Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #295

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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

• On the Azure blog, Erez Barak talks about how Azure Machine Learning helps customers stay ahead of challenges
• On Channel 9, Jeremy Howard (@jeremyphoward) talks about AI Applications Without a PhD
• Also on Channel 9, Clark Rahig (@crahrig) talks about GPU Accelerated Machine Learning with WSL 2
• On the DEV site, Tomomi Imura provides a Beginners Guide to MS Teams Development: Bots
• Adam Jackson (@adamj89) gives a Cloud Skills Show recap
• Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) blogs about Azure Artificial Intellegence w/ WirelessLife
• Prachi Jain explains how to Deliver AI-powered application search with Azure Cognitive Search and BA Insight

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, James Broome asks: Does Azure Synapse Link redefine the meaning of full stack serverless?
• On the endjin YouTube channel, James Broome discusses Detecting Anomalies in IoT Telemetry with Azure Synapse
• The Azure updates team announces New analytics and windowing capabilities in Stream Analytics and highlights how Analysis Services Tabular improves MDX query performance in the cloud
• On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) talks about how to Pause all/an Azure Synapse SQL Pool(s)

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

• The Azure updates team announces New Azure Spot Virtual Machines features
• On the DEV site, Justin Yoo (@justinchronicle) writes about 3 Ways to Map APEX Domains to Azure Functions
• June Castillote (@junecastillote) walks through Creating Your First Azure PowerShell Function App

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 Monitor for containers now supports monitoring of Network configurations with Network Policy Manager Preview and some new Pricing and service updates for Azure Red Hat OpenShift
• Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) talks about the Azure Kubernetes Service Microsoft Ignite announcements

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 Reserved capacity on Azure SQL Database Hyperscale is now available
• On Channel 9, Silvano Coriani (@scoriani) talks about Azure SQL Capacity Planning: Scenarios
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) discusses how to Query Azure SQL Database using Service Principal with PowerShell
• John Miner (@JohnMiner3) discusses Azure Database for MySQL
• Mohammed Moinudheen discusses Auto Scaling Azure SQL DB using Automation runbooks
• On the DEV site, Davide Mauri (@mauridb) blogs about Promises, Node, Tedious, Azure SQL. Oh My!
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Nai Biao Zhou blogs about Adding Custom Stored Procedure Templates to SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio 2019
• On the Hanu blog, Dave Sasson writes about Why Development Teams Should Chose Azure SQL for Their Next Project

Developer Tools

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

• On .NET Rocks, Anthony van der Hoorn (@anthony_vdh) talks about GitHub Codespaces
• On ZDNet, Liam Tung (@LiamT) discusses: VS Code gets this new Edge tools extension

DevOps

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

• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) discusses Org Level Default branch name for repos in Azure DevOps, Copy Child Work Items in Azure DevOps and lists 10 Azure DevOps Work Items Tips & Tricks that you should know
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Kenneth Omorodion covers Creating Azure DevOps Analytics metrics in Power BI using Pre-Built Analytics Views
• The Azure updates team announces that Azure Repos adds a default branch at the org-level
• Also on the DEV site, Justin Yoo (@justinchronicle) explains how to Build and Lint Bicep Codes within CI/CD Pipelines: GitHub Actions & ARM Template Toolkit
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Dan Hellem blogs about Removing Assigned To Rule from Bug
• Gloridel Morales announces: Azure DevOps Server 2020 RTW now available
• Steven Murawski (@StevenMurawski) lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community
• On Channel 9, Frank Boucher (@FBoucheros) talks about Azure DevOps With ARM Templates
• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Tanmayee Kamath talks about Disk Encryption for DevTest Labs
• Kevin Chant writes about some Common questions about migrating to Azure DevOps for SQL Server deployments
• On the Azure blog, Samit Jhaveri walks through Enabling resilient DevOps practices with code to cloud automation
• Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) highlights that The live stream recording "More complex ARM templates" is now available

Hybrid

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) highlights a Free Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud Virtual Event, explains How to add an Azure Arc enabled SQL Server and discusses the Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Umbrellar
• On the Azure blog, Ahmed Sabbour writes about Lower prices and more flexible purchase options for Azure Red Hat OpenShift
• On Channel 9, Srdan Bozovic discusses Global VNet Peering Support for Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) provides An Introduction to Azure ExpressRoute Architecture

Identity

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

• On the endjin blog, Carmel Eve (@Carmel_Eve) describes How to update your Microsoft Authenticator App for a work/school account

Integration

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

• No content this week

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

• Sander van de Velde walks through Connecting child devices to the Azure IoT transparent Edge gateway
• On Microsoft Security blog, Teri Seals-Dormer writes about Why we invite security researchers to hack Azure Sphere
• Christoph Berlin explains How the Azure nested edge securely unlocks value from manufacturing data
• Sam George (@samjgeorge) discusses IoT Signals Research, edition 2: global insights for 2020 and beyond

Learning

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

• On the DEV site, Adam Jackson (@adamj89) talks about how to Become an AI Edge Engineer with Microsoft Learn and University of Oxford
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) walks through how he Passed AZ-303 and AZ-304 Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect
• Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) continues his AZ-900 walkthrough - Azure Security Groups, Network and Application Security Groups NSG, ASG

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

• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) covers Monitoring & Alerting for Windows Defender in Azure VMs
• On the Azure blog, Saket Gupta explains how to Optimize your Azure workloads with Azure Advisor Score
• Pixel Robots. explains how to Stop and Start an Azure Virtual Machine
• The Azure updates team describes how Microsoft plans to establish new cloud datacenter region in Greece, highlights that you should Review your applications to avoid service disruption during Azure changes and announces that Azure NetApp Files Manual QoS Capacity Pool is in Public Preview
• Also on the DEV site, Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) discusses Azure Datacenters, Regions, AZ's and SLA's
• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Manage pre-releases Azure Services using Azure Preview Features
• Alan Kinane (@Azure_Alan) walks through Changing virtual machine regions with Azure Resource Mover
• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, George Grammatikos (@cloudopszone) describes Azure Automation: Scale-Down VM Size
• Yung Chou (@yungchou) talks about Deploying Azure VM with a VHD file

Media

Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer

• The Azure updates team announces that Azure Communication Services SMS and Telephony is now available in Public Preview
• Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) provide a First look at Azure Communication Services
• On the DEV site, Aaron Powell (@slace) discusses Building a Video Chat App, Part 1 - Setup using Azure Communication Services.

Migration

Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box

• On the Azure blog, Navneet Joneja blogs about how Microsoft partners expand the range of mission-critical applications you can run on Azure
• On Channel 9, Tyler Ellison talks about Leveraging Azure and building startups in Green Bay
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) discusses Everything You Need to Know About Azure Infrastructure

Mobile

Covering: App Service (Mobile), Mobile apps, Notification Hubs, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin

• The Azure updates team highlights that the Dark theme is now available for the Azure mobile app

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 that Standard Load Balancer and Public IP addresses support resource group move
• On Channel 9, Erich Robinson-Tillenburg talks about Azure Load Balancer insights using Azure Monitor for Networks
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) writes about Static Public Source IP in Azure with Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateway

Security

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

• Dave Rendón (@DaveRndn) explains how to Connect Kemp LoadMaster data to Azure Sentinel
• Jeff Christman describes How to Enable and Configure Azure JIT for VMs
• On Microsoft Security blog, Teri Seals-Dormer lists some Best practices for defending Azure Virtual Machines

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

• The Azure updates team announces new lower pricing for Azure Files premium tier, highlights Azure Blob – Soft Delete for Containers preview region expansion and announces that Azure Data Lake Storage immutable storage is now in preview

Web

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

• On the Azure blog, Naga Surendran writes about how 'Microsoft is a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management'
• The Azure updates team announces that Azure Data Lake Storage static website is now in preview
• Gunnar Peipman (@gpeipman) runs through Running ASP.NET Core 5 RC applications on Azure App Service
• On the Azure blog, Skyler Hartle (@skylerhartle) describes Three ways serverless APIs can accelerate enterprise innovation

Windows Virtual Desktop

Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop

• Nicholas Rogoff (@nrogoff) blogs about how to Set Drain mode on VMs in a Windows Virtual Desktop Host Pool with PowerShell

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"!