Azure Weekly Issue 458: 17th March 2024
One very interesting announcement is Free data transfer out to internet when leaving Azure. In AI, there are two interesting posts: Journey Series for Generative AI Application Architecture - Fine-tune SLM with Microsoft Olive and Build RAG Chat App using Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore and Azure OpenAI: Step-by-Step Guide, and in Analytics How to access multi-select choice column choice labels from Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse with PySpark or SQL.
In Cloud Native App Dev, End-to-end TLS with AKS, Azure Front Door, Azure Private Link Service, and NGINX Ingress Controller and Configure Azure connection strings and keys in Azure Bicep
It's nice to see some new features and use cases for Azure Static Web Apps: Distributed Functions Preview for Azure Static Web Apps and Seamless Integration: Enhancing your Static Web App by adding an Azure Functions backed AI Chatbot.
Finally a very interesting deep dive into Azure Event Grid's MQTT Broker Performance.
It's the SQLBits Conference in the UK this week. Ed & Barry are running the "DataOps: How to Deliver Data Faster and Better with Microsoft Cloud" training day, Barry is presenting "Turbo charge your Data Science workflow with Microsoft Fabric" on Friday from 10:10-11:00 and "Microsoft Fabric and Data Mesh - a perfect fit?" from 14:50-15:10. Ed is presenting "How To Actually Make Decisions When Architecting a Data Platform" on Thursday from 13:40-14:00 and is taking part in the "Ask the Expert - Group B" on Wednesday from 13:50-14:40 and "Ask the Expert - Group A" on Saturday from 09:00-09:50. James Broome is presenting "Do those numbers look right? How to ensure quality, and avoid inaccuracies in your data insights." on Saturday from 14:10 - 15:00. The rest of the endjin folk (myself included) will be at the event Thur / Fri / Sat and be looking considerably less stressed, so please do say "hi!" if you see any of us!
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 Armchair Architects discuss Considerations for Ethical and Responsible Use of AI in Applications
- JP Park covers Document Intelligence preview adds more prebuilts, support for image and figures, and more
- On the Azure blog, Bert Hoorne & Lilach Goldshtein describes Azure AI Health Bot helps create copilot experiences with healthcare safeguards
- Lo Kinfey (@Ljh8304) presents Journey Series for Generative AI Application Architecture - Fine-tune SLM with Microsoft Olive
- John Aziz (@john00isaac) explains how to Build RAG Chat App using Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore and Azure OpenAI: Step-by-Step Guide
- Pamela Fox blogs about Evaluating a RAG chat app: Approach, SDKs, and Tools and Can your app say I don't know
- Stratos Kourtzanidis explains how to Analyze complex documents with Azure Document Intelligence Markdown Output and Azure OpenAI
- Siliang Jiao describes how to Build Your Feature Engineering System on AML Managed Feature Store and Microsoft Fabric
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, Someleze Diko explains how to Protect PII information in your Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse with Responsible AI
- Also on Microsoft Fabric Blog, Miquella de Boer explains how to Browse Azure resources with Get Data
- Jessica Hill explains How to access multi-select choice column choice labels from Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse with PySpark or SQL
- Dany Hoter blogs about Timespan/duration values in KQL, Power Query and Power BI
- Deepak Kaaushik presents the Canadian MVP Show: Unlocking the Future: GEN AI Empowering Solution Architects with Microsoft Fabric
- David Callaghan talks about Test Driven Development with Databricks and Writing Testable Python Objects in Databricks, and covers Understanding the role of Py4J in Databricks
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
- David O'Brien (@david_obrien) describes Azure Policy to Allow Only Known Images
- Vinil Vadakkepurakkal walks through Setting up SLURM Job Accounting with Azure CycleCloud and Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server
Containers
Covering: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift, CNAB, CNCF, Container Instances, Container Registry, Porter, WSL, Web App for Containers
- On Tech Community blog, Yutang Lin announces that Azure Container Apps Managed Certificates now in General Availability GA
- The Azure Updates Team announces Public Preview: JVM memory fit in Azure Container Apps, and Public Preview: Tomcat support in Azure Container Apps and Public Preview: Managed Java components in Azure Container Apps
- Sheetal Lalwani talks about Command Override in Azure Container Apps /Container App Job
- On The Dapr Blog, Marc Duiker (@marcduiker) shares the New Dapr slide deck for your presentations and on Diagrid Blog, covers Diagrid & Dapr at KubeCon Europe 2024
- Richard Hooper explains how to Elevate Your AKS Security with Trusted Launch Preview
- Jing Wang explains how to Retrieve User Claims in Python Flask App for Azure Container Apps After Authentication
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 General Availability of: Major version upgrade logs for Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server, and Additional cache size for Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise, and Azure Defender for Microsoft Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server, and Private Link in Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore and Microsoft Entra ID integration with Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview: Azure SQL updates for mid-March 2024
- The Azure Updates Team says Try Azure Cosmos DB support in Vercel Integration
- On the Microsoft Mechanics show, Jeremy Chapman (@deployjeremy) and Kirill Gavrylyuk discuss What is the database behindChatGPT?
- Attinder Pal Singh describes Zone Redundancy support for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale Named Replica - Preview
- Brian Spendolini (@btspendo) blogs about Azure SQL Trigger Binding for Azure Functions goes GA
- Matt Changchien walks through Decoding the TLS 1.3 protocol handshake during a connection to an Azure SQL DB with Wireshark
- Pieter Vanhove (@Pieter_Vanhove) explains How to convert Always Encrypted to Always Encrypted with Secure Enclaves
- Yochanan Rachamim (@ryochanan) explains how to Restore LTR backup after database migrated to Hyperscale edition
Developer Tools
Covering: App Configuration, Azure Lab Services, CLIs, Developer tool integrations, SDKs, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Online
- On the Visual Studio blog, Mark Downie (@poppastring) says Visual Studio 17.10 – Preview 2 is Here
- On the Visual Studio blog, Amy Nguyen blogs about GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio: A Recap of 2023
- On Visual Studio Magazine, David Ramel (@dramel) writes a Quick Tip: Use Threads to Improve Chat with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio 2022, and Pesky WinForms Designer Tweaked in Visual Studio 2022 v17.10 Preview 2 and writes As Xamarin.Forms Nears End-of-Life, Uno Platform Throws Hat into Replacement Ring
- Reid Carlberg discusses Introducing SharePoint Embedded: Microsoft 365 features for Your Marketplace App
- Antti K. Koskela (@koskila) describes How to fix NoRegisteredProviderFound when trying to run any aks az cli commands
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 Generally Available: Azure Chaos Studio supports new fault for Azure Event Hubs
- The Azure Updates Team announces the Public Preview of Modernizing Azure Resource Manager Throttling
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Gloridel Morales discusses March patches for Azure DevOps Server
- John Reilly (@johnny_reilly) explains how to Configure Azure connection strings and keys in Azure Bicep
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) explains How To Create a Self-Hosted Agent for Azure Pipelines
- Verah Ombui describes how to Supercharge Management & Automation with Ansible Azure
Hybrid + Multicloud
Covering: Azure Arc, Azure Stack
- Temidayo Omoniyi describes how to Dynamically Copy Data from an On-Premises SQL Server to Azure SQL Database
- On the Data Exposed show, Anna Hoffman (@AnalyticAnna) is joined by Lance Wright to explain How to monitor the performance of your on-prem & multi-cloud SQL Servers w/ Azure Arc
- Neha Tiwari discusses Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for on-premises workloads in Microsoft Azure Cloud
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services
- Sarah Scott blogs about Microsoft Entra adds identity skills to Copilot for Security
- Herbert Fuchs and Beatriz Moran Serrano provide A Deep Dive look into Cloud Management Gateway App-Registrations: Part 1 and Part 2
- Elishiah Miller blogs about Simplifying Azure Kubernetes Service Authentication Part 3
Integration
Covering: Azure API for FHIR, Event Grid, Logic Apps, Service Bus
- Jim Novak announces FHIRlink Power Platform connector General Availability
- Balakrishnan Shanmugam describes WhatsApp Business Platform now available for applications built on Azure
- Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) writes Logic Apps Consumption SQL Connector version 1 Actions/Triggers will be deprecated and covers Friday funny Fact: There is no size limit for the Logic App parameter name
- Praveen Srivastava covers Migrating managed X12 decode to built-in X12 decode in Logic Apps Standard
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
- George Guirguis provides a deep dive into Azure Event Grid's MQTT Broker Performance
- The Azure Updates Team describes Azure IoT Edge supports Ubuntu Core Snaps
Learning
Covering: Microsoft Certifications, Azure Certifications, Microsoft Learning Paths, Certification Pathway Information
- Kim Akers blogs about Empowering teams, strengthening organizations with Microsoft Applied Skills
- On episode 288 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Rockford Lhotka to discuss Philosophy on Architecture
- On .NET Rocks, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell (@richcampbell) discusses Azure in 2024 with Magnus Mårtensson
- Mike Tholfsen announces the standalone Microsoft Reading Coach for classroom use
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 describes Billing for Azure Monitor stateful log search alerts
- On episode 372 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag (@ciphertxt) and Ben Stegink (@benstegink) cover Microsoft Intune Part Deux – App
- Felipe Binotto covers Mastering Azure Cost Optimization - A Comprehensive Guide
Media
Covering: Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Media Analytics, Media Services, Video Indexer
- Daysha Carter talks about Azure Communication Services March 2024 Feature Updates
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 writes about Now available: Free data transfer out to internet when leaving Azure
- Cynthia Treger talks about Understanding ExpressRoute private peering to address ExpressRoute resiliency
- Paolo Salvatori writes about End-to-end TLS with AKS, Azure Front Door, Azure Private Link Service, and NGINX Ingress Controller
Security
Covering: Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Azure Sentinel, Key Vault, Security Center
- Nora Zhang explains how to Discover, protect, and govern AI usage with Microsoft Security
- Rani Lofstrom describes Microsoft Copilot for Security: General Availability details
- Rob Lefferts discusses Microsoft named as a Leader in three IDC MarketScapes for Modern Endpoint Security 2024
- Matt Lowe explains how to Create Codeless Connectors with the Codeless Connector Builder Preview
- On the Microsoft Mechanics show Erin Miyake covers The dynamic duo for your data security – Adaptive Protection integration with Conditional Access and explains how to Protect data used in prompts with common AI apps Microsoft Purview
- Neta Haiby covers Security for AI: How to Secure and govern AI usage
- Tomer Teller describes Introduces Microsoft Security Exposure Management
- Ryan Salerno blogs about Exposure Management: The Evolution of Vulnerability Management
- Rob Greene writes We need to discuss the Microsoft Certification Authority Web Enrollment CAWE Role
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
- Matthew Mitrik announces Azure Health Data Services DICOM service with Data Lake Storage
- Jeremiah Walters talks about Unlocking Seamless Connectivity: Integrating WordPress with Microsoft Azure Storage
- On episode 229 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) check out Azure Storage Actions
Web
Covering: API apps, API Management, App Service (Web), Azure Cognitive Search, Azure SignalR Service, Azure Spring Cloud, Web apps
- Thomas Gauvin announces Distributed Functions Preview for Azure Static Web Apps
- The Azure Updates Team blogs about Azure API Center Updates
- Annina Keller writes about Seamless Integration: Enhancing your Static Web App by adding an Azure Functions backed AI Chatbot
Azure Virtual Desktop
Covering: Azure Virtual Desktop
- Kushmeen Kambow walks through Introducing Azure Virtual Desktop workload in Azure Stack HCI Sizer
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