Azure Weekly Issue 450: 21st January 2024

Thankfully a much smaller edition than last week, but still packed for of great content. First up, AI. Future-Proofing AI: Strategies for Effective Model Upgrades in Azure OpenAI, some very useful Security Best Practices for GenAI Applications OpenAI in Azure, and a post covering how the barriers to entry for orgs wishing to adopt M365 Copilot have been removed: Expanding availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365.

In Analytics, the inaugural Microsoft Fabric conference has been announced: save your seat at the ultimate Fabric learning event, and a useful guide showing how to enable Copilot in Fabric for Everyone

In Serverless, .NET Aspire was announced late last year, and although the positioning is a little confused, it seems to be gaining traction. There's a useful article showing how to deploy apps to Azure Container Apps easily with .NET Aspire. A helpful post on Migrating to v4 Azure Functions Node.js with TypeScript, and a post that solves a problem I came across last week when trying to upgrade one of our internal projects: Azure Functions: .NET 8 Functions worker is missing from the Azure Function project in Visual Studio 2022.

Azure AD changed to "Entra" and the pace of innovation has continued to accelerate, so this blog post is very welcome: Microsoft Entra's Top 50 Features of 2023. Graph databases are an incredibly powerful tool. There's lots of bleeding edge research about the power of Knowledge Graphs and LLMs, but graphs can also be used for more classical problem solving too. This is a great post about such a scenario: How Kusto graph semantics can help solve a classic graph problem: the Seven Bridges of Knigsberg.

Finally, I wanted to highlight a book about Reactive Programming, that we've just made available for free. Introduction to Reactive Extensions for .NET 2nd Edition (2024). Rx.NET (160 million downloads and counting) was created by Microsoft's Cloud Programmability Group in 2009 for a Cloud Native future which has now arrived. We (endjin) became the core maintainers of the project in January 2023, and we spent 2023 H2 working on the 2nd edition of this book, which is now almost 100k words in length, has new marble and sequence diagrams explaining many of the operators, and examples which focus on cloud native scenarios such as IoT, and stream data processing. The book is available for FREE as PDF, EPUB, Online, and on GitHub. Please download and enjoy, or share with any .NET Developers in your org.

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

• Yoav Dobrin walks through Future-Proofing AI: Strategies for Effective Model Upgrades in Azure OpenAI
• TJ Devine covers Expanding availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365
• On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina Alto blogs about Evaluating LLM-powered applications with Azure AI Studio
• Divya Choudhary writes about Comparative study of Azure Open AI GPT model and LLAMA 2
• Carlotta Castelluccio walks through Building your own copilot – yes, but how Part 1 of 2
• Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) discusses Scott Hanselman: Semantic Kernel - Episode 280
• Deepak Kaaushik describes Unlocking the Power of Azure Gen AI and ML: A Comprehensive Curriculum
• Lee Stott (@lee_stott) describes Python Data Science Day 2024: Unleashing the Power of Python in Data Analysis, explains how to AI Chat App Hack: A Guide for Technical Students and talks about Dive into the World of AI with the Semantic Kernel Cookbook
• Samuel Bamgbola explains How to Convert Audio to .WAV for Speech Service Using MoviePy
• On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina Alto covers Developing LLMs-powered applications with Prompt Flow and blogs about Getting started with Azure GPT-4-Turbo Vision

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

• On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Kim Manis writes about New Fabric certification and Fabric Career Hub, Arun Ulag writes about Save your seat at the ultimate Fabric learning event, Ruixin Xu talks about Copilot in Fabric preview is available worldwide, Harmeet Gill discusses OneLake File Explorer: Update via Excel made Easy and Raj Rikhy talks about Microsoft Fabric Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) writes about What is Power BI Direct Lake Mode in Microsoft Fabric
• Bhaskar Kakaraparthy writes about ADX Query Performance Unleashed: Best Practices and Pro Tips
• Byansi Anthony explains How to build an End-to-End Analytics Solution with Lakehouse in Microsoft Fabric
• Chunhua Gu explains how to Continued region expansion: Azure Data Factory is generally available in two more regions
• David Abu explains how to Enable Microsoft Fabric Copilot for Your Organization: A Comprehensive Guide
• Katie Cummiskey walks through Processing Millions of Events using Databricks Delta Live Tables, Azure Event Hubs and Power BI
• Pascal Burume describes Leveraging Azure Event Hub, Microsoft Fabric, and Power BI for Real-Time Data Analytics
• Kevin Chant blogs about Overview of the Microsoft Fabric admin portal for the DP-600 exam
• On Microsoft Fabric Blog, David Abu describes How to enable Copilot in Fabric for Everyone
• Tanmaya Panda explains how to Ingest data using Splunk Universal forwarder into Azure Data Explorer
• Adi Eldar describes Optimizing Vector Similarity Search on Azure Data Explorer – Performance Update
• Andrey Karpovsky describes How Kusto graph semantics can help solve a classic graph problem: the Seven Bridges of Knigsberg
• Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) blogs about Extracting Power BI Import Mode Job Graph Data To A Table
• Mahesh Singhania talks about ServiceNow Tickets connector is generally available

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

• Luis Rigueira blogs a Friday Fact: Settings present on local.settings.json file inside Azure Functions project are not deployed with Visual Studio
• The Azure Updates Team writes about Private Preview: Upgrade existing Azure Gen1 VMs to Gen2-Trusted launch
• On the Q Sharp blog, Fabrice Frachon covers Design Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing applications with the open-source Resource Estimator
• John Reilly (@johnny_reilly) discusses Migrating to v4 Azure Functions Node.js with TypeScript
• Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) describes Azure Functions: .NET 8 Functions worker is missing from the Azure Function project in Visual Studio 2022

Containers

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

• On the Azure blog, Jordan Davis announces that Microsoft named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Container Management
• Jiachen Jiang explains how to Deploy apps to Azure Container Apps easily with .NET Aspire

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 Public preview: Cosmos DB - Partition merge now supports shared throughput databases and announces the General Availability: Azure MySQL Import feature for Azure Database for MySQL Single to Flexible Server migrations
• Jiechen Li talks about Python & Azure Cosmos DB Integration: Create an E-Commerce DB Management Tool
• Gyani Sinha writes about Seamless Shift: Migrating from Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL to Azure Database for PostgreSQL
• Jaime Garcia de Alba describes QTip: Configure Azure SQL DB to receive alert when failover occurs in failover group or geo replica
• David Lyth discusses SQL Managed Instance DTC implementation – lessons learnt

Developer Tools

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

• Sinem Akinci writes about Latest updates for Remote Linux Development in Visual Studio: Remote File Explorer, Integrated Terminal, and more
• On the Visual Studio blog, Leah Tran writes about 17.9 Preview 3 brings exciting changes to Code Search
• Tobias Zimmergren Jussi Roine talk about Exploring the updated Azure Well-Architected Framework with Dom Allen

DevOps

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

• On the Azure podcast, Sean Klein talks about Episode 484 - Production LiveSite Review (PLR) process used by Azure Engineering for modern incident analysis and learnings.
• On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Angel Wong writes about Final notice of alternate credentials deprecation
• Also on the Microsoft DevOps blog, Gloridel Morales describes Azure DevOps Server Product Lifecycle and Servicing
• Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) walks through Adding pull-request comments to Azure DevOps Repo from Azure DevOps Pipelines
• Freek Berson (@fberson) delves into Exporting and importing variables between Bicep files: compileTimeImports

Hybrid + Multicloud

Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack

• On the MSSQL Tips site, Jared Westover explains how to Migrate to an Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Fady Azmy writes about Active Directory and Kubernetes – everything you need to know about gMSA with Windows Containers
• Nevena Nikolic writes about Save up to 50% on your compute costs: SQL MI Business Critical improved its storage-to-vCore ratio
• Pieter Vanhove (@Pieter_Vanhove) writes about Active geo-replication with ledger automatic digest management
• Garima Singh discusses Windows Server 2012/R2 Extended Security Updates Licensing and Billing
• Mile Cabot describes Resolving Intune Enrollment Issues with Domain-Joined Workstations: A Novel Approach

Identity

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

• Shobhit Sahay discusses Microsoft Entras Top 50 Features of 2023
• On the Azure blog, Brianna McGovern talks about Dynatrace and the Microsoft commercial marketplace: AI-powered cloud transformation
• Zachary Cavanell describes Microsoft Entra user and admin access controls to prepare for Copilot
• Vinicius Apolinario (@vrapolinario) announces the availability of the new gMSA on AKS workshop
• On Microsoft Security blog unveils a New Microsoft Incident Response guides help security teams analyze suspicious activity
• Timur Engin explains how to Visualize Entra Sign-in Logs using an Interactive Map

Integration

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

• Chris Bradshaw describes Logic App Standard – Local Development and Managed Identities in 2024
• Jim Novak describes FHIRlink Power Platform connector Public Preview Release

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

• Nancy Tandy talks about Bridge the skills gap with Microsoft Learn for Organizations collections

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

• Srinath Vasireddy covers Protecting Azure VM against Zonal/Regional outages using Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup
• On Microsoft Security blog, Caitlin Fitzgerald discusses Microsoft at Legalweek: Secure data and gain efficiencies with Microsoft Purview eDiscovery enhanced by generative AI

Media

Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer

• Jinrui Shao covers The Power of Video Moderation of Azure AI Content Safety
• Tom Hirshberg writes about Your Video Insights, Promptly Extracted: Azure AI Video Indexer's Preview of Prompt-Ready API
• Jean Hayes explains how to Analyze Videos with Azure Open AI GPT-4 Turbo with Vision and Azure Data Factory
• Daysha Carter says Tell Us What You Think about Azure Communication Services

Migration

Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box

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 the General Availability: Azure Virtual Network encryption
• Jonas Ohmsen blogs about ConfigMgr CMG Least Privilege Setup Approach
• Bryan Woodworth describes How to handle the 2025 change to Azure VM internet access, including Aviatrix, in Azure Marketplace
• Rob McNaught discusses Securing service traffic in Azure – Part 3

Security

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

• On the Azure Medium blog, Andre Camillo Cissp covers Automating Incident Response Actions on Microsoft Defender for Office 365
• On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) describes Microsoft Defender for Cloud Adds Agentless Virtual Machine Malware Scanning
• Arnab Mitra writes about Zero Touch Enrollment of MDE on iOS/iPadOS devices managed by Intune
• Daya Patil discusses Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 4: optimize security configuration
• Freddy Ayala talks about Security Best Practices for GenAI Applications OpenAI in Azure
• Gary Bushey discusses Querying Watchlists in Sentinel
• Maria de Sousa-Valadas Castaño explains how to Unleash the full potential of User and Entity Behavior Analytics with our updated workbook
• Noa Nutkevitch explains how to Protect faster with Microsoft Defender XDRs latest UX enhancements
• Tom Janetscheck (@azureandbeyond) writes about Agentless malware scanning for servers with Defender for Cloud
• Rob Lefferts explains how to Unified security operations with Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR
• Martin Schvartzman describes Introducing the new PowerShell Module for Microsoft 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

• Deeksha S A writes about Permanent Delete of Soft deleted Snapshot and Versions without disabling Soft Delete option
• Rich McKinnon writes about Who Deleted a Blob?
• Srikumar Vaitinadin explains how to Prepare for upcoming TLS 1.3 support for Azure Storage

Web

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

• Abhishek Reddy explains How to estimate pricing for WordPress on App Service and blogs about Kudu Dashboard explained - WordPress on App Service
• Hang Wang talks about Azure Spring Apps feature updates in Q4 2023
• Kevin Guo writes about With the geo-replica, Web PubSub resources are fault tolerant and can communicate across regions

Azure Virtual Desktop

Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop

• Nicholas Xuan Nguyen walks through Getting Started with Azure Virtual Desktop
• Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) covers Getting Started With AVD Insights and the Azure Monitor Agent