Azure Weekly Issue 239: 25th August 2019

This week, we've seen the GA of a few different services/features; two of which are the general availability of Python support in Azure Functions (i.e. it's now ready for your production workloads!), and the general availability of SQL Data Discovery & Classification, a feature used for the discovery, classification, labeling & the protecting of sensitive data in your Azure SQL databases and warehouses. Elsewhere, Jason Roberts has written part 8 of his Durable Functions series, where he talks about the Fan Out/Fan In Pattern, and Daniele Polencic has written a detailed blog on Getting started with Terraform and Kubernetes on AKS.

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 podcast, The Azure podcast team (@AzurePodcast) presents Episode 293 - ONNX Runtime with Faith Xu
• On Channel 9, Seth Juarez (@sethjuarez) describes how to Bring Anomaly Detector on-premises with containers support with Qun Ying

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, Fikrat Azizov provides an Azure Data Factory Control Flow Activities Overview
• The Azure updates team highlights the New Quick Action Transformations Added to Data Factory Mapping Data Flows
• Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) provides an Azure Databricks Intro

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, Daria Grigoriu (@DariaGrigoriu) announces the general availability of Python support in Azure Functions
• The Azure updates team writes that the Azure Function Consumption plan for Linux is now generally available
• Jason Roberts (@robertsjason) writes Understanding Azure Durable Functions - Part 7: The Function Chaining Pattern and Part 8: The Fan Out/Fan In Pattern
• On Channel 9, Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) provides An introduction to Azure Dedicated Hosts with Ziv Rafalovich
• On the Serverless360 blog, The serverless360 team summarizes Azure Functions Live – August 2019

Containers

Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers

• The Azure updates team talks about Egress lockdown in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now generally available
• Mark Heath (@mark_heath) describes how to Run Azure Functions in Kubernetes with KEDA
• Richard Seroter (@rseroter) blogs about Building an Azure-powered Concourse pipeline for Kubernetes – Part 1: Setup, Part 2: Packaging and containerizing code and Part 3: Deploying containers to Kubernetes
• James van den Berg (@JamesvandenBerg) talks about Installing and Maintaining Azure Kubernetes Service Cluster
• On the learnk8s blog, Daniele Polencic (@danielepolencic) describes Getting started with Terraform and Kubernetes on Azure AKS

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

• Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) describes Scaling dimensions inside Azure CosmosDB
• The Azure updates team provides a few updates: Global trace flags are now available in Azure SQL Database Managed Instance, Same region read replica is now available for Azure Database for MariaDB and Azure SQL provides a unified management experience
• On the Azure SQL Database blog, Michal Bar announces the General Availability of SQL Data Discovery & Classification
• Also on the Azure SQL Database blog, Ninar Nuemah (@NinarNuemah) writes about the Unified Azure SQL experience
• Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) writes about the New Centralized View of SQL Resources in Azure
• On Channel 9, Colin Murphy and Ninar Nuemah talk about the Azure SQL unified Azure portal experience
• On the Azure SQL Database blog, Jovan Popovic (@jocapc) describes how to Track unauthorized backups using Azure SQL Managed Instance Audits
• James Serra (@JamesSerra) writes about the New product: Azure Data Share
• Kumar Allamraju (@kumarallamraju) posts Tip 219 - Open Source RDBMS Databases in Azure

Developer Tools

Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench

• The Azure updates team writes about the New Azure Blockchain SDK updates with Truffle
• On Channel 9, Cale Teeter and Chris Segura describes how to Interact With Your Smart Contracts with New Drizzle-based Functionality in the Azure Blockchain Development Kit
• On the Visual Studio blog, John Miller (@jmillerdev) explains how to Make games with Visual Studio for Mac and Unity
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Mark Downie (@poppastring) explains how to Find solutions faster by analyzing crash dumps in Visual Studio
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Ruben Rios (@rub8n) covers The PowerShell you know and love now with a side of Visual Studio
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Taysser Gherfal (@taysser) walks through Getting Started with GitHub Actions in Visual Studio
• On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Stephane Eyskens (@stephaneeyskens) provides The Cloud-native Azure Application Architect Map
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) posts Tip 218 - Build and deploy your first app with the Azure SDK for Java on Azure
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) explains How to pick the right Azure Exam Certification Path

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) talks about What's new in Azure DevOps Sprint 156 with Marina Lukoshko
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Aram Maliachi writes about Understanding delta file changes and merge conflicts in Git pull requests
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Karthik RG announces the Azure Repos app for Slack
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Sasha Rosenbaum (@DivineOps) lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2019.08.16
• On the Premier Developer blog, Aditya Bajaj explains how to Prevent reopening work item once closed Azure DevOps (with Video)
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) writes about The Secret Sauce That Devs Dont Want IT Pros to Know About
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Erin Dormier writes Now available: Azure DevOps Server 2019 Update 1 RTW
• Stefan Roth (@stefanroth_net) writes about Azure DevOps – Commit URL on Azure Resource Tag Part 1 and Part 2
• On TechNet, Jayendran Arumugam (@Jayendran_A) writes about AzureDevOps: CICD for PowerBI Reports

Identity

Covering: Azure Active Directory, Multi-factor Authentication, Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Azure Active Directory B2C

• On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) provides An introduction to decentralized identities with Danny Strockis
• The Azure updates team highlights the General availability of user-assigned managed identities for App Service and Azure Functions and highlights the General availablility of Managed Identity for Linux in App Service and Functions

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• On the Azure blog, Skyler Hartle (@skylerhartle) describes Reducing SAP implementations from months to minutes with Azure Logic Apps
• On the Perficient blog, Jennifer Gyles-Bedford blogs about Working with Dynamics 365 Date and Time Fields in Logic Apps
• Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) describes Enhancing Logic Apps security with obfuscation
• Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) writes about Excel files – Azure and BizTalk Server
• On the Serverless360 blog, Priya Latha describes how to Search Logic Apps Run or Trigger History

Internet of Things

Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere

• On the Azure blog, Chris Green announces that IoT Plug and Play is now available in preview
• Also on the Azure blog, Ed Nightingale talks about Azure Sphere's customized Linux-based OS

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, Michael Greene (@migreene) writes about the Preview of custom content in Azure Policy guest configuration
• Matthew Soucoup (@CodeMillMatt) explains how to Stop Entering Your GitHub Credentials In Azure Cloud Shell!
• The Azure updates team highlights the Azure portal August 2019 feature update and describes how to Help protect large data disks Azure Site Recovery
• Stanislav Zhelyazkov (@StanZhelyazkov) writes Azure Monitor Alert Series – Part 2

Media

Covering: Media services, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Media Analytics, Video Indexer

Microsoft Azure Stack

Covering: Azure Stack

• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) writes about Running Azure Stack HCI With Nested Resiliency On DELL EMC Ready Nodes

Migration

Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box

• On the Azure blog, Hanaa Musa describes how to Plan migration of your Hyper-V servers using Azure Migrate Server Assessment
• On the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoag (@msclouditpro) present Episode 139 – Azure Migrate v2
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about Azure Data Box Edge with Piyush

Mobile

Covering: App Service (Mobile), Notification Hubs, Mobile apps, API apps, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin

• On Channel 9, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) talks about the XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms Preview with Pierce Boggan

Networking

Covering: ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Virtual Network, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Network Watcher

• The Azure updates team writes that Just-in-time JIT VM access for Azure Firewall is now generally available

Security

Covering: Azure Information Protection, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection

• On the Azure blog, Miri Landau and Rotem Lurie write that Azure Security Center single click remediation and Azure Firewall JIT support
• On the Azure blog, Sachin Ghorpade and Rohit Kumar Cherukuri blog about IRAP protected compliance from infra to SAP application layer on Azure
• the Azure updates team covers Security Center now has single click remediation to boost your security posture (in preview)

Storage

Covering: Storage, StorSimple, Data Lake Store, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, File Storage, Storage Explorer, Archive Storage

• Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) covers Azure Storage tiers and availability
• On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Xin Huang writes about the Azure Archive Storage expanded capabilities: faster, simpler, better
• The Azure updates team writes about the New Copy APIs for efficient data copy in Azure Blob Storage
• Kumar Allamraju (@kumarallamraju) posts Tip 220 - Move your data from AWS S3 to Azure Blob Storage using AzCopy

Web

Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service

• The Azure updates team highlights the pricing decrease for Azure App Service on the Premium plan