Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #406

powered by endjin

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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

• Melissa Ma talks about Speech Service Update - Pronunciation Assessment is Generally Available and Hierarchical Transformer for Pronunciation Assessment
• Jeff Teper explains how to AI, roadmap, community, and more at the Microsoft 365 Conference
• Matteo Pagani walks through Bringing OpenAI into an Outlook add-in: a business mail generator
• On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina Alto blogs about Querying structured data with Azure OpenAI
• On episode 321 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag and Ben Stegink (@msclouditpro) discuss ChapGPT comes to Bing

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

• Chunhua Gu writes about General availability of Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime in Azure Synapse Analytics
• Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) covers Azure Data Factory – Return value from a Child Pipeline to a Parent Pipeline
• Zac Hall writes about Spatial analysis in Azure Synapse Analytics with ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Engine
• Bhaskar Sharma covers Azure Synapse analytics dedicated SQL pool data modelling best practices
• On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) describes how to Show dataset parameters in Azure Synapse Dataflow
• Kasun Indrasiri covers Azure Event Hubs Dedicated Self-Serve Scalable Clusters GA for Mission-Critical Streaming Workloads
• David Abu blogs presents a video series on how to use Power BI to analyse data: Enterprise Power BI Series
• Emma An writes about Native Support of Delta Lake in Azure Stream Analytics
• Tanmaya Panda explains how to Ingest Azure Databricks logs into Azure Data Explorer using Log4j2-ADX connector
• Katie Cummiskey describes how to Use Azure Databricks in VS Code with the new Databricks extension
• Mark Kromer (@kromerbigdata) announces You can now customize the return value from your pipeline

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 the General Availablity of: Availability zones support for Azure Functions in new regions, and Azure Functions support for Python 3.10, and Durable Functions support for .NET isolated model and Azure Functions Linux Elastic Premium plan increased maximum scale-out limits
• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview of: New General-Purpose VMs - Dlsv5 and Dldsv5, and SDK Functions type bindings and Functions Python 3.10 Support
• Gerasimos Alexiou describes how to do Azure batch run task with container image through az cli and json rest api
• Denver Brittain blogs about Getting Started with MongoDB Atlas and Azure Functions using .NET and C#
• Olesya Melnichenko describes RNA sequencing analysis on Azure using Nextflow: configuration files and benchmarking.
• Fletcher Kelly explains how to Configure LDAPS within Azure VMware Solution

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 announces Public preview: Upgrade scheduler and the Public Preview of Caching for ACR
• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) explains how to Are you following Azure best practices? Sure?
• Vinod Soni explains how to Create Azure Container Registry

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 the Public Preview of: Serverless Hyperscale in Azure SQL Database, and VBS enclaves for Always Encrypted in Azure SQL Database, and Major version upgrade in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server and Cluster key index in Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Cassandra
• The Azure Updates Team announces the General Availability of Improved geo-replication for Azure Cache for Redis and Encryption using CMK for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server
• Pieter Vanhove describes VBS enclaves for Always Encrypted in Azure SQL Database – preview
• David Engel talks about OLE DB Driver 19.3 for SQL Server Released
• David Engel describes ODBC Driver 18.2 for SQL Server Released
• The Azure Updates Team talks about Azure SQL - General availability updates for mid-February 2023
• Kanchan Bharati writes about Major Version Upgrade in Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server - Public Preview
• Harvey Mora blogs about Security Update for SQL Server 2016 SP3 Azure Connect Feature Pack GDR
• On episode 6 of thr Cosmos Down Under podcast, Greg Low (@greglow) talks with guest Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
• Morgan Oslake announces Automatic compute scaling with serverless for Hyperscale in Azure SQL Database
• Tanayankar Chakraborty covers Common Data Sync Errors received in Azure SQL DBDSS03513535Invalid Records
• Kevin Chant talks about T-SQL Tuesday 159 – Azure Synapse Link and certifications
• Kevin Chant walks through Deploying a dacpac to a serverless SQL pool
• On the Microsoft Mecanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) talks about SQL Server 2022 updates for query performance and databasefailover
• Edwin Sarmiento (@EdwinMSarmiento) describes Running SQL Server Best Practices Check with Azure Data Studio to Assess your SQL Servers
• On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) and Bob Ward (@AnalyticAnna) talk about SQL Server 2022: Security, scalability, availability Ep. 4

Developer Tools

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

• On the Premier Developer blog, Developer Support delves into Developer Support and MSDN/Visual Studio Subscription Benefits
• Anthony Bartolo (@WirelessLife) covers GitHub Copilot Update: New AI Model That Also Filters Out Security Vulnerabilities
• On the Visual Studio blog, Peter Groenewegen (@pgroene) writes about Visual Studio AI-Assistance: A Developers Best Friend
• Drew Skwiers-Koballa writes about Recently released: Updates to DacFx and Microsoft.Build.Sql
• Bryan Hogan describes how to Cache your SQL queries with Redis in C#

DevOps

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

• On the endjin blog, James Dawson (@James_Dawson) presents Adventures in GitHub Actions: Episode 1 - Goodbye Azure DevOps, Hello GitHub Actions
• Freek Berson (@fberson) writes about 5 fun and easy ways to transition to Bicep and save time
• Panu Oksala describes How to Access Restricted Azure Key Vault from Azure DevOps
• On the Premier Developer blog, John Folberth covers Azure DevOps Pipelines: If Expressions and Conditions
• Steven Ma explains how to Terraform on Azure February 2023 Update
• Gloridel Morales describes February patches for Azure DevOps Server
• Safeena Begum Lepakshi talks about Defender for DevOps - Configuration of DevOps Pipeline Classic and YAML method
• Vinod Soni covers Importing Business Requirements from Microsoft Word into Azure DevOps

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• No content this week

Identity

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces General availability: Azure Active Directory for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) describes Security Defaults in Azure Active Directory

Integration

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

• The Azure Updates Team blogs about Public Preview: Azure Communication Services Chat for Bot Framework
• Sunitha Muthukrishna talks about Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server connector for Power Automate and Logic Apps PREVIEW
• Kent Weare presents Part 4: BizTalk Server Migration to Azure Integration Services - Ask the Experts with Daniel Probert
• Mike Resnick blogs about Accessing Microsoft Graph Data with Powershell
• On BizTalk Gurus, Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) discusses Logic App/Power Automate Action Name to Code Translator Tool, and Logic App/Power Automate Action Name to Code Translator Tool .NET Framework and Logic App Consumption: Run after settings disabled and settings are missing
• Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) blogs about Logic App Management
• On episode 173 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine are joined by Antti Pajunen to talk about Understanding Power Platform for Azure professionals
  
• David de Matheu explains how to Build a conversational SMS bot with Azure Communication Services and Azure OpenAI
• Julia Muiruri writes Access advancements in AI directly within the Power Platform
• Julia Kasper writes Build next-gen apps with OpenAI and Microsoft Power Platform

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 Updates Team announces the Public Preview of: Import Jobs API Support in Azure Digital Twins, and Jobs API to support bulk import in Azure Digital Twins and Azure Digital Twins connector for Microsoft Power Platform
• The Azure Updates Team discusses GA: 50K relationships per twin support in Azure Digital Twins
• John Lian (@jlian) walks through Automatic IoT Edge Certificate Management with GlobalSign EST

Learning

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

• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Adam Jackson blogs about Upcoming Developer & Technical Events in the UK - Updated for 2023
• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) blogs about Microsoft Hack Together: Microsoft Graph and .NET 1st - 15th March
• On the Azure blog, David Dennis writes about 7 reasons to join us at Azure Open Source Day
• On The New Stack, Loraine Lawson writes about 3 Lessons Cheryl Hung Learned Working at CNCF
• Danny Guillory providesn a Skilling snack: Migrating from on premises to the cloud

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 the Public Preview: Azure Monitor container insights offers customizable cost optimization settings
• Nikita Bajaj blogs about Azure Automation Run As accounts retiring on 30 September 2023
• Lara Goldstein covers the different way of Consuming Microsoft Defender for Cloud Data
• Sravani Saluru discusses User Managed Identity support for Auditing Azure SQL Database is in Public Preview Now.
• On episode 232 of the Azure DevOps Podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Lars Klint to discuss Microsoft Azure State of the Art
  
• Vlad Rodriguez explains how to Enable IT personnel to monitor SQL health and performance while reducing the insider risk
• Melissa Palmer (@vmiss33) explains how to Protect Your Data in Azure to Be Ready to Recover
• Pranab Paul talks about Codename Project Bose: Calculate Azure Cost of an Enterprise by cost centers, divisions, projects
• Dharshini Preethu lists the Top 5 Azure Cost Optimization Tools in 2023
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) talks about Understanding Azure Savings Plans for Compute

Media

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

• No content this week

Migration

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

• On the SQL Server Blog, Rashida Hodge writes about Easily migrate SQL Server applications to the cloud with Azure
• Hiram Fleitas explains How to handle data updates in Azure Data Explorer
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) writes about 5 Reasons to Use Azure Landing Zones for Your Cloud Migration

Mobile

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

• On the Xamarin blog, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) provides Tips & Tricks on Upgrading Xamarin.iOS & Xamarin.Android to .NET for iOS & Android
• Junior Saravia discusses Adding a New Android Permission in a Xamarin App

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

• Cary Roys explains What is an Azure Load Balancer
• Matt Lowe discusses Designs for Accomplishing Microsoft Sentinel Scalable Ingestion
• Patrick van Kleef (@patkleef) describes how to Design multi-cloud DNS architecture with Azure Private DNS Resolver
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) describes How to Use Azure DNS Private Resolver and Inbound Endpoints
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) writes about Cannot Remove Subnet Because of App Service VNet Integration
• On episode 3 of the Wired for Hybrid show, Pierre Roman (@pierreroman) and Michael Bender discuss What's New in Azure Networking
  

Security

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

• Shawn Hernan discusses Microsoft Azure Security expands variant hunting capacity at a cloud tempo
• On the Azure blog, Dave Burkhardt talks about DDoS Mitigation with Microsoft Azure Front Door
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) describes Differences Between Microsoft 365 Defender And Microsoft Sentinel Discover Here
• Sean Wesonga covers Performing a Successful Proof of Concept PoC
• Wim Matthyssen (@wmatthyssen) describes how to Onboard an Azure subscription in Microsoft Defender for Cloud using an Azure PowerShell script
• On The New Stack, Loraine Lawson writes Too Much Access Is Your Kubernetes Achilles Heel

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

• Edi Wang explains How to Automatically Move Blobs to Cool or Archive Tier After a Period of Time
• Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) explains how to Read an Excel File From Azure Blob Storage with an Azure Function
• Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) walks through Securing Azure Storage Accounts – Restrict Users from Creating Public Blob Access with Azure Policy
• Geert van Teylingen describes Using Azure NetApp Files AVG for SAP HANA to deploy HANA with multiple partitions MP
• Sravani Saluru walks through Compressing Audit log files on Azure Blob Storage using ADF Pipeline for Azure SQL Database

Web

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

• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) provides his Azure Load Testing Managed Service First Thoughts

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"!