Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #504

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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

• Lee Stott blogs about The Launch of AI Agents for Beginners: Your Gateway to Building Intelligent Systems, describes Unlock the Power of AI with Azure AI Assistant Tool and discusses Unleashing the Power of AI Agents: Transforming Business Operations
• Pamela Fox RAG Deep Dive: Watch all the recordings
• On the Azure blog, Asha Sharma And Ashley Llorens announces that Introducing Azure AI Foundry Labs: A hub for the latest AI research and experiments at Microsoft
• Agustin Mantaras talks about Data Storage in Azure OpenAI Service
• Carlotta Castelluccio covers Getting started with AI Agents in Azure
• David Minkovski delves into AI-Powered Customer Support: The Ultimate Multi-Agent System
• Cedric Vidal explains how to Automate Quota Discovery in Azure AI Foundry: A Tale of 3 APIs
• John Metzger talks about Using Semantic Kernel to control a BBC Microbit
• PradyH uses Azure AI Foundry, GitHub Copilot, Fabric and more to Analyze usage stats from Utility Invoices
• Jake Wang discusses Enterprise Best Practices for Fine-Tuning Azure OpenAI Models
• Torin Didenko describes Clipchamp: Elevating work communication with seamless video creation in Copilot

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, Naama Tsafrir discusses What's new in OneLake catalog: Data governance and more and Brad Watts announces the launch of Fabric Catalyst: empowering partners with scalable knowledge and best practices
• Brad Watts announces RTI End-to-End Sample
• Jacob Knightley covers Introducing fabric-cicd Deployment Tool
• Josh Ndemenge covers Hack Together: The Microsoft Data + AI Kenya Hack
• Kevin Chant (@kevchant) writes about Happy together paths to test semantic models in Microsoft Fabric feature workspaces with BPA and dicusses the Importance of shifting left when testing Microsoft Fabric deployments
• Denise Schlesinger explains how to Talk to Fabric Eventhouse using Azure AI Agents – Natural Language to KQL
• Panu Oksala shows how to Use Microsoft Fabric GraphQL API with .NET App
• John Miner delves into Data Streaming Databricks in Azure
• Jessica Hill shares Encoding categorical data for Power BI: Label encoding vs one-hot encoding - which encoding technique to use?

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

• Garima Singh blogs about Linux and Open Source on Azure Quarterly Update - February 2025
• Roelf Zomerman (@RCZ_Jag) describes Azure Confidential VMs made easy

Containers

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

• Carlos Mendible (@cmendibl3) walks through Installing Chaos Mesh on AKS with Terraform
• Debjyoti Ganguly walks through Deploying WebJobs to Azure Container Apps
• Guilherme França presents a Reference Architecture for a High Scale Moodle Environment on Azure
• On Diagrid Blog, Bilgin Ibryam (@bibryam) writes about 10 New Features Making Dapr Operations Easier with Conductor
• Srinivas Jasti blogs about Securing Microservices with Cilium and Istio

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

• Shreya R. Aithal blogs about Azure Database for MySQL - January 2025 updates and latest feature roadmap
• James Serra (@JamesSerra) covers Azure SQL offerings
• David Lyth delves into SQL Unicode comparisons

Developer Tools

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

• On the Visual Studio blog, Rhea Patel blogs about Unlocking More Power: Tool Calling in GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Tina Schrepfer LI describes VisualStudio.Extensibility: Tagger support and updates to settings
• Simona Liao walks through Introducing Code Referencing for GitHub Copilot Completions in Visual Studio
• Shreyan Fernandes discusses Igniting AI Innovation: The VS Code Toolkit -First of AI Sparks Episode
• On The New Stack, David Eastman explains how to Augment Code: An AI Coding Tool for Real Development Work
• On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) blogs about Microsoft's Rust Embrace Continues with Azure SDK Beta and writes about VS Code Copilot Previews New GPT-4o AI Code Completion Model
• David Minkovski describes how to Supercharge Developer Workflows with GitHub Copilot Workspace Extensions
• Luke Murray (@lukemurraynz) covers Getting Started with Azure Developer CLI azd

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 talks about GitHub Copilot for Azure DevOps users
• Katie Sanford discusses The  DevOps Boards
• Jordan Selig explains how to Implement App Service Best Practices into your Azure ARM/Bicep Templates with GitHub Copilot

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Local

• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) covers Azure Local licensing explained
• Jake Walsh (@jakewalsh90) discusses Testing GPU access with Azure Local and AVD
• Jeff Pigott blogs about Understanding Windows Server 2012 Extended Security Update Options with Azure Arc
• Daniel Mauser explains how to Achieve high-bandwidth, private, and seamless Microsoft Azure connectivity

Identity

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

• Nitika Gupta (@_nitika_gupta) writes about New Microsoft-managed policies to raise your identity security posture
• Richard M. Hicks (@richardhicks) explains how to Configure Entra Conditional Access for Always On VPN
• Farooque Mohammad writes about Protecting Workload Identities Using Conditional Access Policy in Entra

Integration

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

• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) writes about Getting current date and time in Azure Logic Apps using utcnow

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

• On episode 278 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) discuss Microsoft Tech Updates
• Bethany Jepchumba (@bethanyjep) writes about Translating AI and ML for Beginners Curriculums in less than a day

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

• Swati Devgan discusses Log Analytics Agent-based Azure Management Services: Shut down starting 28 February 2025
• Gayathri Paderla describes how to Boost Your Postgres server on Azure with Enhanced Azure Advisor Performance Recommendations
• Sunayana Singh walks through Ingestion of Managed Prometheus metrics from a private AKS cluster using private link
• The Intune Support Team covers Blocking and removing apps on Intune managed devices Windows, iOS/iPadOS, Android and macOS

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

• Sai Kondapalli blogs about Public Preview announcement - Unified migration experience in Azure DMS

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

• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) writes Azure Virtual Networks Do Not Exist, covers Beware Of The Default Rules In Network Security Groups and asks How Many Subnets Do I Need In An Azure Virtual Network
• Roy Kim (@roykimyyz) talks about Azure Verified Module Storage Account: Firewalls and Virtual Network Configuration
• Adam Torkar delves into vWAN to vWAN Connectivity Options
• Daniele Gaiulli talks about Managing Access to Multiple VRFs from Azure VNETs
• Jerry Zhang describes Way to minimize the impact of Allocation Failure issue in Cloud Service Extended Support
• Gustavo Modena explains how to Fortify Your Azure Firewall: Custom Public IP Configuration on Secured Virtual Hub Deployments

Security

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

• Eitan Shteinberg writes about New and enhanced multicloud regulatory compliance standards in Defender for Cloud
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Monitor Summary Rules in Microsoft Sentinel
• Abhi Singh blogs about Protecting Azure AI Workloads using Threat Protection for AI in Defender for Cloud
• AlexanderZ blogs about Integrating API data into Microsoft Security Copilot using custom logs and KQL plugins

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

• Tehzeeb Versey-Patel blogs about Microsoft 365 Archive Eliminates Reactivation Fees by March 31, 2025

Web

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

• Milosh Djuric (@mdjxkln) talks about Azure AppService Deployment Error 400 When Using Zip Deploys
• On episode 337 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Shaun Walker to talk about Seven Years of Blazor
• John Reilly (@johnny_reilly) delves into Node.js, Azure Application Insights, and Fastify

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• Dagmar Heidecker writes about Seamless Security: Smartcard Logon from Entra-Only Machines to domain-joined Servers or AVDs

Community 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 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
• 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.
• Farmer - This is a DSL for ARM template creation - "Making repeatable Azure deployments easy"!