Azure Weekly Issue 237: 11th August 2019
We'sre switching things up a little this week. As time has progressed and the larger Azure has grown, more and more updates and announcements have been making their way into this editorial. We've decided to stop with the long list of updates, and rather only cherry-pick a few. You'll find the rest in the main body of the newsletter, as you do every week. So, bear that in mind from now on! Here are this week's featured announcements:
- Azure Databricks unit pre-purchase plan and new regional availability - there's now an option to pre-purchase Databricks compute for a one-year or three-year term, which can prove to be cheaper in the long run
- Introducing NVv4 Azure Virtual Machines for GPU visualization workloads - these new VM sizes are tailored towards CAD/gaming/simulation scenarios
- Get insights into your teams health with Azure Boards Reports - three new interactive reports, making it easier to track the state and health of your team's work processes
And now for this week's featured articles. Maxim Zhukov has listed his Top 5 Azure App Configuration Features (still in preview), Adam Marczak has described Securing Logic App with Azure AD authentication using API Management, and Jane Mareth has introduced Azure Foundation for nonprofits in an episode on Channel 9 with Scott Hanselman.
AI + Machine Learning
Covering: 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 Azure blog, David Houlding (@davidhoulding) discusses Overcoming language difficulties with AI and Azure services
- The Azure updates team writes about Cognitive Services—Azure Active Directory authentication and custom subdomains are now in preview
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
- On the MSSQL Tips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) delves into SSIS Catalog Maintenance in the Azure Cloud
- On the Azure blog, Rodrigo Alves highlights that Azure Stream Analytics now supports MATCH_RECOGNIZE
- On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Yatharth Gupta (@y99) announces the Azure Databricks unit pre-purchase plan and new regional availability
- The Azure updates team highlights that Gantt Views for monitoring data factory pipelines are now available and explains how to Create dependencies among pipelines in your Azure Data Factories
- On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) describes how to Create dependent pipelines in your Azure Data Factory with Gaurav Malhotra
Compute
Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
- On the Azure blog, Vijay Kanchanahalli introduces NVv4 Azure Virtual Machines for GPU visualization workloads
- Also on the Azure blog, Evan Burness (@evanburness) introduces the new HBv2 Azure Virtual Machines for high-performance computing
- Also on the Azure blog, Girish Bablani announces the new AMD EPYC-based Azure Virtual Machines
- The Azure updates team highlights that M-series virtual machines VMs are now generally available in the Brazil South Region
- Also on the Azure blog, Alfred Sin writes about the High Availability Add-On updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Azure
- Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) writes about Azure Dedicated Host for your Azure VMs
- Jason Roberts (@robertsjason) writes Understanding Azure Durable Functions - Part 5: Getting Results from Orchestrations
- Gunnar Peipman (@gpeipman) describes Dependency Injection in Azure Functions
- Justin Yoo (@justinchronicle) talks about Azure Functions Integration Testing with Mountebank
Containers
Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers
- The Azure updates team writes that Audit logging in Azure Kubernetes Service AKS is now generally available and that Azure Government support is now available for Azure Kubernetes Service AKS in preview
- Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) talks about Setting custom upstream nameservers for CoreDNS in Azure Kubernetes Service
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
- The Azure updates team writes that New Relic now provides integration with Azure Open Source Databases and highlights that the Azure Cache for Redis 4.0 upgrade is now generally available
- On Channel 9, Jeroen ter Heerdt (@jeroenterheerdt) talks about A conversation about SLA for Azure SQL Database with Alexander Nosov
- On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, the Dynamics 365 Team writes Lifecycle Services – August 2019 Release 1 release notes
Developer Tools
Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench
- On the Azure blog, Marc Mercuri (@marcmercuri) writes about the Improved developer experience for Azure Blockchain development kit
- The Azure updates team writes that the Azure Cosmos DB Python SDK Version 4 is now in preview
- On the Visual Studio blog, Jun Han (@formulahendry) provides the Azure IoT Tools July Update: IoT Edge tooling GA and more
- Also on the Visual Studio blog, Stephanie Su discusses Preview Features in Visual Studio
- On the Visual Studio blog, Mads Kristensen (@mkristensen) writes that Async loaded .NET projects may impact Visual Studio extensions
- Maxim Zhukov (@my_fsou1) lists the Top 5 Azure App Configuration Features
- On Microsoft Cloud Show, Andrew Connell (@andrewconnell) presents Episode 314 | Azure is the new Mainframe with Steve Steuart
- On the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoag (@msclouditpro) discuss Episode 137 – Azure and Office 365 News
DevOps
Covering: Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations, Azure DevOps Projects, Azure Lab Services
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Anisha Pindoria (@anishapindoria) covers What's new in Azure DevOps Sprint 155 with Romi Koifman
- On the .NET Curry blog, Subodh Sohoni (@subodhsohoni) discusses Azure DevOps for Angular Applications
- Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Jeff Hostetler (@jeffhostetler) provides A Deep Dive into Git Performance using Trace2
- Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Romi Koifman (@MsRomik) explains how to Get insights into your teams health with Azure Boards Reports
- Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Sasha Rosenbaum (@DivineOps) lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2019.08.02
- Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) explains how to Integrate Azure DevOps with Teams
- On Channel 9, Damian Brady (@damovisa) talks about Working with Azure DevOps using the Azure DevOps CLI with George Verghese
- The Azure updates team explains how to Create virtual machines (VMs) using an earlier shared image version in DevTest Labs
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory, Multi-factor Authentication, Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Azure Active Directory B2C
- Freek Berson (@fberson) blogs about Using FIDO2 security keys with Windows Virtual Desktop!
- Anuj Chaudhary explains how to Handle Conditional Access challenge for Privileged Identity Management on Microsoft Graph
Integration
Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid
- Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) blogs about Securing Logic App with Azure AD authentication using API Management
- On the Serverless360 blog, Surya Venkatasubramanian covers Azure Event Hubs vs Service Bus
- Michael Crump (@mbcrump) posts Tip 214 - Explicitly Name Logic API Connections
Internet of Things
Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere
- The Azure updates team writes about the Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service—June 2019 update
- On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) describes how to Onboard to Azure Security Center for IoT with Lior Lukov
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 Azure blog, Sujay Talasila (@sujaytalasila) writes about Disaster recovery of Azure disk encryption V2 enabled virtual machines
- The Azure updates team shares a number of updates Azure Cost Management updates—July 2019, New budgets creation experience is now available, the Azure updates team New Tools are now available in Azure Cloud Shell, Azure Site Recovery is now available in new Azure regions, Azure Backup is available in new Azure regions and Azure Monitor for Containers with Prometheus support for AKS engines is now in preview
- Sam Cogan (@samcogan) writes WTH is Azure Lighthouse?
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains How To Find The Recovery Services Vault For an Azure VM With PowerShell
- Mark Heath (@mark_heath) writes about Automating Application Insights extension
- Michael Crump (@mbcrump) posts Tip 213 - Working with the Azure billing and cost management API
Media
Covering: Media services, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Media Analytics, Video Indexer
- The Azure updates team highlight that Media Services is now available in both South Africa regions
Microsoft Azure Stack
Covering: Azure Stack
Migration
Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box
- On the Azure blog, John 'JG' Chirapurath (@OriginalJGC) writes that Azure and Informatica team up to remove barriers for cloud analytics migration
- On the Azure podcast, The Azure podcast team (@AzurePodcast) presents Episode 291 - Azure Data Box Edge with Stephanie Krieger
- On the Azure Citadel blog, Richard Cheney (@RichCheneyAzure) writes about Azure Migrate
- On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) talks about Azure Foundation for nonprofits with Jane Mareth
Mobile
Covering: App Service (Mobile), Notification Hubs, Mobile apps, API apps, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin
- On Channel 9, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) talks about Improved Android Startup Times with Startup Tracing with Jon Douglas
- Also on Channel 9, Maddy Leger (@maddyleger1) provides another Xamarin.Forms 101: XAML Previewer
Networking
Covering: ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Virtual Network, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Network Watcher
- On the Azure blog, Ram Balakrishnan walks through Building Resilient ExpressRoute Connectivity for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
- The Azure updates team highlights the Azure Firewall feature updates for July 2019
- Christiaan Brinkhoff (@Brinkhoff_C) explains how to Transform your mobile phone into a Workspace! Learn here How to use Samsung DeX to start your Windows Virtual Desktop Apps and Desktops on Azure
- Kumar Allamraju (@kumarallamraju) posts Tip 215 - Reusing Network Service Groups across Virtual Machines
Security
Covering: Azure Information Protection, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection
- The Azure updates team writes that Cross-tenant management is now supported in Azure Security Center
- On the Codit blog, Tom Kerkhove (@TomKerkhove) writes about The danger of using config.AddAzureKeyVault() in .NET Core
- Bill Wilder (@codingoutloud) provides resources for the Talk: Are all these Azure security features for me
- On the Tech Radar site, Anthony Spadafora writes that Microsoft launches Azure Security Lab for greater cloud protection
Storage
Covering: Storage, StorSimple, Data Lake Store, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, File Storage, Storage Explorer, Archive Storage
- On the Azure blog, Kumail Hussain writes that We're making Azure Archive Storage better with new lower pricing
- On the Azure blog, Yuemin Lu writes about Better security with enhanced access control experience in Azure Files
- The Azure updates team writes that Azure Blob Storage on IoT Edge is now generally available, highlights that Azure NetApp Files is now available in three new regions and highlights that Azure Geo and Zone Redundant Storage in public preview
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains How To Copy Files From One Azure Storage Account To Another
- Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) provides an Azure Storage Intro
Web
Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service
- The Azure updates team writes that the Navigator now provides dependency mapping and change analysis in App Service Diagnostics, highlights the Azure API Management updates for August and highlights that Easy tables and easy APIs will be removed from Azure App Service on November 11, 2019
- On the Premier Developer blog, Chris Tjoumas explains how to Configure Azure App Service for 64-bit platform and Node.js
- Kunal Chandratre discusses Azure API Management – Restrict users to specific products using Azure custom roles based RBAC
- On the Codit blog, Toon Vanhoutte (@ToonVanhoutte) describes how to Control your Azure Functions securely through Azure API Management
- On Code Project, Vincent Maverick Durano writes about ASP.NET Core and Blazor Code Venture: Configuring Azure AD Authentication
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