Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #322

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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

• Rathijit Sen covers Inference of ML Models in SQL Server via External Languages
• Jame Maguire writes about Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis with Azure Cognitive Services Text Analytics Preview
• Qinying Liao explains how to Enable read-aloud for your application with Azure neural TTS

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 the MSSQL Tips site, Ron L'Esteve describes Performance Tuning Apache Spark with Z-Ordering and Data Skipping in Azure Databricks
• Chenye Charlie Zhu blogs about Azure Data Factory - Understanding Pipeline Failures and Error Handling Part 2

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, Paul Nash highlights that you can Upgrade your infrastructure with the latest Dv5/Ev5 Azure VMs in preview
• The Azure Updates Team writes about New Azure VMs for general purpose and memory intensive workloads now in public preview

Containers

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

• On the Azure blog, Brendan Burns (@brendandburns) announces Microsoft acquires Kinvolk to accelerate container-optimized innovation and on the Redmond magazine also covers teh story Microsoft Buys Kinvolk To Bolster Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Arc
• The Azure Updates Team announces that Azure Container Registry is now generally available in Korea South region
• On the DEV site, Brendan Burns (@brendandburns) discusses Containers and Kubernetes with Jay Gordon
• On Code Project, Dawid Borycki discusses Java on Azure: First Kubernetes Cluster
• Also on Code Project, Raphael Mun describes Node.js on Azure: Automated Kubernetes Deployments with Multi-Container Pods and talks about Node.js on Azure: Monitoring and Scaling Containerized Apps
• On Code Project, Dawid Borycki covers Java on Azure: Adding Containers

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 discusses Public preview: Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server intelligent performance, describes Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server: Zone redundant high availability now generally available in new regions, covers Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server now supports 8.0.21, talks about Public preview: Forced failover now available with zone redundant high availability for Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server, covers The public preview of Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server is available in two new regions, blogs about The public preview of Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale Citus is available in new regions and talks about Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server public preview managed PgBouncer in public preview
• James Serra (@JamesSerra) explains the Modern Data Warehouse
• Bashar Hussein highlights Forced failover for Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server
• Argenis Fernandez (@DBArgenis) and Anna Hoffman provide a Storage 101 for Azure SQL and SQL Server Engineers
• On SQL Server Central, Sucharita Das provides An Introduction to Azure Data Explorer
• The Azure Updates Team blogs about Azure SQL—public preview updates for April 2021
• On Channel 9, Kate Smith (@aKateSmithSQL) and Anna Hoffman discuss The Benefits of Intelligent Query Processing in Azure SQL.
• Michelle Wallig (@wallig1) highlights that Machine Learning on Azure SQL Managed Instance is generally available
• Sasa Popovic covers Cross-instance distributed transactions with Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Roberto Bustos writes about Active geo-replication for Azure SQL Hyperscale now in preview
• On Code Project, Sergii Syrovatchenko shares SQL Index Manager – Free GUI Tool for Index Maintenance on SQL Server and Azure

Developer Tools

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

• On the Trailhead blog, Rodrigo Juarez walks through Getting Started with Azure CLI
• On Channel 9, Code Stories talks about Quantum Code with Dr. Sarah Kaiser
• On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) discusses Microsoft Previews Graph API Support in Windows Update for Business Deployment Service

DevOps

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

• On the Premier Developer blog, Nicola Delfino (@NicolTwit) explains How to deploy Angular app to Azure App Service running Linux from GitHub
• Al Morrison blogs about Getting started with SAP on Azure
• Anusha Ammaluru runs through Adding EasyRepro Tests to Azure DevOps
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) discusses how to run Scout Suite reports using Azure DevOps Pipeline
• Kevin Chant blogs about how to Store dbatools PowerShell module as a package in Azure DevOps

Hybrid

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• On the Azure blog, Michael Yen-Chi Ho highlights: Discover the latest Red Hat on Azure innovations—sign up for the Red Hat Summit
• The Azure Updates Team announces that Azure Hybrid Benefit for Linux with RI and VMSS Support is generally available
• Anirban Paul talks about Microsegmentation with Azure Stack HCI
• Ben Armstrong discusses AKS on Azure Stack HCI
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes The Azure Arc Connected Machine Agent (Azcmagent)

Identity

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

• On Channel 9, Cecil Phillip Ricardoesway talks about Authentication for Serverless apps with Easy Auth On .NET
• Alex Simons Azure discusses April identity updates - Preview of embed Azure AD B2C sign-in interface in an iframe

Integration

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

• On the Azure blog, Balan Subramanian (@balansubr) writes about Easily build real-time apps with WebSockets and Azure Web PubSub—now in preview
• The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: Azure Log Analytics in South India, covers Azure Event Grid for Azure Cache for Redis now in general availability and describes Microsoft Azure Web PubSub service now in public preview
• On BizTalk Gurus, Pedro Almeida describes Logic Apps: Async processing pattern
• On the Codit blog, Tom Kerkhove (@TomKerkhove) writes about Automatically Forwarding Azure Monitor Autoscale Events to Azure Event Grid
• On the Serverless360 blog, Arunprabhu Muthusamy covers Test Azure Service Bus Performance by Generating a Million Test Messages
• On the Premier Developer blog, Bryan Soltis (@bryan_soltis) walks through Deploying an Azure APIM Self-Hosted Gateway
• On BizTalk Gurus, Gyanendra Gautam (@ggauta) describes April 26, 2021 Weekly Update on Microsoft Integration Platform & Azure iPaaS

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 Channel 9, Olivier Bloch Ricardoesway talks about Applied Nested Edge in an industrial environment on the Internet of Things Show
• Eric Mittelette discusses Azure IoT Hub SDK for .NET now support .NET 5 Preview
• The Azure Sphere Team discusses Azure Sphere version 21.04 is now available

Learning

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

• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes about Best practices for incorporating AZ-900 and AI-900 into the curriculum
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) writes about Which Azure exam should you sit
• On the Azure podcast, John Savill (@NTFAQGuy) discusses Keeping up with Azure
• On the DEV site, Michael Crump (@mbcrump) explains how to Get started with the Go Programming Language with Microsoft Learn (no experience needed)
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) writes about Weekly Update 88 - Never Stop Learning
• Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) talks about AZ-900 Episode 39 Service Lifecycle in Azure Public Preview and General Availability
• Also on Tech Community blog, Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes Getting started and Learn PowerShell on Microsoft Learn
• On the Tallan blog, Travis Dahlke writes about An Introduction to the Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence CoE

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

• Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine talk about Azure Bicep on episode 79 of Ctrl+Alt+Azure
• Justin Yoo (@justinchronicle) writes about Azure Bicep - Refreshed
• Brian Moore covers Creating Subscriptions with ARM Templates
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) talks about Azure Automation and Managed Identities
• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: Application Insights work item integration in Azure Monitor
• On the Azure blog, Michael Flanakin (@flanakin) covers Azure Cost Management and Billing updates – April 2021
• The Azure Updates Team describes Public preview: Stateful and 1-minute frequency log alerts in Azure Monitor, writes about General availability: Azure Site Recovery now supports cross-continental disaster recovery for 3 region pairs, blogs about Azure Site Recovery now supports Azure Policy in public preview and writes about General availability: Set up Azure Site Recovery with proximity placement groups across hybrid and cloud disaster recovery scenarios
• Noa Kuperberg blogs about Azure Monitor Private Link now support solution packs' storage access

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

• On Channel 9, Jessica Deen (@jldeen) and Damian Brady discuss On Prem To The Cloud: Cloud Native
• Sarah Lean, Brian Blanchard and Daniel Feeney discuss Evaluating financial considerations during your cloud adoption journey

Mobile

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

• On Channel 9, James Montemagno Gerald Versluis talks about Image Tinting Xamarin Community Toolkit The Xamarin Show

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

• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) blogs about Scaling with Azure
• On the Azure podcast, Justin Mourfield discusses Episode 375 - The Case of the Dangling Domain
• Helder Pinto, Premier Field Engineer, blogs about Azure Network Security Hygiene with Traffic Analytics
• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) covers Deploying ExpressRoute with Megaport in 1 hour

Security

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

• On Azure Sentinel blog, Ian Hellen discusses MSTICPy and Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Sentinel, an update
• James van Den Berg covers Security by Design with Azure Security Center and Azure Defender ASC Security SecOps
• On Tech Community blog, Dario Brambilla shares Best practices for leveraging Microsoft 365 Defender API's - Episode Three
• Yuri Diogenes (@yuridiogenes) blogs about Planning your Multi-Cloud Adoption with Azure Defender
• Ramya Chitrakar talks about Whats New in Microsoft Endpoint Manager - 2104 April Edition
• On Azure Sentinel Blog, Yaniv Shasha writes about Non-interactive logins: minimizing the blind spot

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

• Asif Khan (@khanasif1) talks about Azure NetApp Files for NFS storage with Moodle
• The Azure Updates Team discusses Azure Ultra Disk is now generally available in North Central US
• Henry Yan writes about Latest Azure Storage Learning Resources
• Tzvia Gitlin Troyna (@tzvia) explains How to query data located in Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Store Gen2/1 with ADX

Web

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

• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) covers AzureFunBytes – Azure Static Web Apps with Anthony Chu
• Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) covers Azure DevOps – Access Restriction of Azure App Service using Azure Management Portal and blogs about Azure DevOps – Bulk IP Address Restriction of Azure App Service dynamically using PowerShell

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.
• 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"!