Azure Weekly
Issue #452 - 4th February 2024
A mixed bag this edition. Let's start off with how to use Bicep lint with Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions, and then Multimodal Retrieval Augmented Generation, and How To Monitor Your Multi-Tenant Solution on Azure With Azure Monitor, and Azure Private Link VS Azure Service Endpoint
There are a few interesting articles in the cloud native app dev topic: Preview of Distributed Tracing V2 for Durable Functions, one I'm particularly interested in trying out: Generally Available: Azure Container Apps supports additional TCP ports, a nice tutorial showing how to Build a distributed pizza store in .NET with serverless Dapr APIs, and finally A Glimpse into the Future: The Sidecar Pattern on Linux App Service.
⚙️ AI + Machine Learning
- Shubhendu Satsangi discusses Revolutionizing Businesses with Virtual AI Agents
- Tanner Briggs explains How Microsoft 365 Delivers Trustworthy AI
- Qinying Liao discusses Azure AI Speech launches new zero-shot TTS models for Personal Voice
- Ron L'Esteve blogs about Generative AI with Azure Machine Learning
- Vinod Soni writes about Drug Details in Doctors Prescriptions: A Named Entity Recognition Approach using Prompt Flow
- On the Azure Medium blog, Valentina Alto writes about Multimodal Retrieval Augmented Generation
- Martin Bald blogs about Optimizing ML Models in Production in The Cloud or At the Edge Using A/B Testing
- Graeme Foster writes about Smarter Azure Open AI Usage
- Aishani Bhalla provides A Guide to Optimizing Performance and Saving Cost of your Machine Learning ML Service - Part 2
- On the Microsoft Reactor show, Julia Muiruri presents Build it with AI: Tawi's Home-Based Auditory Processing Disorder APD Toolkit
- On episode 223 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) talk about Understanding Azure AI Search
- Vinod Soni covers Healio - Healthcare Chatbot using C# Semantic Kernel, planner and Azure OpenAI
🔎 Analytics
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Kimberly Williams writes 'Microsoft Fabric is now HIPAA compliant'
- Also on Microsoft Fabric Blog, Nikki Waghani blogs about VNET Data Gateway for Fabric and Power BI is now Generally Available
- On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) presents Data MVPs and Microsoft Fabric Super Users in the Era of AI Data Exposed
- Kevin Chant discusses Analytics development lifecycle requirements for the DP-600 Microsoft Fabric exam
- James Dumont covers Azure Data Factory: How to split a file into multiple output files with Bicep
- Subashri Vasudevan walks through Interpreting Script activity output json with Azure Data FactorySynapse analytics
- Pascal Burume describes How to use Azure Open AI to Enhance Your Data Analysis in Power BI
🖥️ Compute
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview: Distributed tracing v2 for durable Functions, and Public Preview: New major version of durable Functions extension and Public Preview: Azure Functions Support for Java 21 on Linux
- Raymond Meng-Ru Tsai writes about Large-scale docking for drug design on Azure
- Varshi Bachu talks about Preview of Distributed Tracing V2 for Durable Functions
- Also on Tech Community blog, Rosy Dutt writes about Generally Available: VMware Cloud Director Availability for Azure VMware solution with Run commands
- Hit Subscribe explains How to Use Dependency Injection in Azure Functions
🚢 Containers
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Generally Available: Azure Container Apps supports additional TCP ports, and Generally Available: Kube-reserved resource optimization in Azure Kubernetes Service AKS and Generally Available: Outbound type migration in AKS
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Public preview: Node OS API options feature for AKS, and Public preview: Upgrade support in Istio add-on for AKS, and Public preview: Disable Secure Shell SSH support in AKS and Public preview: Istio add-on for AKS now supports plug-in certificate authority CA
- The Azure Updates Team highlights the Azure Red Hat OpenShift January 2024 updates
- Henry Yan covers Linux and Open Source on Azure Quarterly Update - January 2024
- On the Azure Medium blog, Musunuru Sharmila discusses Simplifying Kubernetes: Best AKS Architecture for Mission Critical Workloads
- Fady Azmy talks about CAST - Modernizing your .NET apps to Windows containers on Azure Kubernetes Services
- Holly Hamilton covers Resiliency Policies in Azure Container Apps
- On Diagrid Blog, Marc Duiker (@marcduiker) explains how to Build a distributed pizza store in .NET with serverless Dapr APIs
🗄️ Databases
- The Azure Updates Team announces the General Availability: Server logs for Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server, and General availability: Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL Customer-managed keys CMK, and General Availability: Read replica in special regions with Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server, and General availability: PgAudit in Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL, and Generally Available: Support for Cross Region Restore for PostgreSQL backups and General availability: Azure SQL updates for late-January 2024
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Public preview: Azure SQL updates for late-January 2024
- Nevena Nikolic writes about More vCore options for SQL MI Business Critical for better price/performance and flexibility
- Aaron Bertrand writes about Optimized locking in Azure SQL Database
- Djordje Marinkovic talks about Azure SQL Managed Instance pools: new features
- Mihailo Joksimovic walks through Invoking REST APIs with SQLCLR and Newtonsoft's Json.NET
- Prakash K walks through Deploying Azure SQL Database Using an ARM Template
🛠️ Developer Tools
- On Tech Community blog, Marc Windle describes Introducing the SharePoint Embedded Visual Studio Code extension and on the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie discusses SharePoint Embedded Preview Available in Visual Studio Code
- The Azure Updates Team highlights the Visual Studio Code extension update for Azure Kubernetes Service AKS
- On the Visual Studio blog, Sy Brand describes A Year of C++ Improvements in Visual Studio
- Also on the Visual Studio blog, Harshada Hole writes In the Debuggers Spotlight: A Year in Review
- Amy Colyer discusses Why Azure Image Builder - Getting Started
- Steve Jones delves into Server Dashboards in Azure Data Studio
- Daniel Falkner writes about AzCopy support for Entra ID authentication
🔩 DevOps
- The Azure Updates Team announces Generally available: Up to 50 test fail criteria in Azure Load Testing
- John Reilly (@johnny_reilly) covers Bicep lint with Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions
- On Code Project, Nicolas Descartes writes about Leveraging Bicep to Deploy Azure Resources
- Andreas Helland blogs discusses Infra in Azure for Developers - The How Part 2
⚙️ Hybrid + Multicloud
- The Azure Updates Team announces Generally Available: Azure Stack HCI latest feature release and the Public preview: ExpressRoute guided portal experience for multi-site resiliency
- On Tech Community blog, Guang Hu writes about AKS enabled by Azure Arc is now available on Azure Stack HCI 23H2
- Cosmos Darwin describes Azure Stack HCI version 23H2 is generally available
- Dale Kirby announces HCIBox support for Azure Stack HCI 23H2
- Islam Gomaa writes about Common Deployment Challenges and Workarounds for HCI 23H2
- Vaibhav Kale presents and discusses MAC address assignment strategies for tenant VMs running on Stack-HCI environment
- On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) and Sasha Nosov explain how to Save money with Arc SQL Server licensing
🎭 Identity
- On the Redmond magazine site, Kurt Mackie (@kurmac) talks about Microsoft Previews Advanced Customizations for Certificate-Based Authentications and writes about Conditional Access Policies Getting Activated Next Month for Microsoft 365 Tenancies
- Alex Weinert covers Introducing More Granular Certificate-Based Authentication Configuration in Conditional Access
- Luis Aranda describes How to create linked servers from SQL managed instance using Entra Authentication part 1
🔌 Integration
- The Azure Updates Team announces Preview: Selectable search parameter capability for the FHIR service in Azure Health Data Services
- Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) covers Logic App Best Practices, Tips, and Tricks: 40 Did you know you can resubmit multiple runs at once and discusses Friday Fact: Trigger Conditions Can Help You Optimize Workflows and Conserve Resources
- Daysha Carter discusses Transitioning Smoothly from Twilio Programmable Video to Azure Communication Services
📚 Learning
- Daniel Calbimonte provides a DP-900 Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals Exam Study Guide
- Olanrewaju Oyinbooke (@TheOyinbooke) writes Microsoft Fabric for those who know nothing about Fabric
- Jill Armour writes about New Solutions Partner with certified software designations coming soon
⚖️ Management and Governance
- The Azure Updates Team announces General Availability of Azure Monitor Metrics Data Plane API and Priyanka Mishra discusses Azure Monitor- Announcing General Availability of Azure Monitor Metrics Data Plane API
- The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Azure Monitor introduces Prometheus community recommended alerts, and Private Preview: Azure Site Recovery support for Azure Trusted Launch VMs Windows OS, and Public Preview: Azure Business Continuity Center is now available in all regions and Scott Hoag and Ben Stegink blogs about Public Preview: Azure Business Continuity Center is now available in all regions
- Balasubramanian Delli discusses Configuration Manager technical preview version 2401
- On episode 369 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag (@ciphertxt) and Ben Stegink (@benstegink) discuss Microsoft 365 Backup and Archive
- Daya Patil blogs about Business Continuity with ABCC: Part 5: Monitoring protection
- Paul Bergson discusses Migrating from the Azure MMA to AMA Agent
- On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) describes How to get ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365 Updates for2024
- On episode 282 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) and Greg Leonardo (@gleonardo) talk about Optimizing Cloud Budgets in Azure
- Surabhi Calla blogs about Device readiness checks for expedited Windows quality updates
- Tom Claes explains How To Monitor Your Multi-Tenant Solution on Azure With Azure Monitor
🎬 Media
- Steven Stein discusses Whats New in Microsoft Teams January 2024
🚌 Migration
- Anirudh Raghunath covers Azure Migrate - Modernizing your .NET apps to Windows containers on Azure Kubernetes Services
🌐 Networking
- The Azure Updates Team announces Azure Virtual Network Manager topology view now generally available and Azure Virtual Network Manager security admin rule generally available in 30 regions
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) dicusses Azure Private Link VS Azure Service Endpoint
- On the Azure Medium blog, Musunuru Sharmila writes Tickling the Packets: Unveiling TLS Inspection with Azure Firewall for Private Endpoints
- Richard M. Hicks (@richardhicks) discusses Considerations for Always On VPN with Azure VPN Gateway and Virtual WAN
🔐 Security
- Lara Goldstein blogs about Bridging the Gap Between Code and Cloud with Defender for Cloud
📦 Storage
- Adam Groves announces the Public Preview of Metadata Caching for Azure Premium SMB File Shares
- Subhash Athri N announces the general availability of NFS Azure file share snapshots
- Amrinder Singh blogs about Monitoring Life Cycle Management Policy Runs
🔗 Web
- The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: Azure API Center – January Updates and Abhishek Reddy announces Public Preview of Migration plugin for WordPress on App Service
- Akihiro Nishikawa (@Logico_jp) explains how to Leverage Azure API Management to distribute API traffic to multiple backend services
- Srini Padala talks about Using Azure API Management Circuit Breaker and Load balancing with Azure OpenAI Service
- Tulika Chaudharie provides A Glimpse into the Future: The Sidecar Pattern on Linux App Service
- On The New Stack, Joab Jackson covers CNCF CloudEvents: A Lil Message Envelope That Travels Far
⚙️ Azure Virtual Desktop
- On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Matt McSpirit (@mattmcspirit) discusses Azure Virtual Desktop for Azure Stack HCI
- Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) describes How to Review and Search AVD Insights Data