Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #477

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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

• Kriti Faujdar explains how to AI Innovation Continues: Introducing Mistral Large 2 and Mistral Nemo in Azure
• Shubhi Raj explains how to Elevate search operations and streamline AI development with Cohere Rerank on Azure AI
• Asha Sharma talks about Metas next generation model, Llama 3.1 405B is now available on Azure AI
• Pavan Li announces Deploy To Teams from Azure OpenAI Studio
• Freist Li writes about Exploring the Advanced RAG Retrieval Augmented Generation Service
• John Aziz (@john00isaac) explains Why and How to Ground a Large Language Models using your Data RAG
• On episode 1908 of the .NET Rocks podcast, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell (@richcampbell) talk about Building Domain-Specific Copilots with Vishwas Lele
• Hristo Hristov walks through Automated PDF Document Summarization with Azure OpenAI
• Abdulhamid Onawole explains how to Build Powerful RAG Apps Without Code Using LangFlow and Azure OpenAI

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 Microsoft Fabric Blog, Jason Himmelstein blogs about Microsoft Fabric July 2024 Update
• Ed Freeman (@edfreeman_) shares his SQLBits 2024 talk How To Actually Make Decisions When Architecting a Data Platform
• Kevin Chant (@kevchant) writes about Initial tests of GitHub support for Microsoft Fabric Git integration and discusses Additional security tests when using GitHub for Microsoft Fabric Git integration
• Fabriano Richard covers Microsoft Fabric, the Land of Wizards and Trolls
• On the Microsoft Fabric Blog, Salil Kanade announces CI/CD with Warehouses in Microsoft Fabric

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

• MingJiong Zhang announces public preview of new Mbv3 Virtual Machines
• Eman Hassan explains how to Build A Message Queue For Email notifications Using .NET Azure Queue Trigger Function and Twilio SendGrid

Containers

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

• On episode 307 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Craig Loewen to talk about Windows Subsystem for Linux

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

• Henning Rauch (@cosh23) describes Deprecation of Virtual Network Injection for Azure Data Explorer
• Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) walks through Calling a REST Endpoint from Azure SQL DB
• Josephine Bush covers Using Managed Identities with Azure SQL DB
• Kate Smith (@aKateSmithSQL) explains Cardinality Estimation Feedback
• On the Data Exposed show Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) walks through Using Query Store to Capture PostgreSQL Performance in Azure Database and explains how to Build AI Applications with Redis and Azure SQL Database

Developer Tools

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

• On Visual Studio Magazine, David Ramel (@dramel) writes about Visual Studio Uses RUBICON to Improve AI Conversations
• Justin Royal describes M365 Developers Update July 2024 Edition
• On the Visual Studio blog, Laurent Bugnion (@LBugnion) provides a Visual Studio tip: Using Ctrl-L to delete a line with and without Clipboard backup

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, Dan Hellem provides an Update on Azure Boards + GitHub Integration
• Andrew Wilson covers webpack Build Time Environment Variables With Azure DevOps Yaml CI/CD
• Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) blogs about Getting parameters out of ARM/BICEP Deployments and writes about Yet more Azure DevOps pipeline variable expansion strangeness
• Luke Murray delves into Container Patching with Azure DevOps, Trivy and Copacetic

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Aurnov Chattopadhyay writes about Generally Available: Transition to WS2012 / R2 ESUs enabled by Azure Arc from Volume Licensing
• Bruno Gabrielli covers Azure Monitor: How To Get Alerts for Disconnected Arc Agents

Identity

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

• Melanie Maynes writes about Now available: Modernize your SAP environment with Microsoft Entra ID
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jarred Boone talks about the New Microsoft EntraSuite
• Shikha Ghildiyal explains How to Check the status of Local Authentication in Document Intelligence formerly Form Recognizer

Integration

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

• Beena More covers Azure Integration Services Quarterly Highlights and Insights 2024'Q2
• Gyanendra Kumar Gautam covers July 22, 2024 Weekly Update on Microsoft Integration Platform & Azure iPaaS
• Luis Rigueira provides a Friday Fact: You Can Protect Your Logic Apps from Accidental Changes with Read-Only Locks
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Extract Custom Details from Microsoft Sentinel into Logic App
• Noopur Vaishnav blogs about Enhancing Copilot Studio Extensions for SAP by using Adaptive Cards and Principal Propagation

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

• No content this week

Learning

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

• Ben Watt provides a Skilling snack: Tools for creating accessible content
• On episode 248 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) discuss Azure Updates
• Luxmi Nagaraj describes Customer review: Signly made banking easier for deaf customers
• Erika Sperekas explains How to rethink and revolutionize agreement processes with Docusign and Microsoft integrations

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

• On the Azure blog, Sameer Doultani talks about Microsoft Cost Management updates—June 2024
• Michael Flanakin describes Whats new in FinOps toolkit 0.4 – July 2024
• Michael Flanakin covers Microsoft Cost Management updates—June 2024 summary
• Michael Flanakin discusses FOCUS: An open specification for cloud cost transparency
• James van Den Berg discusses Microsoft Azure Copilot Preview in the Cloud to Support you
• James Serra (@JamesSerra) describes Classifications and sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview
• Antonio Ortoll explains how to Discover cost management opportunities using tailored Copilot in Azure prompts

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 Azure blog, Omar Khan covers Harnessing the full power of AI in the cloud: The economic impact of migrating to Azure for AI readiness

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

• Alan Kinane (@Azure_Alan) delves into Managing ACLs in Azure at scale without IaC or scripts
• Rob McNaught writes about Asymmetric Routing in Azure Virtual WAN with ExpressRoute

Security

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

• On Hacker Noon, Konstantin Klyagin covers The Microsoft and CrowdStrike Catastrophe: A Run-Down
• Ayelet Artzi blogs about Using Export API with Defender Vulnerability Management
• Chaitanya Belwal (@cbelwal) delves into Using Microsoft Graph as a Microsoft Copilot for Security Plugin with Delegated Access

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

• Subhash Athri N writes about Soft delete for NFS Azure file shares is now Generally Available.

Web

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

• Ringe Chen explains how to Connect Azure SQL Server via User Assigned Managed Identity under Django

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• Tom Hickling covers Recovery options for Azure Virtual Desktop session host VMs

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"!