Azure Weekly Issue 112: 19th February 2017
Highlights from this week: Beckylin Orooji writes about reliability and performance improvements in Azure Application Insights JavaScript SDK and there's also an article about richer exception details in Application Insights with custom exceptions.
Julia White discusses safeguarding your cloud resources with Azure security services, while Swaroop Krishnamurthy covers what's new in Azure Active Directory B2C.
Josh Caplan explains how to connect Excel to an Azure Analysis Services server, Rimma Nehme welcomes MongoDB users to DocumentDB, and Lee Stott highlights some interesting content about Deep Learning on Azure using Docker with Azure Batch Shipyard
Scott Hanselman follows up on a very popular previous post about Penny Pinching in the Cloud: Running and Managing LOTS of Web Apps on a single Azure App Service
One of the better hidden gems is the free Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer which has just been updated to include the ability to version with Blob Snapshots. Another tool worth checking out is Azure Key Vault Explorer, which provides a GUI over Key Vault.
Finally, on the analytics front there's an interesing walkthrough for predicting Hospital Length of Stay using SQL Server 2016 with R Services
AI + Machine Learning
Covering: Azure Batch AI, Azure Bot Service, Microsoft Genomics, Machine Learning services, Machine Learning Studio, Cognitive Services, Bing APIs, Computer Vision API, Content moderator, Custom Services, Emotion API, Face API, Language Understanding (LUIS), Linguistic Analysis API, QnA Maker API, Speaker Recognition API, Text Analytics API, Translator Speech API, Translator Text API, Web Language Model API
Analytics
Covering: Azure Databricks, HDInsight, Data Factory, Stream Analytics, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, Power BI, Azure Analysis Services, Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, R Server for HDInsight, Data Catalog
On MSDN, Anunay Tiwari blogs about HDinsight, and how to perform Bulk Load with Phoenix.
Bharath Sankaranarayan (@bharathsank) predicts hospital length of stays using SQL Server 2016 with R Services.
Bharath Sreenivas discusses building advanced analytical solutions faster using Dataiku DSS on HDInsight.
K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) shares his notes for getting started with Power BI Embedded.
On the Tallan blog, Gabriel Gomez covers driving Power BI adoption in your organization.
On the Azure blog, Josh Caplan (@JoshCaplan1984) explains how to connect Excel to an Azure Analysis Services server.
Compute
Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
On MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes about Deep Learning using CNTK, Caffe, Keras, Theano, Torch and Tensorflow on Docker with Microsoft Azure Batch Shipyard.
Marco A Bicca (@mbicca) covers Azure Linux Extensions and a Custom Script for Linux.
Subhasish Bhattacharya discusses deploying IaaS VM Guest Clusters in Azure.
On TechNet, Paulo Marques looks at deploying a virtual machine based on a generalized custom image using the Azure Portal.
Also on TechNet, Taehee Lee talks about resetting a password or making new access credentials when recreating a Linux VM.
On Channel 9, Luis Vargas (@LuisVargas_SQL) explains what's new with the SQL Server in an Azure VM.
On the .NET Curry blog, Jorge Gaona talks about creating a scalable WCF service for Azure Service Fabric.
Containers
Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers
Databases
Covering: Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, SQL Data Warehouse, Redis Cache, SQL Server Stretch Database, SQL Server on virtual machines, Table storage, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for MySQL
Developer Tools
Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench
On MSDN, Helge Mahrt (@helgemahrt) writes about richer exception details in Application Insights.
On the Azure blog, Beckylin Orooji (@beckylino) writes about reliability and performance improvements in Azure Application Insights JavaScript SDK.
DevOps
Covering: Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations, Azure DevOps Projects, Azure Lab Services
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory, Multi-factor Authentication, Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Azure Active Directory B2C
Integration
Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid
On TechNet, Shannon Gowen discusses Azure Key Vault Explorer.
On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) describes how to create a PowerShell FIM/MIM Management Agent for AzureAD groups using differential sync and paged imports.
On MSDN, Manoj Sehgal explains how to recover KEK from Azure Key Vault.
Yuri Diogenes (@yuridiogenes) writes about Security Incident in Azure Security Center.
On the Azure blog, Julia White (@julwhite) writes about safeguarding your cloud resources with Azure security services.
Swaroop Krishnamurthy (@swaroop_kmurthy) covers what's new in Azure Active Directory B2C.
Internet of Things
Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere
On MSDN, Dave The Engineer talks about IoT starter kits for Azure.
Management and Governance
Covering: Backup, Site Recovery, App Insights, Azure Advisor, Sceduler, Automation, Log Analytics, Azure Monitor, Security & Compliance, Protection & Recovery, Automation & Control, Insight & Analytics, Azure Service Health, Microsoft Azure portal, Azure Resource Manager, Cloud Shell, the Azure mobile app, Azure Policy, Cost Management, Azure Managed Applications
On the Kloud blog, Lucian Franghiu (@lucianfrango) asks why are you not using Azure Resource Explorer (Preview)?
On TechNet, Graham Davies talks about configuring PaaS and SaaS monitoring from Operations Management Suite.
Nick Eales discusses Azure Automation Webhook parameter passing.
On the .NET Curry blog, Subodh Sohoni (@subodhsohoni) blogs about using VSTS release management to create an Azure VM from an ARM template.
James van den Berg (@JamesvandenBerg) shares the System Center 2016 Management Pack for Microsoft.
On the Microsoft site, Reporter (@MicrosoftUK) explains why Tikit has moved top legal service Carpe Diem onto Microsoft's Azure Cloud.
Stefan Roth (@stefanroth_net) blogs about getting Windows Azure Pack websites via PowerShell.
Media
Covering: Media services, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Media Analytics, Video Indexer
Microsoft Azure Stack
Covering: Azure Stack
Migration
Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box
Mobile
Covering: App Service (Mobile), Notification Hubs, Mobile apps, API apps, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin
Networking
Covering: ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Virtual Network, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Network Watcher
Security
Covering: Azure Information Protection, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection
Storage
Covering: Storage, StorSimple, Data Lake Store, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, File Storage, Storage Explorer, Archive Storage
On the SQL Authority blog, Pinal Dave (@pinaldave) walks through removing old SQL Database Backup files from Azure Storage.
On MSDN, Meet Bhagdev reveals an early technical preview of Microsoft Drivers 4.1.6 for PHP on Windows for SQL Server has been released.
On TechNet, Gavin Payne (@GavinPayneUK) covers storing and exploring mountains of data.
On the Azure blog, Evan Boyle (@_Evan_Boyle) tells you how to add Azure Search to DocumentDB collections with a click of a button.
Rimma Nehme welcomes MongoDB users to DocumentDB.
Pallavi Joshi shares key updates to the Azure Backup Server.
James van den Berg (@JamesvandenBerg) writes about Azure Storage Explorer version with Blob Snapshots.
Web
Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service
On MSDN, David Burg Goes deeper with Flat File schema authoring for BizTalk and Azure Logic Apps Flat File encode-decode action.
Freist Li explains how to send an email to the subscription's admin in Logic Apps.
On Channel 9, Adrian Hall (@FizzyInTheHall) talks about connecting to the Cloud with Visual Studio Mobile Center.
Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) shows you how to run and manage lots of Web Apps on a single Azure App Service.
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