Azure Weekly Issue 160: 4th February 2018

Interesting news this week when Microsoft reported the results of second quarter of fiscal year 2018 Azure revenue nearly doubled, and marks the tenth straight quarter of reports that Azure revenue grew 90% or more on a year-over-year basis.

On the training front, Exam Ref 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, Second Edition is out, and there's a new Azure Data Factory self-paced hands-on lab for UI.

A number of new services and features have reached General Availability this week: Azure Event Grid, Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage, Network Watcher Connection Troubleshoot, Stream Analytics: sub-streams, query compatibility, Azure Storage SDKs for Python, Ruby and PHP, and finally Microsoft Graph APIs for Intune.

If you haven't been watching the AI Show on Channel 9, it covers some really interesting topics; this week it focuses on one of the hidden gems in Azure: Machine Learning with Azure Notebooks. Other highlights of the week are: Lambda Architecture using Azure CosmosDB: Faster performance, Low TCO, Low DevOps, enhancements to Azure Budgets API supporting Resource Groups and Usage Budgets, Stakeholders can now view VSTS Analytics widgets, and finally Jenkins on Azure: from zero to hero

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 Channel 9, Paige Bailey and Lois Smith talk about Machine Learning with Azure Notebooks AI Show
• On the Azure blog, Milan Gada writes How is AI for video different from AI for images
• On Channel 9, James Montemagno talks about Custom Vision – Machine Learning Made Easy with Jim Bennett on The Xamarin Show
• On TechNet, Sasindu Kavinda (@kaviliya123) explains how to Find real Emotions using Emotion API
• On the .NET Curry blog, Gerald Versluis describes Adding Artificial Intelligence AI to your Xamarin 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

• Also on Channel 9, Pranav Rastogi (@rustd) talks about AtScale on Azure HDInsight on Data Exposed
• Vincent-Philippe Lauzon writes Azure Databricks – Transforming Data Frames in Spark
• On the Revolution Analytics blog, David Smith (@revodavid) writes Speed up R with Parallel Programming in the Cloud
• Chris Webb (@Technitrain) talks about Using SSAS Multidimensional As A Data Source For Power BI Video
• On MSDN, Rob Reilly explains how to Integrate Power BI Dashboards, Reports and Tiles into a WPF Application
• Also on MSDN, Buck Woody writes 'Analytics is Width. Feature Selection is Depth.'
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Siddharth Mehta (@siddhumehta) describes Schedule analysis using Gantt chart in Power BI Desktop
• Devin Knight (@knight_devin) presents Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 88 – Pulse Chart

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 Nir Mashkowski, Product Management Director for various Azure PaaS services talks about Functions Microservices
• On Channel 9, Corey Sanders and Jeff Hollan talk about Azure Functions and Logic Apps on Tuesdays With Corey
• On MSDN, Maheshk (@MahesKBlr) covers How to login Azure Linux VMs using SSH key pair

Containers

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

• On Channel 9, Robert Green and Erika Ehrli talks about SmartHotel360 Demo App Overview and Maria Naggaga talks about SmartHotel360 Demo App Web Site
• On MSDN, Steve Lasker (@SteveLasker) describes Working with ACR Geo-replication notifications

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

• Also on the Azure blog, Mark Kromer writes about the New Azure Data Factory self-paced hands-on lab for UI
• On the Azure blog, Denny Lee describes Lambda Architecture using Azure CosmosDB: Faster performance, Low TCO, Low DevOps
• On the Kloud blog, John Downs writes Cosmos DB Server-Side Programming with TypeScript – Part 4: Triggers
• On MSDN, Julien Oudot covers Designing a Cosmos DB database
• Also on the Azure blog, Leon Hao covers Using EXPLAIN to profile slow queries in Azure Database for MySQL
• Also on the Azure blog, Sean Li describes Using the MySQL sys schema to optimize and maintain a database

Developer Tools

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

• On MSDN, Gregg Boer announces that Stakeholders can now view VSTS Analytics widgets
• Also on MSDN, Nilay Shah blogs about VSTS CI to Build and Test Node.js app with Gulp and Mocha
• Also on MSDN, Rui Melo writes about the VSTS Gems- Three ways to beef up your boards
• On Channel 9, James Montemagno and Damian Brady talk about Real World Mobile DevOps with VSTS and App Center
• Also on MSDN, Michael S. Hansen describes the Team Foundation Server 2015 CI/CD Pipeline for Web App in Azure Government
• On the Azure blog, Pui Chee Chan blogs about Jenkins on Azure: from zero to hero
• K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) covers Setting Up Service Principals to Use the Azure Management APIs
• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) walks through Debugging C .NET Core Azure Functions with VS Code
• On Channel 9, Donovan Brown and Kylie Liang talk about Running Ansible on Azure Azure Friday
• Also on the Azure blog, Corey Sanders (@CoreySandersWA) provides A great developer experience for Ansible

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 the Kloud blog, Kieran Jacobsen describes Using Intune and AAD to protect against Spectre and Meltdown
• On MSDN, Justin Marks writes about VS Subscriptions and linking your VSTS account to AzureAD and describes Supporting AzureAD Conditional Access Policy across VSTS
• Also on MSDN, Maheshk (@MahesKBlr) writes AAD How to create Service Principal through CLI
• Also on MSDN, Srinivas Varukala describes the PowerShell to list all Azure AD Apps with expiration dates
• Also on MSDN, Ganesh Shankaran talks about Security: Test automation From Build and Release pipe using Secrets in Key vault
• On the Azure blog, Brijesh Desai describes Managing Azure Secrets on GitHub Repositories
• Also on the Azure blog, Miri Landau describes how to Integrate Azure Security Center alerts into SIEM solutions

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• On TechNet, Dave Randall announces that Microsoft Graph APIs are generally available for Intune
• On MSDN, Ch. Wolf explains How to setup alerts on the new metrics for Azure Service Bus
• Sean Feldman delves into Azure Service Bus with Managed Service Identity
• Also on MSDN, Shashidharan Krishnan writes about the Logic apps Service bus connector not honoring Maximum message count
• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) discusses Sending Your Azure Application Insights Alerts to Team Sites using Azure Logic App
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes how to Setup an Azure Stack Cloud Operator and Developer Workstation Environment

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, Corey Sanders (@CoreySandersWA) announces the general availability of Azure Event Grid
• Also on the Azure blog, Krishna Mamidipaka announces New in Stream Analytics: General availability of sub-streams, query compatibility, and more
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch talks about Serverless and Internet of Things with Bahram Banisadr, talks about Azure IoT Hub Integration with Azure Event Grid with Ashita Rastogi and talks about Machine Learning in IoT solutions with Ted Way on the Internet of Things Show

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 Catapult Systems blog, Cameron Fuller walks through Creating dashboards with content spanning Log Analytics, Application Insights and Azure
• On MSDN, the Application Insights Service Team writes that All octets of IP address will be set to Zero
• K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) discusses Choosing an Approach to Work with Azure REST APIs
• Simon Waight (@simonwaight) covers Recommendations on using Terraform to manage Azure resources

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, Abhishek Pathak announces that the Network Watcher Connection Troubleshoot is now generally available
• Also on the Azure blog, Alan Stephenson and Anitha Adusumilli announces that Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage now generally available
• Also on the Azure blog, Yousef Khalidi describes the Azure ExpressRoute updates – New partnerships, monitoring and simplification
• Sameera Perera (@sameera_man) writes about One VNET to Multiple On-Premises environments with Different Gateway Types

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 the Azure blog, Sercan Guler announces that Azure Storage SDKs for Python, Ruby and PHP now generally available
• Also on the Azure blog, Kartik P V R writes Customer success stories with Azure Backup: Russell Reynolds
• On MSDN, Mike Lapierre describes How to shrink a managed disk
• Gaurav Mantri (@gmantri) writes Zone Redundant Storage Preview v/s Classic–Compared & Contrasted
• On TechNet, Srinath Vasireddy writes Troubleshooting Backup/Restore failures when using Azure Files Backup
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 86 - Deleting an item from a Azure Storage Table, Part 87 - Avoid Bad Request Errors in Azure Storage Table, Part 88 - Whats the purpose of ETag in Azure Storage Table and Part 89 - Shared Access Tokens with Azure Storage Blob Containers

Web

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

• On MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) discusses The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. 404.63.0
• Also on MSDN, Jeff Sanders (@jsandersrocks) covers Azure Mobile Apps: Disable Swagger
• Also on MSDN, Jeff Sanders (@jsandersrocks) discusses the Azure App Service error: AADSTS50011: The reply address http://.azurewebsites.net/signin-oidc does not match the reply addresses configured for the application:
• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) explains how to Restrict public access to your Azure Web Apps with the IPSecurityRestrictions option