Azure Weekly

Issue #201 - 18th November 2018

It's been a mammoth week this week in the Azure ecosystem. We suspect all of you in the US are winding down, getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Here are all of this week's announcements and updates:

A couple of new channels have been established this week on channel 9, each posting numerous videos: the first is all about blockchain and the second all about Cognitive Services. Take a look at them here: Blocktalk and Cognitive Services Live.

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

On the Azure blog, Lance Olson describes Getting started with Azure Cognitive Services in containers
Also on the Azure blog, Eric Boyd talks about Bringing AI to the edge
James van den Berg (@JamesvandenBerg) describes Getting started with Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services in Containers
The Azure updates team highlights the Azure Cognitive Services new enhancements and writes about the Azure Bot Service enforcing transport layer security TLS 1.2
On MSDN, Mathew Salvaris, Fidan Boylu Uz, and Daniel Greece provide the NEW REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE: Real-time scoring of Python Scikit-Learn and Deep Learning Models on Azure
On TechNet, Amanda Buchholz explains how to Strengthen your Data & AI technical knowledge with a deep dive into Cognitive Services and Azure Data Bricks
On Channel 9, Noelle Lacharite (@NoelleLaCharite) presents Taking a Look at Computer Visions Object Detection
Also on the Azure blog, Tara Jana and Anil Kumble talk about the Power bat: How Spektacom is revolutionizing the game of cricket with Microsoft AI
On Channel 9, Seth Juarez (@sethjuarez) asks Why Should I Care About Data Preparation? with Euan Garden
On the Revolution Analytics blog, David Smith (@revodavid) writes an In case you missed it: October 2018 roundup

🔎 Analytics

The Azure updates team writes that Azure Event Hubs for Apache Kafka is now available and that Azure HDInsight is now available in China North 2
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 172 - Getting Started with HDInsight
On MSDN, the SQL Server Engineering Team writes Released: Public Preview for SSRS 2017+ Management Pack with Power BI Reporting Server Support
On the Power BI blog, Amanda Cofsky provides the Power BI Desktop November 2018 Feature Summary, Arun Ulag announces the Announcing new AI Capabilities for Power BI to make AI Accessible for Everyone, Swati Gupta writes that the Dataset size and count now available in Power BI Premium Capacity Metrics App, and Christian Wade highlights that Analysis Services is 20 years old! and talks about the Modeling View in Power BI Desktop
Devin Knight (@knight_devin) provides the Power BI Monthly Digest with Manuel Quintana – November 2018
Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) walks through Using OpenApi.Document To Create A Power BI Custom Connector For The Power BI REST API and writes about Nested Display Folders In Power BI

🖥️ Compute

On the Azure blog, the Azure High Performance Computing Team tells us to Join Azure at Supercomputing 2018
On MSDN, Ed Price (@UserEd_) provides some Guidance and framework for running HPC applications on Azure
The Azure updates team writes that the New H-series Azure VMs for HPC workloads are in preview, writes In development: Azure Service Fabric Mesh Fall 2018 refresh, highlights that Azure Functions 2.0 available in Azure Government and China regions and highlights the General availability: Azure Availability Zones in Southeast Asia
On Channel 9, Corey Sanders (@CoreySandersWA) talks about What's new with Azure VM Disk Images with Kay Singh
On the TechKB blog, Michael Coutanche (@mum3LE5) talks about Azure: Installing the Microsoft Antimalware and Log Analytics extensions on VM Scale Sets
On the Azure podcast, the Azure podcast team (@AzurePodcast) presents Episode 254 - Blockchain - DevCon 4 with Cale Teeter
Also on MSDN, Stephen Abdo writes about Beyond Lift-and-Shift: Application Modernization with Microsoft Azure

🚢 Containers

On the Azure blog, Sean McKenna announces that Azure Kubernetes Service now in private preview in Azure China
the Azure updates team writes about General availability: Azure Kubernetes Service in South India
Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) describes Using dysk in Azure Kubernetes Service – AKS cluster upgrade and its learnings from it

🗄️ Databases

On the Azure blog, Donald Petersen announces that MongoDB Atlas free tier is now available on Azure
Also on the Azure blog, Harini Gupta describes how to Monitor your Azure Open Source Databases (PostgreSQL and MySQL) using Azure Monitor
The Azure updates team discusses the Azure Monitor log support for Azure SQL Data Warehouse and writes about the Additional workload insights for advanced performance tuning with SQL Data Warehouse
On MSDN, Jovan Popovic explains how to Modify Azure SQL Database Managed Instance using Azure CLI and explains how to Create Azure SQL Managed Instance using Azure CLI
Also on MSDN, Fernando Cobo Enriquez talks about a Cross-database Query in Azure SQL Database
Also on MSDN, Sergio Fonseca (@FonsecaSergio) describes how to Change collation of existing Azure SQL database
Also on MSDN, Bashar Hussein writes about Unable to view LTR Backups for Azure SQL Database servers and provides some Azure Database for PostgreSQL performance Quick Tips
Also on MSDN, John Abele covers Synchronizing Azure Cosmos DB Collections for Blazing Fast Queries
On Code Project, Srinivasa Dinesh Parupalli writes Custom API using .NET SDK for SQL API at Azure Cosmos DB

🛠️ Developer Tools

On the Azure blog, Marc Mercuri introduces the Azure Blockchain Development Kit
Also on the Azure blog, Brenda Lee explains how to Deploy, develop, and troubleshoot faster with Azure Blockchain Workbench 1.5.0
Also on the Azure blog, Jenny Jiang describes the Azure Toolkit for IntelliJ – Spark Interactive Console
Also on the Azure blog, Lili Cheng tells us how to Get started in minutes: Build your own enterprise grade virtual assistant
Also on the Azure blog, Jason R. Shaver explains how to Let AI help you be more productive with Microsoft Azure CLI
The Azure updates team blogs about the Azure CLI support for Azure Database for MySQL read replicas, writes about In development: Azure Service Fabric runtime version 6.4 & SDK updates and writes about the Azure JavaScript libraries preview release
Pascal Naber tells us to Stop using ARM templates! Use the Azure CLI instead
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) describes how to Build real-time LiveOps into games with PlayFab with James Gwertzman
On the Visual Studio blog, Xiaokai He writes that AI-assisted coding comes to Java with Visual Studio IntelliCode and Jamie Young provides A preview of UX and UI changes in Visual Studio 2019
Also on Channel 9, Chris Heilmann (@codepo8) answers One Dev Question - What is Visual Studio Code? and answers another Dev Question - Why is VSCode a great editor to start web development with?
On TechNet, Amanda Buchholz explains how to Get technical tips to successfully build Office 365, Azure and Dynamics 365 apps with Dev Chat
On Microsoft Cloud Show, Andrew Connell (@andrewconnell) presents Episode 279 | Azure News + Rants on Guest Access and Microsoft Teams
Also on MSDN, the AzureCAT team writes about the NEW WHITEPAPER: Structured review of Azure architectures

🔩 DevOps

The Azure updates team highlights the Draft pull requests and new work item text editor: Azure DevOps Sprint 143 Update
On MSDN, Jessie Somekh writes about the New Advanced Text Editor on the Work Item Form
Also on MSDN, David Staheli highlights the Xcode 8.0-8.3.2 deprecation on Azure Pipelines hosted agents
Also on MSDN, Edward Thomson lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2018.11.09
Jason Roberts (@robertsjason) writes a series of posts about Azure Functions Continuous Deployment with Azure Pipelines: Part 1 - Overview, Part 2 - Getting Started, Part 3 - Creating an Initial Build Pipeline, Part 4 - Defining and Consuming Pipeline Variables, Part 5 - Adding Unit Tests, Part 6 - Creating an Azure DevOps Release Pipeline and Part 7 - Running Functional End-to-end Tests in a Release Azure Pipeline
Gregor Suttie (@gregor_suttie) blogs about Azure Pipelines, and talks about Azure DevOps – How to do a fully automated release Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
Also on MSDN, Freddy Kristiansen (@freddydk) talks about Developing Business Central Extensions - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4
Callon Campbell writes that Azure DevOps rolls out a dark theme preview
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon (@vplauzon) writes about Azure DevOps – Task output to a variable
On Code Project, Prabakaran Rajendran walks through Deploying Windows Service using Azure Pipeline

🎭 Identity

On the Catapult Systems blog, David Broussard provides an Azure AD Dynamic Groups Walkthrough
On TechNet, Aaron Guilmette writes about AAD Connect, a dedicated resource forest, a custom connector, and a bunch of transform rules: a GalSync story Part 1 and Part 2
Also on TechNet, Edward Walton explains how to Keep your privileged access secure with Azure AD PIM and PAM in Office 365: Part 1

🔌 Integration

The Azure updates team talks about Azure Event Grid—availability in Azure Government regions is in preview and Event Domains are in preview

💡 Internet of Things

On the Azure blog, Ed Nightingale writes that Update 18.11 for Azure Sphere in public preview
The Azure updates team writes that Azure Functions 2.0 available in IoT Edge
Also on the Azure blog, Bert Van Hoof writes that View chooses Microsoft Azure IoT to accelerate development of smart building applications
Also on the Azure blog, Tad Brockway writes that Microsoft and Intel donate Azure Hardware, AI Services to Advance Intelligent Edge Research at Carnegie Mellon University
On MSDN, Zhiqing Qiu describes how to Setup Azure IoT Edge CI/CD Pipeline with ARM Agent
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about Role Based Access Control in Azure IoT solution accelerators with Jill Bender and describes How to use Time Series Insights in Azure IoT solution accelerators with Aditi Dugar
Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) blogs Introducing breaking changes to the IoT Edge VK provider helm chart and deployment templates for Kubernetes
Also on the Azure blog, Justin Slade talks about Three surprising IoT trends in smart buildings

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure blog, Morgan Grobin describes How to get involved in the Azure Monitor AMA
On the Kloud blog, John Downs talks about Automating Azure Instrumentation and Monitoring – Part 1: Introduction
On the Catapult Systems blog, Cameron Fuller provides some QuickTricks: How to join unrelated data types in Log Analytics and explains How to re-write Log Analytics records in Flow
The Azure updates team writes that Azure Policy now audits applications installed inside virtual machines
On TechNet, Neha Garg writes about the Alerts in SCOM from Azure Application Insights with Azure Management Pack
Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) highlights that Microsoft Azure Backup Server V3 Is Now Generally Available
James van Den Berg discusses the Microsoft Azure Hub-Spoke model by Enterprise Design 2 of 4 Lift and Shift
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 173 - Get the most out of Azure Advisor

⚙️ Microsoft Azure Stack

On the Azure blog, Ricardo Mendes blogs about Developing hybrid applications with Azure Stack
On Code Project, Allen O'Neil (@ajsondev) writes Azure Stack explained
On the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag (@ciphertxt) presents Episode 97 – Azure Stack with Michael Wells

📱 Mobile

On the Xamarin blog, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) writes about the Twitch Workshop: Build Your First Mobile App with C#, Xamarin, and the Cloud
Also on the Xamarin blog, Paul Dipietro discusses Xamarin.Forms 3.4.0: Say Hello to ImageButton
On Channel 9, Cecil Phillip (@cecilphillip) talks about Reactive Extensions for .NET Developers with Michael Stonis
On Code Project, Silvia Campo explains how to Implement Dependency Injection in Xamarin using Autofac
On MSDN, James S White writes about the Visual Studio App Center Unity Editor Extension- A Better Unity Experience
Also on MSDN, Nilofer Rajpurkar highlights the Xcode 8.0-8.3.2 Deprecation in Visual Studio App Center

🌐 Networking

The Azure updates team highlights that Azure Network Watcher enabled by default for subscriptions that contain virtual networks
On the Azure blog, Anupam Vij highlights that Holiday season is DDoS season

🔐 Security

On the Azure blog, Liza Mash Levin explains how to Protect Linux containers running in IaaS with Azure Security Center
Also on the Azure blog, Avi Ben-Menahem writes about Four operational practices Microsoft uses to secure the Azure platform
Also on the Azure blog, David Burt writes that Microsoft Azure is now certified to host sensitive health data in France
Also on the Azure blog, Susie Adams provides Five lessons for building your roadmap to a secure hybrid cloud future
On the Codit blog, Toon Vanhoutte writes that Key Vault Deployment Removes Access Policies
On Code Project, Allen O'Neil (@ajsondev) provides an Overview of Azure Key Vault and blogs about Data Encryption in Azure
On MSDN, the Azure Gov Team writes that Cloud-based capabilities help public safety agencies keep communities safe

📦 Storage

Michael S. Collier (@MichaelCollier) talks about Using Shared Access Signatures in Azure Templates
Sam Cogan (@samcogan) explains how to Create Azure Storage Containers with ARM templates
On MSDN, Kanchan Mehrotra, Tony Wu, and Rakesh Patil blog about Parallel Virtual File Systems on Microsoft Azure – Part 3: GlusterFS on Azure

🔗 Web

Henry Been (@henry_been) blogs about Creating a RBAC Role Assignment, using an ARM template
On MSDN, Mike Barker walks through Completing the Redundancy Story of API Manager
On Code Project, Allen O'Neil (@ajsondev) talks about Azure Search - a quick overview
Also on MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes Building Medical Applications and need access to a FHIR Server welcome to FHIR on Azure
Also on MSDN, Steve Read describes how to Set up Micro Focus CICS BankDemo for Micro Focus Enterprise Developer 4.0 in Azure