Azure Weekly Issue 151: 19th November 2017

Last week saw the Microsoft Connect() 2017 conference, which means there were LOTS of announcements (which in addition to all the announcements made at Ignite 2017 at the end of September gives you a clue as to the rate of innovation on Azure). A key theme of the conference was Data & AI.

One of the big announcement was around Azure Databrick, a "big data / data science in a box" offering based on an Apache Spark foundation. Another was the introduction of Azure DevOps Project - which helps create a full DevOps CI/CD environment for Azure App Service. General availability of Azure CosmosDB Table API was also announced, which means you can now have a premium table experience and secondary indexes all powered by Cosmos DB. Support for MongoDB aggregation pipeline and unique indexes were also added to Cosmos DB.

Azure Time Series Insights also reached general availability, as did Reserved VM Instances. Reserved Instances (RIs) enable you to reserve Virtual Machines on a one or three-year term, and provide up to 72% cost savings versus pay-as-you-go prices. The preview of Azure Stream Analytics on IoT Edge (i.e. it can run in a Docker container on the IOT device) was also announced. Two other services reached GA: Windows System State Backup from On-Prem to Azure and Azure App Service diagnostics.

In other news, a preview the new Azure Storage SDK for Go was released, and updates to the Azure DNS service CAA Record Support and IPv6 Nameservers, and an interesting video of build a Virtual Data Centre in Azure.

Other community articles of interest are: a script for exporting transactionally consistent bacpac from Azure SQL Database, understanding the Azure B (burstable) Series and CPU credits, find if you Are using only TLS 1.2 Protocol with Log Analytics, and Unattended authentication against the Microsoft Graph API from PowerShell

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 the Revolution Analytics blog, David Smith (@revodavid) writes Developing AI applications on Azure: learning plans at three levels
• Joseph Sirosh (@josephsirosh) describes Expanding AI tools and resources for developers and data scientists on Azure

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

• James van Den Berg introduces Microsoft Azure Databricks
• Denny Lee announces that the Apache Spark to Azure CosmosDB Connector is now generally available
• On Channel 9, Steve Michelotti and Vishwas Lele talk about Real World Solutions on Azure Government with Machine Learning
• On MSDN, Samuel Lester writes Exploring Big Data: Course 6 – Processing Big Data with Azure Data Lake Analytics
• Bradley Ball writes Twitter Sentiment Analysis Part II: Thor Ragnarok and Justice League
• Chris Webb (@Technitrain) writes about the BI Survey 17: Power BI Highlights
• Devin Knight (@knight_devin) describes the Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 77 – Card Browser
• On Channel 9, Donovan Brown and Josh Caplan talk about the Azure Analysis Services Visual Model Editor
• On MSDN, Reenu Saluja writes about Handling High volume events with Azure Event hub

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 blog, Takeshi Numoto announces the General Availability of Azure Reserved VM Instances RIs
• Corey Sanders (@CoreySandersWA) writes that New NVIDIA GPUs coming to Azure accelerate HPC and AI workloads
• Fred Park writes about HPC containers with Azure Batch
• On the Azure podcast, Sujit D'Mello and Adam Modlin present Episode 204 - Back to Cloud Services
• On TechNet, Shannon Gowen writes about the Cloud Tip of the Day: Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server
• Nino Crudele (@ninocrudele) talks about Azure Virtual Machine – Operational issues
• On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman and Xiaokai He talk about Java in Azure Functions
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) continues his series of Azure Tips Part 49 - Add Azure Cloud Shell to Visual Studio Code, Part 50 - Create an Azure Functions project with Visual Studio Code, Part 51 - Debug Azure Functions with Visual Studio Code and Part 52 - Deploy Azure Functions with Visual Studio Code

Containers

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

• On TechNet, Ali Hussain gives a Deep dive on Kubernetes for container orchestration
• Haishi Bai (@HaishiBai2010) discusses Setting up High available MySQL deployments on Service Fabric using containers and Docker Compose
• Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) talks about Visual Studio and Kubernetes – Visual Studio Connected Environment

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

• Yaron Goland announces the General availability of Azure CosmosDB Table API
• Luis Bosquez pre-announces the general availability of Azure CosmosDB Gremlin Graph API
• Aleksey Savateyev announces that Azure CosmosDB extends support for MongoDB aggregation pipeline, unique indexes, and more
• Rimma Nehme (@rimmanehme) highlights several announcements from Azure CosmosDB Microsoft Connect 2017
• On MSDN, Samuel Lester writes Exploring Big Data: Course 3 – Introduction to NoSQL Data Solutions
• On the Azure blog, Arnaud Comet, Ellis Hiroki Butterfield and Josh Caplan write about Azure SQL DW: Hub and Spoke series Integration with Azure Analysis Services
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Vitor Montalvao gives a SQL Azure Create Database Tutorial

Developer Tools

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

• On MSDN, atulm writes Introducing Azure DevOps Project
• On MSDN, Shashank Bansal describes Release Gates: Releases with continuous monitoring built in
• Will Smythe Introduces the new CLI for VSTS
• Alex Mullans writes that 'VSTS is now a Symbol Server'
• James van Den Berg gives a Microsoft Azure CloudShell Overview with Bash CLI 2.0 and Powershell Azure DevOps
• Mohit K Bagra talks about Creating work item form extensions in Visual Studio Team Services
• On MSDN, Buck Woody (@BuckWoodyMSFT) writes DevOps for Data Science – DevOps isnt the Toolchain But you still have to care about the tech
• On the Xamarin blog, Courtney Witmer describes the Webinar Recording Build Better Games with Unity and Microsoft Azure
• On MSDN, Michael Hansen writes about Private TFS Deployment in Azure
• Nino Crudele (@ninocrudele) covers Azure and PowerShell – Installation and Quick Fixes
• Ed Price discusses Azure Stack Validation Environment – Part 2: Quotas, Plans, and Offers

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, the Intune Support Team gives a Support Tip: Conditional Access policies for Intune will now be available in Azure Active Directory
• Tom Kerkhove (@TomKerkhove) writes Azure Key Vault made simple with Azure AD Managed Service Identity MSI

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• Mark Ozur blogs about the Azure Virtual Datacenter
• Adam Raffe and Dan Baker explain how to Build a Virtual Data Centre in Azure – Now on Video
• Tomas Restrepo (@tomasrestrepo) writes about Protecting APIs with OpenId Connect in API Management

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, Ryan Waite writes that Microsoft announces the general availability of Azure Time Series Insights
• Jean-Sbastien Brunner announces that Azure Stream Analytics now available on IoT Edge
• Sam George (@samjgeorge) writes Azure IoT Edge open for developers to build for the intelligent edge
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch and Chipalo Street talk about Creating the intelligent edge with Azure IoT Edge

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, Girish describes Different ways of slicing and dicing OMS Log Data in Azure – VM Creation
• On TechNet, Doug Silva writes about Azure Subscription Governance – Resource Group and Naming Convention Strategies
• Peter Egerton describes Connecting Configuration Manager to OMS
• Shannon Gowen writes about the Cloud Tip of the Day: Create activity log alerts on service notifications

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, Subra Sarma writes about the Azure DNS Updates – CAA Record Support and IPv6 Nameservers
• On TechNet, Shannon Gowen writes about the Cloud Tip of the Day: Virtual Network Service Endpoints Preview
• On MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) explains How to create a self-signed SAN certificate, wildcard certificate vs SAN for Azure App Service usage

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 TechNet, Ramazan Can announces that Windows System State Backup from On-Prem to Azure is generally available now
• On the Azure blog, Sercan Guler writes Preview the new Azure Storage SDK for Go & Go Storage SDKs roadmap

Web

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

• On the Azure blog, Jennifer Lee announces the General availability of Azure App Service diagnostics
• Mark Heath (@mark_heath) discusses Deploying Azure WebApps with Kudu Zip API
• Simon J.K. Pedersen explains How to Call Azure Web App API hosted inside Kudu