Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #283

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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 that Neural Text to Speech expands to new languages, Azure Machine Learning studio web experience is generally available, Form Recognizer is now generally available, Text Analytics for health is now available in preview and that Custom Commands is now generally available
• On Channel 9, Seth Juarez and Manash Goswami discuss the ONNX Runtime
• On the Azure blog, Eric Boyd (@eric_boyd) covers Azure AI: How to build mission-critical AI apps with new Cognitive Services capabilities

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

• On the endjin blog, Jess Panni (@JessPanni) shares a video tutorial on Serverless data prep using SQL On Demand and Synapse Pipelines
• The Azure updates team announces that .NET Core support for Azure Analysis Services client libraries is in preview
• Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) walks through Refreshing a Power BI Dataset in Azure Data Factory
• Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) covers Building an SSIS Framework in Azure Data Factory
• On the Azure SQL Database blog, Mohamed Kabiruddin discusses COVID-19 data analytics and reporting with Azure Databricks and Azure SQL
• On the Microsoft site, Reporter writes about how 'Go-Ahead is using data to make sure the right buses are in the right place at the right time'

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

• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes How to Manage Hyper-V VM Checkpoints with PowerShell
• On the DEV site, Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) discusses Linux VMs with Brian Ketelsen
• Also on the DEV site, Justin Yoo (@justinchronicle) describes the Power-up Power Platform with Serverless Custom Connector
• Also on the DEV site, Simona Cotin (@simona_cotin) provides A Deep Dive into POWERful Serverless Application
• The Azure updates team announces that you can now Create virtual machines from Azure Shared Image Gallery (SIG)

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 that Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now supports confidential workloads through DCSv2 SKUs (private preview)
• Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) writes about Local Kubernetes setup with KinD
• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) writes about how to Programmatically create Azure Container Instances in an existing Virtual Network and how to Programmatically create Azure Container Instances and connect a Managed Identity
• On the DEV site, Abhishek Gupta (@abhi_tweeter) writes about Kafka on Kubernetes, the Strimzi way (Part 3)
• On Code Project, Abhishek Mishra - Dotnet And Azure Paas Architect describes Containers on Azure Platform: Thousand Feet Overview

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 that Distributed network name for SQL Server on Virtual Machines is now available and Preview support for Azure Shared Disks for SQL Server failover cluster instance on Azure IaaS is now available
• On the premier developer blog, Lenni Lobel discusses the Azure Cosmos DB Change Feed
• On Channel 9, Ben Weissman talks about Big Data Clusters in a Nutshell
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Atul Malaviya (@AZooInMyLuggage) explains How to Restore Azure SQL LTR Backup After Azure SQL Instance Deleted
• Also on Channel 9, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) discusses Why Azure SQL is Best for Developers (Part 2) with Davide Mauri

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 that Azure Stream Analytics tools for Visual Studio Code now supports Visual Studio Codespaces
• David Ramel highlights that Mads Kristensen has unveiled 'The Essentials' Visual Studio Extension Pack for All Devs

DevOps

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

• On the DEV site, Abel Wang (@abelsquidhead) walks through Extending your Powerful Apps with Azure, GitHub Actions, and .NET
• Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) discusses the error "Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0" and covers Automated deployments CI/CD using Azure DevOps for Azure Data Factory
• On Channel 9, Frank Boucher and Abel Wang discuss ARM Templates Parameters
• Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) explains How to bring existing Azure resources under Terraform management

Hybrid

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes How to Add the Microsoft Monitoring Agent to Azure Arc Servers
• On the Azure SQL Database blog, Danimir Ljepava (@danimir) discusses the Monitoring options available for Azure SQL Managed Instance

Identity

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

• Roelf Zomerman discusses Role assignments to Header based apps
• Noreplyblogger.com Anuj Chaudhary provides a PowerShell sample for Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for Azure AD Roles
• On the DEV site, Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) covers Windows Virtual Machines on Azure with Sarah Lean

Integration

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

• Thuan Nguyen explains how to Transform Azure Sentinel incident to Log Analytics Workspace with Logic Apps
• The Azure updates team highlights how to Simplify and modernize your Java and Spring workloads with Azure Service Bus
• Gyanendra Kumar Gautam provides an Update on Microsoft Integration Platform & Azure iPaaS
• On the DEV site, Greg Hurlman writes about Real-time Power Apps with SignalR
• On Channel 9, Cecil Phillip (@cecilphillip) talks about SignalR

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

• On the Azure blog, Kirsten M. Walker blogs about Making buildings smarter with Azure IoT
• The Azure updates team announces: Upcoming changes to JSON flattening and storage for new Azure Time Series Insights deployments, Azure Digital Twins enhanced features now in public preview and Azure Digital Twins enhanced features are now in preview
• On the DEV site, Christopher Maneu announces a series on Learning the basics of IoT Solutions this month (JulyOT)
• Also on the DEV site, Paul DeCarlo describes Configure and Deploy Intelligent Video Analytics to IoT Edge Runtime on NVIDIA Jetson (JulyOT), Develop and deploy Custom Object Detection Models with IoT Edge DeepSteam SDK Module (JulyOT) and Consuming and Modeling Object Detection Data with Azure Time Series Insights (JulyOT)
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about Insight's Connected Platform for Detection and Prevention on IoT Edge
• On the DEV site, Paul DeCarlo covers Getting Started with NVIDIA Jetson Nano: Object Detection (JulyOT)

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, Sceduler

• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) describes how to Use Azure App Service Diagnostics - Improve performance, best practices, security and more.
• On the DEV site, Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) discusses Fault Tolerance for Azure

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

• On the DEV site, Laurent Bugnion covers the Notifications Client Step 1.0: Creating the FCM project

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

• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) explains how to Connect two Virtual WANs to each other over VPN
• The Azure updates team announces: Azure Load Balancer support for IP-based backend pool management is in preview, introduces Azure Load Balancer Insights using Azure Monitor for Networks and announces that Azure Private Link support for Azure Automation is now available in preview
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) covers Azure Virtual WAN Introducing A New Kind Of Route Table
• The Azure updates team discusses Azure Virtual WAN: Multiple capabilities and new partners now generally available

Security

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

• No content this week

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

• James Serra (@JamesSerra) highlights the new ADLS Gen2 enhancements
• The Azure updates team announces that Private endpoints for Azure File Sync are now generally available

Web

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

• On the endjin blog, Mike Larah (@MikeLarah) discusses Debugging web apps in Visual Studio with custom browser configurations
• On the DEV site, Em Lazer-Walker walks through A rock-paper-scissors app with gesture detection and voice
• Simon Waight (@simonwaight) talks about Building a virtual event platform using Microsoft Azure

Learning

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

• On Azure Tips and Tricks, Michael Crump (@mbcrump) discusses Azure Certifications for Developers
• On the Whizlabs blog, Neeru Jain highlights the AZ-400 Practice Tests Updated As Per New Updates on June 15, 2020
• Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) gives a AZ-900 Course Overview and provides a AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals full course
• Also on the Whizlabs blog, Amit Verma talks through AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Exam Preparation
• Also on the Whizlabs blog, Neeru Jain discusses AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design Exam Preparation

Windows Virtual Desktop

Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop

• Christiaan Brinkhoff (@Brinkhoff_C) describes How to proactively monitor ARM-based Windows Virtual Desktop with Azure Log Analytics and Azure Monitor and discusses Whats new with Windows Virtual Desktop

Useful Links

• 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!
• Azure Quickstart Templates - Learn how to deploy to Azure using ARM Templates. Over 850 examples in this repo.
• 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.
• A-Z of the Azure ecosystem - a slide deck outlining current Azure services.
• 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"!