Azure Weekly

Issue #47 - 10th October 2015

This is a rather large edition thanks to Tuesday's AzureCon event. There were several announcements, which are summarised on the Azure blog  and on Scott Guthrie's blog. You can also watch the sessions on the AzureCon site and Channel 9.

The over-arching theme of the event was 'the intelligent cloud', with a focus on innovative uses of data. Here are some highlights:

• Plans for the Azure Data Lake service have expanded to include a data store, analytics service & HDInsight. Azure Data Lake Analytics will come with a new C# extensible SLQ variant, U-SQL. 
• Cortana Analytics suite, which provides discounted access to data services like Data Factory, Data Catalog, Event Hubs, Data Lake, SQL Data Warehouse, Machine Learning, HDInsight, Stream Analytics & PowerBI, is now available 
• Azure IoT Suite, a service offering pre-configured IoT solutions,  is now available 
• Azure SQL Data Warehouse, which now includes Power BI integration, is available for public preview

Although cloud infrastructure took a back seat at the conference, there were still plenty of wider platform announcements (information can be found on the on the Azure blog where there isn't a link):

• A new pre-purchase pricing program with purported cost savings of up to 63%, available from December 1st
• A new Financial Services Compliance Program, to help customers in the financial industry, which provides access to audit report evidence and platform penetration test results
• 3 new Azure regions in Central India, South India and West India
• A new 'N' family of GPU-enabled VMs in partnership with NVIDIA
• A new Azure Security Centre, offering documentation, threat detection and alerts 
• An Azure Container Service, building on current work with Docker & Mesosphere. This is still a work in progress but a QuickStart template is available
• Azure Resource Health, a new service for monitoring and identifying and taking action to solve the root causes of issues with resources such as VMs, websites and SQL Databases, available from October
• The introduction of Webhooks for Azure Alerts
• Dynamic manifest composition support ahd additional HLS output features for Azure Media Services

There were several other announcements about preview services going into general availability, including the HDInsight on Linux, the App Service Environment, Azure Mobile Engagement, Live Encoding for Media Services, DV2 VMs, Azure File Storage, and Azure Backup of application workloads.

If you have any content you'd like to contribute to the newsletter, please tweet @AzureWeekly or ping an email to AzureWeekly@endjin.com

@HowardvRooijen | @AliceWaddicor  | @endjin

Management & Automation

This section of the newsletter covers all things automation; from Azure Automation, Azure Scheduler, Key Vault, Docker, Azure Resource Manager and PowerShell to Application Insights and Operational Insights.

• On the Azure podcast, Episode 96 deals with  IaaS under Azure Resource Manager

• Following the introduction of Web Hooks for Azure alerts, on the Azure blog, Ravi Kiran shares a guide to using Azure Automation to take action on Azure Alerts

• On MSDN, Travis Plunk covers the release of the Azure DSC Extension v2.7, and describes how to use WMF 4 with Azure DSC Extension in Azure Cloud Service Manager

• Also on MSDN, Ariel Kirsman shares a Demo script for Docker in Azure against Linux and Windows containers

• Also on MSDN, Ambrish Mishra writes about setting up machines for Windows Remote Management WinRM deployment tasks

• Also on MSDN, 'Saw1234' explains how to use the Azure CLI with Azure Government

• Also on MSDN, Rahul Bagaria shares a reminder that Application Insights is retiring on the VSO Portal and shares the new link for Application Insights blogs

• Also on MSDN, Michael Greene writes a PowerShell DSC FAQ on Sorting Out Certificates

• Also on MSDN, Lukas Steindl talks about using Powershell and Integration Services to provide Azure compute resources

• Also on MSDN, 'Laurelle' explains How to move an Azure VM between subscriptions

• Also on MSDN, Theresa Palmer explains how to Visualize your Azure Audit Logs with Power BI

• On TechNet, Microsoft Server And Cloud Platform Team write part 2 of their Microsoft Loves Linux Deep Dive, covering Linux and FreeBSD Integration Services Core Features

• Rajinder Singh (@rajsinghper) describes How to upgrade Azure DS Series VM to GS Series VM

• On the Redmond magazine site, Jeffrey Schwartz writes about the Azure Container Service Resource Provider for the Azure Resource Manager (ARM)

Compute

This section of the newsletter covers Virtual Machines, Cloud Services, Azure Batch & RemoteApp.

• On MSDN, 'Madan ' explains how to reserve multiple VIPs per Cloud Service

• On TechNet, Bizspark Online share a case study of how Azure and SQL Server are helping EventNook deliver self-service event promotion and ticketing

• Also on TechNet, Mary Hutson lists the top support solutions for Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines

• On Channel 9, Tuesdays with Corey features Mark Russinovich

• On Code Project, 'Joaosousa23' discusses how to create a Cloud Service with a specific .NET Framework

• Marco Chiappetta (@MarcoChiappetta) writes 'Microsoft Delivers Graphics-Intensive Applications via Azure With NVIDIA GRID 2.0 Technology'

• This is also covered by Marius Sandbu (@msandbu) in Moving forward with Nvidia GRID on Microsoft Azure

Networking

This section of the newsletter covers Virtual Networks, ExpressRoute, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, DNS, VPN Gateway & Application Gateway.

• On MSDN, 'Ranand12' shares a PowerShell command for Listing all subnets in an Azure Virtual Network

• Also on MSDN, Igor Pagliai blogs about Hub & Spoke, Daisy-Chain and Full-Mesh VNET topologies in Azure ARM using VPN

Web, Mobile & IoT

This section of the newsletter covers the Azure App Service (Web Apps, Mobile Apps, Logic Apps and API Apps), Mobile Services, Mobile Engagement, API Management, Notification Hubs & Event Hubs.

• On the Falafel blog, Adam Anderson talks about Azure Mobile Apps, Tables with Integer Keys, and You

• On the Azure blog, Kirill Gavrylyuk shares some case studies mobile apps built with the Azure App Service

• On the Xamarin blog, James Montemagno writes about Xamarin & Azure Apps Everywhere at AzureCon

• On MSDN, Lachezar Arabadzhiev covers Azure Mobile Services with Node

• On TechNet, Tommy Patterson walks through Creating Apps for the Web Using Node.js on Azure

• Radu Vunvulea blogs about the App Service Plan and describes what to do when you receive a 502 error code on an Azure endpoint

Data & Analytics

This section of the newsletter covers SQL Database, SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Data Lake, HDInsight, Stream Analytics, Data Factory, Data Catalog, Machine Learning, DocumentDB, Azure Search & Cache.

• On MSDN's Visual Studio Blog, there's  an introduction to U-SQL - a Language that makes Big Data Processing easy

• On the Azure blog, Paige Liu covers the production support of Cloudera Enterprise on Azure

• Also on MSDN, Janet Yeilding blogs about Stream Analytics updates for the Azure IoT Suite

• Also on MSDN, the Power BI Team share winners from the Power BI Best Visual Contest 3rd Peoples Choice Award

• On TechNet, T.K. Ranga Rengarajan writes 'Microsoft expands Azure Data Lake to unleash big data productivity'

• Also on TechNet, Ml Blog Team writes 'What 50 Million People and 7 Days Can Teach Us About Big Data' and writes a behind the scenes look at Azure Data Lake: Bringing Microsofts Big Data Experience to Hadoop

• On Channel 9, Andrew Moll covers Azure Data Lake, in part 1 of a series on Spark

• Also on Channel 9, Scott Klein talks about what's new with Azure DocumentDB Since GA

• Also on Channel 9, Scott Klein and Seth Juarez discuss HDInsight on Linux GA

• 'Gunnar' writes an Introduction to Azure Search

• On the Hortonworks blog, Audrey Ng writes about Microsoft Azure HDInsight on Linux

• On the Microsoft Openness site, Openness Team writes about the availability of Azure HDInsight on Linux

• On the WindowsITPro site, Rod Trent writes 'Azure Data Lake picks up some Improvements prior to AzureCon'

Storage & Backup

This section of the newsletter covers Storage, Import / Export Service, StorSimple, Backup & Site Recovery.

• On TechNet, Pierre Roman writes a Step-By-Step guide to Azure Site Recovery - Controlled Failover

• Also on TechNet, Blain Barton warns that Azure Storage API changes may effect your Azure Backup Agent on machines

• Radu Vunvulea explains how to use the ListBlobsSegmented command to iterate in large containers

• Marius Sandbu (@msandbu) covers the general availability of Azure File Storage

• Max McCarty (@maxrmccarty) writes about Microsoft Azure Shared Access Signatures on Pluralsight

Media & CDN

This section of the newsletter covers Media Services (Encoding, Media Player, Media Intelligence, Content Protection & On-demand Streaming) & Content Delivery Network.

• On MSDN, 'Ranand12' describes PowerShell commands for getting Started with Azure Government, including connecting to Azure Media Services in Azure Government

• On the Azure blog, Sudheer Sirivara announces a partnership between Microsoft and Akamai to provide an Azure CDN offering using the Akamai network

Hybrid Integration

This section of the newsletter covers Azure Stack, ExpressRoute, BizTalk Services & ServiceBus.

• None this week

  ⚖️ Management and Governance

  • On the Azure podcast, Episode 96 deals with  IaaS under Azure Resource Manager

  • Following the introduction of Web Hooks for Azure alerts, on the Azure blog, Ravi Kiran shares a guide to using Azure Automation to take action on Azure Alerts

  • On MSDN, Travis Plunk covers the release of the Azure DSC Extension v2.7, and describes how to use WMF 4 with Azure DSC Extension in Azure Cloud Service Manager

  • Also on MSDN, Ariel Kirsman shares a Demo script for Docker in Azure against Linux and Windows containers

  • Also on MSDN, Ambrish Mishra writes about setting up machines for Windows Remote Management WinRM deployment tasks

  • Also on MSDN, 'Saw1234' explains how to use the Azure CLI with Azure Government

  • Also on MSDN, Rahul Bagaria shares a reminder that Application Insights is retiring on the VSO Portal and shares the new link for Application Insights blogs

  • Also on MSDN, Michael Greene writes a PowerShell DSC FAQ on Sorting Out Certificates

  • Also on MSDN, Lukas Steindl talks about using Powershell and Integration Services to provide Azure compute resources

  • Also on MSDN, 'Laurelle' explains How to move an Azure VM between subscriptions

  • Also on MSDN, Theresa Palmer explains how to Visualize your Azure Audit Logs with Power BI

  • On TechNet, Microsoft Server And Cloud Platform Team write part 2 of their Microsoft Loves Linux Deep Dive, covering Linux and FreeBSD Integration Services Core Features

  • Rajinder Singh (@rajsinghper) describes How to upgrade Azure DS Series VM to GS Series VM

  • On the Redmond magazine site, Jeffrey Schwartz writes about the Azure Container Service Resource Provider for the Azure Resource Manager (ARM)

  🖥️ Compute

  • On MSDN, 'Madan ' explains how to reserve multiple VIPs per Cloud Service

  • On TechNet, Bizspark Online share a case study of how Azure and SQL Server are helping EventNook deliver self-service event promotion and ticketing

  • Also on TechNet, Mary Hutson lists the top support solutions for Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines

  • On Channel 9, Tuesdays with Corey features Mark Russinovich

  • On Code Project, 'Joaosousa23' discusses how to create a Cloud Service with a specific .NET Framework

  • Marco Chiappetta (@MarcoChiappetta) writes 'Microsoft Delivers Graphics-Intensive Applications via Azure With NVIDIA GRID 2.0 Technology'

  • This is also covered by Marius Sandbu (@msandbu) in Moving forward with Nvidia GRID on Microsoft Azure

  🌐 Networking

  • On MSDN, 'Ranand12' shares a PowerShell command for Listing all subnets in an Azure Virtual Network

  • Also on MSDN, Igor Pagliai blogs about Hub & Spoke, Daisy-Chain and Full-Mesh VNET topologies in Azure ARM using VPN

  💡 Internet of Things

  • On the Falafel blog, Adam Anderson talks about Azure Mobile Apps, Tables with Integer Keys, and You

  • On the Azure blog, Kirill Gavrylyuk shares some case studies mobile apps built with the Azure App Service

  • On the Xamarin blog, James Montemagno writes about Xamarin & Azure Apps Everywhere at AzureCon

  • On MSDN, Lachezar Arabadzhiev covers Azure Mobile Services with Node

  • On TechNet, Tommy Patterson walks through Creating Apps for the Web Using Node.js on Azure

  • Radu Vunvulea blogs about the App Service Plan and describes what to do when you receive a 502 error code on an Azure endpoint

  ⚙️ Data and Analytics

  • On MSDN's Visual Studio Blog, there's  an introduction to U-SQL - a Language that makes Big Data Processing easy

  • On the Azure blog, Paige Liu covers the production support of Cloudera Enterprise on Azure

  • Also on MSDN, Janet Yeilding blogs about Stream Analytics updates for the Azure IoT Suite

  • Also on MSDN, the Power BI Team share winners from the Power BI Best Visual Contest 3rd Peoples Choice Award

  • On TechNet, T.K. Ranga Rengarajan writes 'Microsoft expands Azure Data Lake to unleash big data productivity'

  • Also on TechNet, Ml Blog Team writes 'What 50 Million People and 7 Days Can Teach Us About Big Data' and writes a behind the scenes look at Azure Data Lake: Bringing Microsofts Big Data Experience to Hadoop

  • On Channel 9, Andrew Moll covers Azure Data Lake, in part 1 of a series on Spark

  • Also on Channel 9, Scott Klein talks about what's new with Azure DocumentDB Since GA

  • Also on Channel 9, Scott Klein and Seth Juarez discuss HDInsight on Linux GA

  • 'Gunnar' writes an Introduction to Azure Search

  • On the Hortonworks blog, Audrey Ng writes about Microsoft Azure HDInsight on Linux

  • On the Microsoft Openness site, Openness Team writes about the availability of Azure HDInsight on Linux

  • On the WindowsITPro site, Rod Trent writes 'Azure Data Lake picks up some Improvements prior to AzureCon'

  📦 Storage

  • On TechNet, Pierre Roman writes a Step-By-Step guide to Azure Site Recovery - Controlled Failover

  • Also on TechNet, Blain Barton warns that Azure Storage API changes may effect your Azure Backup Agent on machines

  • Radu Vunvulea explains how to use the ListBlobsSegmented command to iterate in large containers

  • Marius Sandbu (@msandbu) covers the general availability of Azure File Storage

  • Max McCarty (@maxrmccarty) writes about Microsoft Azure Shared Access Signatures on Pluralsight

  🎬 Media

  • On MSDN, 'Ranand12' describes PowerShell commands for getting Started with Azure Government, including connecting to Azure Media Services in Azure Government

  • On the Azure blog, Sudheer Sirivara announces a partnership between Microsoft and Akamai to provide an Azure CDN offering using the Akamai network

  ⚙️ Hybrid Integration

  • None this week

  ⚙️ Identity and Access Management

  • On MSDN, Mirek H Sztajno provides Examples of some connection errors for Azure Active Directory Authentication

  • On TechNet, 'Mzbowe' talks about the RMS Analyzer Tool for Azure Admins

  • Also on TechNet, Simon May blogs about Azure AD

  • Also on TechNet, 'Meirm' describes how an Azure AD Application Proxy can perform single-sign-on when cloud and on-prem identities are different

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