Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #425

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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

• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview: Azure OpenAI Service On Your Data
• Nick Zhao talks about Azure AI Neural TTS enhanced expressiveness for Chinese voices with upgraded prosody breaks
• Hugo Affaticati provides A Quick Guide to Benchmarking AI Models on Azure: ResNet with MLPerf Training v3.0
• Razvan Tanase provides A closer look at MLOps and the Intel Extension for Scikit-learn within Azure Machine Learning
• Judith van Ekeren and Berke T. delve into Applying Dashboarding and Machine Learning: Ethical Considerations and Recommendations for Business
• Sean Li blogs about Building intelligent Spring Apps with Azure OpenAI
• Ajit Jaokar talks about GPT Making higher education affordable, personalised, inclusive, and reflective

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, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Fabric

• Gabi Lehner describes Breaking change notification as Azure Data Explorer EngineV2 reaches EOL.
• Ed Freeman (@edfreeman_) continues his Fabric End to End Demo in Microsoft Fabric - Inspecting 28 Million row dataset
• Chunhua Gu explains how to Continued region expansion: Azure Data Factory just became generally available in Sweden Central
• On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) provides a Synapse and ADF Pipeline snack - Disable Activity
• Andrew Brust writes Databricks Sees and Raises Snowflake, with Gen AI, LLMOps, More
• Guy Reginiano writes about a New generation of cache recommendations for Azure Data Explorer

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

• Marco Netto discusses Starting HPC Worker Processes at Boot Time in VM Scale Sets
• John Kilmister (@johnkilmister) walks through Automating Custom VM Image Creation with Azure Image Builder and Azure DevOps

Containers

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

• On episode 465 of the Azure podcast, the Azure Podcast team (@AzurePodcast) are joined by Ramya Orugant (@ramyaoncloud) to discuss Functions on Azure Container Apps
• On the Kubernetes Blog, Sascha Grunert (@saschagrunert) discusses Verifying Container Image Signatures Within CRI Runtimes
• On the Open at Microsoft show, Aaron Crawfis (@AaronCrawfis) talks with multiple guests about Dapr
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) describes how to Set up a dev container for Terraform in GitHub Codespaces
• On The New Stack, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes Microsoft Adopts OpenInfra Kata Containers Security on Azure
• Martin Miles walks through Dealing with Wildcard SSL Certificates on Azure and Kubernetes

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

• Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) talks about Lesson Learned: 381: The connection is broken and recovery is not possible message using API ODBC, 382: Loading multiple Audit Log files using sys.fngetauditfile, 383: Loading multiple extended file using sys.fnxefiletargetreadfile, 384: ODBC driver not supporting AKS workload identity and 387:Monitoring Query Data Store State Changes in Azure SQL Database using PowerShell
• Mohammad Belbaisi covers Error TSQL CRUD has been disallowed via policy for this Azure subscription
• Anil Kota explains How to handle Large Objects LOBs migration from Db2, Oracle to Azure SQL & Datalake

Developer Tools

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

• David Ramel (@dramel) writes about Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio Marketplace Avoids Decommission and Stack Overflow Dev Survey: VS Code, Visual Studio Still Top IDEs 5 Years Running
• On The New Stack, Darryl K. Taft highlights that the Alternative to Visual Studio Marketplace Gains Momentum
• On episode 192 of thr Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine talk about Getting started with devtunnel CLI
• Jeremy Li writes about AI-based CLI interactive mode

DevOps

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

• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Andrew Brenner explains how to Choose an image for your organization
• On episode 251 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) and Kevin LaBranche (@klabranche) talk about Leading teams through DevOps
• Nikita Nallamothu announces Azure Load Testing: You can run load tests from command-line now
• Sam Cogan (@samcogan) blogs about Upgrade to Version 2 of the Pulumi Azure Native Provider
• Christian Geuer-Pollmann (@chgeuer) delves into Azure access from GitHub and GitLab pipelines - without secrets
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) covers Terraform import blocks to import Azure resources into Terraform

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Nikita Takru covers June 2023 Release for Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server and Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance
• Matthew Quickenden talks about SQL Counters via Azure Arc

Identity

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

• Jeff Sakowicz writes about New App Health Recommendations in Microsoft Entra Workload Identities

Integration

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

• Kent Weare writes about .NET Framework Custom Code - Calling Existing Assemblies
• Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) presents an Azure Function to convert Google Documents .gdoc into Word Documents .docx and covers Decoding Logic App Dilemmas: Copying .gdoc files from Google Drive using Azure Logic App
• Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) talks about The Xslt action failed due to incompatible map
• Radhika Tripurani discusses Transforming Nonprofit Operations with Microsoft AI Builder
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) and Pablo Castro talk about Harnessing the Power of Conversational AI with Power Platform and Azure OpenAI Services

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

• Stefan Wick discusses Azure IoT Hub expands support for Azure Availability Zones

Learning

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

• Ben Watt provides a Skilling snack: Accessibility in Windows 11

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

• Brian Stoner writes about Save time and effort with Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics
• Samer Baroudi talks about Whats new with Adoption Score and Experience insights in the Microsoft 365 admin center
• Umar Mohamed Usman writes about Securely Deploying Azure Health Data Services: A Reference Architecture and Implementation Guide
• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) delves into Monitoring Azure Networks with Alerts
• Khushbu Gandhi describes Using Resource Locks To Prevent Accidental Changes In Azure
• Balasubramaniam Murugesan blogs about Azure Incident Management with Escalation Policy
• Sona Chandrasekaran talks about Azure Event Grid Domain Monitoring: How to Configure
• James Havens covers Microsoft Purview - Paint By Numbers Series Part 2g – Recommended Labeling of Files and Emails

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 Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) and Matt McSpirit (@mattmcspirit) discuss Can cloud native architectures lower your long-term costs

Mobile

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

• No content this week

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

• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public Preview: Default Rule Set 2.1 for Regional WAF with Application Gateway
• Tobi Otolorin talks about Azure Web Application Firewall- Bot Manager Scenarios
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) covers Azure WAF and False Positives
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) explains how to Troubleshoot Network Security Groups with Azure Network Watcher NSG Diagnostics
• Richard M. Hicks (@richardhicks) writes about Always On VPN Trusted Network Detection and Native Azure AD Join

Security

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

• Renuka Prasad announces Trusted Launch as default in Azure Portal
• Rick Munck describes Security Baseline for M365 Apps for enterprise v2306
• Chris Paoli discusses Microsoft and Rubrik Partner for AI-Powered Enterprise Security Recovery
• On episode 340 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag and Ben Stegink (@msclouditpro) discuss A little bit of DDoS in your life
• Bojan Magusic walks through Continuous Export as Trusted Service to Event Hub
• Matt Lowe describes how to Split Microsoft Sentinel Tables with Multi-Destination Data Collection Rules
• Eliran Azulai explains how to Protect against PaperCut vulnerability with Azure Firewall Premium

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

• The Azure Updates Team describes Preview Updates: Azure Elastic SAN Public Preview improvements
• Jay Lansdaal talks about Azure Elastic SAN Preview Updates

Web

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

• Neha Hafeez delves into Getting Started with API Management: A Beginner's Guide for Developers
• Anna Soracco writes Build resilient apps with Azure App Service and Azure Load Testing
• Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) describes Using WSL and Let's Encrypt to create Azure App Service SSL Wildcard Certificates
• York Zhang provides a Step-by-Step Guide: Deploying JupyterLab to Azure App Service with Docker

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"!