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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🎭 Identity

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

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

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

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

🌐 Networking

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

📦 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

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