Azure Weekly

Issue #205 - 16th December 2018

Plenty of announcements/updates this week. Here they are:

As you know, we love all things API Economy at endjin, and I've had a number of conversations with Mohammed Brueckner on the subject over the last few months. He's been writing a blog series on "Defining value in the age of Platforms and APIs" which are well worth your time. Here's Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Thank-you for being subscribers this year, for all the emails, submitted links, retweets and words of encouragement. Have a lovely festive break, a happy new year, and see you again on the 6th of January 2019!

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

On the Azure blog, Xuedong Huang writes that Microsoft previews neural network text-to-speech
The Azure updates team explains how to Connect Cognitive Services subscription to enable unlimited skillset execution
On MSDN, Hong Ooi writes about Real-time scoring of R machine learning models
Also on MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes about Microsoft Azure Notebooks and Additional Compute Capacity via connecting to Data Science VMs and blogs about the Azure Notebooks new UI And Project Features–Get your academic course content showcased.
On Channel 9, Anna Thomas (@AnalyticAnna) presents LearnAI: Adding Bing Search to Bots and LearnAI: LUIS – Notes from the Field
On the Revolution Analytics blog, David Smith (@revodavid) writes In case you missed it: November 2018 roundup
Also on the Revolution Analytics blog, Hong Ooi explains How to deploy a predictive service to Kubernetes with R and the AzureContainers package

🔎 Analytics

On the Azure blog, Ashish Thapliyal (@ashishth) covers the Azure HDInsight integration with Data Lake Storage Gen2 preview - ACL and security update
Also on the Azure blog, John Macintyre describes how Power BI and Azure Data Services dismantle data silos and unlock insights
On the Power BI blog, Charles Sterling (@chass) writes that Power BI solution templates moving to open source
Also on the Power BI blog, Maya Shenhav writes about the Presentation mode in Power BI Windows App
Also on the Power BI blog, Ben Sack highlights the Power BI Dataflows and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 Integration Preview
Also on the Power BI blog, Amanda Cofsky covers the Power BI Desktop December 2018 Feature Summary
Also on the Power BI blog, Nimrod Shalit provides the Power BI Developer community November update
Devin Knight (@knight_devin) talks about Power BI Monthly Digest with Manuel Quintana – December 2018
Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) writes about Credentials, Data Privacy Settings And Data Sources In Power Query/Power BI
On TechNet, Volkan Coskun blogs about Analyzing Azure EA Consumption Using Power BI – Part 1: Setting up data, Part 2: Tags and Part 3: Advanced Calculations
Also on the Azure blog, Parikshit Savjani (@talktosavjani) describes Deploying Apache Airflow in Azure to build and run data pipelines
On the MSSQL Tips site, Haroon Ashraf talks about Microsoft Azure Analysis Services Web Development Tools
Also on the MSSQL Tips site, Koen Verbeeck explains how to Connect to On-premises Data in Azure Data Factory with the Self-hosted Integration Runtime - Part 1
On MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) talks about the Kusto Query Language with Azure Notebooks and Azure Data Explorer
John Savill (@NTFAQGuy) highlights the New Free Data Courses on Pluralsight Available

🖥️ Compute

On the Azure blog, Asavari Tayal takes a closer look at Python support for Azure Functions
Also on the Azure blog, Gaurav Malhotra announces that Azure Functions now supported as a step in Azure Data Factory pipelines
Also on the Azure blog, Kate Baroni writes that An Azure Function orchestrates a real-time, serverless, big data pipeline
On MSDN, Isaac Levin describes Building a Simple Contact Form with Azure Functions
On the Codit blog, Steef-Jan Wiggers (@SteefJan) explains how to Send Messages to Google Storage with Azure Functions
On the Serverless360 blog, Arunkumar Kumaresan talks about Azure Functions Live – December 2018
Also on MSDN, Jason Haley explains how to Build and deploy microservices on Azure Service Fabric Mesh
On Channel 9, Cale Teeter and Razi Rais talk about Decentralized Identity and Blockchain
On Code Project, Duncan Edwards Jones (@Merrion) provides another update to the blog: Serverless CQRS using Azure Event Grid and Durable Functions

🚢 Containers

On the Azure blog, Keiko Harada announces that Azure Monitor for containers now generally available
The Azure updates team highlights the General availability: Azure Kubernetes Service in East Asia
On Microsoft + Open Source, Ria Bhatia explains how to Achieve workload compliance and scale-to-zero with new Kubernetes open source projects
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) weighs up the Pros and cons of stable and unique tags in Docker image tagging with Description and Azure Container Registry updates for security and reliability with Steve Lasker
On the Azure podcast, the Azure podcast team (@AzurePodcast) presents Episode 258 with Lachie Evenson, Tommy Falgout and Daniel Selman- Live from KubeCon 2018

🗄️ Databases

On the Azure blog, Matt Usher (@two_under) writes about the Automatic performance monitoring in Azure SQL Data Warehouse (preview)
Also on the Azure blog, Mine Tokus explains how to Automate Always On availability group deployments with SQL Virtual Machine resource provider
The Azure updates team highlights the Azure databases for MySQL and PostgreSQL resource GUID changes and the Azure Database for MariaDB name changes
On the MSSQL Tips site, Eduardo Pivaral explains how to Create custom T-SQL code snippets with Azure Data Studio
On the Database Journal site, Marcin Policht provides an Introduction to Azure SQL Database Hyperscale
Simon Waight (@simonwaight) blogs about Cost Effective Azure Cosmos DB

🛠️ Developer Tools

On MSDN, Dan Taylor covers Python in Visual Studio Code – December 2018 Release
On Microsoft + Open Source, Carlton Gibson writes about the 4 new Python/Django video tutorials with Nina Zakharenko for productive cloud development
Also on MSDN, the Service Fabric Team announces the New REST based Service Fabric PowerShell Module and writes about the Azure Service Fabric 6.4 refresh for Windows clusters
On the Visual Studio blog, Visual Studio Blog writes about the New Azure DevOps Work Item Experience in Visual Studio 2019
Also on the Visual Studio blog, Xiaokai He (@XiaokaiHe) highlights the Visual Studio Code Updates for Java Developers: Rename, Logpoints, TestNG and More
On Code Project, Sibeesh Passion (@SibeeshVenu) writes about the Azure Stream Analytics Job and Tools for Visual Studio
On the Azure blog, Christine Alford posts the Azure Marketplace new offers - Volume 26 and Volume 27
On Microsoft Cloud Show, Andrew Connell and Chris Johnson present Episode 282 | Microsoft Connect(), Microsoft Flow Licensing Changes & Microsoft Ditches Edge
On Channel 9, Peng Lyu (@njukidreborn) answers One Dev Question - How does an external debugger work with VSCode? and What makes a great extension for VSCode?
Also on Channel 9, Ramya Achutha Rao (@ramyanexus) answers One Dev Question - What's your favorite success story of a VSCode extension? and How can other developer tools benefit from VSCode?
Also on Channel 9, Daniel Imms (@Tyriar) answers One Dev Question - What language is VSCode written in?
Also on Channel 9, Robert Green (@rogreen_ms) presents Building Bots Part 1 with Sam Basu

🔩 DevOps

On MSDN, Edward Thomson lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2018.12.07
Also on MSDN, Aseem Bansal (@aseembansal) writes about the New releases hub – Common questions
Also on MSDN, Aaron Bornstein highlights some Learning resources for DevOps

🎭 Identity

The Azure updates team highlights the Public preview: JavaScript and page contracts in Azure Active Directory B2C policies
On TechNet, Aaron Guilmette provides an Updated Tool Roundup
Also on TechNet, Gowdhaman Karthikeyan talks about Intune Device Management – Removing Local Admins in Windows 10 Devices

🔌 Integration

On the Kloud blog, Olaf Loogman writes about Asynchronous Logic Apps with Azure API Management
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon (@vplauzon) describes Using Azure DevOps REST API to start multiple releases with Azure Logic Apps
On the Codit blog, Steef-Jan Wiggers (@SteefJan) covers Azure Event Grid: The Evolution of an Event Broker in the Cloud
On the Serverless360 blog, Kent Weare covers Custom Connectors in Azure Logic Apps
Also on the Serverless360 blog, Mohan Nagaraj talks about Azure Logic Apps Live – December 2018

💡 Internet of Things

On the Azure blog, Koichi Hirao writes about the Streamlined IoT device certification with Azure IoT certification service
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about Azure IoT TypeEdge : a strongly-typed development experience for Azure IoT Edge with Spyros Garyfallos and talks about Running AI on IoT microcontroller devices with ELL with Chris Lovett
On the Codit blog, Glenn Colpaert (@GlennColpaert) revisits Microsoft IoT Central
Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) highlights some Best practices – Azure IoT Edge deployments with Azure Kubernetes Service

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure blog, Sujay Talasila explains how to Know exactly how much it will cost for enabling DR to your Azure VMs
Also on the Azure blog, Kavya Sinha writes that Azure Backup Server now supports SQL 2017 with new enhancements
The Azure updates team highlights the Azure Backup for SQL Server on Azure VMs resource GUID change
Stanislav Zhelyazkov (@StanZhelyazkov) covers Azure Deployment Options
On Stackify Blog, Matt Watson describes How to Remove Application Insights
On the MSSQL Tips site, Mohammed Moinudheen describes Using the Microsoft Azure Mobile app for remote administration
On MSDN, Deepesh blogs about Application Insights – Advisory 12/13

🎬 Media

On the Azure blog, Anna Thomas (@AnalyticAnna) explains How news platforms can improve uptake with Microsoft Azures Video AI service

⚙️ Microsoft Azure Stack

Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) points to the Interview about Azure and Microsoft on Technado ITPro.TV
John Savill (@NTFAQGuy) provides a script for Azure Stack Marketplace Management

🚌 Migration

The Azure updates team writes that MongoDB to Azure Cosmos DB migration is in preview

📱 Mobile

On the Xamarin blog, Matt Soucoup provides the November 2018 Xamarin and Azure Office Hours Recap
Also on the Xamarin blog, Paul Dipietro talks about Xamarin.Forms 4.0 Feature Preview: An Entirely New Point of (Collection)View
On the Trailhead blog, Valeriy Kovalenko (@drunkyfish) writes about a Simple way to use icon fonts in Xamarin Forms projects
On Channel 9, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) describes how to Debug to iOS Devices Over Wi-Fi
Jason Roberts (@robertsjason) describes Developing Tizen Samsung Galaxy Watch Apps with .NET and C# - Getting Started
On MSDN, Bo-ying Fu writes Deck the Halls with an Improved Visual Studio App Center Portal UI
Also on MSDN, James S White describes Creating Memories with Better DevOps for Unity Games in Visual Studio App Center
Also on MSDN, Nilofer Rajpurkar writes about Visual Studio App Center's GitHub App: The Ultimate Stocking Stuffer

🌐 Networking

On MSDN, Keith Mayer describes how to Deploy highly available network virtual appliances – PIP-UDR NVAs without SNAT
On the Azure podcast, the Azure podcast team (@AzurePodcast) presents Episode 257 - Azure Firewall with Yair Tor

🔐 Security

On TechNet, Yuri Diogenes (@yuridiogenes) describes Auditing Changes in Azure Security Center Configuration

📦 Storage

On the Azure blog, Sercan Guler announces that Static websites on Azure Storage now generally available
Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains How To Monitor Azure File Sync and provides a Solution: Azure File Sync – Server Endpoint Provisioning Failed – Error 2134376427

🔗 Web

On the Azure blog, Dan Taylor announces the Native Python support on Azure App Service on Linux: new public preview
The Azure updates team highlights that Python images for App Service Linux are now in preview