Azure Weekly Issue 387: 18th September 2022

A slight DevOps theme in the highlights this week; Bicep is in Visual Studio, and API Management DevOps Resource Toolkit v1.0.0 (GA). An announcement that could be a bit of a game changer: Azure Code Signing, democratizing trust for developers and consumers, and a good guide to programmatically generate Cloud Resource Names Part 1 and Part 2.

James Broome published the second in his series on planning and delivering modern data analytics solutions in successful data projects start by forgetting about the data and Barry Smart has recorded his session from Data Scotland 2022: Fake it 'til you make it - generating production quality test data at scale using Azure Synapse.

A theme that has been increasingly occurring in Brain Trust conversations with our customers is that of "trimming IT (cloud) budgets" in preparation for a (global) recession. There are many different tactics that can be used with Azure; changing contract type (eliminating CSP fees seems to be a theme), using reserved instances, auto-scaling to deal with peak / off-peak demands, dev/test pricing, moving resources to more modern VM SKUs, migrating workloads from VMs to AKS for higher density. These are the low-hanging fruit. If you want to take a more holistic view, to form a strategy across your IT estate, you may need a more structured process, as some of these decisions will need to be ROI based (i.e. need budget in order to deliver cost-savings). Barry Smart (who used to be CTO of a 100 year old Financial Services company) shares his tried and tested approach in A simple toolkit for IT budgeting and planning, which establishes a data-driven, evidence-based approach for auditing your estate, and grouping "digital assets" into four groups: Protect, Invest, Tolerate, Retire, which enables an easier conversations with senior decision makers & budget holders. It's worth a read!

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

• On the Azure blog, Kevin Raines discusses Microsoft shares what's next in machine learning at NVIDIA GTC
• Vinod Kurpad (@Kurpad) writes about General availability of Azure Form Recognizer v3.0

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

• Noelle Li covers Azure Data Factory August 2022 Monthly Update
• Barry Smart (@barry_j_a_smart) re-recorded his talk from Data Scotland 2022: Fake it 'til you make it - generating production quality test data at scale.
• Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) blogs about Sending test messages to Azure Event Hubs
• Jean Hayes explains how to Build a logical Enterprise Data Warehouse with ADLS and Synapse Serverless SQL pool
• Pantelis Apostolidis (@papostolidis) covers Azure Databricks With existing DNS, Azure Networks & on-premises network
• Maria Zakourdaev discusses Azure Cloud Data Orchestration, Ingestion and Data Preparation
• On the Azure Medium blog, Adam Bertram (@adbertram) describes How to Get Started with Azure Data Studio
• Liliam covers Understand Synapse dedicated SQL pool formerly SQL DW and Serverless SQL pool

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 discusses Public preview: Monitoring for Ampere Altra Arm–based VMs and AKS clusters
• Matthew Henderson writes about .NET on Azure Functions Roadmap Update
• On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) blogs about Azure Functions Support for .NET 7 Progresses
• On the Azure blog, Jason Zander (@jlzander), Corporate Vice President of Development for the Windows Azure team, announces that New Azure Space products enable digital resiliency and empower the industry
• Melony Qin walks through Building Serverless Go Applications with Azure Functions custom handlers
• Edi Wang describes how to Move CRON Expression from Hard Code to Configuration in Azure Function App

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 Generally available: Multi-instance GPU support in AKS and talks about Public preview: Soft delete in Azure Container Registry
• The Azure Updates Team describes Public preview: Azure Network Policy Manager for Windows server 2022 in AKS
• Lucille Xiong announces Windows Containers Log Monitor 1.2 Release
• On the Kubernetes Blog, Deep Debroy discusses Blog: Kubernetes 1.25: PodHasNetwork Condition for Pods
• Taiseer Joudeh (@TJoudeh) writes about Continuous Deployment for Azure Container Apps using GitHub Actions – Part 9
• Geert van Teylingen explains how to Develop and test easily on AKS with NetApp Astra Control Service and Azure NetApp Files
• Vinicius Apolinario (@vrapolinario) walks through Using WSL 2 on Windows Server 2022 to run Linux containers
• Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) explains how to Simplify your AKS IaC Deployments using the AKS Construction Helper tool
• Matthew Casperson walks through Using the Alpine Docker image
• Anthony Chu (@nthonyChu) covers Journey to the cloud with Azure Container Apps
• Jack Roper blogs about Kubernetes Ingress & Examples

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 General availability: Read replica for Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server, writes about Generally available: Fast restore for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server and writes about General availability: Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server data encryption with CMK
• The Azure Updates Team describes Public preview: Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server major version upgrade
• David Engel explains how to Released: Microsoft.Data.SqlClient 4.1.1 and explains how to Released: Microsoft.Data.SqlClient 4.0.2
• Mladen Andzic blogs about Data virtualization now generally available in Azure SQL Managed Instance
• David Engel describes Hotfix: JDBC Driver 11.2.1 for SQL Server Released
• Kevin Chant blogs about T-SQL Tuesday 154 – Azure Synapse Link for SQL Server 2022 testing
• Srinivasa Kolluri discusses Announcement: Azure Database Migration Service – MySQL online migration now in preview

Developer Tools

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

• On the Visual Studio blog, Marc Goodner writes about Visual Studio 2022 17.4 Preview 2
• Also on the Visual Studio blog, Uche Nkadi writes Its finally here. Bicep is in Visual Studio
• Elio Struyf discusses Creating a reusable auth provider in Visual Studio Code
• On epsode 210 of the Azure DevOps Podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Rocky Lhotka the creator or CSLA.NET
• Rakia Segev talks about Azure Code Signing, democratizing trust for developers and consumers

DevOps

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

• On the Octopus Deploy Blog, Ella.pradellaoctopus.com Octopus Deploy describes Octopus 2022 Q3: Safe, reliable, and auditable pipelines
• On the Premier Developer blog, Andrew Redman discusses Getting secrets from Key Vault in YAML pipeline
• Tao Yang (@MrTaoYang) describes how to Programmatically Generate Cloud Resource Names - Part 1 and Part 2
• Praveen Kumar Sreeram (@PrawinSreeram) presents Azure DevOps – Tips and Tricks – 8 – Improve YAML template development experience and productivity using YAML Template Editor currently preview
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) explains how to Manage Azure Automation Runbooks with Git Source Control

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes Microsoft Azure Arc-enabled Servers Survey 2022
• Sarah Cooley writes about AKS on Azure Stack HCI and Windows Server - August 2022 update

Identity

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

• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) describes how to Setup application client in Azure App Registration with App roles to use a web API

Integration

Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus

• On the Azure blog, Geralyn Miller covers Azure API for FHIR and Microsofts Power Platform help universities tackle COVID-19
• On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) talks about Azure Orbital Ground Station Service Commercially Released
• Hilda Sun walks through Troubleshooting Service Bus Message Abandon Issue when using JMS Listener
• Bill Baer talks about Using the Microsoft Graph connectors SDK to integrate your line of business data with Microsoft 365

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: Azure Sphere OS version 22.09 expected on September 22
• Joseph Lloyd describes Battery Powered Azure Sphere MT3620 OS insights

Learning

Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information

• Kevin Chant writes about New GitHub certifications for Azure partners

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 writes about Generally available: Built-in Azure Monitor alerts for Azure Backup
• Aakash Basavaraj blogs about Breaking Change notice: Upgrade to latest version of Operations Manager agent MMA by 1 Nov 2022
• Anthony Watherston blogs about Azure Enterprise Policy as Code – A New Approach

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

• Andy Chan discusses NetApp Cloud Volume ONTAP CVO for Azure – EDA Benchmark and Best Practices

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

• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public preview: API Server VNET Integration for AKS private cluster
• On The New Stack, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols delves into Ubuntu Linux and Azure DNS Problem Gives Azure Fits
• Cesar De la Torre Llorente presents a Cheat-sheet: The new 5G application paradigms and Microsoft Azure
• On episode 438 of The Azure Podcast, the Azure Podcast team (@AzurePodcast) are joined by Aimee Littleton to discuss Azure NAT Gateway
• Gustavo Modena discusses Exploring Azure Firewall Policy Analytics
• Jitendra Singh discusses Integration of Signavio with SAP Solution Manager hosted on Azure using Azure Application Gateway.

Security

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

• Ed Gardner blogs about Microsoft Sentinel customizable machine learning based anomalies is Generally Available
• Matt McElreath explains how to Ensure Success by Learning Azure Key Vault Best Practices
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) walks through Managing Secrets in an Azure Key Vault
• Michael McReynolds describes how to Create and delete incidents in Microsoft Sentinel
• Vani Asawa presents an Introduction to Machine Learning Notebooks in Microsoft Sentinel
• On episode 151 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine discuss Back to basics: Securing Azure in 3 steps
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) is joined by Mike Ferron-Jones to discuss how to Protect data in use with Azure Confidential Computing and Intel SGX
• Brad Wyatt covers Block Outdated Operating Systems with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Cloud App Security

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: Standard network features for Azure NetApp Files, writes about Generally available: Azure Dedicated Host support for Ultra Disk Storage and writes about Generally available: Reserved capacity for Azure Backup Storage
• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public preview: Encrypt managed disks with cross-tenant customer-managed keys

Web

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

• The Azure Updates Team writes about Generally available: API Management DevOps Resource Toolkit v1.0.0
• The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: gRPC support in Azure App Service
• The Azure Updates Team talks about Public preview: Azure Load Testing in UK South
• Abhishek Reddy describes How to run Bash scripts in WordPress on Azure App Service
• Mayunk Jain (@mayunkj) presents Three reasons why you should prioritize migrating to App Service Environment v3 for your business
• Jeffrey Chilberto explains How To: Send requests to Azure Storage from Azure API Management

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop