Azure Weekly Issue 443: 5th November 2023
Quite a lot of varied and interesting set of articles this week. Starting with AI: Semantic Kernel-Powered OpenAI Plugin Development Lifecycle and Generative AI for Beginners - A 12-Lesson Course, and Teach ChatGPT to Answer Questions: Using Azure Cognitive Search & Azure OpenAI Services, and Create a Simple Speech REST API with Azure AI Speech Services.
In the Cloud Native space: Deploying an Azure Kubernetes Service AKS Cluster with Application Gateway for Containers and Azure Container Registry – cost optimization, and Choreography, or Orchestration, That is the Wrong Question, and TCP Proxy with Istio on AKS
Within security: Zero Trust Architecture for Azure Managed Databases and Assume breach and minimize the impact with network security groups.
And, around developer productivity: Azure CLI Copilot - which lets you talk to the Azure CLI with natural language prompts, What's new for IT pros in Windows 11, version 23H2, with a specific call out for the new Developer features such as Dev Drives, there's a great video Performance Testing a DevDrive on Windows 11 by Scott Hanselman, which covers all the main points of how to get it up and running.
Finally, the Cloud Native Rejekts conference is currently happening in Chicago, and I caught up with the Day 1 videos this morning. The two highlights for me were; Caleb Schoepp's Introduction to WebAssembly and Ralph Squillace & Andrew Randall talking about WASM Optimized Linux: what, how, and, most importantly why? Very interesting and well worth an hour of your life.
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, Brianna McGovern highlights What's new in Data & AI: Prioritize AI safety to scale with confidence
- TJ Devine announces Microsoft 365 Copilot is generally available
- Brandon Flores writes First Steps of a Mind of its Own: AI
- Theophilus Lincoln (@lincolnowiti) explains how to Create a Simple Speech REST API with Azure AI Speech Services
- Vivek Garudi delves into Semantic Kernel-Powered OpenAI Plugin Development Lifecycle
- On the Microsoft Reactor show, Carlotta Castelluccio (@carlottacaste) and Korey Stegared-Pace (@koreyspace) explain how to Make Azure AI Real: Apply Azure AI Services for Vision and Florence to your image data
- Song Minseok explains how to Teach ChatGPT to Answer Questions: Using Azure Cognitive Search & Azure OpenAI Services
- On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Eric Boocock (@eboocock) describes How Sales Copilot Works & How To Set It Up
Analytics
Covering: Apache Spark for HDInsight, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Share, Azure Databricks, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Factory, Event Hubs, HDInsight, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Fabric
- Jean Hayes shares a Step-by-Step Guide for Building Metadata Driven Pipelines in Microsoft Fabric
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Liliam Leme writes Fabric Changing the game: Using your own library with Microsoft Fabric
- Also on Microsoft Fabric Blog, Ambika Jagadish discusses Time-Travelling through data: The Magic of Table clones
- Also on Microsoft Fabric Blog, Matt Basile announces Delta-RS introduces native support for OneLake
- Also on Microsoft Fabric Blog, Trevor Olson explains how to Create multiple shortcuts faster and easier
- Arindam Mondal covers Using Pipeline Return Value in Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics
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
- On the Q Sharp blog, Mathias Soeken writes about Calculating resource estimates for cryptanalysis
- On the Azure blog, Brianna McGovern talks about Project Flash update: Advancing Azure Virtual Machine availability monitoring
- Garima Singh explains How to convert CentOS Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Azure
Containers
Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers
- Karol Pieciukiewicz covers Azure Container Registry – cost optimization
- Jose Moreno (@erjosito) walks through creating a TCP Proxy with Istio on AKS
- David Minkovski writes about Effective Kubernetes for JakartaEE and Microprofile Developers
- On Diagrid Blog, Bilgin Ibryam (@bibryam) talks about Choreography, or Orchestration, That is the Wrong Question
- Paolo Salvatori describes Deploying an Azure Kubernetes Service AKS Cluster with Application Gateway for Containers
- Tzahi Ariel describes How to choose the right network plugin for your AKS cluster: A flowchart guide
- Henry Yan explains how to Increased security and resiliency of Canonical workloads on Azure - now in preview
- The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Azure integration with Canonicals Snapshot Service for safe deployment
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
- Shiva Sivakumar blogs about Zero Trust Architecture for Azure Managed Databases
- Jose M Jurado (@jmjuradodiaz) describes Lesson Learned 450: Automating Alert Notifications for Query Data Store Usage in Azure SQL Database
- Emre Gokoglu explains How to Avoid Transaction Isolation Level Issues on Azure SQL Managed Instance
- Sabrin Alsahsah covers Azure custom policy to prevent backup retention period to be below X number - Azure SQL
Developer Tools
Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online
- Ira Rainey releases an exciting new tool - Azure CLI Copilot
- On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) writes about Open Source Codeium Improves AI Chat in VS Code Tool and VS Code Python Team Improves Interactive REPL and VS Code Previews AI Topic Experts for Copilot Chat Called 'Agents'
- Harjit Dhaliwal discusses Whats new for IT pros in Windows 11, version 23H2
- Abhishek Kumar blogs about Release: Azure SQL Migration extension for Azure Data Studio v1.4.11
- Nicholas Xuan Nguyen explains How to Get Started with Azure Data Studio
- York Zhang presents a Tutorial:A graceful process to develop and deploy Docker Containers to Azure with Visual Studio Code
DevOps
Covering: Azure Artifacts, Azure Boards, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, Azure Test Plans, Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations
- Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Michael Carlson announces Git Partial Clone Now Supported in Azure DevOps
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Dan Hellem describes Azure Boards + GitHub Integration Improvements
- On the Premier Developer blog, Developer Support talks about Azure DevOps Workload Identity Federation
- Gloridel Morales highlights that Azure DevOps Server 2022.1 RC2 now available
- Don High presents a webinar providing an Introduction to GitOps on Azure using Argo CD
- Utkarsh Ayachit blogs about Exploring an Automated Testing Strategy for Infrastructure as Code
- On episode 269 of the Azure DevOps Podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Matthew Casperson to talk about Platform Engineering
Hybrid + Multicloud
Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack
- James van Den Berg discusses Whats new with Azure Connected Machine agent and More CLI
- Tameika Lawrence discusses Entra Authentication for Replication in Arc-enabled SQL Server 2022 CU 6 in Public Preview
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services
- Ron Rasin writes about 3 hybrid environment identity protection challenges and how to apply Azure Active Directory
- Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) covers What is Entra ID, Entra Domain Services, and Windows AD?
Integration
Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
- Sean Feldman (@sfeldman) talks about Recoverability with Azure Functions and Recoverability with Azure Functions - Delayed Retries
- Werner Rall walks through Calling Azure Resource APIs from Power Automate Using Graph Explorer
- On episode 477 of the Azure podcast, the podcast team (@AzurePodcast) are joined by Ian Jensen and Michael Litman to discuss Azure cloud with a cloud
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
- Lee Stott (@lee_stott) announces Generative AI for Beginners - A 12-Lesson Course
- Shirleyse Haley writes Complete the new 30 Days to Learn It Challenge and explore the new trainings in Security
- Mike Tholfsen writes about Another batch of fun and useful Microsoft Education Quick Guides
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
- Aditya Balaji writes about Built-in Azure Monitor alerts for Azure Site Recovery is now in public preview
- Swati Devgan announces General Availability: Azure Change Tracking & Inventory using Azure Monitor agent AMA
- Urvashi Senha describes Release of Keyword Highlighting & new Business Context Classifier
- Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) talks about Azure Infrastructure Announcements – October 2023
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 announces Public preview: Announcing the new Azure Bastion Developer SKU
- On the Azure blog, Brianna McGovern introduces Azure Bastion Developer: Secure and cost-effective access to your Azure Virtual Machines
- The Azure Updates Team announces General availability: Default Rule Set 2.1 for regional WAF with Application Gateway
- Patrick van Kleef (@patkleef) writes Assume breach and minimize the impact with network security groups
Security
Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center
- Heike Ritter writes about Microsoft Defender 365 Monthly news - November 2023
- Rick Munck talks about Windows 11, version 23H2 security baseline
- On the Azure blog, Jordan Davis explains how to Protect your web apps from modern threats with Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Episode 210 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast with Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) - Reflecting on the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2023
- Mark Thomas explains how to Simplified deployment with Defender for Identity
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 Blob Storage Cold Tier support on Blob Batch operations and writes about Generally available: Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage is now available in more regions
- The Azure Updates Team talks about TLS 1.2 to become the minimum TLS version for Azure Storage
- Irina Kostina writes about Mission-critical content upload using Azure FrontDoor and Azure Blob Storage
- Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) talks about Setting up and using private endpoints in Azure with a storage account example in Terraform
- Mark Brimble (@BrimbleMark) blogs about Azure SFTP on Blob – Governance
- Antti K. Koskela (@koskila) explains How to selectively remove items from an Azure blob storage container
Web
Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps
- The Azure Updates Team announce GA: gRPC support on Azure App Service
- Jordan Selig announces App Service Multi-plan subnet join
Azure Virtual Desktop
Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop
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