Azure Weekly Issue 320: 18th April 2021
I wanted to start this week with a big congratulations to Carmel Eve, who has just published her first LinkedIn Learning Course Exam Tips AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure based on her blog post of the same subject.
There's a particularly fascinating article about text analytics (which has been an area of interest at endjin for a few years), but this post shows the insights that can be mined from unstructured data: Analyzing COVID Medical Papers with Azure and Text Analytics for Health. Next there's an interesting case study about how Royal Bank of Canada are using Always Encrypted with secure enclaves If you are doing anything with analytics, data lake and Power BI, this "Importing Data From ADLSgen2 Into Power BI" blog series is a must read, and a good place to start is Summary Of Findings.
Two product updates of note this week: Azure Blob storage supports objects up to 200 TB in size and Azure API Management support for Availability Zones are both GA.
And to finish off this issues, some developer related items. Microsoft have just released Managed Memory Dump Analyzers, which will be hugely helpful for troubleshooting issues that only happenin production. I'm a huge fan of Notebook-based development, so was pleased to see this article: Using Notebooks more with Azure Data Engineering services. We've been doing some work with Bicep over the last few weeks and it's a great improvement over ARM from a productivity perspective: Deploying Azure Bicep using GitHub Actions. Another interesting post this week: Stop typing PowerShell credentials in demos using PowerShell SecretManagement. Microsoft Graph is one most powerful, yet often overlooked Microsoft services, but you can get started with Developer's guide to Microsoft Graph Learn Together: Building Apps with Microsoft Graph
Finally, a fascinating post about Microsoft's efforts to implement Quic. Other than the big perf gains, I absolutely love that they have integrated performance benchmarks into the DevOps pipeline. This is a good approach for any NFRs you need to track: Making MsQuic Blazing Fast.
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
- The Azure updates team writes about Cognitive Services - New Computer Vision API v3.2 now generally available and talks about Public preview: Cognitive Services- Anomaly Detector now supports multivariate anomaly detection
- On the DEV site, Henk Boelman (@hboelman) writes about 4 Sessions not to miss on the Global AI Student Conference
- Kelvin Chen explains how to Learn about Bot Framework Composers new authoring experience and deploy your bot to a telephone
- Dmitry Soshnikov covers Analyzing COVID Medical Papers with Azure and Text Analytics for Health
- Ayşegül Yönet (@AysSomething) talks about Integrating AI: Best Practices and Resources to Get Started with Azure Cognitive Services
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, Azure Purview
- Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) shares his summary of findings from this excellent series Importing Data From ADLSgen2 Into Power BI.
- The Azure updates team share that Apache Spark 3.0 is now available for public preview in HDInsight 4.0. and explain how to Reduce dataflow execution time with cluster reuse public preview in Azure Data Factory
- Mark Kromer (@kromerbigdata) describes How to startup your data flows execution in less than 5 seconds Public Preview
- On the MSSQL Tips site, Ron L'Esteve talks about Getting Started with MLflow in Azure Databricks
- Vishal Ani describes how to register your Azure Synapse workspace in Azure Purview for at scale governance
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
- Jeff Brown walks through Getting Started with Azure Functions Tutorial Example-Driven Guide
- On Code Project, Glenn Prince (@Glenn_Prince) blogs about Creating a Complete Serverless Cloud Native Application on Azure
- Also on Code Project, Sander Rossel (@SanderRossel) explains how to Build a Complete Microservice
- On the Azure blog, Kevin Raines blogs about Microsoft powers transformation at NVIDIA GTC—GPU technology conference
- Orin Thomas blogs about Using the Serial Console on Windows IaaS VMs
- Athinanthny Senthil talks about Service Fabric Community Q&A call 53
Containers
Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers
- The Azure updates team writes about General availability: Create AKS clusters without local user accounts and writes about General availability: Encryption at host support in AKS
- Pixel Robots. blogs about Azure Key vault access on Azure Kubernetes Service using the new AKS add-on
- Anna Hoffman and Amit Khandelwal talk about how to Use Helm Charts from Windows Client Machine to Deploy SQL Server 2019 Containers on Kubernetes Data Exposed and Magdy Salem writes about How-To: Deploy Microservice application with Pod Identity using Helm Chart
- On Code Project, Glenn Prince (@Glenn_Prince) walks through Creating Your First Kubernetes Cluster On Azure and talks about Deploying Containers to Kubernetes on Azure
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
- The Azure updates team covers Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale Citus Basic in public preview, describes Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale Citus same region read replicas in public preview and talks about Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale Citus maintenance schedules in public preview
- Onder Kalaci walks through Sharding Postgres with Basic tier in Hyperscale Citus, how why & when
- Jovan Popovic (@jocapc) discusses Query serverless SQL pool from an Apache Spark Scala notebook
- Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) talks about Lesson Learned 169: Bulk Insert using Python in Azure SQL
- Melania Nitu covers Custom RBAC to access QPI's query text with minimal permissions
- Jakub Szymaszek (@JakubSzymaszek) blogs about Royal Bank of Canada using Always Encrypted with secure enclaves
- On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Kyle Teegarden provides Six reasons to join us at RedisConf 2021
- On the SQL Server Blog, Bob Ward (@bobwardms) discusses Azure SQL digital event: Innovate today with Azure SQL
- Haozhou explains how to Find out which On-premises Data Gateways are used by which API connection resources
Developer Tools
Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online
- The Azure updates team describes Public preview: Azure Machine Learning VS Code Integration
- On the Visual Studio blog, Justin Johnson writes that Visual Studio 2019 v16.10 Preview 2 Releases Today
- On the Visual Studio blog, Mark Downie (@poppastring) explains how to Managed Memory Dump Analyzers
- On Tech Community blog, Jason Yi explains how to Hidden Treasure Part 2: Mining Additional Insights from DiskSpd
- Kevin Chant describes T-SQL Tuesday 137 – Using Notebooks more with Azure Data Engineering services
- On Channel 9, Dan Wahlin Ayca Bas talks about Developer's guide to Microsoft Graph Learn Together: Building Apps with Microsoft Graph
DevOps
Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Angel Wong writes about Personal Access Token Lifecycle APIs now publicly available
- Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) talks to Paul Yuknewicz about Azure Development - Episode 136
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Gloridel Morales blogs about Azure DevOps Server 2020.1 RC2 now available and blogs about April patches for Azure DevOps Server and Team Foundation Server
- Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) shares AzureFunBytes Episode – Intro to Azure Machine Learning with Henk Boelman and DevOps Fireside Chats – March 2021 Review
- Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) talks about Azure DevOps – Configure Self Hosted Agent for Azure Pipelines, covers Azure DevOps – This agent request is not running because you have reached the maximum number of requests, covers Azure DevOps – Copy Files from git Repository to Azure Storage Account and discusses Azure DevOps – Convert Classic UI Pipelines to YAML Pipelines
- On Channel 9, David Blank-Edelman and Victoria Almazova talk about Exploring the tools for DevSecOps in a CI/CD Pipeline on Azure Azure Enablement
- Lee Stott (@lee_stott) covers DevOps with Github Learning Path - GitHub Repo and Resources and writes about All Around Azure DevOps with GitHub Live Event 27th April 2021
- Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) discusses Deploying Azure Bicep using GitHub Actions
Hybrid
Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack
- On Channel 9, Sarah Lean, Brian Blanchard & Jeff Amels talk about Preparing your cloud strategy with technical considerations Azure Enablement
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services
- The Azure updates team covers Azure Automation support for System Assigned Managed Identities is now in public preview
- Nicolas Bonnet (@nico_bonnet) talks about Defender for Identity
- Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) discusses AzureFunBytes Episode 39 - Microsoft Identity with ChristosMatskas
- Tobias Zimmergren Jussi Roine writes about Ctrl+Alt+Azure Episode 077 - Publishing with Azure AD Application Proxy
- Sonia Cuff (@soniacuff) writes about Dynamic Groups in Azure AD and Microsoft 365
- Yanelis Lopez explains how to Eliminate Password-Based Attacks on Azure Linux VMs
Integration
Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
- Trevor Davis (@vtrevordavis) talks about Azure VMware Solution & Azure Service Health
- Antti K. Koskela (@koskila) describes How to fix LinkedAuthorizationFailed when deploying an Azure Logic App
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
- The Azure updates team announce that Azure Maps Weather Services are now generally available
- On the Azure blog, Christoph Berlin explains how to Build secure manufacturing operations with nesting capabilities for Azure IoT Edge
- The Azure updates team covers Azure IoT Edge 1.2.0 release is now generally available, and General availability: Azure IoT Central new and updated features—March 2021, and Azure IoT Edge nesting capabilities are now generally available, and General availability: Event source start options in Azure Time Series Insights Gen2 and General availability: Azure Sphere version 21.04 expected on April 29, 2021
- On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch Ricardoesway talks about Nested IoT Edge devices and offline dashboards Internet of Things Show
Learning
Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information
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, Scheduler, Azure Purview
- Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) discusses Azure Advisor: How to Improve performance, security, and reliability of your Azure VMs
- Thuan Nguyen explains how to Deny Azure Role Assignment with Azure Policy
- The Azure updates team describes Log Analytics Windows Agent for Winter 2021 now generally available, and General availability: Log analytics workspace name uniqueness is now per resource group, and General availability: New Azure Policy built-in definitions for data encryption in Azure Monitor and Public preview: Functions upgrade in Azure Monitor log analytics
- The Azure updates team talks about MSIX app attach in Azure portal now generally available
- Christine Alford (@heyalford) blogs about Azure Marketplace new offers - Volume 130
- Wan Chung Huang describes How Cloud Computing benefits IT Budgeting and Financial Report
- Robert Smit (@Clustermvp) writes about Effective March 31, 2021, the Azure portal will no longer support Internet Explorer 11. Start using the new Microsoft Edge for speed, security and privacy
- Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) talks about Azure Unblogged - Azure Update Management
- The Azure updates team discusses Public preview - Support for multiple currencies on Retail Rates API for all Azure products/services
- The Azure updates team covers User data through Azure Instance Metadata Service now generally available
Media
Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer
- Haim Sabo writes about New ways to train custom language models – effortlessly
- Itai Norman covers Getting started with Video Indexer v2 API
- Yonit Hoffman explains how to Combine the Power of Video Indexer and Computer Vision
Migration
Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box
- On Channel 9, Damian Brady and Day Gordon talk about On Prem To The Cloud: Migrating to Azure SQL episode 7 The DevOps Lab
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
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Deploy Azure Network Address Translation NAT Gateway
- Camila Martins describes Azure Web Application Firewall: WAF config versus WAF policy
- Mahesh Kshirsagar explains How does Azure Policies in Enterprise-scale Landing Zone help
- Nick Banks blogs about Making MsQuic Blazing Fast
Security
Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center
- Banu Jafarli talks about De-risk your lateral movement paths with Microsoft Defender for Identity
- Ely Abramovitch covers Whats new: Azure Sentinel Incident timeline
- Stanislav Belov discusses Security Control: Implement security best practices
- Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) explains how to Stop typing PowerShell credentials in demos using PowerShell SecretManagement
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
- The Azure updates team writes about General availability: Azure Blob storage supports objects up to 200 TB in size and General availability: Lustre HSM tools now available to import from or export to Azure Storage.
- Henry Yan explains how to Discover cloud storage solutions at Azure Storage Day April 29
- Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) provides A fish out of water: Azure Storage Emulator Could not find a LocalDB Installation
Web
Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps
- The Azure updates team discusses Azure API Management support for Availability Zones now generally available
- Meghali Chakraborty walks through Setting up Client Certificate Authentication for WCF Service hosted as an Azure Web App
- Vesa Juvonen (@vesajuvonen) describes Microsoft 365 Developer Community Call recording – 15th of April, 2021
Windows Virtual Desktop
Covering: Windows Virtual Desktop
- Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) explains how to Deploy Windows Virtual Desktop WVD Session Hosts with Azure DevOps
- Freek Berson (@fberson) talks about Bicep code snippets for WVD
- Christiaan Brinkhoff (@Brinkhoff_C) writes about Microsoft meets Community: Windows Virtual Desktop fourth – One Year Anniversary edition recap and content sharing
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