Azure Weekly

Your weekly Azure news fix

Azure Weekly is a summary of the week's top news to help you build on the Microsoft Azure Platform.

From AI to Availability Zones, it aims to keep you on top of the latest Azure developments.

Issue 458: 17th March 2024

One very interesting announcement is Free data transfer out to internet when leaving Azure. In AI, there are two interesting posts: Journey Series for Generative AI Application Architecture - Fine-tune SLM with Microsoft Olive and Build RAG Chat App using Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore and Azure OpenAI: Step-by-Step Guide, and in Analytics How to access multi-select choice column choice labels from Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse with PySpark or SQL.

In Cloud Native App Dev, End-to-end TLS with AKS, Azure Front Door, Azure Private Link Service, and NGINX Ingress Controller and Configure Azure connection strings and keys in Azure Bicep

It's nice to see some new features and use cases for Azure Static Web Apps: Distributed Functions Preview for Azure Static Web Apps and Seamless Integration: Enhancing your Static Web App by adding an Azure Functions backed AI Chatbot.

Finally a very interesting deep dive into Azure Event Grid's MQTT Broker Performance.

It's the SQLBits Conference in the UK this week. Ed & Barry are running the "DataOps: How to Deliver Data Faster and Better with Microsoft Cloud" training day, Barry is presenting "Turbo charge your Data Science workflow with Microsoft Fabric" on Friday from 10:10-11:00 and "Microsoft Fabric and Data Mesh - a perfect fit?" from 14:50-15:10. Ed is presenting "How To Actually Make Decisions When Architecting a Data Platform" on Thursday from 13:40-14:00 and is taking part in the "Ask the Expert - Group B" on Wednesday from 13:50-14:40 and "Ask the Expert - Group A" on Saturday from 09:00-09:50. James Broome is presenting "Do those numbers look right? How to ensure quality, and avoid inaccuracies in your data insights." on Saturday from 14:10 - 15:00. The rest of the endjin folk (myself included) will be at the event Thur / Fri / Sat and be looking considerably less stressed, so please do say "hi!" if you see any of us!

Issue 457: 10th March 2024

In order to tackle the increasing volumes of spam and phishing emails, various email providers are increasing their requirements for DMARC, as we produce both Azure Weekly and Power BI Weekly, we had to ensure we made those changes before the February deadline. It wasn't a painful process, but it did take a bit of research and testing. There are four really good posts on this subject in case you still need to make these changes for your own organisations: Microsoft Defender for Office 365-Configure SPF email authentication for Microsoft 365 domains Configure DKIM email authentication for Microsoft 365 Custom domains, Configure DMARC email authentication for Microsoft 365 Custom Domains, and finally Configure trusted ARC sealers email authentication for Microsoft 365 Custom domains.

In Analytics, Jonathan George provides an Introduction to Python Logging in Synapse Notebooks, and following on from last week' post: Reading Data from Event Hubs into Eventstream and a Lakehouse Table - Part 2. Coupling Data Flows: Data Pipelines and Orchestration - Data Engineering Process Fundamentals and Mastering Azure SQL Encryption for Better Data Protection, and Load Test Emulation for Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server using mysqlslap.

Two posts around AI: Store and query embeddings in Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL with pgvector, and a useful guide to Optimizing Azure OpenAI: A Guide to Limits, Quotas, and Best Practices.

In DevOps and Cloud Native App Dev: Managing your Azure Resources with Deployment Stacks, Azure Storage Actions vs. Lifecycle Management, the Azure Container Apps Newsletter – March 2024 (which has a bit of a focus on Java), and Azure Verified Modules - Monthly Update February.

Around Management, Governance and security, there are two interesting posts: Designing Network Security To Combat Modern Threats and the Public Preview of Change Actor.

Finally, James Broome has written a great set of thoughts, reflecting on spending the last few years building no code/low code solutions solutions, with his Director of Engineering hat on:No-code/Low-code is software DIY - how do you avoid DIY disaster?. If you don't want to read, there's a good audio version available too.

Issue 456: 3rd March 2024

A varied selection of articles this week. Let's start with AI; Fine Tuning with Function Calling on Azure OpenAI Service and Cost Optimized hosting of Fine-tuned LLMs in Production.

Lots of Analytics updates this week, highlights include; Introducing Managed Private Endpoints for Microsoft Fabric in Public Preview, What is Eventstream in Microsoft Fabric - Part 1, and a some great Enhanced Performance in Additional Regions: Azure Synapse Analytics Spark Boosted by up to 77%.

In App Dev; Path and hostname-based routing in Azure Container Apps with NGINX, Everything you need to know about Azure Public & Private DNS, and App Configuration: where does it go.

Finally, Backstage is an open platform for building developer portals, we've been using it at endjin for a while now. We use it to put a UI over our large open source estate. We've built a number of plugins for surfacing engineering practices metrics, security and compliance information, like OpenChain. Our instance runs in Azure Container Apps, but there's a great article about Introduction and Deployment of Backstage on Azure Kubernetes Service.

Issue 455: 25th February 2024

First up, a new service! This looks particularly useful for orgs that have a lot of data, and want to automate the lifecycle: Introducing Azure Storage Actions: Serverless storage data management. Another useful new service is the Azure API Center: The First Look - which allows you to catalog your APIs.

Next, in AI, there's a new service which makes RAG over your own data, much simpler; On Your Data is now Generally Available in Azure OpenAI Service. Two other interesting posts: Deploying Azure Kubernetes Service Demo Store App with Azure Open AI and Embedding flows created with Microsoft Prompt Flow in your own applications.

There are a number of good Microsoft Fabric related posts: Spreadsheets to Lakehouse - A History of Microsoft Fabric and Deploying to Development, Test and Production environments in Microsoft Fabric. Using Fabric for IoT scenarios in Microsoft Fabric RTA: Copilot supports KQL, and new learning resources in Unlocking Your Career Potential with Microsoft Fabric Career Hub.

Finally, we're only a few months away from SQLBits - the leading conference for data professionals to network, develop and share data knowledge. Marisa Mathews highlights all the Microsoft sessions at SQLBits 2024. (A reminder that Ed Freeman and Barry Smart are running a 1 day workshop: DataOps: How to Deliver Data Faster and Better with Microsoft Cloud. Book now!)

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