Azure Weekly
Issue #486 - 29th September 2024
Quite a busy edition this week, not just because of the European Microsoft Fabric Community Conference, and the torrent of announcements from the various keynotes. The highlights include: Google Cloud Storage shortcuts and S3 Compatible shortcuts and Fabric Data Pipeline Support in the On-Premises Data Gateway, and Mirroring for Snowflake in Microsoft Fabric reach General Availability. Also support for Databricks Unity Catalog tables available in Microsoft Fabric and Service Principal support for Fabric APIs, and Transform, Validate and Enrich Data with Python User Data Functions in Your Data Pipelines. But there are many, many more.
In AI, there's the interesting announcement of Azure AI Confidential Inferencing Preview and a Technical Deep-Dive. If you've used HuggingFace, then you may be interested in: Unlock the Power of AI with GitHub Models: A Hands-On Guide, and there's a great Azure OpenAI GPT-4o Structured Outputs Demo.
Finally, a learning from our internal Python data engineering efforts: How to step into external code when debugging a Python Behave test in VS Code.
⚙️ AI + Machine Learning
- Alex Pozin discusses Introducing web search query transparency for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot
- Katelyn Rothney discusses Correction capability helps revise ungrounded content and hallucinations and on the Redmond magazine site, Gladys Rama covers Microsoft Debuts AI Feature To 'Correct' Hallucinations
- Ken Archer explains how to Protected Material Detection for Code now in Preview in Azure AI Content Safety
- Sharmila Chockalingam covers Metas new Llama 3.2 SLMs and image reasoning models now available on Azure AI Model Catalog
- Yina Arenas blogs about The Future of AI: The paradigm shifts in Generative AI Operations
- Guy Gregory shares an Azure OpenAI GPT-4o Structured Outputs Demo
- Alexander Zeltov covers Retrieval Augmented Fine Tuning: Use GPT-4o to fine tune GPT-4o mini for domain specific application
- Sherry Shao writes about Multimodal Public Preview Blog
- Asha Sharma announces fine-tuning for customization and support for new models in Azure AI
- Steve Sweetman discusses Enterprise trust in Azure OpenAI Service strengthened with Data Zones
- Adrienne Krefft writes 'Customization is key to harness the power of AI models Latest announcements from Microsoft'
- Alex Sutton covers Azure AI Confidential Inferencing Preview
- Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) covers Azure AI Confidential Inferencing: Technical Deep-Dive
- Ken Archer describes Watermarks in preview in Azure OpenAI Service
- Martin Ca announces the Availability of Phi-3.5-MoE in Azure AI Studio and GitHub
- Meera Kurup writes about 5 Ways to Implement Enterprise Security with Azure AI Studio
- David Qiu talks about Azure AI Search Internal Server Error when creating CMK encrypted objects
- Zil e Huma blogs about Unlock the Power of AI with GitHub Models: A Hands-On Guide
🔎 Analytics
- Amir Jafari talks about Using Microsoft Fabric for Generative AI: A Guide to Building and Improving RAG Systems
- Evelina Alroy-Brin announces the new Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric Public Preview
- Luis Bosquez explains how to Transform, Validate and Enrich Data with Python User Data Functions in Your Data Pipelines
- Guy Reginiano blogs about Set alerts on KQL Querysets with Data Activator triggers
- Tessa Hurr announces Updates to Data Activator in Public Preview
- Jonathan Garriss announces the Private Preview of the Microsoft Fabric SKU Calculator at the European Fabric Community Conference
- Ye Xu announces Public Preview: Copy Job in Microsoft Fabric
- Trevor Olson talks about Databricks Unity Catalog tables available in Microsoft Fabric
- Jenny Jiang announces the Fabric Apache Spark Diagnostic Emitter: Collect Logs and Metrics
- Wilson Lee announces the General Availability of Mirroring for Snowflake in Microsoft Fabric
- Trevor Olson discusses Google Cloud Storage shortcuts and S3 Compatible shortcuts generally available
- Wilson Lee announces the General Availability of Copilot for Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric
- Salil Kanade blogs about Copilot for Data Warehouse: Public Preview Update
- Amir Jafari describes Harness Microsoft Fabric AI Skill to Unlock Context-Rich Insights from Your Data
- Mark Kromer (@kromerbigdata) describes Exciting Enhancements Announced for Fabric Data Factory Pipelines
- Ulrich Christ explains how to Integrate your SAP data into Microsoft Fabric
- On the MSSQL Tips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) blogs about Query Microsoft Fabric GraphQL API from an External App
- Also on the MSSQL Tips site, Temidayo Omoniyi writes about Predictive Analysis and Descriptive Analysis with Azure Stream Analytics, Machine Learning and Power BI
- Christina Tillbrook talks about Data Factory, Data Warehouse and Notebook Copilots - Transforming Your Healthcare Data with Copilots and blogs about Data Science & Engineering Copilot - Leverage Advanced AI Machine Learning Models
- Mark Winters explains how to Prove your data engineering skills and join the AI transformation
- Leo Li announces the General Availability of Fabric Data Pipeline Support in the On-Premises Data Gateway
- Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) covers Copying Content from One Databricks Unity Catalog Catalog to Another
- Christina Tillbrook blogs about Power BI Copilot - Improving Insights on Health Insurance Data
- Kevin Chant (@kevchant) walks through Choosing Azure DevOps or GitHub for Microsoft Fabric Git integration
🖥️ Compute
- Krishnaprasad Hande writes about General Availability: Azure confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs
- Xavier Pillons announces the General Availability of Azure CycleCloud Workspace for Slurm
- Arpita Chatterjee announces the public preview of the new Azure FXv2-series Virtual Machines
- Venkat Malladi describes Introducing Nextflow with GA4GH TES: A New Era of Scalable Data Processing on Azure
- Kirsten Megahan writes 'Microsoft is headed to VMware Explore 2024 in Barcelona'
- Jason Medina walks through Implementing Route Summarization in Azure VMware Solution
- Shreya Batra writes about Secure & scalable quick starts for Azure Functions using Azure Developer CLI
- On the Azure blog, Brett Tanzer describes Run VCF private clouds in Azure VMware Solution with support for portable VCF subscriptions
🚢 Containers
- Ricardo Martins (@ricmmartins) discusses Understanding Identity Concepts in AKS
- John Kilmister (@johnkilmister) discusses Azure Container Registry More Than Just an Image Store
- Richard Hooper (@Pixel_Robots) walks through Understanding the KubeConfig File: Insights from Building KubeTidy
- Tore Nestenius (@Tndata) blogs about Running Docker in an Azure Windows Virtual Machine – Not so fast
- On the Azure Developer Community Blog, Hannah Hunter talks about Dapr v1.14.4 now available in the Dapr extension for AKS and Arc-enabled Kubernetes
🗄️ Databases
- Edita Hovhannisyan Topalyan talks about The Azure SQL database export/import process might sometimestake a lot of time
- Matt Changchien covers Demonstrating Scenarios Where Query Store Does Not Capture Runtime Statistics for Unfinished Queries
- Sakshi Gupta blogs about Configuring TLS Updates on Server/Client to Implement TLS 1.2 - Azure SQL
- Silvano Coriani (@scoriani) covers Mirroring Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server in Microsoft Fabric - Private Preview
- Idris Motiwala describes Mirroring Azure SQLDB - new features and what's coming up
- Rajesh Setlem describes Azure SQL DB & MI Disaster Recovery: Take command and conquer any crisis
- Venkatachalam M R writes about Dynamic Data masking in Azure PostgreSQL – Flexible Server for migrated Oracle workloads and blogs about Implementing Oracle Data Masking capabilities in Azure PostgreSQL- Flexible Server
- Thomas Thornton (@tamstar1234) describes Using Terraform for Geo-Restore in Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server
- On SQL Server Central, Steve Jones - Ssc Editor covers Diving Deeper into the Import Extension in Azure Data Studio
- Josephine (Branch) Bush blogs about Dumping and Restoring Azure PostgreSQL Databases
- Matt Changchien provides A few ways to monitor performance for the geo replica of an Azure SQL Database
🛠️ Developer Tools
- On the endjin blog, Liam Mooney (@lg_mooney) explains How to step into external code when debugging a Python Behave test in VS Code
- Richard Fennell (@richardfennell) covers Generating Visual Studio SQL Database Projects from the command line
- On the Visual Studio blog, Harshada Hole explains how to Organize Your Visual Studio Breakpoints like a pro
- Also on the Visual Studio blog, Jakub Chocholowicz blogs about Next-Gen Code Coverage in Visual Studio: Enhanced C++ Support and Security
- Vinayak Hegde walks through Building Retrieval Augmented Generation on VSCode & AI Toolkit
- Minsoo Thigpen writes about New GenAI simulation and evaluation tools in Azure AI Studio
- Rob Chambers talks about The Future of AI: Unlocking the Power of Azure AI with the Book of AI
- Sourabh Kumar Verma covers Integrating Azure SQL with Django : A Step-by-Step Guide
- Vinayak Hegde walks through Building RAG on Phi-3 locally using embeddings on VS Code AI Toolkit
- On the Trailhead blog, Junior Saravia discusses Mastering iOS Debugging for Ionic Apps on macOS with VS Code
- On Visual Studio Magazine - Blogs, David Ramel (@dramel) explains how to What's New for Java Tooling in VS Code, Azure Cloud
- Adam Bertram (@adbertram) describes How to Authenticate to Azure Using PowerShell User and Device Authentication
- Andreas Helland discusses Customizing the combo of Azure Developer CLI and .NET Aspire
🔩 DevOps
- On .NET Rocks, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell (@richcampbell) chat about Microsoft Playwright Testing with Debbie O'Brien
- John Kerski explains how to Automated Testing for Broken Visuals with Microsoft Playwright
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Dan Hellem highlights Azure Boards, September Update
- Greg Low (@greglow) covers Fix: Visual Studio 2022 message – Git failed with a fatal error – Permission denied and talks about Fix: Visual Studio 2022 Git Commit button grayed out
- On the Visual Studio blog, Jessie Houghton talks about Level up your collaborations with the pull request experience in Visual Studio
- Leo Visser (@autosysops) describes Use the Power Platform to control Azure DevOps Pull Requests
- Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) chats to Ryan Riley: Leading a Software Engineering Team - Episode 316
⚙️ Hybrid + Multicloud
- Aurnov Chattopadhyay announces Public Preview of Windows Server Hotpatch enabled by Azure Arc
- Tony Xing (@XingGuodong) announces the public preview of Hybrid Azure AI Content Safety AACS
🎭 Identity
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Evelina Alroy-Brin announces Service Principal support for Fabric APIs
- Ashish Jain explains how to Explore the key benefits of Microsoft Entra Private Access
🔌 Integration
- Dieter Gobeyn explains how to Enhance Azure Logic Apps Debugging: Secure Input/Output Strategies
- Sandro Pereira (@sandro_asp) describes Friday Fact: You can use the BizTalk Server Logic App adapter to call a Logic App Standard Workflow
💡 Internet of Things
- The Azure Sphere Team explains how to Migrate to Azure Sphere Integrated ahead of Sept 2027 retirement of Legacy service interface
📚 Learning
- Nikhil Shukla blogs about Boost Your Career with Microsoft Azure Certification Courses
- Jennifer Stirrup explains how to Explore the Future of BI & AI at PASS Data Summit 24 Conference
- Claire Smyth discusses Speed Mentoring: Empowering Startups at London Reactor
- Mindy Rosenthal blogs about Azure Pass Retirements
- Rochelle Sonnenberg covers M365 Community Days NYC 2024: Collaboration and Innovation
- Luxmi Nagaraj discusses CentrePal, Moveworks, and Saturam offer transactable partner solutions in Azure Marketplace
- Amelia Carry describes The Marketplace Partner Digest September 2024
- Caroline Stanford blogs about Leveraging Partner Apps to Deliver on the Promise of AI-Led Productivity
- Luxmi Nagaraj writes about New on Azure Marketplace: September 1-9, 2024
⚖️ Management and Governance
- Noga Lavi Mendes talks about Help Shape the Future of Azure Monitor Alerts: Your Feedback Matters
- Chris Hopkins talks about Cloud Policy service now available to Microsoft 365 government cloud customers
- The Intune Support Team covers Support tip: Intune MAM users on iOS/iPadOS userless devices may be blocked in rare cases
- Richard Wakeman describes Understanding Compliance Between Commercial, Government, DoD & Secret Offerings - Sept 2024 Update
- Jesse Tedoff describes September 2024 - Microsoft 365 US Public Sector Roadmap Newsletter
- Michael Flanakin talks about Whats new in FinOps toolkit 0.5 – August 2024
- Paul Bergson describes How to Create an xPath Filter for a Data Collection Rule
🌐 Networking
- John Scott talks about Setting up a Point-to-Site VPN connection in Azure Government the quick version
🔐 Security
- John Joyner (@john_joyner) writes about New Microsoft Sentinel Workbook: Windows Firewall via AMA
- Charbel Nemnom (@charbelnemnom) covers Integrating Defender EASM with Microsoft Sentinel Guide
- Aman Kaur explains how to What's New: Global Search in Unified Security Operations platform includes Sentinel user and devices
- Arjun Trivedi talks about Detecting AiTM Phishing via 3rd-Party Network events in Unified Security Operations Platform
- Dana Iris discusses Identity Summary: New Security Copilot skill within Defender XDR
- David Frazee talks about Getting Started with Azure DDoS Protection REST API: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Maxime Bombardier describes Implementing a secure by default approach with Microsoft Purview and address oversharing
- Miriam Wiesner (@miriamxyra) blogs about The power of Data Collection Rules: Detect Disabling Windows Defender Real-Time Protection
- Saleem Bseeu describes Monitoring Azure DDoS Protection Mitigation Triggers
- The Intune Support Team explains how to Protect your corporate data using Microsoft Edge for mobile platforms
- On Microsoft Security blog, Rudra Mitra explains how to Activate your data responsibly in the era of AI with Microsoft Purview
- Gal Fenigshtein describes Introducing the new File Integrity Monitoring with Defender for Endpoint integration
- Karol Pieciukiewicz covers Azure Anti-Malware File Scanner: Terraform + .NET
📦 Storage
- Arjun Tomar talks about Introducing Copilot in OneDrive: Now Generally Available
🔗 Web
- Mayunk Jain explains how to Build and secure your apps with Azure App Service and Defender for Cloud
- On the Visual Studio blog, Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi discusses Creating a React TODO app in Visual Studio 2022
- On Code Project, M Cherry writes about Visual Studio React Application Deployment to Azure Static Web App using Azure DevOps CI/CD Pipelines
- Hariom Dubey covers Encrypting and Decrypting sensitive Information in ASP.NET Core
⚙️ Azure Virtual Desktop
- Fernando Klurfan writes about New VDI solution for Teams on AVD/Windows 365 environments now generally available
- Pavithra Thiruvengadam writes about OneDrive support for RemoteApp in Azure Virtual Desktop