Azure AD is Down Blocking Access to Azure, Teams, and more! on September 28, 2020 causing Azure Outage

Is Azure Active Directory Microsoft's Weakest Link?

How can there be a single point of failure in a service that runs the entire Microsoft cloud?

Yesterday, there was a global outage of Azure Active Directory (AD) which took down services across Microsoft, Azure, Office 365, and Microsoft Teams; among other cloud services. What caused this massive outage?

The Azure Status history states the following:

Primary Root Cause: “A recent configuration change impacted a backend storage layer, which caused latency to authentication requests.”

The Weeks Top Links

Here are some of the most notable links from the week:

• Microsoft Ignite Cloud Skills Challenge 2020: Free Certification Exam via Dan Patrick
• Major Apple outage via Dan Patrick
• Azure CLI: Suppress Output for Silent Commands / Quiet Mode via Chris Pietschmann
• Azure Bicep Roadmap Q4’20 into 2021 via Chris Pietschmann
• Getting Started with GitHub CLI via Dan Patrick
• Microsoft Edge Browser Coming to Linux via Chris Pietschmann
• Top Azure IoT Announcements and Sessions from Microsoft Ignite 2020 via Chris Pietschmann
• Top Microsoft Ignite 2020 News for Developers via Chris Pietschmann
• Blazor WebAssembly on Azure Static Web Apps via Scott Hanselman
• Microsoft acquires game publisher Bethesda Softworks for $7.5 billion via ZDNet | microsoft RSS
• Get Started with Azure DevOps Permissions On The CLI via Jim Counts
• Migrate to Azure DevTest Labs via Dan Patrick

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• Getting Started with Azure CLI and Cloud Shell – Azure CLI Kung Fu Series
• A Look at winget, Windows Package Manager for Windows 10
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• Microsoft Azure IoT Developer Certification (AZ-220) Prerequisites, Objectives, and Study Tips

Microsoft Azure Service Updates

Here’s a list of the Microsoft Azure Service Updates from over the past week:

• Azure HDInsight –Autoscale for Interactive Query with HDInsight 4.0 is now generally available
• General Availability: Application Insight in UK West
• Azure Data Explorer extends functionality to support geospatial joins
• Azure Container Registry now available in several new regions
• New maintenance control features
• Column-level encryption for Azure Synapse Analytics
• COPY command now generally available in Azure Synapse Analytics
• New MERGE command for Azure Synapse Analytics
• Windows IoT Microsoft Edge Kiosk Mode in public preview
• Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server now in preview
• Logic Apps updated with new hosting options, improved performance and developer workflows
• Debug API Management policies in real time
• Configurable Backup Storage Redundancy option for Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Azure Arc enabled data services now in preview
• Accelerate analytics and AI workloads with Photon powered Delta Engine on Azure Databricks
• High throughput output from Stream Analytics to Azure Synapse Analytics (General Availability)
• Azure Stream Analytics clusters with VNet support (Preview)
• Azure Object Anchors is now in private preview
• Announcing Private Azure Marketplace in public preview
• GA: Azure Kubernetes Service mutate default storage class feature
• Redis Enterprise features on Azure Cache for Redis coming soon
• Azure AD authentication features for Azure SQL DB, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Visual Studio Code extension diagnostics + periscope
• GA: Azure Kubernetes Service support for new base image Ubuntu 18.04
• Public preview: Azure role-based access control (RBAC) for Kubernetes authorization
• Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will be generally available on October 30, 2020
• GA: Policy add-on for Azure Kubernetes Service
• New IoT Event Learning Path
• Announcing the unified Azure Certified Device program
• Microsoft plans to establish new cloud datacenter region in Arizona
• AT&T powered guardian device with Azure Sphere is now available
• Azure Cognitive Services general availability updates
• Announcing the public preview of Azure Automanage
• New Azure Cognitive Services and capabilities in preview
• Network Virtual Appliances from Cisco can be installed directly into the Virtual WAN hub
• IoT Security updates for September 2020
• New Azure Orbital, ground station as a service, now in preview
• Azure Resource Mover is now in public preview
• Azure Sentinel launches new analytics, threat intelligence, and data collection features
• Protect both managed and unmanaged IoT/OT devices with Azure Defender for IoT
• Public preview: AKS start/stop cluster feature
• Azure Machine Learning offers added capabilities at lower cost
• Public preview: Azure Arc enabled SQL Server
• Azure Advisor Score is now in preview
• Azure Stack Edge Mini R is now generally available
• Traffic Analytics & Diagnostics capabilities in Azure Monitor for Networks
• Selective disks backup for Azure Virtual Machines
• Azure Backup support for up to 32 disks is now generally available
• Azure Key Vault Managed HSM available in public preview
• Azure Cognitive Search – Managed identity support and Private Endpoints are GA
• Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI now in public preview
• Azure Machine Learning updates Ignite 2020
• 512 Sector Size support on Azure Ultra Disks is now available
• Export and import securely to Azure Disk Storage with Azure Private Links integration (GA)
• Blazor and C# APIs now supported in Azure Static Web Apps
• Achieve higher performance and cost savings on Azure Disk Storage with performance tiers
• New disk IO and Bandwidth metrics to identify bottlenecks
• Announcing Azure SQL Edge now in general availability
• Support for Dapr applications in Azure API Management
• Change data integration in Azure Monitor for VMs is now in public preview
• Azure Monitor Log Analytics UI improvements September 2020
• General Availability of the New Azure VMware Solution
• Oracle WebLogic Server on Azure Virtual Machines major release now available
• Azure Monitor ITSM Connector for BMC Helix with Secure Export
• General availability of workspace-based Application Insights
• General availability of Azure Monitor for Key Vault and Azure Cache for Redis
• Public Preview: Azure App Service Migration Assistant – Java Tomcat Support
• Public Preview: Steeltoe .NET Application Support in Azure Spring Cloud
• Virtual Machine (VM) level Disk Bursting on Dvs3 and Esv3 VMs
• Azure Arc enabled servers are now generally available
• Dedicated clusters for Azure Monitor Log Analytics with data encryption at rest and Lockbox
• Global virtual network peering support for Azure SQL Managed Instance now available
• Hosting catalog databases for all supported versions of SSRS in Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Major performance improvements for Azure SQL Managed Instances
• Machine Learning on Azure SQL Managed Instance in preview
• Configurable backup storage redundancy options for Azure SQL Database coming soon
• Azure Stack Hub with GPU’s now generally available
• Apache Spark for Azure Synapse In-cluster Caching and Shuffle Service (Preview)
• Public preview: Azure Kubernetes Service support for Kubernetes 1.19
• App-consistent backup for Oracle and MySQL DBs in preview
• Preview of Zonal redundant Storage for Backup data from Azure Backup
• Cross Region Restore (CRR) for SQL/SAP HANA using Azure Backup
• Public preview of Azure PostgreSQL backup with long term retention
• Introducing Azure Backup Center
• Azure Synapse Link now supports Azure Cosmos DB API for Mongo DB (Preview)
• Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB: SQL serverless runtime support coming soon
• Serverless offer for Azure Cosmos DB coming soon on all APIs
• App Service introduces the new Pv3 SKU for Windows and Linux customers
• Enhanced management experience for Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Transactionally consistent database copy for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale tier
• Migrate servers to Availability Zones with Azure Migrate
• Azure Stack Edge Pro with GPU now generally available
• Azure Stack Edge Pro R now generally available
• New disk performance metrics in Azure Monitor
• App Service integration with GitHub Actions now generally available
• App Service Environment v3 in development–will launch November 1
• FastTrack for Azure now supports Windows Virtual Desktop
• Azure Communication Services now available in public preview
• App Service announces the general availability of Windows Container support
• Public preview: Stop/start functionality for Azure Database for MySQL

The full weekly digest contains MANY more links than listed above. Please click the link below to view the full Build5Nines Weekly!

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