Azure Weekly Issue 360: 20th February 2022
A few years ago a number of high profile folks at Microsoft changed role to work on "a new big AI endeavour", very little public information was available, except for a recruitment site, which mentions phrases like "planet-scale supercomputer". This week a paper called Singularity: Planet-Scale, Preemptible and Elastic Scheduling of AI Workloads was published. It's a very interesting read.
Sticking with AI, Microsoft Azure's first Azure HPC + AI Day has been announced, and there's an interesting article delving into how the AI powered Visual Studio IntelliCode feature work, in: Typing Less, Coding More: How we delivered IntelliCode whole line completions with a transformer model.
Another interesting post about using Azure Container Apps and KEDA to create self-hosted scalable Azure DevOps Agents deployed using Azure DevOps and Azure CLI. and a new set of features have been announced that help with Advancing Azure Virtual Machine availability monitoring with Project Flash.
Two more announcements are Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime is available in Azure Synapse Analytics Public Preview and Windows Server Hotpatching is here.
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
- Rimma Nehme (@rimmanehme) unveils Singularity: Planet-Scale, Preemptible and Elastic Scheduling of AI Workloads in this PDF of an academic paper.
- Garfield He blogs about Azure Cognitive Services releases new languages and voices for Neural Text-to-Speech
- Daniel Calbimonte describes How to get key phrases from Azure SQL using Artificial Intelligence
- Vinod Kurpad (@Kurpad) explains how to Analyze unstructured documents and see what's new in Azure Form Recognizer, preview
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Public preview: Azure Machine Learning February 2022 announcements
- The Azure Updates Team describes Public preview: OCR supports 164 languages in the Cognitive Services Computer Vision
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
- Fikrat Azizov blogs about Implementing Slowly Changing Dimensions on Lakehouse with Synapse Mapping Data Flow
- Andy Chan provides A Case Study in Leveraging Azure Analytics To Optimize on HPC/EDA Cloud Spending
- Chunhua Gu discusses Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime is available in Azure Synapse Analytics Public Preview
- Phani Raj writes about Basic Support Extension for Azure HDInsight 3.6 clusters
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 the Generally available: Virtual Machine level disk bursting supports additional VM types, and the Public Preview of: Azure Tables extension for Azure Functions, and Azure Monitor predictive autoscale for Azure virtual machine scale sets and Cross region virtual machine restore points
- Ned Pyle announces Windows Server Hotpatching is here
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 announce the General Availability of: Azure tags support in AKS, and CIS benchmarks for Kubernetes and announce the Public preview: Kubernetes v1.23 support in AKS
- On the Azure Medium blog, Ala Raddaoui asks App Services, ACI, Container Apps, AKS which one is right for my app?
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 announces the General Availability of: Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale Citus additional regions available and Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale Citus new certifications
- On episode 412 of The Azure Podcast, Cynthia Kreng Kendall Roden Cale Teeter Evan Basalik Russell Young And Sujit D'Mello talk with Prabhat Tripathi and Sunil Angarwal about Azure Database for Postgres
- On Tech Community blog, David Engel discusses ODBC Driver 18.0 for SQL Server Released
Developer Tools
Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online
- Shengyu Fu writes about Typing Less, Coding More: How we delivered IntelliCode whole line completions with a transformer model
- On the Visual Studio blog, Jordan Matthiesen (@JMatthiesen) writes about Visual Studio 2022 for Mac Preview 6
- On the Visual Studio blog, Dominic Nahous (@DomsterFire) writes about Visual Studio 2022 17.1 is now available
- Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) covers Using Temporary breakpoint in Visual Studio 2022
- Also on the Visual Studio blog, Taysser Gherfal (@taysser) describes Line-staging Interactive Staging of commits in Git.
- Lee Stott (@lee_stott) writes about Visual Studio Code + Java Feb 2022 updates
DevOps
Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations
Hybrid + Multicloud
Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack
- On the Azure blog, David Dennis announces that Manage Linux anywhere with improved Azure Hybrid Benefit and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform on Azure
- Peter Bergen describes Measure your cloud carbon footprint with the Emissions Impact Dashboard for Microsoft 365 Preview
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services
- The Azure Updates Team announces Public preview: Azure Resource Graph configuration changes
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 announces the General availability: Azure Sphere version 22.02 expected on Feb 28, 2022
- On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie describes Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows Gets Continuous Release Update Branch
Learning
Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information
- On the Azure blog, Rachel Pruitt announces Microsoft Azure's first Azure HPC + AI Day
- Deepak Kaushik (@ThinkForDeepak) presents Recording: Webinar: Boost Azure Analytics with Databricks and Deploying an AI model in Azure
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Generally available: New learning content on the Azure IoT Central homepage
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
- Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) presents Advancing Azure Virtual Machine availability monitoring with Project Flash
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Generally available of Alert processing rules in Azure Monitor
- The Ctrl+Alt+Azure Podcast by Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine, chat about Cost Optimization in the Azure Well-Architected Framework
- Zachary Cavanell writes about the Microsoft Mechanics episode: App Architecture Improve Azure App Performance, Reliability, Security, Operations & Cost
- Alan Kinane (@Azure_Alan) blogs about MSP: The well-tempered Azure tenant – Part 3
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
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
- Sonia Cuff (@soniacuff) describes How to transfer files to your Azure VM with no public open RDP port
- Thorsten Hans covers Custom health probes with Application Gateway Ingress Controller
Security
Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center
- Shoham Dasgupta explains how to Enable Azure Key Vault Purge Protection for TDE BYOK in Azure SQL DB and MI
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
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) covers Move Files Between Azure File Share Tiers
- Shruti Pathak describes Azure Cache for Redis TLS: Upcoming migration to DigiCert Global G2 CA Root
Web
Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps
- Julia Liuson announces that Azure Spring Cloud Enterprise is now available in preview
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Public preview: App Service Environment v3 Migration Feature
- Yixuan Wang writes Understand why App Insight cannot resolve internal API Managements request client IP Geo Location
- On episode 180 of The Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) discusses Next-gen web services with Shawn Wildermuth
Azure Virtual Desktop
Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop
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