator Text

• On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina Alto provides an Introduction to Azure Machine Learning
• Erin Spencer describes November in HLS – Healthcare Shorts, Azure Cognitive Services, and More
• Henk Boelman (@hboelman) explains how to Highlights for the Global AI Student Conference 2022

Analytics

Covering: Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Share, Azure Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Catalog, Data Factory, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, HDInsight, .NET for Apache Spark, R Server for HDInsight, Azure Purview

• Barry Smart (@barry_j_a_smart) created a 10 minute talk about Data Storytelling with Power BI: The World Bank World Health and Wealth Report and Paul Waller (@crashbangwaller) recorded a talk delving into Accessible Data Storytelling with Power BI: Design Concepts and Accessible Colours.
• Ryan Majidimehr (@rmajidimehr) covers Azure Synapse Analytics November Update 2022
• Luke Moloney explains How Data Exfiltration Protection DEP impacts Azure Synapse Analytics Pipelines
• Michal Bar writes about ADX Web updates – November 2022 and Timeline visualization - one way of using the powerful Time Pivot chart Kusto Explorer
• On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) is joined by André Kamman to discuss how to  Start your metadata driven adventure in Azure Data Factory

Compute

Covering: Azure CycleCloud, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure Functions, Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple, Batch, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances, Service Fabric, Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets

• The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Durable Functions support for .NET 7.0 isolated model and Public preview: Azure HX series and HBv4 series virtual machines
• On the Azure blog, Richard Paw talks about Voltus and Azure - no power integrity challenge too big to solve
• Rene van den Bedem discusses Azure VMware Solution Availability Design Considerations

Containers

Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers

• The Azure Updates Team announce Generally Available: Azure Blob CSI driver support in AKS
• The Azure Updates Team writes about Private preview: Azure Kubernetes Service AKS Backup
• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public Preview: Inbound IP restrictions support in Azure Container Apps
• On The New Stack, Mary Branscombe (@marypcbuk) writes about Confidential Compute on Azure with Kubernetes
• Goodness Chris-Ugari blogs about Getting Started with the Azure Kubernetes Service AKS
• On episode 014 of the Kubernetes Unpacked podcast, Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) joins as a guest to discuss Using GitOps and AKS to Build and Deploy Apps
  
• Vinicius Apolinario (@vrapolinario) writes about 5 tips for IIS on containers: 5 Container and Node OS upgrade
• Andre Dewes blogs about Azure Kubernetes Service: RBAC options in practice

Databases

Covering: Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for MariaDB, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database Edge, Azure Cache for Redis, SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server on virtual machines, SQL Server Stretch Database, Table storage

• The Azure Updates Team announces teh General Availability of: PostgreSQL 15 support in Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL, and Azure Blob Storage integration with Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL, and Cross-region read replicas for Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL and Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL Citus 11.1 support and Azure SQL—General availability updates for late November 2022
• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview of: Enhanced metrics for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server, and Premium series hardware for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, and Azure SQL Trigger for Azure Functions and  Azure SQL - Public preview updates for late November 2022
• James Serra (@JamesSerra) talks about SQL Server 2022 is GA
• Manvendra Singh explains how to Configure Active Geo Replication for Azure SQL Database
• Joao Antunes covers Azure SQL DB - How to create and manage your cross subscription Auto-Failover groups FoG
• Scott Kim announces new premium-series hardware options for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale and the preview of 128 vCore provisioned compute size on Azure SQL Standard-series Gen5
• Mitchell Sternke writes about New In SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL: XEvent Performance Metrics

Developer Tools

Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online

• Bea Stollnitz discusses Configuring your Windows development machine for data science
• Christine Ruana walks through Removing out-of-support components from your Visual Studio installations
• Maria Solano walks through Building a new JavaScript linting experience in Visual Studio
• On the Q Sharp blog, Mathias Soeken explains how to Automate Resource Estimation with QIR
• On episode 211 of the Azure DevOps Podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Brady Gaster to discuss Orleans

DevOps

Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations

• The Azure Updates Team announces Public preview: Build and deploy to Azure Container Apps without a Dockerfile from the Azure CLI, and Public preview: Azure Pipelines task to build and deploy to Azure Container Apps and Public preview: GitHub action to build and deploy to Azure Container Apps
• On the Octopus Deploy Blog, Terence Wong writes about Best practices for CI/CD
• Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) covers Azure DevOps – Tips and Tricks – 23 – How to view the secret variables of a Variable Group
• Sam Cogan (@samcogan) writes Bicep Is Not Trying To Compete With Terraform
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) explains how to Deploy Azure Bicep using GitHub Actions

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Nikita Bajaj writes about General Availability: Azure Automation Hybrid Runbook Worker Extension
• John Miner explains how to Deploy and Configure Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Uros Milanovic describes how to Move Azure SQL Managed Instance across the virtual networks
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) covers Azure Automation Hybrid Worker with Azure Arc Enabled Servers

Identity

Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services

• Ilana Smith discusses Microsoft Entra Workload Identities now generally available
• Shobhit Sahay covers Microsoft Entra Change Announcements – November 2022 Train
• Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) reports that Azure Lighthouse Now Has Privileged Identity Management Delegation
• Brock Fabian discusses Azure Lighthouse PIM Enabled Delegations
• Kristina Hotz writes about New Admin Center Unifies Azure AD with Other Identity and Access Products
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) walks through Registering an Application with Azure Active Directory
• Joseph Dadzie introduces Machine Learning based recommendations in Azure AD Access reviews
• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) walks through Sharing Microsoft Graph permissions and solution Azure App Registrations

Integration

Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus

• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) highlights the Microsoft Graph Python SDK - Public Preview
• Tareq Saifi describes Handling 429 throttling problem in Azure Logic Apps across multiple runs

Internet of Things

Covering: Azure Digital Twins, Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Edge, Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT solution accelerators, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere, Azure Time Series Insights, IoT DevKit, WildernessLabs, Windows 10 IoT Core Services

• The Azure Sphere Team writes about General availability: Azure Sphere version 22.11 new and updated features
• Sander van de Velde walks through Using the new IoT Hub CosmosDB routing endpoint
• Laziz Turakulov writes about the Industrial Metaverse: Is the future of the Digital Twins visualisation in 3D

Learning

Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information

• Thomas Trombley covers New on Microsoft Learn: Advance your security posture from chip to cloud
• Ricky Diep covers Attention Developers: The Cloud-Scale Data for Spring Developers Quick Start Guide is Finally Here

Management and Governance

Covering: Automation, Azure Advisor, Azure Backup, Azure Blueprints, Azure Lighthouse, Azure Managed Applications, Azure mobile app, Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, Azure Resource Manager, Azure Service Health, Azure Site Recovery, Cloud Shell, Cost Management, Microsoft Azure portal, Scheduler, Azure Purview

• The Azure Updates Team announces teh General Availability of: Azure Monitor agent custom and IIS logs, and Azure Monitor Logs, custom log API and ingestion-time transformations, and Additional Always Free Services for Azure Free Account and PAYG and 12 months free services for new Azure PAYG customers
• On the Azure blog, Michael Flanakin (@flanakin) discusses Microsoft Cost Management updates - November 2022
• Allison Cordle talks about Azure portal October 2022 updates
• Evgeny Ternovsky announces GA of revamped Custom Logs features
• On episode 448 of the Azure podcast, the podcast team (@AzurePodcast) are joined by Sarah Novotny to discuss Azure and OSS
• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) explains how to Build sustainable solutions on Azure and save money
• On episode 310 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoag (@benstegink, @ciphertxt) cover Azure Quota API and Bastion shareable links
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) is joined by Jason Githens to discuss Updates to Windows App Management in Intune with Winget

Media

Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer

• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public preview: Call automation capabilities for Azure Communication Services

Migration

Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box

• No content this week

Mobile

Covering: App Service (Mobile), Mobile apps, Notification Hubs, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin

• Junior Saravia talks about Shadows Everywhere in Xamarin.Forms

Networking

Covering: Application Gateway, Azure Bastion, Azure DNS, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, Azure Firewall Manager, Azure Front Door, Azure Internet Analyzer, Azure Private Link, Content Delivery Network, Load Balancer, Network Watcher, Traffic Manager, Virtual Network, Virtual WAN, VPN Gateway, Web Application Firewall

• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) covers Azure Hub And Spoke 2.0
• Tobias Zimmergren Jussi Roine writes about 162 - Lessons learned on Zero Trust in the past year
• Cesar De la Torre Llorente blogs about Cheat-sheet: The new 5G application paradigms and Microsoft Azure
• Abhishek Reddy announces Availability on National Clouds – WordPress on Azure App Service
• Andrew Mathu describes Building a POC for TLS inspection in Azure Firewall
• Wim Matthyssen (@wmatthyssen) writes about Azure Bastion: Combine JIT with Azure Bastion and describes how to Securely connect to your Azure VMs with JIT and a P2S VPN

Security

Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center

• Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) covers Microsoft Sentinel Adds Preview of Incident Tasks Feature
• Lior Tamir covers Whats new: Incident tasks
• Shirleyse Haley covers The 2-Minute Recap: Everything new with Microsoft Security, compliance, and identity
• Keith Fleming presents Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps data protection series: Understand your data types

Storage

Covering: Archive Storage, Avere vFXT for Azure, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure FXT Edge Filer, Azure HPC Cache, Azure NetApp Files, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, Storage Accounts, Storage Explorer, StorSimple

• Amber Zhao blogs about Microsoft Purview data owner policy for storage

Web

Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps

• The Azure Updates Team announces Generally Available: New versions supported for languages and frameworks in Azure App Service and Day 0 support for .NET 7.0 on App Service
• The Azure Updates Team announces Public preview: Go language support on Azure App Service
• David Ginn, Phil Jirsa, and Chad Voelker explore Local Development with the Azure Static Web Apps CLI
• Frederik Gheysels walks through Using Named Values with JSON Content in Azure API Management Policies
• Daniel Lawson covers Distributed sessions in ASP.NET Core
• Adrian Hall explains how to Automate your API deployments with Azure API Management and Bicep modules

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• No content this week

Useful Links

• Azure Resource Inventory - Azure Resource Inventory is a powerful script written in PowerShell to generate an Excel report of any Azure Environment you have read access
• Azure Quickstart Templates - Learn how to deploy to Azure using ARM Templates. Over 850 examples in this repo.
• Azure CNAB Quickstarts Library - You can deploy to the Cloud, on Prem and on the Edge using CNAB & Porter. This library provides a number of quickstart templates to help you get started, fast!
• Power BI Weekly - Interested in Power BI? Sign up to our sister newsletter Power BI Weekly to receive all the week's Power BI news.
• Azure Resources - A fantastic collection of resources contained in this repo. Issue a PR if you have resources to share. Managed by Azure MVP Gregor Suttie.
• Azure Charts - Azure Charts is a set of auto-rebuilt charts to keep you updated on Azure changes, news, stats. Public updates, RSS channels and web pages are used as data sources
• The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure (2nd Edition) - ebook from Microsoft showcasing architectural approaches and common design patterns you face when building modern applications.
• Azure Virtual Datacenter - ebook from Microsoft highlighting an approach to isolation, security, and trust in the Microsoft cloud.
• Cyber Security Demystified - ebook from Microsoft describing how to keep your organisation safe.
• Microsoft's What is Azure poster - a visual overview of Azure's services and features.
• Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure - a free ebook from Microsoft Press, by Michael S. Collier and Robin E. Shahan.
• Data Science in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and R - a free ebook on Azure Machine Learning, by Stephen F. Elston.
• Protecting Data in Microsoft Azure - a whitepaper that describes the various mechanism you can you can leverage for managing sensitive data in the Azure platform.
• Azure Architecture Center - guidance from the Patterns & Practices team covering API Design, API implementation, Autoscaling, Background jobs, CDN, Caching, Data partitioning, Monitoring and diagnostics, Retry, Scalability and availability.
• Azure Architect's Reference - if you are an architect responsible for building an application on Azure, or are trying to figure out how you could migrate an application and need to dig deep into the workload, cost, security, capacity, availability, deployment and operational modelling this invaluable resource should be your first stop. An open source project, with contributions from several experienced architects, it gathers data from many different references into a single, useful guide that is constantly updated by the community.
• Azure Table Storage Design Guide - a guide from the storage team.
• Azure infrastructure services implementation guidelines - key design and implementation guidelines for deploying an IT workload in Azure infrastructure services.
• Azure Speed Test - a simple web tool that measures the latency between you and Azure Datacenters to suggest which might be fastest for you location.
• Azure Websites Cheatsheet - everything you need to know about configuring & managing Azure Websites on a single page.
• Data Migration Assistant - enables you to upgrade to a modern data platform by detecting compatibility issues that can impact database functionality on your new version of SQL Server and Azure SQL Database. It recommends performance and reliability improvements for your target environment.
• Azure SQL DTU Calculator - a tool to help you determine the number of DTUs for your existing SQL Server database(s) as well as a recommendation of the minimum performance level and service tier that you need before you migrate to Azure SQL Database.
• Microsoft Azure Symbol/Icon Set - a set of Visio and PowerPoint shapes for use in architecture diagrams / presentations.
• Service Bus Explorer - a free and open source tool for managing and exploring Azure Service Bus(including Event Hubs).
• Best practices for designing Azure Resource Manager Templates - guidance based on the whitepaper 'World Class ARM Templates Considerations and Proven Practices'.
• Microsoft Cloud Networking for Enterprise Architects - a downloadable guide to Azure networking, covering topics such as cloud migration and networking for PaaS and SaaS services
• Whitepapers for Power BI - numerous whitepapers ranging various Power BI topics
• Azure Serverless Computing Cookbook - ebook from Microsoft, including use cases, hands-on steps, and tutorials for quickly configuring your own serverless environments.
• Executive Summary: Enterprise Cloud Strategy - executive summary of the 140-page e-book from Microsoft. Learn about the basics of adopting a cloud computing strategy for your enterprise.
• Migrating SQL Server to Azure SQL Database Managed Instance—A Step-by-Step Guide - ebook from Microsoft providing breakdown of tactical steps for implementing a quick, simple, and low-impact data migration with Azure SQL Database Managed Instance.
• Azure Backup Deep Dive Whitepaper - a deep dive by Adin Ermie and Charbel Nemnom describing Azure Backup
• Azure Stack: An extension of Azure - whitepaper from Microsoft detailing how you can extend Azure Stack to make Azure services available on-premises
• Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide - For Azure users - ebook from Microsoft outlining recommended general architecture and cloud design principles, DevOps, approaches to service management, and overall governance.
• Azure Data Factory: SSIS in the Cloud - eBook from Microsoft explaining why you would want to migrate your existing SSIS workloads to Azure Data Factory and addressing common considerations and concerns. Includes technical details of creating an Azure-SSIS IR and then walk-throughs of how to upload, execute, and monitor your packages through Azure Data Factory
• Parallel Virtual File Systems on Microsoft Azure - ebook from Microsoft documenting the results of a series of performance tests on Azure to see how scalable Lustre, GlusterFS, and BeeGFS are
• Build and deploy a multi-container application in Azure Service Fabric - ebook from Microsoft which shows how to create a sample multi-container application using ASP.NET Core and Docker and deploy it on an Azure Service Fabric cluster.
• Azure ebook/whitepaper resources - White papers, analyst reports, and e-books landing page with an abundance of extra resources.
• Farmer - This is a DSL for ARM template creation - "Making repeatable Azure deployments easy"!