Azure Weekly Issue 245: 6th October 2019

Earlier this week, we were at Future Decoded, where our customer, OceanMind, a Microsoft AI for Earth grant recipient, were featured in the keynote. Later on the first day Nick Wise, the founder & CEO of OceanMind was interviewed about the work the organisation does to combat illegal fishing, modern slavery & human trafficking on fishing vessels, and detecting illegal salvage activity over protected war graves and wreck sites. 

Also this week, we've learned that Windows Virtual Desktop is now generally available worldwide and that all Azure Cosmos DB customers now get automatic and tailored recommendations, from things like SDK upgrades, to indexing and partitioning recommendations. Elsewhere, Jen Looper has written about Machine Learning for Mobile Poets, and Deborah Chen has described how to Deploy Azure DevOps Agents through an Azure DevOps pipeline.

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

• The Azure updates team highlights that Twelve Cognitive Services are available for free with an Azure free account
• On the DEV site, Jen Looper (@jenlooper) writes about Machine Learning for Mobile Poets - Meet the eMiLy app

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 Azure blog, John 'JG' Chirapurath (@OriginalJGC) talks about The key to a data-driven culture: Timely insights
• The Azure updates team highlights the Azure HDInsight G-series VMs deprecation—Migrate before October 31, 2019
• Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) wraps up the Summer o' ADF 2019

Compute

Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances

• On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Brad Anderson and Takeshi Numoto highlight that Windows Virtual Desktop is now generally available worldwide
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) writes about the New Azure Mv2 Virtual Machines with 12TB Memory
• On Channel 9, Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) talks about How to reduce inter-VM latency with Proximity Placement Groups with Ziv Rafalovich
• Kunal Chandratre writes about Azure VMs – Export to CSV
• On the DEV site, Chris Noring (@chris_noring) highlights the Free workshop on GraphQL, Microservices, Serverless and Deploying to the Cloud, docs+ code solutions, enjoy!
• Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) explains how to Optimize build performance on Jenkins Azure worker nodes

Containers

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

• The Azure updates team writes about Azure Kubernetes Service—Retiring support for Kubernetes versions 1.11 and 1.12, writes about the Standard Load Balancers in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and writes that Managed identities integration in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now in preview
• On the DEV site, Abhishek Gupta (@abhi_tweeter) writes The definitive guide to Kubernetes Volumes (Part 2) and describes How to use custom Storage Classes in Kubernetes

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 blog, Deborah Chen (@ChenDeborah) writes that Built-in Jupyter notebooks in Azure Cosmos DB are now available
• Also on the Azure blog, Thomas Weiss highlights that Azure Cosmos DB recommendations keep you on the right track
• The Azure updates team writesa number of updates: Private Link for Azure SQL Database and Data Warehouse is now in preview, Azure Data Share—Support for sharing data from Azure SQL and SQL Data Warehouse, Azure DB for PostgreSQL: Hyperscale Citus cluster connectivity functionality is in preview and Azure DB for PostgreSQL—Cluster scalability for Hyperscale Citus is now in preview
• On the Azure SQL Database blog, Denzil Ribeiro (@DenzilRibeiro) talks about Monitoring Azure SQL Database with Telegraf
• On Channel 9, Jeroen ter Heerdt (@jeroenterheerdt) talks about Benefit from SQL VM Resource Provider when self-installing SQL Server on Azure with Mine Tokus
• On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Alan Yu (@AlanYuSQL) writes that The October 2019 release of Azure Data Studio is now available

Developer Tools

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

• The Azure updates team writes about the Recovery Services REST API—Switch to API version 2019-05-13 or above
• On the Visual Studio blog, Anand Gaurav (@adgrv) introduces solution-level NuGet Package Management in Visual Studio for Mac
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Cody Beyer (@cl_beyer) writes about Visual Studio for Mac: Top Features of the New Editor
• On the DEV site, Dave Glover (@dglover) delves into Raspberry Pi, Azure IoT Central, and Docker Container Debugging and talks about Raspberry Pi, Debugging a Python Internet of Things Application
• Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) explains how to Visualize your ARM Templates in VS Code
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Jun Han (@formulahendry) discusses the Azure IoT Tools September Update: Azure IoT Edge remote debug and more

DevOps

Covering: Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations, Azure DevOps Projects, Azure Lab Services

• Barbara Forbes (@Ba4bes) explains how to Deploy Azure DevOps Agents through an Azure DevOps pipeline
• The Azure updates team posts a number of updates: Azure DevOps—Assignment-based billing and other new features, Azure Lab Services now has an updated UI experience, Azure Lab Services can install GPU drivers automatically and Azure Lab Services now adjusts quota per user
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Romi Koifman (@MsRomik) describes how to Track the progress of work using Rollup columns
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Sasha Rosenbaum (@DivineOps) blogs about What's new in Azure DevOps Sprint 158 with Sean Ferguson and lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2019.09.27
• Justin Yoo (@justinchronicle) blogs about Azure DevOps Multi-Stage Pipelines Approval Strategies
• On Channel 9, Abel Wang (@AbelSquidHead) talks about Deploying to on-premises Windows machines with Azure DevOps - Part 2 and Part 3 with Zachary Deptawa

Identity

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

• Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) writes Managing multiple Azure customers – but how?

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• Eldert Grootenboer (@egrootenboer) explains how to Retrieve Azure Key Vault secrets from Logic Apps using Managed Identity
• On the Serverless360 blog, Nadeem Ahamed blogs about Azure Event Grid vs Event Hub
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) posts Tip 227 - Add and run JavaScript code snippets by using inline code in Azure Logic Apps
• Kay Singh (@singhkays) writes Part 3: Building a scalable 'shot-based' serverless AV1 video encoder in Azure

Internet of Things

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

• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about the IoT in Action Global Event Series - Building New Experiences, with Analisa Roberts and Sarah Maston

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

• Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) provides a Walk-through: use Azure Policy modify effect to require tags
• On the Azure blog, Michael Flanakin (@flanakin) discusses Azure Cost Management updates – September 2019
• The Azure updates team posts a number of updates: Azure Monitor Log Analytics—New capacity-based pricing option is now available, General availability: Azure Log Analytics in Switzerland North, Azure Application Insights is now available in the North Central US region and New Canada Federal PBMM Azure Blueprint is now available
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Mohammed Moinudheen explains how to Simplify Your Azure Bill by Resource Group
• On the Perficient blog, Victor Wolters blogs about Azure Subscription Transfer from Tenant to Tenant
• Julien Corioland (@jcorioland) writes about Terraform on Microsoft Azure - Part 7: Continuous Deployment using Azure Pipeline

Media

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

• The Azure updates team highlights that Azure Media Indexer is being retired

Microsoft Azure Stack

Covering: Azure Stack

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 Channel 9, Maddy Leger (@maddyleger1) provides a Xamarin.Forms 101: Getting to Know your XAML Workspace - Visual Studio 2019 for Windows

Networking

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

• On Channel 9, Donovan Brown (@DonovanBrown) talks about How to reserve a public IP range in Azure using Public IP Prefix with Anavi Nahar
• Stephane Lapointe (@s_lapointe) explains How to detect expiring certificates in Azure Application Gateway
• The Azure updates team introduces promotional pricing for data transfer to Azure Front Door

Security

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

• On the Azure blog, Lily Kim writes that Over 100 Azure services support PROTECTED Australian government data
• The Azure updates team highlights that Managing rules with adaptive application controls in Azure Security Center has improved
• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) talks about Using Azure Key Vault Secrets from your Azure DevOps pipelines, describes how to Log custom application security events in Azure Log Analytics which are ingested and used in Azure Sentinel and describes Deleting Azure Sentinel but keep the ingested data
• Gregor Suttie (@gregor_suttie) talks about the Azure Security Exam – AZ-500 Study plan and highlights Azure Security articles in September
• Jan Egil Ring (@janegilring) describes Using Azure Key Vault for local administrator password rotation

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, Raman Kumar introduces the preview of direct-upload to Azure managed disks
• Mariano Gomez blogs about Microsoft Flow | Transfer a file to Azure Storage Blob with Manually Triggered Flow

Web

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

• The Azure updates team writes about the Azure CDN from Verizon - enforcement of strict SNI connections
• On the DEV site, Yohan Lasorsa (@sinedied) explains how to Build your first serverless app with Angular, NestJS and Azure
• Also on the DEV site, Aaron Powell (@slace) writes What is your React app doing and how do we monitor it?
• Gunnar Peipman (@gpeipman) covers Hosting web application on Azure
• Ruslan Yakushev (@ruslany) describes Using ARM template to swap App Service deployment slots