Azure Weekly

Issue #280 - 21st June 2020

Welcome to the 280th edition of Azure Weekly! This week endjin had the privilege to be a part of the Azure Synapse Analytics "how it works" global virtual event! Over the past year we've been working with the Synapse Product Group, putting it through its paces, andwe are very impressed with the results! Here Jess Panni highlights his Talk about Azure Synapse on Microsoft Mechanics which formed part of the event. This is is real data, and a real world business problem and there are no edits or time jumps, all the queries are happening in real time. Well worth a watch!

There have also been a couple of announcements from the Azure team about reliability for Azure Storage: Azure geo-zone-redundant storage is now generally available, and Azure Storage account failover is now generally available

And in an interesting case study, Kirsten Walker explores how the Town of Cary innovates flood prediction with IoT.

⚙️ AI + Machine Learning

On the Azure blog, Julia White (@julwhite) announces that Azure Machine Learning scholarships and courses are available with Udacity
On Azure Tips and Tricks, Michael Crump (@mbcrump) describes Using the Bot Framework Composer tool

🔎 Analytics

On the endjin blog, Jess Panni (@JessPanni) highlights his Talk about Azure Synapse on Microsoft Mechanics
Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) gives An Introduction to Azure Data Factory REST API, explains how to Configure Azure Data Factory Security for the ADF REST API and highlights that Azure Data Factory Supports Excel Files
Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) blogs about how to Implement UpSert using Dataflow Alter Row Transformation in Azure Data Factory and how to Assign values to Pipeline Arrays in ForEach activity using Append Variable in Azure Data Factory
On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) delves into how to Process Analysis Service with only Data Factory and how to Pause and Resume Analysis Services with ADF only

🖥️ Compute

The Azure updates team announces that New Azure Virtual Machines for general purpose and memory intensive workloads are now in preview
Mikhail Shilkov (@MikhailShilkov) explains how to Eliminate Cold Starts by Predicting Invocations of Serverless Functions
Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) describes how to solve the error: “Storage is not Configured” in Azure Function Apps
Fabrizio Accatino shares Some scalability tests on Azure Functions

🚢 Containers

The Azure updates team announces that Private AKS clusters are now generally available in Azure Government and that Azure Monitor for containers now supports log collection on AKS Windows node pools in preview
On the DEV site, Abhishek Gupta (@abhi_tweeter) writes about Kafka on Kubernetes, the Strimzi way (Part 2)
Also on the DEV site, Michael Crump (@mbcrump) explains how to Use Azure Kubernetes Service Diagnostics
Pixel Robots. highlights the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) node Image upgrade – Preview
Dave Rendn explains how to Deploy WordPress on Azure Kubernetes Service
Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) walks through Upgrading the node image of an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster
On the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag (@ciphertxt) discusses Hands-On Kubernetes on Azure with Nills Franssens
On the Azure podcast, Mikkel Mørk Hegnhøj describes Windows Containers in AKS

🗄️ Databases

Mark Heath (@mark_heath) asks: Which Database should I use in my Azure Serverless App?
On Channel 9, Katie Smith (@KatieSmithSQL) talks about Elastic Jobs in Azure SQL Database - Part 1
On the Azure SQL Database blog, Dimitri Furman highlights the Improved concurrency of asynchronous statistics update
On the SQL Server Blog, Alan Yu (@AlanYuSQL) highlights that The June 2020 release of Azure Data Studio is now available
On the Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave blog, Pinal Dave (@pinaldave) talks about Azure Data Studio- Export Any SQL SERVER Query As JSON and Azure Data Studio – Explain SQL Server Execution Plan

🛠️ Developer Tools

Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) explains How to Configure Azure CLI Default Output Format
On the Premier Developer blog, Kurt Schenk describes How to Debug and Step Into Service Fabric SDK Source Code

🔩 DevOps

Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) speaks with Steve Hickman on DevOps in K-12
On the .NET Curry blog, Subodh Sohoni (@subodhsohoni) discusses Pipelines in Azure DevOps Build and Deployment
On the Black Marble blog, Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) blogs about Getting started with Aggregator CLI for Azure DevOps Work Item Roll-up
On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Divya Vaishnavi (@divyavaishnavi) writes about An alternative to the Azure DevOps App in the Microsoft Teams app store
On Microsoft + Open Source, Mohammed Zehgir announces the Azure DevOps Provider for Terraform
On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Tanmayee Kamath explains how to Create formulas using shared image gallery images in DevTest Labs and highlights that Azure DevTest Labs is now available in Switzerland regions

🧬 Hybrid

Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) blogs about Azure Arc Enabled Servers Extension Management
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Monitor for Containers support for Azure Arc is in preview
On the Sharegate blog, Elle Crosby describes How Azure Arc can help you manage and govern your hybrid servers

🎭 Identity

On the Azure blog, Brenda Bell highlights that New general purpose and memory-optimized Azure Virtual Machines with Intel are now available
Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) blogs about Working with Azure EasyAuth Azure App Service Authentication and .NET Core 3.1

🔌 Integration

On the MSSQL Tips site, Fikrat Azizov explains how to Automate Azure Analysis Services Management Tasks using Logic App - Part 3
On the Planet Geek blog, Daniel Marbach (@danielmarbach) continues his deep dive on Azure Service Bus .NET SDK – Deduplication
The Azure updates team announces that System topics are now an Azure resource and that Azure Quota REST APIs to manage service limits quota are now available in preview

💡 Internet of Things

On the Azure blog, David Burt writes about how New Azure maps make identifying local compliance options easy
The Azure updates team announces that Azure Sphere OS update 20.06 is now available for compatibility testing, covers the Azure IoT Central jobs and metrics feature updates (May 2020), highlights some Recommended code changes to accommodate updates to Azure Time Series Insights and announces that An update to Python SDK v2 for Azure IoT has been released
On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch (@obloch) talks about some Low Power Scenarios with Azure Sphere
On the Azure blog, Kirsten Walker writes about how the Town of Cary innovates flood prediction with IoT

⚖️ Management and Governance

On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Configure Azure Advisor for Specific Resources, how to Set up Digests for Azure Advisor Recommendation and covers How to check your Azure Subscription Support Plan
On the Azure blog, Michael Flanakin (@flanakin) covers the Azure Cost Management + Billing updates – May 2020
The Azure updates team announces that Budgets in Cost Management now accounts threshold edits and alert limits above 100%, that Azure Monitor for Virtual Machines is now in preview in US Gov Arizona and announces the Public Preview for Azure Monitor for VMs on Arc Enabled Servers
On the DEV site, Chris Noring (@chris_noring) writes: Learn how you can use Infrastructure as Code
Also on the Azure blog, Ahmed Sabbour talks about Cost optimization strategies for cloud-native application development
Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) writes: What is Azure Bastion?
Also on the Azure blog, Arpan Shah (@arpanshah) explains how to Minimize disruption with cost-effective backup and disaster recovery solutions on Azure
On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Enable or disable pop-up notifications in Azure Portal
On the Azure blog, Alec Becker explains how to Achieve higher performance and cost savings on Azure with virtual machine bursting
Also on the Azure blog, Arpan Shah (@arpanshah) writes about Seven ways to achieve cost savings and deliver efficiencies with Azure infrastructure
Also on the Azure blog, Girish Bablani explains how to Optimize costs and increase agility with the latest SAP on Azure offerings
Also on the Azure blog, Omar Khan explains how to Optimize your Azure costs to help meet your financial objectives
On the MSSQL Tips site, Mohammed Moinudheen blogs about using Azure Recovery Services Vault to Backup File Shares
Also on the Azure blog, Christoph Siegert covers Making your data residency choices easier with Azure
On the Core Infrastructure and Security Blog, Helder Pinto, Premier Field Engineer, writes Augmenting Azure Advisor Cost Recommendations for Automated Continuous Optimization – Part 2

🚌 Migration

On the Hanu blog, Imran Khan has written a few articles around migration:
Top Drivers and Best Practices for Migrating Citrix to Microsoft Azure,
The Benefits and Challenges of Migrating PeopleSoft to the Azure Cloud,
Why Organizations are Choosing to Migrate Their SQL Databases to Microsoft Azure
and Migrating SAP to the Azure Cloud for Accelerated Digital Transformation
The Azure updates team announces that Assessment of imported servers is now generally available in Azure Migrate
On the DEV site, Lena Hall announces the Applied Cloud Stories Winning Entries
On the Azure blog, Jeremy Winter runs through how to Be prepared for what’s next: Accelerate cloud migration

📱 Mobile

On the DEV site, Laurent Bugnion blogs about Building a notifications client with Xamarin and Azure
On Channel 9, James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) talks about Cross-platform Images Simplified with Resizetizer.NT with Jonathan Dick

🌐 Networking

Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) covers Securing A Storage Account Static Website Using VNet Web Application Firewall
The Azure updates team highlights some Web Application Firewall for Azure Front Door service logging enhancements and announces that Azure Private Link for Azure Batch is now generally available in select regions

🔐 Security

On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) writes about how to Quickly Check Azure Resources Security Hygiene
Thuan Nguyen explains why you should Be careful when you have escape char in Key Vault secret value
Marcel Zehner (@marcelzehner) describes Azure Security Center – Workflow Automation
On Channel 9, Scott Hanselman and Yuri Diogenes discuss Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) with Azure Security Center
On Channel 9, Dmitry Sotnikov talks about API Security with 42Crunch
On the Azure blog, Talal Alqinawi writes about Six reasons customers trust Azure to run their SAP solutions

📦 Storage

On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) writes about how to Automatically update Access Tier in Azure Blob Storage and explains how to Enable / Disable Automated Access Tier Change Rules in Azure Blob Storage
The Azure updates team covers Azure Storage account failover is now generally available and announces that Azure geo-zone-redundant storage is now generally available
Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains How To Enable and Disable Soft Delete for Azure File Shares Via REST APIs

🔗 Web

Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) talks about Running .NET 5 on Azure App Services

💻 Windows Virtual Desktop

Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) discusses hoe to Auto Start and Stop Session Hosts in Windows Virtual Desktop Spring Update (ARM) Edition with an Azure Function