Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #311

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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, Tom Keane (@tomwkeane) describes Connecting Azure to the International Space Station with Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Derek Legenzoff explains how to Accelerate search index development with Visual Studio Code
• Henk Boelman (@hboelman) describes How to use Cognitive Services and containers
• The Azure Updates Team announces OCR support for 73 languages in the Cognitive Services Computer Vision public preview
• On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina Alto talks about the Azure Cognitive Services REST API for Computer Vision
• On Channel 9, Krishna Doss talks about What's new with Translator?
• Ayşegül Yönet (@AysSomething) walks through Integrating AI: Best Practices and Resources to Get Started

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, Azure Purview

• On Tech Community blog, Mark Kromer (@kromerbigdata) highlights that Azure Data Factory UI is getting Command Bar Updates and that Data Flows in ADF and Synapse Now Support Reserved Instance Pricing
• Moumi Panja describes How to migrate Azure Analysis Services models to Power BI Premium
• On the Azure Medium blog, Luca Zavarella starts an On-premises Data Gateway Monitoring Series—Part 0: Why should I care about monitoring?

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

• On the Azure blog, Kirushna Kumaar Ganesan writes about Back up Linux virtual machines running mission-critical workloads
• Shahar Davidovich explains How to save ADX cost with the new Predictive Autoscale
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes How to check the available VM Sizes (SKUs) by Azure Region

Containers

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

• Peter Pogorski highlights the Azure Service Fabric 7.2 Fifth Refresh Release

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

• On the MSSQL Tips site, Rajendra Gupta blogs about Server and Database Level Auditing for Azure SQL databases
• Kevin Chant talks about : "Azure Data Studio and my coffee machine"
• Halil Ozan Akgul discusses How to undistribute a distributed Postgres table
• Eduardo Pivaral blogs about Using Azure SQL Data Sync to Replicate Data
• Manvendra Singh runs through a Step by Step Installation of Microsoft Azure Data Studio on Windows Machine
• On the Azure blog, Eric Hudson highlights how Icertis boosts performance over 80 percent and lowers costs on Azure SQL
• Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) talks about an error: No such host is known in Azure SQL Managed Instance

Developer Tools

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

• Mark Heath (@mark_heath) writes about Visual Studio 2019 Docker Tooling
• Lomis Chen writes about az next: AI-powered interactive assistant and discusses the Latest improvements to the Azure CLI experience
• Jon Gallant (@jongallant) writes about using the Azure REST APIs with Postman (2021)

DevOps

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

• Nagaraj Bhairaji (@NagarajBhairaji) discusses The Azure DevOps Demo Generator
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Abel Wang, Damian Brady, Donovan Brown, Jessica Deen, and Steven Murawski present "New Year, New DevOps"
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Sidi Merzouk provides the Azure DevOps Roadmap update for 2021 Q1
• Michael Omokoh discusses some Changes to Azure Artifact Upstream Behavior
• Abhishek Narain discusses Automated publish improvement in ADF's CI/CD flow
• Ahmed Sabbour (@sabbour) writes about What makes Azure Red Hat OpenShift a streamlined experience for developers
• Buck Woody (@BuckWoodyMSFT) discusses DevOps for Data Science - Part 5 - Infrastructure as Code

Hybrid

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• On BizTalk Gurus, Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) highlights a talk on February 18th - Transform The Azure Cloud from a Log Cabin with Michael Stephenson
• James van Den Berg describes Adding Windows Server 20H2 Core to Azure Arc Services with Windows Admin Center
• On Channel 9, Garvita Rai (@Garvita_Rai) talks about GitHub Actions on Azure Stack Hub
• On Azure Sentinel Blog, Innocent Wafula writes about how to Automatically disable On-prem AD User using a Playbook triggered in Azure
• Roelf Zomerman (@RCZ_Jag) discusses Offline AD Domain Join for Azure Files

Identity

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

• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) writes about Secure Azure AD User File Upload with Azure AD Storage and ASP.NET Core
• Yixuan Wang runs through how to Use Azure Portal to enable AAD authentication for Service Fabric management endpoint

Integration

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

• Akihiro Nishikawa (@Logico_jp) walks through Using JMS 2.0 APIs to access Azure Service Bus

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

• The Azure Updates Team highlights the Azure IoT Central new and updated features—January 2021
• On Channel 9, Ryan Winter talks about Getting Started with IoT devices and Azure
• Sander van de Velde describes Using Influx database and Grafana on the Azure IoT Edge
• Alberto Gorni blogs about Trusting the Cloud from a Device perspective
• Naiteek Sangani discusses New Product Features for Live Video Analytics on IoT Edge
• Andrei Rusu (@andreirusu_) runs through Running Azure IoT Edge for Node.js on Ubuntu 18.04

Learning

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

• On the DEV site, Jen Looper (@jenlooper) highlights a new set of Azure coding challenges: Presenting The Azure Space Mystery
• Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) continues his series on AZ-900, covering The core tenets of Security, Privacy, and Compliance

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

• Daniel Rneling runs through the Top 7 challenges with Azure Monitor
• Stanislav Zhelyazkov (@StanZhelyazkov) blogs about Finding Columns that are used by more than one service in AzureDiganostics table
• On the DEV site, Steven Murawski (@StevenMurawski) provides an Intro to Azure Policy
• On Channel 9, Pratik Verma investigates how to conquer data sprawl and unleash digital transformation with Azure Purview.
• Masashi Narumoto provides a New ARM template for automating Magento deployments to Azure
• Laura Arrizza introduces New Policy Reports & more in Microsoft Endpoint Manager Reporting
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) explains how to Get Azure Scheduled Events with the Instance Metadata service
• On Code Project, Duncan Edwards Jones (@Merrion) explains how to Add tags to Azure Functions
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) blogs about Azure Policy
• The Azure Updates Team announces that Azure Automation is now available in Japan West and Soft limit increased from 2 TB to 8 TB in Azure Backup for SAP HANA
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) describes why you should Replace Off-Site Backup With Azure Backup
• On System Center Automation, Billy York explains how to Find Orphaned Azure Resources
• Roelf Zomerman (@RCZ_Jag) blogs about how to save money with Azure VM Reservations
• Brandon McMillan (@bkmcmill) covers Configuration Manager Current Branch Antivirus Exclusions and Enhanced Audit Status Message Queries
• Steve Thomas discusses Deploying, managing, and supporting Windows 10 on ARM in the enterprise

Media

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

• Tomasz Poszytek explains how to Get started with Adaptive Cards

Migration

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

• Arun Thiagarajan continues a series on Migrating database storage objects from Oracle to Postgres
• Sakshi Budhraja highlights a Webinar: Collective expertise to help you move your SAP landscape to the cloud
• Robert Biro discusses SAP Migration to Azure - Performance Optimization Guidance

Mobile

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

• The Azure Updates Team announces that the Azure mobile app now supports Azure Government
• On Channel 9, Steven Thewissen (@devnl) talks about StateLayout (Xamarin Community Toolkit)

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

• On The Azure Podcast, Michael Collier (@justazure) covers Virtual Networking with Functions
• Jithin Jose discusses Accelerated Networking on HB, HC, HBv2 and NDv2

Security

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

• Valon Kolica highlights the Security Community Webinars
• On Azure Sentinel Blog, Jordan Ross covers Categorizing Microsoft alerts across data sources in Azure Sentinel
• Also on Azure Sentinel Blog, Naomi Christis walks through Migrating QRadar offenses to Azure Sentinel
• The Azure Updates Team announces: Azure Databricks Achieves DoD Impact Level 5 IL5 on Microsoft Azure Government and that Versions are no longer required for Key Vault references in App Service and Azure Functions
• Jordan Ross covers how to Bring Remediation Steps into Azure Sentinel
• On the Azure blog, Ram Pliskin highlights that Azure Defender for App Service introduces dangling DNS protection
• Anthony Roman highlights the New, Simplified Pricing for Azure DDoS Protection Standard

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 that Append blob support for Azure Data Lake Storage is now in limited public preview, that Soft delete for Azure file shares is now on by default for new storage accounts is generally available and that Ingest up to 10 files and blobs with the new Azure Data Explorer intuitive UX is generally available
• Pierre Roman (@pierreroman) explains how to Mount Blob storage on Linux VM NFS 3.0
• Raymond Tsai describes Performance Best Practice- EDA workloads on Azure NetApp Files
• Sonia Cuff (@soniacuff) describes How to backup and restore Azure file shares
• Moumi Panja walks through How to refresh a firewall enabled Azure Data Lake Storage gen2 data source from Power BI Service

Web

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

• On Channel 9, Byron Tardif (@bktv99) talks about Operational best practices for web apps on Azure App Service
• On the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeff Fritz covers Blazor Webassembly Architecture
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Daniel Lopez and Deepak Saini discuss Continuous Monitoring for Web Performance and Accessibility
• Ovidiu Dan describes Leveraging Azure to Build Low-latency Microsoft Sport experiences
• John Kilmister (@johnkilmister) provides An Introduction to Azure Static WebApps

Windows Virtual Desktop

Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop

• No content this week

Useful Links

• 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.
• 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"!