Azure Weekly Issue 281: 28th June 2020
Ian Griffiths has recorded a nice tutorial on creating Custom C# Spark Jobs in Azure Synapse. There are also a couple of interesting announcements this week; Apache Spark Connector for SQL Server and Azure SQL is now open source and the Azure SDKs June 2020 release is out.
Mark Russinovich has written an excellent post about simplifying declarative deployments in Azure. This covers the new "pre-deployment impact analysis", and how to manage groups/subscriptions at scale, along with some other useful tips! And, though this has been around for a little while now, James Serra has highlighted that you can now Upload files to ADLS Gen2 from the portal. As previously this had to be done via storage explorer, this is a great time saver!
Business Continuity has been a hot topic during the pandemic. Many organised only had Business Continuity plans drawn up to deal with a localised incident (a data centre outage, or a physical office being affected by a terrorism incident), but had no plans for having to allow all their employees to work from home during a pandemic. Endjin went remote in 2017 as part of our Business Continuity plans after one of the major train stations in London was closed for an entire month for engineering works meaning that most employees couldn't commute into the office. It worked so well, we never went back! Sarah Lean has created a short series of videos on the topic in Business Continuity With Azure. Well worth a watch.
Finally congratulations to Carmel Eve for passing her Azure AZ-204 exam this week! Gregor Suttie has some useful exam resources on his blog if getting certified is something you're interested in.
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
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
- Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) writes about One Way to Break Out of an Azure Data Factory ForEach Activity
Blockchain
Covering: Azure Blockchain Service, Azure Blockchain Tokens, Azure Blockchain Workbench
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
- The Azure updates team announces that the Azure Virtual Machines DCsv2-series is now available in West Europe and extended term reservation for the Azure HBv2 Virtual Machine
- On the MSSQL Tips site, John Miner (@JohnMiner3) discusses a Lambda Architecture in Azure for Batch Processing
- Sam Cogan (@samcogan) asks: WTH are Azure Spot VMs?
Containers
Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers
- Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) speaks with Elton Stoneman on the State of Containers
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
- Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard) speaks with Bob Ward
- James van Den Berg talks about Microsoft Windows Admin Center and Azure Backup Management
Developer Tools
Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online
- On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Visualize ARM Templates in Visual Studio Code
- The Azure updates team highlights the Azure SDKs June 2020 release
DevOps
Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations
- Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) describes 3 ways to Integrate ADF Pipelines with Azure DevOps and discusses Promoting ADF Components manually to higher Environments
- On the Azure blog, Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) covers Simplifying declarative deployments in Azure
Hybrid
Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack
- Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) explains how to Get the Azure Connected Machine Agent Version
- On the SQL Server Blog, the SQL Server Team (@SQLServer) announces that Apache Spark Connector for SQL Server and Azure SQL is now open source
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services
- Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) covers Azure Point-to-Site VPN with Azure AD Authentication and MFA
- John Joyner (@john_joyner) writes 'SSO is your doorkeeper, watch it with Azure Sentinel'
Integration
Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
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
- Deepak Kaushik (@ThinkForDeepak) blogs about How to start your cloud journey with an introduction to Azure IoT
- On Hacker Noon, Adrian Goins writes that: Kubernetes Could Be The One To Make the Internet of Things (IoT) Reach Its Potential
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 Azure blog, Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) discusses Simplifying declarative deployments in Azure
- Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) covers Business Continuity With Azure
- On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) explains how to Configure Azure Advisor Recommendation Rules for Azure VMs, Check Azure VMs Advisor Recommendation Directly from the VMs and describes How to check the list of all Azure Free Services in Azure Portal
- The Azure updates team announces that Azure Automation is now available in the USGov Arizona region
- On the Azure blog, Nick Vossburg writes about Rapid recovery planning for IT service providers
Media
Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer
- On the Azure podcast, the team speaks with LaBrina Loving about Azure Data Explorer
Mixed Reality
Covering: Kinect DK, Remote rendering, Spatial anchors
Migration
Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box
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
- On Azure Medium, Inderjit Rana writes about Provisioning Azure HDInsight Spark Environment with strict Network Controls
- On the Kemp Technologies blog, Frank Yue asks: Why Use Load Balancing in the Cloud?
Security
Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center
- David O'Brien (@david_obrien) blogs about Managing Deployment Secrets with Azure Key Vault
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
- James Serra (@JamesSerra) highlights that you can now Upload files to ADLS Gen2
Web
Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps
Windows Virtual Desktop
Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop
- Freek Berson (@fberson) walks through Automating the transformation of MSIX packages into MSIX app attach, ready for WVD
- Christiaan Brinkhoff (@Brinkhoff_C) describes the Three different options to remote control shadow your Windows Virtual Desktop sessions for helpdesk users
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