Azure Weekly Issue 390: 9th October 2022

A relatively quiet week before the Microsoft Ignite Conference (expect a bumper edition next week!). One of the bigger announcements this week is that Azure Firewall Basic now in preview. This is targeted at smaller organisations / branch offices and seems to be 1/3 of the price of Azure Firewall Standard. There's an interesting post from Mark Russinovich and Jeffrey He: Advancing anomaly detection with AIOps - introducing AiDice.

In the data analytics space there are two interesting articles: How to work with Python in Azure Data Studio and Learn Data Science and Machine Learning in 30 Days..

This week I finally had some bandwidth to migrate endjin.com to Azure Static Web Apps (from Netlify). It was a smooth process, which mainly involved creating a new GitHub Actions workflow for our custom .NET based static site generator, writing a migration script (using .NET Interactive) to convert from the Netlify redirect format to SWA's JSON configuration file and adding some settings to deal with SEO optimisations. With zero code changes we've already notched up our PageSpeed Insight score a couple of points.

Because of the migration, we only published two posts this week: Barry Smart continues his series on IT Budgets in How to calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO). James Broome published part 5 in his series on running Data Analytics project Deliver insights incrementally with data pipelines.

Finally, we're running a free 1-day, in-person workshop about creating a modern data lake (house) architecture with full DevOps on Azure Synapse Analytics in London (UK) on Wednesday Nov 2nd 2022. This is an in-person (not virtual) event. Full workshop agenda can be found here and to register your interest use this form. Spaces are limited.

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 announces Azure Machine Learning -Public preview updates for September 2022 and talks about Azure Machine Learning -General availability updates for September 2022
• Lee Harper and Trevor Philley cover Using Azure ML Compute Clusters With a Private Container Registry
• Sanjeev Jagtap covers Form Recognizers document layout analysis model adds new structure insights
• On the Azure blog, Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) and Jeffrey He talk about Advancing anomaly detection with AIOps—introducing AiDice
• Wolfgang Pauli writes about Extremely Fast Training of Extremely Small Text Classification Models with Azure SQL
• Yonit Hoffman talks about Generating OCR Insight in Videos – the Story of a Successful Microsoft Collaboration

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 blogs about Azure Data Factory September 2022 Monthly Update
• Avinanda Chattapadday writes about New informative Livy errors codes for Apache Spark in Azure Synapse Analytics
• Sally Dabbah explains How To Convert CSV File Into Array Of JSONs In ADF

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

• Adam Bertram (@adbertram) presents Building PowerShell Azure Functions with VS Code Series and describes How to Execute PowerShell Azure Functions with HTTP Triggers
• Anuraj Parameswaran explains how to Add Unit Tests To Your Azure Functions

Containers

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

• MacKenzie Olson writes about New Regions and Managed Identity Support for Azure Container Instances with Azure Virtual Networks
• On the Kubernetes Blog, Abdullah Gharaibeh & Aldo Culquicondor write about Introducing Kueue
• Daniel Neumann (@neumanndaniel) explains how to Apply configuration changes to the default node pool in AKS via Bicep
• On the Azure blog, Victor Bahl writes about Scalable management of virtualized RAN with Kubernetes
• Steve Buchanan (@buchatech) presents My 1st Microsoft Article: Build and deploy apps on AKS using DevOps GitHub Actions and GitOps ArgoCD
• Paolo Salvatori explains how to Create an Azure Kubernetes Service AKS cluster with API Server VNET Integration using Bicep

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

• Aditi Gupta blogs about Upgrade Azure Database for MySQL - Single Server to Flexible Server using Azure DMS
• The Azure Updates Team announces Generally available: Query Store hints Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Nora Yang describes How to use Sqlpackage with Managed Identity
• On SQL Server Central, Daniel Calbimonte explains How to work with Python in Azure Data Studio

Developer Tools

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

• Ruben Rios (@rub8n) writes about Visual Studios Azure Marketplace images now support Microsoft Dev Box
• On the Visual Studio blog, Mads Kristensen (@mkristensen) blogs about Comparing files in Visual Studio

DevOps

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

• Gerasimos Alexiou blogs provides a Starting template for Azure devops pipeline
• On the Microsoft BI Tools blog, Joost van Rossum (@ssisjoost) covers Deploy Synapse workspaces via DevOps - Setup and Deploy Synapse workspaces via DevOps - Pipeline
• Aleksandar Dickov walks through Migrating an Azure DevOps Repo to GitHub

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• James van Den Berg blogs about Azure Hybrid with Arc Enabled Windows Servers on-premises
• Andre Dewes covers App Service Hybrid connections: is it fast enough?

Identity

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

• Anna Barhudarian explains how to Apply Zero Trust Principles to Authentication Session Management with Continuous Access Evaluation
• Joseph Dadzie writes about Save time and money, reduce risk with Microsoft Entra provisioning updates
• Damien Bowden (@damien_bod) explains how to Implement the On Behalf Of flow between an Azure AD protected API and an API protected using OpenIddict
• Bhalchandra Atre covers how to Use Authentication Policies to Fight Password Spray Attacks

Integration

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

• Bill Baer walks through Stemming in Microsoft Graph connector search results

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

Learning

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

• Bethany Jepchumba announces a course to Learn Data Science and Machine Learning in 30 Days.
• On episode 154 of thr Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren Jussi Roine talk about their Expectations on Microsoft Ignite 2022
  

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 announces General availability: Smart tiering to vault-archive tier for Azure Backup
• Eugenie Burrage covers Increase security, enable quality collaboration for Linux desktops
• Priya Ravichandran covers Microsoft expands device management for Android
• Anthony Watherston describes Azure Enterprise Policy as Code – Azure Landing Zones Integration
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) delves into Webhooks and Azure Automation Runbooks
• On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jason Githens covers Windows Autopilot How It Works & How to Set It Up

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

• On the Azure blog, Shiva Shastri talks about Cost optimization using Azure Migrate
• Matthew Romero walks through Using Skytap on Azure and Azure-native services to modernize your legacy data
• Rahul Mehta describes how to Copy On-Premises Data to Azure Data Lake Gen 2 Storage using Azure Portal, Storage Explorer, AZCopy

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 the Azure blog, Mark Gakman talks about Azure Firewall Basic now in preview
• On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) covers Microsoft Previews Azure Firewall Basic Edition for SMBs
• Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) blogs about Azure Firewall Basic – For Small/Medium Business & Branch
• The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: Azure Firewall Basic
• Saleem Bseeu talks about Azure DDoS Standard Protection Now Supports APIM in VNET Integration
• Wim Matthyssen (@wmatthyssen) blogs about Azure Bastion: Upgrade Basic SKU to Standard SKU with Azure PowerShell

Security

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

• Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) provides A Comparison Guide Microsoft Sentinel Vs. Splunk 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 Generally available: Azure Ultra Disk Storage in China North 3
• Youna Hyun describes How to set blob storage firewall accessing from app service only

Web

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

• Nuzhat Minhaz writes about Universal rendering with Nuxt 3 and Azure Static Web Apps
• David Giard (@DavidGiard) covers Configuring an Azure App Service Identity Provider, talks about Spring Boot Logging with Mapped Diagnostic Context and blogs about HTTP Request and Response Headers in a Spring Boot Application
• Jeffrey Chilberto describes How To: Retrieve from CosmosDB using Azure API Management
• On episode 213 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Rob Richardson to talk about Web Services in .NET 6

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop