Azure Weekly Issue 150: 12th November 2017
This issue marks the 3rd anniversary of Azure Weekly! Doesn't time fly when you're busy compiling a newsletter! Three years ago Azure Automation had just gone GA, Azure Resource Manager was starting to gain traction and tooling support and Docker was talked about at TechEd. Quite a lot has happened since! The pace of innovation and change on Azure is simply staggering, and I hope that you find Azure Weekly helps you keep on top of the firehose of updates.
There are plenty of announcements this week; firstly the general availability of App Service and Functions on Azure Stack, and the general availability of Windows System State Backup to Azure with Azure Backup. Both Monitoring of Azure ExpressRoute and Microsoft Cosmos DB in Azure Storage Explorer are in public preview. The long-awaited feature of automatic OS upgrades for Azure VM scale sets has also been announced. On the DevOps front the VSTS Dashboard Application Insights chart widget now available, and Visual Studio Team Services is now available in the East Asia region.
My pick of the interesting articles this week are Microsoft and AWS Collaborate on Machine Learning, Microsoft's Batch AI Service train & test machine learning models on pools of GPU machines, DevOps for Data Science – Defining DevOps, Two Backlogs Integration Trello & VSTS, and finally using PowerBI with .NET Core.
And if you wondered why our latest endjin apprentice has been a bit quite of late, it's because his appendix ruptured and he's been convalescing. Thankfully he's now fully recovered and back studying for his Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions certification. Welcome back Ed.
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) describes Microsofts Batch AI Service – Train & test machine learning models, on pools of GPU machines.
Gunnar Peipman (@gpeipman) covers Recognizing printed text on images using Azure Computer Vision API
On InfoQ, Martin Abbott describes how Microsoft and AWS Collaborate on Machine Learning
James Montemagno, on the Xamarin Show, demonstrates how to add AI with Cognitive Services to your app using the Emotion 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
Also on MSDN there is an interesting article about various uses of Azure Data Lakes by Retailers
On the Azure blog, Josh Caplan (@JoshCaplan1984) Introduces query replica scale-out for Azure Analysis Services.
Chris Webb (@Technitrain) writes about Which M Functions Are Only Available To Custom Data Connectors
Mahmoud Badran describes how to perform Skype for Business 'Rate My Call' analysis with Power BI
Devin Knight (@knight_devin) describes the Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 76 – Image Timeline
Benny Michielsen (@bennymichielsen) describes PowerBI with .NET Core
Compute
Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
Stella Lin announces the General availability of App Service and Functions on Azure Stack
On the Kloud blog, Bruce Albany describes an Azure Functions Cold Start Workaround
On MSDN, Freddy Kristiansen (@freddydk) describes Creating workshop machines on Azure
Also on MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) talks about Microsoft Azure Low-priority Virtual Machines – take advantage of surplus capacity in Azure.
On TechNet, Alex Bennett explains How to choose an Azure Virtual Machine
Jose Moreno talks about Working with network attributes of Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
On the Azure blog, Guy Bowerman describes the Automatic OS upgrades for Azure VM scale sets
Pablo Junco writes about Accelerating the adoption of enterprise blockchain
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon blogs about Disaster Recovery with VM Scale Sets & Geo-Replicated DBs
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) describes Lift and Shift - cloud migration strategy
On Channel 9, Donovan Brown and Dave Fellows talk about Azure Batch Rendering Service
Containers
Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers
On Microsoft Cloud Show, Andrew Connell and Chris Johnson talks about Episode 224 Azure Kubernetes Service and more Azure and Outlook.com News
Shayne Boyer (@spboyer) writes Lift and Shift - Adding Docker to Nerd Dinner
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes more Azure Tips & Tricks: Part 45 - Getting Started with Docker and Azure, Part 46 - Run an app inside a Container Image with Docker, Part 47 - Creating a Container Image with Docker and Part 48 - Pushing a Container Image to a Docker Repo
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
Jenny Jiang announces that Microsoft Cosmos DB in Azure Storage Explorer – public preview
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon writes about a few CosmosDB query limitations
Samuel Lester writes about Exploring Big Data: Course 5 – Delivering a Data Warehouse in the Cloud
On Channel 9, Jeremy Likness and Ronit Reger talks about Track and remediate potential database vulnerabilities with SQL Vulnerability Assessment Data Exposed
Arsen Vladimirskiy (@ArsenVlad) writes Deploying Teradata Database Developer Tier on Azure
On the MSSQL Tips site, Vitor Montalvao describes SQL Azure Create Database Tutorial
On InfoQ, Jeff Martin writes that Azure SQL Intelligence Aims to Help DBAs and Developers
Developer Tools
Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench
On MSDN, Aaron Hallberg announces that Visual Studio Team Services is available in East Asia
On the Xamarin blog, James Montemagno demonstrates simplified App Signing with Secure Files in Visual Studio Team Services
Buck Woody discusses DevOps for Data Science – Defining DevOps
On TechNet, Chris Walden writes about having two backlogs - integrating Trello & VSTS
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
Internet of Things
Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere
On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) provides A quick start guide for Deploying and Configuring Node-RED as an Azure WebApp
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 Azure blog, Mike Gresley, Senior Program Manager - Application Insights, blogs that the Application Insights VSTS dashboard chart widget now available.
Mayank Nayar announces that TierPoint adds Azure Site Recovery to its DraaS offerings
On the Azure blog, Ashwin Kamath describes how to Monitor Azure services and applications using Grafana
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 Azure blog, Ajay Gummadi announces that Monitoring of Azure ExpressRoute in preview
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman and JR Mayberry talk about Azure DDoS Protection Service
On the Database Journal site, Marcin Policht describes Azure SQL Database Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Rules
Jose Moreno writes about Better health checks with Azure LB and HTTP probes example with PHP
On the Kemp Technologies blog, Dave Rendon writes about the Highly Available SAP in Azure with KEMP Load Balancers
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
Also on the Azure blog, Saurabh Sensharma announces that Windows System State Backup to Azure with Azure Backup is generally available
On Microsoft + Open Source, Alessandro Segala describes Using s3cmd and other Amazon S3-compatible apps with Azure Blob Storage
Also on the Azure blog, Sercan Guler writes about the Linux FUSE adapter for Blob Storage
Robert Smit (@Clustermvp) covers Azure Storage Spaces direct S2D Standard Storage vs Premium Storage
Also on MSDN, Wriju Ghosh (@wriju_ghosh) writes about the Using Azure Storage for ClickOnce Deployment Windows Desktop application
Also on MSDN, 'mihansen' discusses Deleting an Azure Recovery Services Vault with all Backup Items
Web
Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service
Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) describes How to access KUDU SCM for an Azure App Service Environment ASE
On the Xamarin blog, Karina Ung covers Xamarin and Xamarin University Sessions at Microsoft Connect 2017
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