Azure Weekly Issue 126: 28th May 2017

Eagle-eyed readers may notice a few changes in this issue of Azure Weekly; as there were many big announcements at BUILD, I thought it would be worth revisiting the taxonomy of the newsletter to align it more with the Azure product offerings as they stand now. This means we have a new "Containers" section, as well as "AI + Cognitive Services". I've also separated "Security + Identity" from "Enterprise Integration". Hopefully this all makes sense!

It seems a relatively quiet week after the tidal wave of news that accompanied the BUILD conference. My picks from this weeks articles are:

As we at endjin are particularly interested in all things Big Compute (it was nice to get a call out from the Batch product team last week), first up are two Batch/GPU related articles: the latest Azure Podcast covers Batch / HPC workloads: Episode 180 - HPC/Batch & Bright Computing while Yannis Assael from Oxford University talks about Neural networks and deep learning with Microsoft Azure GPU.

Next, Shahed Chowdhuri shows how to get up and running with your Azure Functions Dev Workflow

Sam Cogan digs a little deeper into one of the announcements at BUILD that makes life for anyone who authors ARM templates a whole lot better: Conditions in ARM Templates – The Right Way

Scott Hanselman explores the preconfigured browser-based Linux Cloud Shell built into the Azure Portal

We've spent most of this year creating modern data platforms based on Azure Data Lake and think it's one of the hidden gems in the Azure Ecosystem; at BUILD it was announced that you could provision HBase cluster with Azure Data Lake Store in a few easy steps.

In Container-Land, there's a great in-depth article by Péter Márton, about how you can pack a Kubernetes Microservices App with Helm on Azure Container Service.

One of the most exciting announcements at BUILD was Cosmos DB; Paulo Marques shows how the Azure RM Storage Tables PowerShell module now includes support for Cosmos DB Tables.

Finally, two interesting articles about using Power BI to visualise data you can obtain from Azure: SQL Azure Blob Auditing Basic Power BI Dashboard, and Visualize DSC Reporting with PowerBI

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

• On MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes about Neural networks and deep learning with Microsoft Azure GPU

• On TechNet, Syedshanu - talks about Face Detection and Recognition with Azure Face API

• Also on the Azure blog, Ilia Karmanov explains how to Deploy Cognitive Toolkit model to Azure Web Apps

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

• Chris Webb (@Technitrain) discusses Data Privacy Settings In Power BI/Power Query, Part 1: Performance Implications

• On MSDN, Cameron Battagler - talks about SQL Azure Blob Auditing Basic Power BI Dashboard

• Also on MSDN, Charles Sterling (@chass) describes How to use Power BI alerts and Flow to send alerts to different groups based on the value of the alert

• Devin Knight (@knight_devin) blogs about Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 52 – Bowtie Chart and discusses Power BI – Problem, Design, Solution Concatenated Tooltip

• Also on MSDN, Millie Stevinson describes painting pictures with data

• On the Azure blog, Christian Wade (@_christianWade) announces that Azure Analysis Services new modeling and tooling features

• Also on the Azure blog, Josh Caplan (@JoshCaplan1984) announces that New 400GB and 200GB caches available on Azure Analysis Services

Compute

Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances

• On the Azure podcast, Evan Basalik covers Episode 180 - HPC/Batch & Bright Computing

• Also on the Azure blog, Karan Batta (@Karan_Batta) blogs about Azure enables cutting edge Virtual Apps, Desktops and Workstations with NVIDIA GRID

• Shahed Chowdhuri (@shahedC) covers Azure Functions – Dev Workflow

• Also on MSDN, Maheshk (@MahesKBlr) covers Azure Service Fabric Use of EnableDefaultServicesUpgrade property

• Also on TechNet, Micah McKittrick explains How to Perform an In-Place-Upgrade in Azure Windows and describes How to delete a VM and attach the OS disk as a Data Disk to a Recovery VM RDFE

• John Savill covers Key workloads to use in Azure IaaS guest clusters

Containers

Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers

• On All Things Cloud, Roberto (@soyroberto) walks through Running Docker as PaaS in Azure

• Also on Microsoft + Open Source, Pter Mrton covers Packing a Kubernetes Microservices App with Helm on Azure Container Service

• On the Azure blog, Brendan Burns (@brendandburns) talks about Kubernetes in action: How orchestration and containers can increase uptime and resiliency

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

• On TechNet, Paulo Marques discusses Azure RM Storage Tables PowerShell module now includes support for Cosmos DB Tables

• Also on TechNet, the Onescript Team describes Script Of May. 25 How to query Azure Cosmos DB resources using the REST API by PowerShell

• On the Database Journal site, Arshad Ali covers Getting Started with Azure SQL Data Warehouse - Part 5

Developer Tools

Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench

• On the Azure podcast, Evan Basalik announces Episode 179 - Dev Test Labs

• On MSDN, Robert Green - Mfst writes about Visual Studio Toolbox: SQL Server Data Tools in your DevOps pipeline

• On TechNet, Chris Walden describes Developer and administrator tools for Microsoft Azure

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

• On TechNet, Micah McKittrick describes How to Remote PowerShell to Azure VM DIP to DIP

• Also on TechNet, Sam McNeill covers Azure AD B2B – Simplifying Collaboration With Users Outside Your Organisation

• On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) provides A quick start guide to leveraging the Azure Graph API with PowerShell and oAuth 2.0 and describes How to access Microsoft Identity Manager Hybrid Report data using PowerShell, Graph API and oAuth2

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• On the Kloud blog, Scott Scovell describes Service Bus Message retry patterns in Azure Functions

• On MSDN, David Burg discusses Logic Apps, VNET and other network connectivity

• Also on MSDN, Jim Cheshire solves the Unable to Create Classic Hybrid Connections problem.

Internet of Things

Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere

• On MSDN, the Onecode Team shares a sample of how to get started for using Azure IoT Hub and DocumentDB

• On MSDN, Xin Shi explains how to Get Started with Azure IoT today

• On the Azure blog, Sam George (@samjgeorge) announces that Microsoft and Cisco enable Azure IoT Suite to connect to Cisco Fog Deployments

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 MSDN, Pam Lahoud (@SQLGoddess) describes Using Application Insights SDK in Aspect-oriented programming AOP style with .NET

• On MSDN, Marcus Fernandez explains how to Deploy Azure Quickstarts to Azure Government

• On TechNet, John Knightly covers RDP not working over Azure S2S VPN with Palo Alto and describes Using Azure Automation with Multiple Subscriptions

• On TechNet, Micah McKittrick describes How to Rebuild from an Existing Managed Disk

• Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) covers Exploring the preconfigured browser-based Linux Cloud Shell built into the Azure Portal

• On the Azure blog, Hemant Mahawar announces that Sneak Peek - PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell

• Stanislav Zhelyazkov (@StanZhelyazkov) describes How To Detect And Protect Yourself From WannaCry

• Sam Cogan (@samcogan) covers Conditions in ARM Templates – The Right Way

• On TechNet, Raimund Andre explains how to Visualize DSC Reporting with PowerBI

• On the Azure blog, Alice Rison writes that We're all about the quality: Azure achieves ISO 9001:2015 certification

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

• On the Kloud blog, Lucian Franghiu (@lucianfrango) describes How to create and auto update route tables in Azure for your local Azure datacentre with Azure Automation, bypassing firewall appliances

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 MSDN, Ashish Thapliyal (@ashishth) blogs about Provision HBase cluster with Azure Data Lake Store in a few easy steps

• Also on MSDN, Brijraj Singh (@brijrajsingh) talks about Downloading an Azure blob storage container – Python

• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) discusses Securing Azure Storage Tables with SAS authentication and CORS in .NET

Web

Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service

• On MSDN, Edison Garca writes about First steps with Bitnami WordPress in Azure VM

• Also on MSDN, Sam Betts delves into Introduction to MySQL & PHP on Azure App Services WIMP