Azure Weekly Issue 260: 2nd February 2020

This week Microsoft announced their Q2 earning: commercial cloud hits $50 billion annual run rate, with Azure revenue up 62%. Impressive numbers indeed.

Last year endjin spent 12 weeks building an Azure solution to help process over 1.5B rows of data to display to the user in less then 3 seconds. This was powered by the incredibly powerful, yet often overlooked Azure Analysis Services. James Broome, Director of Engineering, is writing an 8 part series on this service. The first two were published this week: 8 reasons why you might want to integrate into a custom application and Integration options using .NET, REST APIs and PowerShell.

We've also released a detailed, 37 minute step-by-step customer propensity experiment with Azure Machine Learning Studio video by Ed Freeman (@edfreeman_) on the endjin YouTube channel. It's a great real world example, guiding you through each step and explaining each concept. There's a reason why Ed won the National Computing Rising "Cloud Apprentice" award 2019!

Other highlights this week include Jason Roberts (@robertsjason) blogged about Creating Azure Functions with Function Monkey, and Azure MVP Callon Campbell (@flying_maverick) highlights the Azure Spring Clean 2020 online community event.

Two other articles that caught my attention were Azure Data Factory is now available in South Africa North and Roelf Zomerman's detailed post on Highly Available Firewalls and Proxies in Azure - which contains lots of great examples.

AI + Machine Learning

Covering: Anomaly detector, Azure Bot Service, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Open Datasets, Bing APIs, Cognitive Services, Computer Vision, Content moderator, Custom vision, Data Science Virtual Machines, Face, Form Recogniser, Immersive Reader, Ink Recogniser, Language Understanding (LUIS), Machine Learning Studio, Microsoft Genomics, ML.NET, Personaliser, Project Cortex, QnA Maker, Speaker Recognition, Speech-to-Text, Speech translation, Text Analytics, Text to Speech , Translator Speech, Translator Text

• On Channel 9, Seth Juarez (@sethjuarez) talks toVishwac Sena Kannan about the Bot Framework Composer on the AI Show.
• On the DEV site, Dmitry Soshnikov blogs about The Best Way to Start With Azure Machine Learning
• The Azure updates team talks about Azure Cognitive Services Translator Text—Five new languages added (Irish, Punjabi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Portuguese).

Analytics

Covering: Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Share, Azure Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Catalog, Data Factory, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, HDInsight, .NET for Apache Spark, R Server for HDInsight

• On the endjin blog, James Broome (@broomej) covers Azure Analysis Services – integration options using .NET, REST APIs and PowerShell and shares Azure Analysis Services: 8 reasons why you might want to integrate into a custom application
• The Azure updates team announces Azure Data Factory is now available in South Africa North and discusses Data Factory Adds Managed Identity Support to Data Flows
• Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) describes Error – Failed to start the (SSIS) integration runtime
• Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) talks about Parameterizing a REST API Linked Service in Data Factory

Blockchain

Covering: Azure Blockchain Service, Azure Blockchain Tokens, Azure Blockchain Workbench

• On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, The Azure Team writes that Hyperledger Fabric on Azure Kubernetes Service Marketplace template

Compute

Covering: Azure CycleCloud, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure Functions, Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple, Batch, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances, Service Fabric, Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets

• Jason Roberts (@robertsjason) blogs about Creating Azure Functions with Function Monkey–First Look
• On the Codit blog, Tom Kerkhove (@TomKerkhove) asks Why is my Azure Function host permanently stopped?
• On the Serverless360 blog, Priya Latha discusses Azure Functions Triggers and Bindings
• The Azure updates team highlights that Azure Backup now supports selective disk backup and restore using Azure Virtual machine backup solution
• On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, the Azure Team writes about 10 recommendations for cloud privacy and security with Ponemon research
• Anupama Natarajan (@shantha05) highlights Data Platform Tips 63 - Azure HDInsight and VM Sizes and covers Data Platform Tips 64 - Recommended node configuration and VM sizes for HDInsight Clusters

Containers

Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers

• On the DEV site, Abhishek Gupta (@abhi_tweeter) asks What is a Node resource group in Azure Kubernetes Service?
• Pixel Robots. explains how to Create an Azure Kubernetes Service AKS cluster with Azure AD integration using the Azure CLI

Databases

Covering: Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for MariaDB, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database Edge, Azure Cache for Redis, SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server on virtual machines, SQL Server Stretch Database, Table storage

• On the Azure Medium blog, Luca Zavarella explains how to Get Correctly Formatted Deep-Nested JSON Files At Scale Directly From Azure SQL Server
• On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) covers Schedule Up/Downscale Azure SQL Database - Az, and Schedule Up/Downscale Azure SQL Database - API and Schedule Up/Downscale Azure SQL Database - TSQL
• On the Azure podcast, Bob Ward appears on Episode 313 - SQL 2019 Big Data Clusters

Developer Tools

Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online

• On the Visual Studio blog, Dominic Nahous (@DomsterFire) writes about Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5 Preview 2 is available
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Ulzii Luvsanbat covers Whats New in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5 Preview 2 for C++, Xamarin, and Azure Tooling Experiences
• On the DEV site, Brian Clark (@_clarkio) blogs about Decorators - Building an API in Python with Flask
• Also on the DEV site, Chris Noring (@chris_noring) describes How YOU can learn Serverless with .NET Core and C#
• On Visual Studio Magazine - Columns, David Ramel presents Didact Project Walks Through Tutorials in Visual Studio Code

DevOps

Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations

• Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) interviews Abel Wang on DevOps Infrastructure - Episode 73
• Clemens Reijnen (@ClemensReijnen) covers Delivering continuous value in the enterprise cloud
• Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) talks about Azure DevOps, Software Development, and Git Part 2 – Distributed Version Control and Part 3 – Command-Line
• On the DEV site, Chris Noring (@chris_noring) explains how to Learn how YOU can add CI/CD to your app
• Also on the DEV site, Jen Looper (@jenlooper) explains how to Deploy your Website on Azure with GitHub Actions like a Hipster
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Sasha Rosenbaum (@DivineOps) lists the Top Stories from the Microsoft DevOps Community – 2020.01.31
• On the Premier Developer blog, Art Garcia talks about Azure DevOps Security API demystified
• Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) writes about Azure DevOps and embracing DevSecOps
• Sam Cogan (@samcogan) writes about ARM TTK Extension for Azure DevOps
• On Channel 9, Cecil Phillip Rich Lander talks about Getting started with cloud deployments with Pulumi and .NET On .NET

Hybrid

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• The Azure updates team highlight the Azure App Service on Azure Stack Hub Update 8 Released
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Manage HPE ProLiant Server and Azure Stack HCI With Windows Admin Center

Identity

Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services

• The Azure updates team discusses Azure Backup—Soft delete for SQL Server in Azure VM and SAP HANA and Updating hardware generation in managed instance now available in Azure portal

Integration

Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus

• The Azure updates team writes about New Azure Lighthouse features are now generally available and Azure Lighthouse: New features are now generally available
• On the DEV site, Cecil L. Phillip delves into On.NET Episode: Authentication and authorization options for Azure Event Hubs

Internet of Things

Covering: Azure Digital Twins, Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Edge, Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT solution accelerators, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere, Azure Time Series Insights, IoT DevKit, WildernessLabs, Windows 10 IoT Core Services

• On the MSSQL Tips site, John Miner covers The tale of two Azure Hubs - IoT Hub and Event Hub
• On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Sally Frank describe how Azure IoT improves pharmaceutical sample management and medication adherence
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch Maallen talks about uStream – Handling big amounts of data on MCUs Internet of Things Show and about Farmbeats: AI, Edge and IoT for Agriculture Internet of Things Show

Management and Governance

Covering: Automation, Azure Advisor, Azure Backup, Azure Blueprints, Azure Lighthouse, Azure Managed Applications, Azure mobile app, Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, Azure Resource Manager, Azure Service Health, Azure Site Recovery, Cloud Shell, Cost Management, Microsoft Azure portal, Sceduler

• On the Hanu blog, Dave Sasson covers The Microsoft Customer Agreement is Replacing Your EA
• On ZDNet, Larry Dignan covers Microsoft's Q2 surges, commercial cloud hits $50 billion annual run rate, Azure revenue up 62% and says Dear Microsoft: It's time to disclose some real sales figures for Azure
• Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) blogs about Cloud Governance, Bringing Order To Your Cloud Chaos – Podcast
• The Azure updates team describes Upgrade to new solution for Azure Monitor for virtual machines, blogs about Azure Site Recovery now supports customer-managed keys and Azure Cost Management and billing updates—January 2020
• On Channel 9, Ayesha Ghaffar joins Donovan Brown to talk about How to get started with Azure using Azure Quickstart Center Azure Friday
• Callon Campbell blogs about the Azure Spring Clean 2020 community event.
• On the Premier Developer blog, Kyle Johnson describes Accessing Azure Resource Consumption Data Using .NET

Media

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

• On the Azure blog, Itay Arbel writes about Six things to consider when using Video Indexer at scale

Mixed Reality

Covering: Kinect DK, Remote rendering, Spatial anchors

Migration

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

• On Microsoft Cloud Blogs, Hanaa Musa explains how to Assess your servers with a CSV import into Azure Migrate
• Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) blogs about Speaking at TechDays 2020

Mobile

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

Networking

Covering: Application Gateway, Azure Bastion, Azure DNS, Azure ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, Azure Firewall Manager, Azure Front Door, Azure Internet Analyzer, Azure Private Link, Content Delivery Network, Load Balancer, Network Watcher, Traffic Manager, Virtual Network, Virtual WAN, VPN Gateway, Web Application Firewall

• Roelf Zomerman writes about Highly Available Firewalls and Proxies in Azure
• On the Azure Citadel blog, Richard Cheney (@RichCheneyAzure) describes Networking labs

Security

Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center

• Thuan Nguyen explains how to Get all comments in an Azure Sentinel incident programmatically, describes Threat Detection for Key Vault in Azure Security Center and explains how to Enable Microsoft Defender ATP integration in Azure Security Center programmatically

Storage

Covering: Archive Storage, Avere vFXT for Azure, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure FXT Edge Filer, Azure HPC Cache, Azure NetApp Files, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, Storage Accounts, Storage Explorer, StorSimple

• On the Check your Logs blog, Rick Vanover (@RickVanover) blogs about Upgrading Azure Storage Explorer – Manual but Mindful
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) discusses Experiencing Slow File Recall With Azure File Sync When Cloud Tiering Is Enabled
• Anupama Natarajan (@shantha05) covers Data Platform Tips 61 - Create a SAS to download file from Azure Storage and discusses Data Platform Tips 62 - Comparing Azure HDInsight cluster Storage options
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Ron L'Esteve discusses Azure Data Factory Pipeline to fully Load all SQL Server Objects to ADLS Gen2

Web

Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps

• Shahed C blogs about Deploying ASP .NET Core 3.1 to Azure App Service

Windows Virtual Desktop

Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop