Azure Weekly Issue 145: 8th October 2017
A slightly lighter week after the firehose of announcements that was the Ignite conference.
My highlights from this week include Azure Building Blocks, the ability to provision on-demand Spark clusters on Docker using Azure Batch's infrastructure and a recording of the interesting Ignite talk building Petabyte scale interactive Data Warehouse with Azure HDInsight Interactive Query
There was also a pretty substantial update to Azure Data Lake Analytics - introducing GZip on OUTPUT, Catalog Views, Major updates to Cognitive Libraries, Tool support to create your EXTRACT statement and much more.
On the event front, there were announcements around both the Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour and that next Azure OpenDev.
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, Puneet Agrawal Bing walks through Humanizing Artificial Intelligence with Deep Learning.
On the Revolution Analytics blog, David Smith (@revodavid) Introduces the Deep Learning Virtual Machine on Azure.
On the Microsoft site, Reporter (@MicrosoftUK) reveals AI must be built with empathy, according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
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
Michael Rys (@MikeDoesBigData) discusses Azure Data Lake Analytics and U-SQL Summer 2017 Updates and writes about Some highlights of the Summer 2017 refreshes for Azure Data Lake Analytics and U-SQL.
On MSDN, Ashish Thapliyal (@ashishth) writes about the General availability of the HDInsight Interactive Query.
On MSDN, Charles Sterling (@chass) writes about Using the new Azure based Power BI Premium Embedded Skus to solve Enterprise Purchasing.
Megan Assarrane explains how to Embed Stunning Visuals into your Apps with Power BI Embedded.
On the Azure blog, Josh Caplan (@JoshCaplan1984) explains how to Learn the latest on Azure Analysis Services.
On Code It Yourself, Carlos Mendible talks about Using PowerShell to Enable Azure Analysis Services Firewall.
On the Azure blog, Kiran Madnani discusses Getting alerts faster with near real-time alerting for Azure platform metrics.
Compute
Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
Alex Ellis explains how to Build a Serverless Golang Function with OpenFaaS.
On the Azure blog, Nir Mashkowski announces the preview of Java support for Azure Functions.
On TechNet, Tsuyoshi Ushio (@sandayuu) covers Image uploading with Azure Functions node.js and Angular 4.
On the codeit blog, Toon Vanhoutte discusses Azure Function Proxies - Part 2: Easily enabling hybrid integration.
The Service Fabric Team blogs about a Service Fabric 5.7.221 / 2.7.221 Refresh Release for Standalone, Windows and .NET SDK.
On MSDN, Ed Price (@UserEd_) talks about How to run desktop applications in Azure X11 Linux virtual machines and writes about 2 New Azure Service Fabric Customer Profiles for Ignite: ABBYY & FunRock.
On TechNet, Antonio Di Lorenzo covers Sudoers adventures and how VM Extensions can save the day.
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) talks about The real difference between an Azure VM with or without SSD.
On the Microsoft site, Reporter (@MicrosoftUK) discusses an interesting case study: Daisy Group working with The British Museum, The Crown Estate and now Microsoft Azure.
Igor Pagliai (@igorpag) asks Why Azure Availability Zones?
Containers
Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers
On the Azure blog, JS Tan walks through Provisioning on-demand Spark clusters on Docker using Azure Batch's infrastructure.
Alex Ellis tells you What you need to know about Kubernetes and Swarm.
Elton Stoneman offers a Docker Retrospective for September 2017 and writes about Docker Volumes.
Yung Chou (@yungchou) covers Microsoft Nano Server with Docker Enterprise Edition.
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 MSDN, Ashish Thapliyal (@ashishth) blogs about Building Petabyte scale Interactive Data Warehouse with Azure HDInsight Interactive Query.
Pedro Lopes (@sqlpto) announces the new release of OLE DB Driver for the SQL Server.
Vitor Pombeiro talks about Using Certificates in Azure SQL Database and Backup.
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) walks through Using SQL security features to isolate sensitive data inside a PoC.
On the Database Journal site, Marcin Policht discusses Azure SQL Database Long-Term Backup Retention.
On the Azure blog, Peter Carlin writes about Data Integrity in Azure SQL Database.
On MSDN, Kun Cheng writes about Securing your on-premises network outbound connection to Azure SQL Database by locking down target IP addresses.
On the Azure blog, Mihaela Blendea announces new Azure VM images: SQL Server 2017 on Linux and Windows.
Developer Tools
Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench
On MSDN, Charles Taylor writes about VSTS Work Item Rules.
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) blogs about Load Testing web apps with Azure App Services.
On the Azure blog, Ashley McNamara reveals that Microsoft has announced its next Azure OpenDev.
On the Azure blog, Jeff Sandquist invities you to Join us for the Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour.
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 MSDN, Mike Duddington (@Dudders1) offers an Azure AD Ignite 2017 Announcement Summary.
Shannon Gowen Introduces Azure confidential computing.
Gianluca Bertelli (@Bertelli) covers Accessing an Azure AD secured Api with Asp.Net Core 2.0.
Ross Smith (@ross_p_smith) describes Using Postman to call the Graph API using Azure Active Directory.
Integration
Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid
Also on the Azure blog, Julia White (@julwhite) explains how Azure is the Enterprise Cloud.
Michal Chmielus talks about the Call Dynamics CRM from Azure Logic App over Web API.
On MSDN, Arsen Vladimirskiy (@ArsenVlad) explains that the Azure Marketplace API is to programmatically review and accept publisher agreement/EULA.
Shilpi Gautam announces CSV format support for Usage Details API for Enterprise Azure customers.
On Channel 9, Christina Compy (@ccompy) talks about Azure App Service with Hybrid Connections to On-premises Resources.
Internet of Things
Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere
On the Azure blog, Eustace Asanghanwa walks through Securing the Intelligent Edge.
On Channel 9, Greg Duncan (@gduncan411) offers a Windows 10 IoT Core Walkthrough.
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
Peter Taylor announces Azure Building Blocks.
On the Catapult Systems blog, Cameron Fuller talks about Using Log Analytics and a special guest to forecast electricity generation and covers Making Azure Log Analytics queries pretty or not-so-pretty.
On MSDN, Ashish Thapliyal (@ashishth) covers Introducing HDInsight integration with Azure Log Analytics Preview and highlights the video of his HDInsight enterprise grade monitoring with Azure Log Analytics Ignite talk.
Also on TechNet, Mohammed Abu-Taleb explains how to Collect Linux data using custom JSON data source.
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) discusses Using the Azure Resource Explorer to quickly explore REST APIs.
On the Azure blog, Arunesh Chandra announces the general availability of Azure Application Insights SDK for Node.js 1.0.
On the Catapult Systems blog, Cameron Fuller covers Running Python 2.7 scripts in Azure Automation.
On the Azure blog, Arpan Shah (@arpanshah) explains how to Achieve better savings with best-in-class cost management on Azure.
On the Azure blog, Asir Selvasingh discusses Java: Manage availability zones and more.
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
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon covers VNET Service Endpoints for Azure SQL & Storage.
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
John Savill Dives into the New Azure Files Sync Capability.
On the Azure blog, Kartik P V R talks about Managing your Azure VM backups with Azure CLI 2.0.
On the Stackify Blog, Barry Luijbregts helps you to Understand Your Azure Data Storage Options.
On the Azure blog, Cathy Palmer explains that Qubole customers now gain insights from Azure Data Lake.
Web
Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service
On MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) explains how to Create an Azure App Service Web App using PowerShell and describes How to see the cipher suites on an Azure App Service.
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) talks about Working with App Settings and Azure App Services and Configuring a Backup for you Azure App Service and Database.
On Microsoft + Open Source, the Open Source team cover Microsoft at Node Interactive 2017.
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