Azure Weekly

Issue #155 - 31st December 2017

Hello & Happy New Year! I was intending to publish the first new issue of Azure Weekly on the 14th of January, but there was such a torrent of updates over the festive break that I thought it would be worthwhile creating a bumper edition covering the last three weeks.

First off, possibly the #1 item on most organisations risk logs for 2018, GDPR. Microsoft France have released a detailed implementation guide:
GDPR How-to: Get organized and implement the right processes. The second big noteworthy announcement was around pricing changes for Cosmos DB entry point for unlimited containers is now 60% cheaper and other improvements.

HDInsights had three big announcements: both integration with Azure Log Analytics and Apache Kafka for Azure HDInsight have reached General Availability, while Enterprise Security Package preview is available.

Other announcements include Azure Service Bus Geo-disaster recovery goes GA, while New Alerts in Azure Monitor and subscription level budgets via ARM APIs are available in preview.

Other content items of note are Serverless workflows with Durable Functions On .NET, another reference architecture and automation blueprint has been released, this time for for Financial Services web applications, and finally the new Channel 9 AI Show has an interesting episode focusing on Neuroscience with Azure Machine Learning.

Normal Azure Weekly service will resume on Sunday 14th of January.

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

Also on Channel 9, Sonya Koptyev and a guest present Neuroscience with Azure Machine Learning on the AI Show
Also on MSDN, Samuel Lester presents Exploring Big Data: Course 9 – Developing Big Data Solutions with Azure Machine Learning
On MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) describes Microsoft Cognitive Services: The Language Understanding LUIS and presents Azure Deep Learning and ND, NC series with NVidia
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 70 - Key Phrase Extraction with Cognitive Service and Azure, Part 71 - Language Detection with Cognitive Service and Azure and Part 72 - Sentiment Analysis with Cognitive Service and Azure

🔎 Analytics

On MSDN, Ashish Thapliyal (@ashishth) announces that Azure HDInsight Integration with Azure Log Analytics is now generally available, and, on the Azure blog, writes XBox - Analytics on petabytes of gaming data with Azure HDInsight and Azure HDInsight Performance Benchmarking: Interactive Query, Spark and Presto
Also on the Azure blog, Raghav Mohan announces the Apache Kafka for Azure HDInsight general availability
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman and Raghav Mohan talk about Apache Kafka on HDInsight on Azure Friday
Also on the Azure blog, Bhanu Prakash announces the Enterprise Security Package preview for Azure HDInsight
Also on MSDN, Buck Woody carries on his series DevOps for Data Science – Automated Testing
Devin Knight (@knight_devin) gives his Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 82 – Text Filter and Module 83 – ChartAccent – LineChart
Manuel A Quintana covers Power BI – Problem, Design, Solution Folder Source Option for JSON files
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon writes Azure Databricks – Getting Started

🖥️ Compute

On MSDN, Anand Kumar R (@ranand12) posts Azure Serverless Computing Explained in less than 5 minutes
Also on MSDN, Justin Clareburt writes Take a Break with Azure Functions
Also on MSDN, Jason Boeshart (@jboeshart) discusses Using Managed Service Identities in Functions to Access Key Vault
On TechNet, Tsuyoshi Ushio (@sandayuu) talks about Azure Functions dynamic queue message routing for Storage Queue and Service Bus samples
On Channel 9, Rich Lander and Chris Gillum talk about Serverless workflows with Durable Functions on the On .NET show
John Savill explains if it is possible to Add NICs to an Azure VM and describes how to Auto shutdown Azure VMs
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon writes about Recurrent serverless batch job with Azure Batch

🚢 Containers

On the Azure podcast, Evan Basilik, Cale Teeter, Dan Garfield and Jessica Deen present Episode 209 - DevOps with Kubernetes
On Code Project, Allen O'Neil walks through Exposing ports to Kubernetes pods on Azure
On MSDN, Monu Bambroo writes Docker Blog Series Part 5 – Understanding new container management features in Service Fabric
Also on MSDN, Steve Lasker (@SteveLasker) blogs about OS & Framework Patching with Docker Containers – a paradigm shift

🗄️ Databases

On the Azure blog, Linda Wang presents the New connectors available in Azure Data Factory V2
Also on the Azure blog, Rimma Nehme (@rimmanehme) talks about Azure CosmosDB: Entry point for unlimited containers is now 60% cheaper and other improvements
On TechNet, the SQL Server Team announces that The December release of SQL Operations Studio is now available
Also on TechNet, Rohit Minni (@rohit_minni) blogs about Performing SQL Bulk Copy with Azure Automation/PowerShell while modifying source data
On the MSSQL Tips site, Vitor Montalvao writes Learn how to Migrate a SQL Server database to SQL Azure server and gives an Azure SQL Database Backup and Restore Overview
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) gives some Azure SQL Data Sync Tips and Tricks
On MSDN, Michael Hansen writes SQL Server 2017 Always On with Cloud Witness – Azure Resource Manager Template
Also on MSDN, Dynamics Lifecycle Services Communication gives a Notice of upcoming change: Removing Azure SQL Server administrative access to Tiers 2, 3, 4, and 5 Sandbox environments deployed in Microsoft subscription
Simon Foster (@funkysi1701) describes Getting started with Azure Table Storage

🛠️ Developer Tools

Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 69 - Access and embed Azure Cloud Shell Anywhere
On MSDN, Julian Atanasoae describes How to build a VSTS assistant – The Life and Times of a Kanban bot – Part 1
On the .NET Curry blog, Subodh Sohoni (@subodhsohoni) talks about NuGet Package Management in VSTS
Donovan Brown highlights that Load Tests are not in every VSTS Region
On Stackify Blog, Matt Watson presents Developer Things 3: How Stackify Does DevOps Without an Ops Team with Jason Taylor
On TechNet, Willem Kasdorp writes about Get-UniqueString: generate unique ID for Azure Deployments

🎭 Identity

On the Azure blog, Ben Kliger writes Announcing the public preview for Adaptive Application Controls
Also on the Azure blog, Eric Tierling writes about the GDPR How-to: Get organized and implement the right processes
Also on the Azure blog, Yossi Weizman and Dotan Patrich explain How Azure Security Center detects vulnerabilities using administrative tools
Also on TechNet, Yuri Diogenes (@yuridiogenes) writes a few posts about the Azure Security Center: Upcoming Azure Security Center Book, Azure Security Center User Voice, Azure Security Center Overview Page Updated and Exporting Computers that are not Compliant with Security Baseline Recommendations in Azure Security Center
On TechNet, Courtenay Bernier talks about Azure AD B2B... how to work with partners and subsidiaries
On the ITProToday site, John Savill answers: What is Azure AD Pass-through Authentication?
Andrei Dzimchuk covers Setting up your ASP.NET Core 2.0 apps and services for Azure AD B2C
Sam Cogan (@samcogan) describes Azure Security Audits with Pester

🔌 Integration

On MSDN, Ch. Wolf announces that Azure Service Bus Geo-disaster recovery is now generally available
Also on MSDN, Sjoukje Zaal (@SjoukjeZaal) writes Azure Content Spotlight – Azure Logic Apps On-premises Data Gateway
On Code Project, Ashwin Upadhyay writes Azure Logic Apps - Debatching Pattern

💡 Internet of Things

On MSDN, Ch. Wolf announces that Azure Event Hubs Managed Service Identity MSI and Role-based access control RBAC preview released
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch and Tim Laverty present: Meet the new Azure IoT Remote Monitoring Preconfigured Solution on the Internet of Things Show
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) writes IoT Home Automation - Device tracking capabilities

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure blog, Shankar Sivadasan and Kiran Madnani write about the New Alerts (preview) in Azure Monitor
Also on the Azure blog, Vinod Kurpad announces the preview release of subscription level budgets via ARM APIs
On TechNet, Rob Davies (@rodavies) describes Monitoring Application Gateway with Azure Log Analytics
Stefan Roth (@stefanroth_net) blogs about Azure Log Analytics – Portal Refresh

📦 Storage

Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) writes Demystify how Shared Access Signature SAS is created inside Azure Storage
Sonia Gupta announces that Azure Backup now supports BEK encrypted Azure virtual machines

🔗 Web

On MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) describes How to capture an ASP.NET Core memory dump on Azure App Service, explains how to Deploy to an Azure App Service using KUDU and a zip file, describes How to make a local deployment and create a zip file for drag and drop deployment and talks about the Azure App Service Disk Length Queue
Simon J.K. Pedersen writes Lets Encrypt on Azure Web Apps using a Function App for Automated Renewal
On Code Project, Debendra Dash covers Hosting Your MVC Application in Cloud with DataBase Migration from Local to Azure