Azure Weekly

Issue #211 - 10th February 2019

There has been an abundance of announcements/updates this week. Here they all are:

Elsewhere, Carmel Eve has continued her series on Rx with Rx operators deep dive Part 4: A window into scheduling in Rx, Steve Buchanan has compiled a few posters to address Where to host Docker Containers on Azure (AKS, ASE, or ASF)?, and Noor Abani and Negin Raoof have written about Processing trillions of events per day with Apache Kafka on Azure.

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

On the Revolution Analytics blog, Allison Koenecke discusses Sequential Pattern Mining in R for Business Recommendations
On the Azure blog, Gopi Kumar (@zenlytix) explains how to Build your own deep learning models on Azure Data Science Virtual Machines
On MSDN, Nikhil Joglekar, Miguel Fierro and Le Zhang writes about Movie recommendations on Azure and Abhinav Mithal and Robert Alexander walks through How to create a enterprise-grade conversational bot
Also on MSDN, Microsoft Translator team announces that it Microsoft Translator is now certified compliant to meet your needs
Also on the Azure blog, Hadas Bitran writes that Microsoft Healthcare Bot brings conversational AI to healthcare
The Azure updates team writes that the QnA Maker simplifies knowledge base management for your Q&A bot

🔎 Analytics

On the Azure blog, Jurgen Willis writes Individually great, collectively unmatched: Announcing updates to 3 great Azure Data Services
Also on the Azure blog, Julia White (@julwhite) writes that Analytics in Azure is up to 14x faster and costs 94% less than other cloud providers. Why go anywhere else?
Also on the Azure blog, Linda Wang writes about the New connectors added to Azure Data Factory empowering richer insights
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) talks about the Enhanced monitoring capabilities and tags/annotations in Azure Data Factory with Gaurav Malhotra
Also on Channel 9, Lara Rubbelke (@sqlgal) talks about Code-free data transformation at scale using Azure Data Factory with Gaurav Malhotra
On the MSSQL Tips site, Fikrat Azizov provides an Azure Data Factory Overview
Also on Channel 9, Lara Rubbelke (@sqlgal) provides An overview of Azure Data Explorer (ADX) with Manoj Raheja
the Azure updates team provides a number of updates: Azure HDInsight available in US DoD East, US DoD Central, US Gov Texas, Ev3 and ESv3 series VMs are available in Azure HDInsight, Language improvements in Azure Stream Analytics are now generally available and Blob output partitioning in Azure Stream Analytics
Also on the Azure blog, Sid Ramadoss writes that Azure Stream Analytics now supports Azure SQL Database as reference data input
Also on the Azure blog, Noor Abani and Negin Raoof blog about Processing trillions of events per day with Apache Kafka on Azure
On MSDN, Xu Rui writes that Emitting Empty Avro Files Now Optional on Azure Event Hubs Capture
On the Power BI blog, Nimrod Shalit describes how to Use Power BI API with service principal Preview, Swati Gupta writes about the Capacity management improvement and more granularity in the Power BI Premium Capacity Metrics app, Charles Sterling highlights the 2/7 Webinar: Personal Bookmarks in the Power BI Service, Arun Ulag talks about Petabyte-scale Analytics with Power BI and Azure and Kay Unkroth talks about Bulk Operations in the Admin Portal
On the MSSQL Tips site, Siddharth Mehta explains how to Visualize categorical scatterplots in Power BI with Python and Scott Murray walks through a Power BI Drill Through Example
Jen Stirrup writes Where do I find my PowerBI tenant?
Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) talks about Excel.Workbook() And The delayTypes Option In Power Query/Power BI
Devin Knight (@knight_devin) presents Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 119 – Pie Charts Tree
On the Perficient blog, Abhisek Majumdar writes about Power BI: Power up your Analytics and Empower your Teams
On Geeks with Blogs, Darren Gosbell (@darrengosbell) describes Fixing Dates from Sharepoint Lists (converting UTC Dates to Local Dates) in PowerBI

🖥️ Compute

On the Azure blog, Yashesvi Sharma announces that Reserved instances now applicable to classic VMs, cloud services, and Dev/Test subscriptions
Also on the Azure blog, Mine Tokus explains how to Simplify Always On availability group deployments on Azure VM with SQL VM CLI
Also on the Azure blog, Sandeep George explains how to Find out when your virtual machine hardware is degraded with Scheduled Events
The Azure updates team writes that M-series virtual machines are now available in Australia Central 2 region
On MSDN, Mikkel Mørk Hegnhøj talks about Discontinuing Party Clusters
Also on MSDN, the Service Fabric Team highlights the Known Issue for Service Fabric Linux Clusters
On Code Project, Sibeesh Passion (@SibeeshVenu) explains how to Create Your Own Cryptocurrency in Private Consortium Network Ethereum Azure Blockchain

🚢 Containers

Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) writes about Where to host Docker Containers on Azure (AKS, ASE, or ASF)?

🗄️ Databases

On the Azure blog, Parikshit Savjani (@talktosavjani) talks about Performance best practices for using Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Connection Pooling
The Azure updates team blogs about Azure Database for PostgreSQL read replica preview

🛠️ Developer Tools

Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) covers Using Az module with Visual Studio Azure resource group projects
On the Azure blog, Christine Alford (@heyalford) highlights the Azure Marketplace new offers – Volume 31
Also on MSDN, the Service Fabric Team highlights the Azure Service Fabric 6.4 Refresh Release
Also on MSDN, Wriju Ghosh (@wrijugh) describes the Azure Blockchain Development Kit
On the Azure Citadel blog, Richard Cheney writes about the New Business Value Learning Path, plus the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals exam
On MSDN, Andrew Hall (@AndrewBrianHall) covers the Changes to the web and JSON editor APIs in Visual Studio 2019
Also on MSDN, Angelos Petropoulos explains how to Make the most of your monthly Azure Credits
Also on MSDN, Marc Goodner describes Using VS Code for C++ development with containers
Also on MSDN, Steve Michelotti highlights some VS Code Extensions for Azure Government with Yujin Hong
Also on MSDN, Ruben Rios (@rub8n) provides A better multi-monitor experience with Visual Studio 2019
On Channel 9, Cody Beyer (@cl_beyer) talks about Visual Studio for Mac: Publish to Azure and Customize the Look and Feel
Also on MSDN, Daniel Roth writes that Blazor 0.8.0 experimental release now available
K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) blogs about The Law of the JSON

🔩 DevOps

The Azure updates team blogs about NuGet, npm, and other Artifacts tasks support proxies - Sprint 147 Update
Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) asks Where are my status badges for AzD YAML builds?
On the Azure blog, Pulkit Agarwal writes that Azure DevOps Projects supporting Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Functions
On MSDN, Anisha Pindoria (@anishapindoria) talks about What's new in Azure DevOps Sprint 146 Update with Gopinath Chigakkagari
Also on MSDN, Gloridel Morales Caro highlights the Azure DevOps Roadmap update for 2019 Q1
Jeremy Lindsay (@jeremylindsayni) explains How to delete a TestCase from Azure DevOps boards using .NET, Flurl and the Azure DevOps Restful API
On the .NET Curry blog, Gouri Sohoni talks about Jenkins for DevOps – Part 1
On Channel 9, Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) talks about Self forming teams in Azure DevOps with Aaron Bjork
On Code Project, Thinira writes about Continuous Integration and Delivery for Beginners (DevOps)
On the MSSQL Tips site, John Miner (@JohnMiner3) writes about Continuous SQL Server Database Integration with Visual Studio and Azure DevOps and discusses how to Reverse Engineer SQL Server Databases with Visual Studio
K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) writes about .NET Core Opinion #8 – How to Use Azure DevOps Pipelines
Also on MSDN, Alex Mullans (@alexmullans) writes about Adding caching to Azure Pipelines
Also on MSDN, José A. Estevan describes Release your Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operation packages to LCS with Azure DevOps Pipelines
Also on the Azure blog, Tanmayee Kamath explains how to Configure resource group control for your Azure DevTest Lab
Also on MSDN, Tanmayee Kamath posts [Resolved] DevTest Labs: Users may not be able to claim/unclaim VMs on the VM blade and [Resolved] DevTest Labs: Users may not be able to create VMs in Azure Government

🎭 Identity

On MSDN, Deva Gnanam (@devagnanam) provides some App developer guidance – Microsoft Graph API
Armin Reiter (@arminreiter) covers how to Change device owner of an Azure AD joined device
On Microsoft Cloud Show, Andrew Connell and Chris Johnson present Episode 289 | Microsoft! Microsoft! Microsoft!

🔌 Integration

On the MSSQL Tips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) describes how to Transfer Files from SharePoint To Blob Storage with Azure Logic Apps
On MSDN, David Burg (@david_burg) talks about Logic Apps SQL trigger underlying mechanism to fire event on change
Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) discusses some Issues with creating new Cosmos DB documents with Logic App
On Channel 9, Cody Born and Supriya Madhuram talk about the Logic Apps Connector to Ethereum Blockchain Networks
The Azure updates team highlights that Logic Apps is now available in US Gov Arizona region, highlights the Public preview: Azure Service Bus for Python and the Public preview: Azure Service Bus for Go
Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) provides an Events and Message based system comparison
On the Codit blog, Tom Kerkhove (@TomKerkhove) walks through Writing Integration Tests for Azure Event Grid 2.0 – The Scalable Approach
On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, the Intune for EDU Team introduces Remote Autopilot Reset in Intune for Education

💡 Internet of Things

On the Azure blog, Bert Van Hoof writes that Azure IoT drives next-wave innovation in infrastructure and energy
Also on the Azure blog, Chipalo Street writes that the Intelligent Edge support grows – Azure IoT Edge now available on virtual machines
Daniel Krzyczkowski (@DKrzyczkowski) writes about Microsoft Azure Sphere connected with Azure cloud services
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about the Azure IoT Device Agent for Windows with Amina Saify
The Azure updates team highlights that TomTom is expanding its partnership with Microsoft

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Azure blog, Raphael Chacko announces Azure Cost Management now general availability for enterprise agreements and more
Also on the Azure blog, Leon Welicki (@lwelicki) provides a Microsoft Azure portal February 2019 update
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Log Analytics is available in West US 2 and writes about Azure Automation: Update Azure Modules runbook is open source
Also on the Azure blog, David Stephens highlights the Azure Monitor January 2019 updates
Also on the Azure blog, Sidney Higa shares the Cloud Commercial Communities webinar and podcast newsletter–February 2019
On the Kloud blog, John Downs writes Automating Azure Instrumentation and Monitoring – Part 4: Metric Alerts
On the Azure blog, Madeleine Clayton discusses Completers in Azure PowerShell
On MSDN, Clive Watson posts Azure Log Analytics: Disk Space Usage – Part 3
Also on MSDN, the Azure Gov Team announces that Azure Advisor for Azure Government now generally available
Vincent-Philippe Lauzon (@vplauzon) talks about how to set up Azure Application Insights Role Name in a web page
Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Extend The Mount Time Of Instant Restore Files To Windows With Azure Backup
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) provides An overview of Azure Blueprints with Alex Frankel

⚙️ Microsoft Azure Stack

On the Azure blog, Tad Brockway writes about Advancing tactical edge scenarios with Dell EMC Tactical Microsoft Azure Stack and Azure Data Box family
Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) talks about the Ruggedized Azure Stack at the extreme Edge
On TechNet, Amanda Buchholz describes how to Dive deep into Azure Stack and Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure

🚌 Migration

On the Azure podcast, The Azure podcast team (@AzurePodcast) presents Episode 264 - OnMSFT.com migrating to Azure with Kip Kniskern
On the Azure blog, Abhishek A. Hemrajani writes Help us shape new Azure migration capabilities: Sign up for early access
The Azure updates team posts a number of updates: MongoDB to Azure Cosmos DB online migration is in preview, Data Migration Assistant support for target readiness assessment for Azure SQL DB Managed Instance, Support for Amazon RDS SQL Server to Azure SQL Database Managed Instance online migrations and SQL Server Migration Assistant support for Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) presents Azure is the new mainframe with Steve Steuart

📱 Mobile

On the Xamarin blog, Jayme Singleton (@JaymeSingleton1) highlights the Mobile & .NET Developer Community Events in February
Also on the Xamarin blog, Mike Parker describes Using Existing C++ Libraries in Cross-Platform Xamarin.Forms Applications
Also on the Xamarin blog, David Ortinau highlights 5 Things You'll Love in Xamarin.Forms 3.5
On Channel 9, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) talks about Share (Xamarin.Essentials API of the Week)

🌐 Networking

On the Azure blog, Reshmi Yandapalli writes about the Best practices to consider before deploying a network virtual appliance
Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 182 - Use VNET peering to connect existing VNETs

🔐 Security

On the Azure blog, Heather Jordan Cartwright writes about Lighting up healthcare data with FHIR: Announcing the Azure API for FHIR
On MSDN, Prashanth Yerramilli announces an easier way to use latest certificates from Key Vault

📦 Storage

On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) describes Loading and Querying Data in Azure Table Storage using PowerShell
On the Azure blog, Lavanya Kasarabada highlights that Account failover now in public preview for Azure Storage
the Azure updates team writes that Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is now generally available and writes that Azure StorSimple 5000/7000 series will no longer be supported starting July 9, 2019

🔗 Web

On MSDN, Brad Edwards explains How to send emails through Azure Web Apps using Google / Gmail
On Channel 9, Burke Holland (@burkeholland) talks about Five Ways to Build Real-Time Apps with JavaScript