Azure Weekly Issue 357: 28th January 2022

It's another relatively quiet week. The three most interesting articles for me this week are: Bryan Costanich, founder of Wilderness Labs on .NET 6 IoT; I own a couple of Meadow F7 development boards, and I'm a huge fan of being able to write .NET apps that run on these tiny devices. Every week I have to fight the urge to buy one of their weather station kits (they look so good). I enjoyed Jose Moreno article You are doing your design reviews wrong, which delves into creating and versioning some checklists, and finally Troy Hunt's painful to read account of getting an unexpectedly high Azure bill in: How I Got Pwned by My Cloud Costs

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, Azure Purview

• Ambika Jagadish talks about Introducing Automatic Schema Discovery with auto table creation for complex datatypes with Synapse.
• Greg Beaumont describes how to Use a Keyword in Teams Chat to Resume and Pause Azure Synapse using Power Automate
• John Miner (@JohnMiner3) delves into Managing schema drift within the ADF copy activity
• Arindam Mondal describes Working with Fail Activity in Azure Data Factory
• Ron L'Esteve describes Storage and Serving Layers in the Data Lakehouse
• Kevin Chant explains how to Automate a pipeline migration to a Synapse workspace using Azure DevOps

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

• Erdal Cosgun blogs about Cromwell on Azure 3.0 now supports Task Execution Schema v1.1
• Gauhar Junnarkar writes about Altair ultraFluidX on Azure
• On the Data Exposed podcast with Anna Hoffman and Drew Skwiers-Koballa: Introduction to Azure SQL Bindings for Azure Functions on Data Exposed
• Jay Gordon (@jaydestro) on the AzureFunBytes Podcast Episode 66 – Building real-time apps with Azure SignalR with Chris Noring

Containers

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

• Geert van Teylingen walks through Protecting MongoDB on AKS / ANF with Astra Control Service using custom execution hooks
• Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) discusses Running gVisor on Azure Kubernetes Service for sandboxing containers
• Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) explains how to Get the Container Instances usage in an Azure subscription

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 writes about Generally available: Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server in two new regions
• On the Ctrl+Alt+Azure Podcast with Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine: episode 118 - Backing up PostgreSQL databases in Azure
• Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) blogs about Lesson Learned 184: Row Level Security and Parallelism
• On the Microsoft Mechanics series, stefani Arroyo describes How to Get Started with Azure Cosmos DB NoSQL Database for High Performance & Scalability

Developer Tools

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

• Martin Brandl (@martin_jib) explains How to fix is not recognized as an internal or external command in the Azure CLI

DevOps

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

• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) explains how to Deploy to Azure Container Instance from Azure Container Registry using a CI/CD Azure DevOps Pipeline and Terraform
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) covers Setting up Azure DevOps to begin deploying Terraform and configuring an Azure Storage Account for Terraform remote state
• Tao Yang (@MrTaoYang) blogs about Azure Bicep Module for Virtual Machine Run Commands

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Vijay Kumar describes Microsoft launches landing zone accelerator for Azure Arc-enabled servers
• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally available: Azure Backup releases new updates for hybrid backups
• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Protect Hyper-V VM to Azure Backup with MARS Agent and describes how to Patch Azure VMs using Azure Update Management
• Walter Oliver discusses Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Container Registry Service on Azure Stack Hub
• Florian Rappl (@FlorianRappl) covers Azure Arc Enabled Servers Part 3: Setting up Security, Sentinel, and Runbooks

Identity

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

• Thuan Nguyen describes Extract plain-text password from Azure VM Reset Password feature
• Adam Wójcik walks through Using Power Automate flow API in your SPFx solution
• On the Data Exposed podcast Anna Hoffman and Heini Ilmarinen talk about Azure AD for Azure Data Services: Synapse Edition
• Sonia Cuff (@soniacuff) writes about Deep dive: How Azure AD Kerberos works

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

• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: New Azure Maps features historical weather, air quality, and tropical storms
• On the Azure Devops podcast Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) and Bryan Costanich talk about .NET 6 IoT - Episode 177
• Sander van de Velde discusses Azure IoT DeviceClient SDK Python demonstration, the basics
• The Azure Sphere Team writes about General Availability: release of Azure Sphere version 22.01 is cancelled

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

• The Azure Updates Team discusses Public preview: Multitasking in the cost analysis preview
• Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) describes Monitor Power BI Queries And Refreshes With DirectQuery On Log Analytics, Part 3: Queries
• Helder Pinto blogs about Azure Identities and Roles Governance dashboard at your fingertips
• Alan Kinane (@Azure_Alan) writes about MSP: The well-tempered Azure tenant – Part 1
• Jose Moreno (@erjosito) writes about You are doing your design reviews wrong
• Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) describes How I Got Pwned by My Cloud Costs
• On episode 409 of The Azure Podcast, Xin Chi, PM, blogs about Azure Service Connector

Media

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

Migration

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

• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally available: Kibana dashboards and visualizations on top of Azure Data Explorer
• Ramanath Nayak blogs about Mainframe Data Modernization to Azure

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

• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) writes about Dynamic Blocks in Terraform with Azure

Security

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

• The Azure Updates Team writes about General availability: Azure Key Vault increased service limits for all its customers
• John Joyner (@john_joyner) describes Azure policy initiatives for Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel workload protections
• Yannick Reekmans (@yannickreekmans) covers Power Platform environment variable secrets from Azure Key Vault: an improvement
• TJ Banasik explains how to Modernize Log Management with the Maturity Model for Event Log Management
• Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) writes about Security: Key Rotation of our Azure Storage account keys
• Liana Tomescu describes Validating Alerts on Microsoft Defender for SQL on machines

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 Generally available: Azure Site Recovery support for ZRS Managed Disks, and Generally available: Azure NetApp Files features and Public Preview: Azure NetApp Files new features
• Ankit Sharma walks through Copying Azure Table Storage using Azure Data Factory ADF

Web

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

• On the endjin blog, Howard van Rooijen (@HowardvRooijen) describes How to Monetize APIs with Azure API Management

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop