Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #444

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

• Kanchan Bawane walks through Building a Private ChatBot with Langchain, Azure OpenAI & Faiss Vector DB for Local Document Query

Analytics

Covering: Apache Spark for HDInsight, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Share, Azure Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Factory, Event Hubs, HDInsight, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Fabric

• On the endjin blog, Barry Smart (@barry_j_a_smart) writes Star Schemas are fundamental to unleashing value from data in Microsoft Fabric
• On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Peri Rocha announces improvements to CSV data ingestion in Synapse Data Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric
• Panu Oksala blogs about Leveraging Microsoft Fabric and Azure OpenAI for Data Processing and AI Integration
• Bethany Jepchumba (@bethanyjep) walks through Analyzing Wildlife Data with Microsoft Fabric: end-to-end workshop
• Temidayo Omoniyi talks about Git Integration Repo in Databricks Workspaces for Developer Collaboration
• Kevin Chant wtites about Power BI Project PBIP and Azure DevOps CI performance tests

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

• Isidro Gonzalez describes NGads V620 series: Optimized for gaming scenarios - General availability and benchmarks
• The Azure Updates Team announce Latency metrics for disks and performance metrics for temporary disks on Azure Virtual Machines

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 the General Availability of: Kubernetes Event-driven Autoscaling KEDA Add-on for AKS, and Provider for running Karpenter on AKS, and Kubernetes 1.28 support in AKS, and Application routing add-on for AKS and Kube-reserved resource optimization in AKS
• The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview of: Artifact streaming support in AKS, and Image integrity support in AKS, and Azure Container Storage in AKS and Enhancements for Istio-based service mesh add-on for AKS
• Vybava Ramadoss announces Azure Container Storage Preview Updates now available
• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure Red Hat OpenShift November 2023 updates
• Kaysie Yu writes about AKS Cost Analysis: an Azure-native cost visibility experience built on the OpenCost project
• On Microsoft + Open Source, Brendan Burns (@brendandburns) says Microsoft welcomes you to KubeCon Chicago
• On the Open at Microsoft show, Aaron Crawfis (@AaronCrawfis) and Ryan Nowak talk about Radius

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

• Aditi Gupta blogs about Azure DMS statement replication support for MySQL v8.0 workloads Preview
• The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Azure SQL updates for early-November 2023
• Govanna Flores highlights Microsoft at PASS Data Community Summit 2023
• Sunitha Muthukrishna (@mksuni) shows how to Leverage GitHub Copilot to work with MySQL in Azure Data Studio
• On SQL Server Central, Brent Ozar (@BrentO) writes Somethings Up with Parallelism in Azure SQL DB Serverless
• Srini Acharya announces Azure SQL Database Elastic Jobs preview refresh

Developer Tools

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces Customer-Managed Keys preview integration with Azure Chaos Studio
• David Levy covers Azure Data Studio 1.47 is now available
• Jon Udell blogs about Techniques for Using LLMs to Improve SQL Queries

DevOps

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

• On episode 270 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Jeremy Clark (@jeremybytes) to talks about Design Patterns

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) blogs about Microsoft Ignite 2023 – Hybrid, multicloud, and Edge sessions
• Molishvinayagan R covers Bring Azure to your VMware environment: Announcing GA of VMware vSphere enabled by Azure Arc
• Ian Curtis blogs about Achieving Distributed High Availability with AKS Hybrid : Hands-on PoC
• Lior Bela writes Now is the time—manage your Mac endpoints with Microsoft Intune
• Angie Chen explains how to Simplify your Windows 11 upgrade experience with Intune

Identity

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

• Alex Weinert covers Emphasizing Security by Default with Advanced Microsoft Authenticator Features.
• On Microsoft Security blog, Alex Weinert writes about Automatic Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra streamline identity protection

Integration

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

• Kent Weare (@wearsy) discusses Azure Logic Apps Data Mapper Extension Merge
• Wagner Silveira blogs about Azure Integration Services Day
• Alex Zúñiga covers Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter - November 2023
• Beena More blogs about Forrester Total Economic Impact study of Azure Integration Services - 295 percent ROI over 3 years
• Lavan Nallainathan discusses Leveraging OpenAI and Azure Integration Services: A Unified Approach

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

• Amit Cohen discusses Enterprise IoT security is now included in Microsoft 365 E5 and E5 Security plans
• Martin Tuip describes Lots of news to share about IoT and Edge at Microsoft Ignite 2023

Learning

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

• Anthony Bartolo (@WirelessLife) describes Microsoft Resources for Startups, Students and Developers at GitHub Universe 2023
• Matt Graven explains how to Get ready for .NET Conf, Microsoft Ignite, and GitHub Universe
• Henry Yan covers Linux on Azure at Microsoft Ignite 2023: What You Need to Know
• On episode 359 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag (@ciphertxt) and Ben Stegink (@benstegink) discuss Microsoft Applied Skills and Azure Bastion Developer SKU
• Toon Vanhoutte (@ToonVanhoutte) writes about his about experience Trying the new Microsoft Applied Skills
• Jed Brown explains how to Ignite 2023 – A look ahead and Ignite 2023 – A look ahead for Microsoft 365 admins
• Mayunk Jain (@mayunkj) writes about Your guide to the Azure app innovation experience at Microsoft Ignite 2023

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 General Availability: Azure Advisor recommendation improves the reliability of Azure Disks with Zone Redundant Storage, and covers Ability to add dynamic values in Alerts custom fields, and Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus is available in 7 additional Azure regions and Azure Monitor Logs archive provides up to 12 years of retention
• Poornima Priyadarshini describes Windows Server 2012/R2: Extended Security Updates
• Brady Bumgarner blogs about Simplification & Alignment in Marketplace Rewards
• Felipe Binotto highlights Microsoft Assessments - Milestones
• Jill Armour explains how to Elevate your Azure business with the new FY24 Azure Campaigns in a Box
• Harjit Dhaliwal writes about Your guide to Windows at Microsoft Ignite 2023
• Sonia Cuff (@soniacuff) writes about Our top Microsoft Ignite sessions for IT Pros
• Poornima Priyadarshini blogs about Extended Security Updates ESUs: Online or proxy activation
• Ned Pyle walks through Migrating from DFSR to Storage Replica

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

• No content this week

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 announces General availability: Rate-limit rules for Application Gateway Web Application Firewall
• The Azure Updates Team announces Public preview: Application Gateway IPv6 support and Public preview: Dual-stack networking in Azure CNI Overlay for AKS
• Yuemin Lu talks about Azure Elastic SAN expanding Enterprise Storage Capabilities
• The Azure Updates Team announces Azure Elastic SAN updates: Security, and Usability
• Irina Nechaeva explains how to Get insights on identity and network access solutions at Microsoft Ignite, Nov 15-17 2023
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) asks What is Azure Front Door
• Gustavo Modena writes about Managing Azure Firewall Network Rules with Illumination

Security

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

• Dan Levy explains how to Simplified security settings management is now generally available
• Erica Toelle covers Microsoft Ignite 2023 guide to Microsoft Purview and Priva
• Giulio Astori blogs about Securing Cloud Resources: Assessing Internet Exposure for Enhanced Defense and Risk Management
• Karam Abu Hanna covers Microsoft Defender for Cloud latest protection against sophisticated abuse of Azure VM Extensions
• Mahmoud Elsayed provides Architecture Guidance: How to ingest GCP FirewallVPC logs into Microsoft Sentinel

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

• Karl Rautenstrauch covers Azure Native Qumulo... And now v2

Web

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

• Andrei Kamenev describes Introducing gRPC API Support in Azure API Management Self-Hosted Gateway
• Naga Surendran blogs about Microsoft named a Leader in 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for API Management
• Graeme Foster discusses Azure API Management OAuth Reverse Proxy
• Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) covers API Management Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks: 3 - How to implement a cache refresh policy and 4 -  Include a Cache Response Header
• Yutang Lin writes about End-to-end E2E TLS Encryption Preview on Linux Multi-Tenant App Service Resources
• Yutang Lin covers Upcoming TLS 1.3 on Azure App Service for Web Apps, Functions, and Logic Apps Update
• Karol Pieciukiewicz implements a REST API with private API Management Access
• Radhika Bollineni discusses the new Distributed Caching with Azure Redis to boost your WordPress site's Performance
• Radhika Bollineni blogs about WordPress on Azure AppService - Set up staging environments

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• No content this week

Useful Links

• Azure Resource Inventory - Azure Resource Inventory - It's a Powerful tool to create EXCEL inventory from Azure Resources with low effort
• Azure Quick Review (azqr) - A command-line interface (CLI) tool specifically designed to analyze Azure resources and identify whether they comply with Azure's best practices and recommendations.
• AzSaveMoney - Clean-up and save money by identifying and marking unused Azure resources/groups as subject for deletion by tagging.
• Azure Cost CLI - CLI tool to perform cost analysis on your Azure subscription
• Azure Code Samples - Explore Microsoft's samples and discover the things you can build.
• 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.
• Cyber Security Demystified - ebook from Microsoft describing how to keep your organisation safe.
• Azure Resource Center - Whitepapers, code samples, solution architectures
• 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.
• Design scalable and performant tables - a guide from the storage team.
• Azure Speed Test 2.0 - a simple web tool that measures the latency between you and Azure Datacenters to suggest which might be fastest for you location.
• 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).
• Microsoft cloud for IT architects illustrations - These cloud architecture posters give you information about Microsoft cloud services, including Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and hybrid on-premises and cloud solutions.
• Whitepapers for Power BI - numerous whitepapers ranging various Power BI topics
• Farmer - This is a DSL for ARM template creation - "Making repeatable Azure deployments easy"!