Azure Weekly Issue 161: 11th February 2018

We were very proud to sponsor DDD Scotland yesterday; the free-to-attend conference had a number of Azure related session covering everything from Cosmos DB, Functions to Cognitive Services.

There are a few service announcements this week: firstly CosmosDB Graph API and Virtual Network Service Endpoints for Azure SQL Database have reached Generally Availability. SAP HANA supportable VMs are available in UK with the Azure M/B/V3-series, Azure Search service has been upgraded: New hardware, unlimited document counts, and more. Azure SQL Database – Managed Instance Management Pack is now in Public Preview, and an update has been released of the excellent Microsoft Azure Symbol / Icon Set Download available in Visio stencil, PNG, and SVG - an essential tool for anyone needing to design architecture diagrams or presentations.

Other interesting articles this week include a reflection of the one of the non-technical areas in which Microsoft are innovating in Azure: Microsoft Azure IP Advantage: Our first year. Chris Rhodes shared some tips on optimising Azure Spending, and Azure CosmosDB and Microsofts Project Olympus were honored in InfoWorlds 2018 Technology of the Year Awards.

There's an interesting new case study about Munich RE in The most innovative analysis of weather risks. and Stéphane Fréchette has written an article about analyzing NYC Citi Bike data with Azure Databricks.

In the realms of serverless there are two articles of note: an introduction to Azure serverless with Azure Functions, Logic Apps and Azure Event Grid, and a great project released on GitHub that shows how to use the Azure Advisor API and Logic Apps to send daily email alerts.

Finally, Scott Guthrie makes an appearance on .NET Rocks to talk about building Cloud Native Apps in Azure.

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 .NET Curry blog, Gerald Versluis discusses Adding Artificial Intelligence AI to your Xamarin Apps
• On the Xamarin blog, Courtney Witmer points to an Upcoming Webinar Xamarin University Presents: Building Your First Intelligent App with Xamarin and Microsoft Cognitive Services
• On the Azure blog, Xuedong Huang blogs about Custom Speech: Code-free automated machine learning for speech recognition
• On MSDN, Neerja Rewal describes the Machine learning implementation strategy for a customer service center
• Also on MSDN, Jamie Dalton covers Custom Vision with TensorFlow exported model using C# .NET Core and TensorFlowSharp
• On Channel 9, Seth Juarez talk about Deep Learning for Music Generation on the AI Show

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, 'RalfWi' writes Data Science Virtual Machine available on Azure Germany
• Stephane Frechette (@sfrechette) writes Analyzing NYC Citi Bike data with Azure Databricks
• Vincent-Philippe Lauzon covers Azure Databricks – Parsing escaping CSV files in Spark
• On Medium, Davide Mauri combines Power BI and Azure Databricks
• On MSDN, Samuel Lester describes Troubleshooting a Power BI Dataset Refresh Error
• Devin Knight (@knight_devin) presents Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 89 – Filter by List
• On MSDN, Charles Sterling (@chass) introduces the 2/15 Webinar: Unleash Security Patterns in Power BI – Reza Rad
• Chris Webb (@Technitrain) describes Creating Excel Data Dump Reports From Power BI

Compute

Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances

• On Channel 9, Corey Sanders and Jeff Hollan talk about Durable Functions now available on Tuesdays With Corey
• Mark Heath (@mark_heath) describes The Case for Durable Workflows
• Callon Campbell writes an Introduction to Azure serverless with Azure Functions, Logic Apps and Azure Event Grid and describes how to Try Azure Functions for Free
• On the Azure blog, Andres Juarez reveals that Microsoft offers SAP HANA supportable VMs in UK with the Azure M/B/V3-series
• On .NET Rocks, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell describes Building Cloud Native Apps in Azure with Scott Guthrie
• On MSDN, Michael S. Hansen discusses Developing and Debugging Desired State Configuration Scripts for Azure VMs

Containers

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

• Jim Selders walks through Installing Service Fabric locally
• Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) writes Why should I care about Kubernetes, Docker, and Container Orchestration
• Pascal Naber writes about Persistent Storage and Volumes using Kubernetes on Azure with AKS or Azure Container Service
• On MSDN, Steve Lasker (@SteveLasker) writes Relaxing ACR storage limits, with tools to self manage

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 the Azure blog, Luis Bosquez announces that the Azure CosmosDB Graph API now generally available
• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) covers Working with Azure Cosmos DB using Visual Studio Code and explains how to Add an Azure Cosmos DB trigger to an existing Azure Function app from Azure Cosmos DB Portal
• On the Database Journal site, Marcin Policht discusses Azure Cosmos DB Partitioning
• On the .NET Curry blog, Francesco Abbruzzese writes about Fast ASP.NET Core development with Azure Cosmos DB and DocumentDB package
• On MSDN, the SQL Server Engineering Team talks about Public Preview: Azure SQL Database – Managed Instance Management Pack
• On TechNet, Sasindu Kavinda (@kaviliya123) talks about Azure SQL Database – Database as a Service
• Also on the Azure blog, Danimir Ljepava explains how to Build email notifications for SQL Database Automatic tuning recommendations
• Also on MSDN, Jim Toland talks about Automating the end-to-end migration of SQL Server to Azure SQL Database using the Azure Database Migration PowerShell module
• Also on MSDN, Bart Duncan writes Filtered Indexes and Forced Parameterization: Cant we all just get along

Developer Tools

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

• Simon Waight (@simonwaight) writes about Easy Release Versioning for .Net Projects using VSTS and TFS
• On the Black Marble blog, Richard Fennell talks about Versioning your ARM templates within a VSTS CI/CD pipeline with Semantic Versioning
• Tomas Restrepo (@tomasrestrepo) writes about API Management Groups
• K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) describes Working with Azure Management REST APIs
• On MSDN, Justin Clareburt writes about Two Lesser Known Tools for Local Azure Development

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, 'AnujChaudhary' writes a PowerShell sample for Privileged Identity Management PIM for Azure Resources
• On TechNet, Joel Vickery writes Rinse, lather, repeatAzure AD Connect Installation Stalls At Service Account Screen

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• Ercenk Keresteci provides a repository for an Advisor with Logic App
• On the Azure blog, Vinod Kurpad describes the Enhancements to Azure Budgets API supporting Resource Groups and Usage Budgets
• On MSDN, Christian Wolf talks about Azure Service Bus billing, vs metrics, vs current monthly cost
• Also on MSDN, David Burg discusses Passing extra HTTP headers to any action in Logic App

Internet of Things

Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere

• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch talks about Azure IoT C SDK insights with John Spaith and Stream Analytics on Azure IoT Edge & Stream Analytics in IoT solutions with JS Brunner on the Internet of Things Show
• On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) talks about Automating the creation of Azure IoT Hubs and the registration of IoT Devices with PowerShell and VS Code
• On the Azure blog, Raman Sharma writes Go serverless for your IoT needs

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 writes Delving deeper into sharing Azure dashboards
• On the Azure blog, Kartik P V R announces the OMS Monitoring solution for Azure Backup using Azure Log analytics
• Also on MSDN, Nicole Welch compares OMS/Log Analytics and SCOM
• Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) describes Azure Resource Policies Management in the Azure Portal
• On the Kloud blog, Simon Waight (@simonwaight) gives some Recommendations on using Terraform to manage Azure resources
• Also on MSDN, Jason Wages blogs about Reusing Azure Automation Run As Accounts

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 MSDN, 'jawalte' explains how to Improve security and performance with Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage
• On MSDN, Wu Shuai explains how to Provide Cross Region Low-latency Service based on Azure Global VNET Peering
• Richard M. Hicks (@richardhicks) walks through Deploying NetMotion Mobility in Azure

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 Code Project, Carl Randall writes about: Windows Azure Storage Emulator Failed to Install
• Chris Risner (@chrisrisner) writes about Open Sourcing Azure Storage Explorer for Mobile

Web

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

• On the Azure blog, Ashish Makadia (@_ashmaka) announces the Azure Search service upgrades: New hardware, unlimited document counts, and more
• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) writes Keeping your Azure Search Index up-to-date with Azure Functions
• Glenn Colpaert describes Building high performance APIs with Azure Search
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 90 - Part 1 - Implementing Azure Search with SQL Server and ASP.NET MVC, Part 91 - Part 2 - Implementing Azure Search with SQL Server and Part 92 - Part 3 - Querying an Azure Search Index
• On MSDN, Byron Tardif (@bktv99), Program Manager - Azure Websites, discusses January 2018 App Service update
• Also on MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) describes How to Backup/Restore an Azure App Service using Azure PowerShell
• Also on MSDN, JoeMVP covers PKI Authentication as a Azure Web App
• On MSDN, Ahmed Elnably writes about az webapp new – where new is always better
• On Channel 9, Robert Green and James Montemagno talk about SmartHotel360 Demo App Mobile Apps on Visual Studio Toolbox
• On MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) describes How to Backup/Restore an Azure App Service using BASH and explains How to set Azure BASH to a specific Azure subscription