Azure Weekly Issue 240: 1st September 2019
Amongst this week's updates, we've been informed that Azure is now available from new cloud regions in Switzerland, and that there are now 31 new Azure edge sites, to help optimize network performance around the world. Also in this week's edition, Bryan Soltis discusses Using a Custom Translator with Azure Cognitive Services, and Charbel Nemnom has described How To Enable Immediate Sync On Azure File Share With Azure File Sync.
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, Prasanth Pulavarthi blogs about PyTorch on Azure: Full support for PyTorch 1.2
- On the Premier Developer blog, Randy Park provides an Introduction to ML.NET with Permutation Feature Importance
- Also on the Premier Developer blog, Bryan Soltis (@bryan_soltis) describes Using a Custom Translator with Azure Cognitive Services
- On Channel 9, Qun Ying (@yingquncn) talks about Anomaly Detector v1.0 Best Practices
- On Microsoft Cloud blogs, Manash Goswami and Faith Xu write Now available: ONNX Runtime 0.5 with support for edge hardware acceleration
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 blogs about the Azure Data Factory If Condition Activity
- The Azure updates team highlights the Azure Data Factory Mapping Data Flows Adds SQL Scripts to Sink Transformation
- Adam Marczak (@MarczakIO) talks about Azure Data Factory Parametrization
- Also on the MSSQL Tips site, Ron L'Esteve discusses Using Azure Databricks to Query Azure SQL Database
- Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) walks through Setting Azure Analysis Services Server Properties Not Visible In SQL Server Management Studio
Compute
Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
- Jason Roberts (@robertsjason) walks through Understanding Azure Durable Functions - Part 9: The Asynchronous HTTP API Pattern and Part 10 The Monitor Pattern
- On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Arpan Shah (@arpanshah) writes about Azure and VMware innovation and momentum
- The Azure updates team writes that Service Fabric Azure Files Volume Driver is now generally available
Containers
Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers
- Sam Cogan (@samcogan) walks through Updating Windows Nodes in AKS Windows Preview
- Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) discusses Configuration options 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
- On the Azure SQL Database blog, Jovan Popovic (@jocapc) describes how to Increase data file size to improve HammerDB workload performance on General Purpose Managed Instance and on the Azure SQL Database blog, explains how to Automate migration to Managed Instance using PowerShell
- Also on the Azure SQL Database blog, Jeroen ter Heerdt (@jeroenterheerdt) highlights the New Data Exposed episode: Demo – Vnet Firewall Rules for SQL Database
- Tobias Zimmergren blogs about Building scalable cloud systems with great performance using Azure Cache for Redis
Developer Tools
Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench
- Mike Pfeiffer (@mike_pfeiffer) presents 036: Azure vs. AWS with Tim Warner
- On the Azure blog, Christine Alford (@heyalford) discusses Azure Marketplace new offers – Volume 42
- On Code Project, Glenn Prince (@Glenn_Prince) walks through Building a Discord Bot in Azure using Microservices
- On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Tom Keane (@tomwkeane) writes that Microsoft Azure available from new cloud regions in Switzerland
- Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) also highlights that Microsoft Azure Regions in Switzerland now available
DevOps
Covering: Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations, Azure DevOps Projects, Azure Lab Services
- Mariano Gomez covers PowerApps | Introduction to Build Tools for Azure DevOps
- Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) writes about Managing cloud training environments inside Azure and AWS
- On the Black Marble blog, Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) writes about a Strange issue with multiple calls to the same REST WebClient in PowerShell
- On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, the Industry Team describes How DeVry adopted Azure Lab Services to unify learning environments
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Alessandro Segala (@ItalyPaleAle) talks about Enabling DevSecOps with Synopsys and Microsoft
- Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Sasha Rosenbaum (@DivineOps) lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2019.08.23
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory, Multi-factor Authentication, Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Azure Active Directory B2C
Integration
Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid
- Antariksh Mistry writes about Logic App / On-Premise SQL connectivity with & without Integration Service Environment ISE – Part 1
- Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) covers The value proposition of AWS Eventbridge and Azure Event Grid
- On the Serverless360 blog, Balasubramaniam Murugesan blogs about Azure Service Bus Session Enabled Message Processing
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 Pendleton (@ChrisPendleton) talks about Harnessing the power of the Location of Things with Azure Maps
- On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) describes how to Simplify and Automate Azure IoT Edge Devices Deployment in Global Projects with Sarah Beaudoin
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, Mayuri Gupta describes how to Track the health of your disaster recovery with Log Analytics
- The Azure updates team provides a number of updates: Azure Cost Management – Save and share customized views, Azure Monitor Application Insights variable retention is now available in preview, Its now easier to share customized views in Azure Cost Management, Azure Site Recovery update rollup 39—August 2019 and Azure Backup now provides soft delete capability to help protect hybrid backups
- On Bennett Adelson blog, Bennett Adelson Consulting (@Bennett_Adelson) covers Backup and Disaster Recovery
- Stanislav Zhelyazkov (@StanZhelyazkov) writes Azure Monitor Alert Series Part 3
- Stefan Roth (@stefanroth_net) talks about Azure Monitor – Application Insights Status Monitor v2 (Part 1)
- Tobias Zimmergren writes Use the Azure Portal Desktop App
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
- On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Kim Kischel (@KimKischel) and Alex Esibov write about Advanced security for any app in your organization
Migration
Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box
Mobile
Covering: App Service (Mobile), Notification Hubs, Mobile apps, API apps, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin
- On Code Project, Ahmed Fouad (@MCC_Ahmed) writes a few blogs on Xamarin: Building a data form with validation in 3 minutes using AOP, Easy ListView With Load more in xamarin forms, Adding Loader/Progress to your xamarin App using Postsharp. and Boost Your Xamarin App Development With Meta Programming
Networking
Covering: ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Virtual Network, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Network Watcher
- Richard M. Hicks (@richardhicks) writes about an Always On VPN with Azure Gateway
- On the Azure blog, Raman Deep Singh writes that Azure Load Balancer becomes more efficient
- On the Azure blog, Yousef Khalidi (@YousefkAzure) writes that Latency is the new currency of the Cloud: Announcing 31 new Azure edge sites
Security
Covering: Azure Information Protection, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection
Storage
Covering: Storage, StorSimple, Data Lake Store, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, File Storage, Storage Explorer, Archive Storage
- On the Premier Developer blog, Omer Amin writes that Azure Ultra Disk Storage is here
- On the Serverless360 blog, Nadeem Ahamed writes about Azure Blob Storage vs File Storage
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains How To Enable Immediate Sync On Azure File Share With Azure File Sync
- The Azure updates team highlights the Storage Ultra Disks meter name change
- Michael Crump (@mbcrump) posts Tip 221 - Use Blazor and C to host a static website in Azure Storage
Web
Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service
- On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) provides some Azure API Management updates - serverless, schemas, and a new dev portal with Mike Budzynski
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