Azure Weekly Issue 431: 13th August 2023
To start with, a few interesting articles about Fabric; the July update has over 60 new features, so as you can tell, things are moving at pace! From an architectural perspective, Barry Smart examines How Does Microsoft Fabric Measure Up To Data Mesh? James Serra dives into Serving layers with a data lake, and Kevin Chant looks to Prepare Azure DevOps for Microsoft Fabric Git integration.
In the AI space, there's a useful Getting Started with Azure OpenAI and GPT Models guide, and I published an extract from endjin's weekly internal Show & Tell meeting where Ian Griffiths wanted to cut through the hype and understand the fundamentals of building a GPT in A Brief Intro to Tensors & GPT with TorchSharp.
Finally, Visual Studio 2022 – 17.7 Now Available. Why am I highlighting this? A year ago, we were looking at modernizing some of our internal applications to use Dapr. We built some proof of concepts, and although we loved Dapr, we found the "inner dev loop" experience in Visual Studio too slow. Every time we made a change, we had to rebuild the containers, which then had to re-initialize, and even with powerful devrigs it just added too much friction. I added a comment on this GitHub issue Will DockerTools ever support ".NET Hot Reload"? I spotted an update saying that Ctrl+F5 support for Hot Reload is now available in Visual Studio 2022 17.7, with full F5 Hot Reload support coming in VS 2022 17.8. I dusted off a multi-container Dapr demo and was exceedingly pleased to see it worked as described.
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
- Ian Griffiths (@idg10) provides a Show & Tell - A Brief Intro to Tensors & GPT with TorchSharp
- Garfield He covers Introducing new multilingual voices supporting 41 languages and accents with auto language detection
- Andy Beatman describes Use your own data to create a Power Virtual Agent with Azure OpenAI Service
- On the Azure blog, Brianna McGovern blogs about Scale generative AI with new Azure AI infrastructure advancements and availability
- Dan Wahlin (@DanWahlin) walks through Getting Started with Azure OpenAI and GPT Models
- Jill Armour writes about New AI Transformation Partner playbook is available
- Freddy Dubon blogs about Video Transcription using Azure Speech and MoviePy
- David Shin highlights What's New in Sales Copilot – August 2023
- Ben Roberts blogs about Azure MLOps Challenge Blog: Part 1
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, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Fabric
- Barry Smart (@barry_j_a_smart) writes How Does Microsoft Fabric Measure Up To Data Mesh?
- Bethany Jepchumba describes How to Leverage Microsoft Fabric for Data Science
- James Serra (@JamesSerra) talks about Serving layers with a data lake
- On episode 2 of the Fabric Down Under show, Greg Low (@greglow) is joined by Josh Caplan (@JoshCaplan1984) to talk about Microsoft Fabric OneLake
- Kevin Chant explains how to Prepare Azure DevOps for Microsoft Fabric Git integration
- Dany Hoter covers KQL joins in Power BI and not only
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
- Geert van Teylingen (@teylemans) walks through Protecting Azure VMware Solution VMs and datastores on Azure NetApp Files with Cloud Backup for VMs
Containers
Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers
- Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) walks through Setting up Snipe IT on Azure using Docker
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
- Zoran Rilak writes about Private endpoints GA for Azure SQL Managed Instance
- Varun Dhawan discusses July 2023 Recap: Azure Database PostgreSQL Flexible Server
- Bob Ward talks about I/O optimizations for tempdb in SQL Server and Azure SQL
- Edita Hovhannisyan Topalyan explains how to Stop Azure SQL Database
- Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) describes Lesson Learned: 413:PerfStat: Performance Stats Collection for Azure SQL Database, 414: Demystifying Execution Plans and Query Optimization in Azure SQL Database, 415:PerfStat: Performance Stats Collection for Azure SQL Managed Instance and 416: Unveiling User Activity Insights in Azure SQL Databases
Developer Tools
Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online
- Taysser Gherfal (@taysser) writes about Visual Studio 2022 – 17.7 Now Available
- On the Visual Studio blog, Adrian Murphy writes about Visual Studio 2022 17.8 Preview 1 has arrived
- On Visual Studio Magazine, David Ramel (@dramel) writes about After Unity VS Code Tool Demise, Microsoft Previews One Powered by C# Dev Kit, writes about Visual Studio 2022 v17.7 Ships, Addressing a Top Longstanding Feature Request and writes about .NET 8 Web-Dev: New Visual Studio Templates, Antiforgery, Blazor Auto Render
- Christiaan Brinkhoff covers Windows 365 Switch now available in public preview
- Erin Stellato (@erinstellato) discusses Azure Data Studio 1.45 Release and Hotfix
- David Giard (@DavidGiard) walks through Using the .NET CLI to Create an ASP.NET MVC Application
- Greg Denton shows how to Speed up Visual Studio load times with Microsoft Dev Box
- Ravikanth Chaganti (@ravikanth) blogs about Azure SDK for Go - Authentication methods - Managed Identity Credential
DevOps
Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations
- The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Azure Chaos Studio has User-Assigned Managed Identity and Custom Role Assignment
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Gloridel Morales describes August patches for Azure DevOps Server
- Bas van Bennekom describes how to Use PowerShell to Remediate Non-Compliant Policy Definitions
- Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) describes how to Store Terraform state in Azure Blob Storage
Hybrid + Multicloud
Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack
- Vlad Rodriguez describes Enhancements to Microsoft Purview policies for Arc-enabled SQL Server
- Nicolas Lepagnez explains how to Help Protect your Exchange Environment With Microsoft Sentinel
- Meital Taran- Gutman announces New multicloud CNAPP innovations in Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services
- Nitika Gupta (@_nitika_gupta) writes about Conditional Access for Protected Actions is Now Generally Available
- Ranjith Eswaran explains How to monitor Azure App Registration Client Secret Expiration Notification
Integration
Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
- Harold Campos presents Logic Apps Mission Critical Series: We Speak: IBM MQ Part 1
- Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) announces JSON Document to JSON Schema Converter Tool new release v2.0
- Sabarish Shivakumar explains How to monitor connectors API Connections in Logic Apps
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 Sphere Team covers Introducing Azure Sphere Integrated Public Preview
Learning
Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains how to Conquer The AI-050 Course and Revolutionize Your Skills in Developing Generative AI Solutions With Azure OpenAI Service
- Roy Barton provides a Skilling snack: Windows device management in the public sector
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 Generally available: Azure Site Recovery update rollup 68 - August 2023
- Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) blogs about Migrating to Azure Monitor Agent from Log Analytics agent
- Kat Martin writes about Clean up Inactive users with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse
- On episode 346 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag and Ben Stegink (@msclouditpro) discuss Expanded cloud logging for everyone
- David Giard (@DavidGiard) provides an Overview of Azure Monitor and Application Insights
- On episode 257 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Glenn Burnside to talk about Managing Developers
- On episode 198 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren (@zimmergren) and Jussi Roine (@JussiRoine) cover Azure Updates
- On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Rajiv Thandla talks about Frontline updates in Microsoft Teams, Windows 365, Copilot & Dynamics 365 FieldService
- James Havens blogs about Microsoft Purview - Paint By Numbers Series Part 2f – Automatic Labeling Emails and Files
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
- The Azure Updates Team covers Public preview: Support for new custom error pages in Application Gateway
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) walks through 3 Steps: Deploy Application Gateway in Front of Azure Firewall
Security
Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center
- On Microsoft Security blog, Steve Vandenberg describes Microsoft Purview data security mitigations for BazaCall and other human-operated data exfiltration attacks
- Brjann Brekkan blogs about Availability of Defender Vulnerability Management Standalone and Container vulnerability assessments
- Stanislav Belov writes about Defender Monthly news - August 2023
- Efrat Kliger covers Optimizing endpoint security with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's flexible licensing options
- Shabaz Shaik covers Threat Detection Queries for Azure WAF
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 announces Public preview: Azure Storage Mover support for SMB and Azure Files, writes about Generally available: Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage is now available in more regions and writes about Generally available: Azure Blob Storage Cold Tier
- Kevin Gatimu (@_kevincomba) delves into Creating an Images Gallery with Azure Blob Storage and React.js Step-by-Step Guide
Web
Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps
- The Azure Updates Team covers WordPress on App Service: Integration with Azure Communication Services Email
Azure Virtual Desktop
Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop
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