Azure Weekly
Issue #514 - 11th May 2025
Another quiet week, but there are still a few interesting articles. Highlights for this week include: Empowering multi-agent apps with the open Agent2Agent A2A protocol, hopefully this will have as big an impact as MCP, which is the focus of: Plug, Play, and Prey: The security risks of the Model Context Protocol. In Azure Storage there's a new feature: Unlock seamless data management with Azure Storage Actions - now generally available.
In Analytics: OneLake Shortcut cache and on-prem gateway support Generally Available, and Microsoft Fabric Continuous Integration maturity levels. Two other announcements of note: Azure Arc: Keep your Azure Connected Machine agent up-to-date on a Windows Server, and Catch Up on the Azure Communication Services Fundamentals Series.
Finally, if you've not seen this before, take a look at Microsoft's Virtual Datacenter Tour opens a door to the cloud.
⚙️ AI + Machine Learning
- Mike Emonts blogs about Azure OpenAI o-series & GPT-4.1 Models Now Available in Azure AI Agent Service
- namankj07 blogs about Hubs and Workspaces on Azure Machine Learning – General Availability
- On the Azure blog, Yina Arenas talks about Empowering multi-agent apps with the open Agent2Agent A2A protocol
- On episode 289 of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast, Tobias Zimmergren & Jussi Roine (@CtrlAltAzure) discuss their Expectations on Microsoft Build 2025
- Christian Coello blogs about Unlocking the Power of Model Distillation through Azure AI Foundry
- On the Microsoft Reactor show, David Goad talks about GenAI for Scam & Fraud Detection in Banking
- James Onmerkow covers Study Level Outlier Detection in Medical Imaging: A Walkthrough and Practical Insights
- mertoez writes When Wrong Looks Right: The Challenge of Evaluating AI in Healthcare
- Shivam Goyal writes about AI Agents in Production: From Prototype to Reality - Part 10
- Bobur Umurzokov explains how to Build AI Agents for Postgres with Azure AI Agent Service
- Idan Hen covers Plug, Play, and Prey: The security risks of the Model Context Protocol
- Meenakshi Balekar explains how to Disable Local Authentication in Azure bot
🔎 Analytics
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Dan Liu discusses Task flows in Microsoft Fabric Generally Available, Trevor Olson talks about Shortcut cache and on-prem gateway support Generally Available and explains how to Manage connections for shortcuts
- Kevin Chant (@kevchant) covers Microsoft Fabric Continuous Integration maturity levels
- swells0244 shows how to Automate Financial & Economic Data Analysis with Azure Linux VM
🖥️ Compute
- Jingchao Zhang delves into DGX Cloud Benchmarking on Azure
🚢 Containers
- The Azure Updates Team announces In preview Public Preview: Continuous patching in Azure Container Registry
- On Diagrid Blog, Marc Duiker (@marcduiker) writes about Welcome new Dapr Meteors and Alice Gibbons writes about Zero Trust Security for Distributed Applications with Dapr
- Luke Murray (@lukemurraynz) explains how to Scan Your Kubernetes Cluster with KubeBuddy
- Rahul explains How to Set Up Data Collection Rules DCR for Azure Kubernetes Service AKS
- Yossi Weizman explains The Risk of Default Configuration: How Out-of-the-Box Helm Charts Can Breach Your Cluster
🗄️ Databases
- The Azure Updates Team announces Launched Generally Available: Data API in vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB
- Claire Giordano (@clairegiordano) explains how to What's new with Postgres at Microsoft, 2025 edition
- Priyanshi Verma talks about Neon Serverless Postgres is Now Generally Available
- Gayathri Paderla blogs about Managing bloat in PostgreSQL using pgstattuple on Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server
- Aravind Mahadevan covers Enhanced SQL Migration Tracking & Bringing SQL Server Arc Assessments to Azure Data Studio
🛠️ Developer Tools
- Erik Ejlskov Jensen explains how to Turn your .NET CLI tool into a local MCP Server for use with GitHub Copilot in VS Code
🔩 DevOps
- Andrew Wilson discusses Automating Semantic Versioning in Azure DevOps CI/CD Pipelines with GitVersion
- Bethany Jepchumba (@bethanyjep) writes Is it a bug or a feature Using Prompty to automatically track and tag issues.
- John Lokerse explains how to Control your Azure Bicep deployment flow with the fail function
- Nasreen Sarah talks about Automating Azure AI Foundry Deployment with IaC: Leveraging Bicep and GitHub Workflows
- On episode 348 of the Azure DevOps podcast, Jeffrey Palermo (@jeffreypalermo) is joined by Jeff Sutherland to talk about The History of Agile
⚙️ Hybrid + Multicloud
- Kiana Harris talks about Arc Jumpstart Newsletter: April 2025 Edition
- Tom Claes explains how to Troubleshoot the Azure Arc Agent in Azure using Azure Monitor & Log Analytics Workspace
- Wim Matthyssen (@wmatthyssen) blogs about Azure Arc: Keep your Azure Connected Machine agent up-to-date on a Windows Server
- Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) blogs about Azure Local Solution Categories explained: Validated Nodes, Integrated Systems, and Premier Solutions
🎭 Identity
- Abhishek Kumar covers DMS - Support for Managed Identity for Azure SQL Managed Instance migration
🔌 Integration
- Wagner Silveira covers Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter - May 2025
- Mohammed Barqawi discusses Log Ingestion to Azure Log Analytics Workspace with Logic App Standard
- Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) presents the Azure Essentials show: Build a Well-Architected SaaS Solution on Microsoft Azure
- Michael Gannotti talks about Unlocking Productivity with the Researcher Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Sean Keegan explains how to Get more from your Email logs with Azure Communication Services
📚 Learning
- On the Azure blog, Omar Khan covers Microsoft's Virtual Datacenter Tour opens a door to the cloud
⚖️ Management and Governance
- Javed Iqbal walks through Building a FinOps-Ready Azure Landing Zone: Infrastructure Foundations for Cost Optimization
- Michael Flanakin covers FinOps: Learning FOCUS: Commitment discounts
- Muhammad Samiullah writes about Smart Auditing: Leveraging Azure AI Agents to Transform Financial Oversight
🎬 Media
- Sean Keegan highlights the Catch Up on the Azure Communication Services Fundamentals Series
🔐 Security
- Alex Steele covers Microsoft Defender for Cloud Customer Newsletter
- Ernst Jourdain covers Highlighting the importance of securing your business during National Small Business Week
- Heike Ritter writes about Microsoft Defender XDR - Monthly news - May 2025
- Parul Seth writes From visibility to action: The power of cloud detection and response
- On episode 401 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott Hoag (@benstegink) and Ben Stegink (@ciphertxt talk about Zero Trust in Microsoft 365
- Josephine Bush writes about Azure Vulnerability Assessments
- Karthik Uthaman walks through Unmasking DDoS Attacks Part 1/3
📦 Storage
- The Azure Updates Team announces Launched Generally Available: Azure Storage Actions – Serverless storage data management
- On the Azure blog, Aung Oo blogs about Unlock seamless data management with Azure Storage Actions - now generally available
- The Azure Updates Team announces Launched Generally Available: Azure Premium SSD v2 now available in more regions
- On IT Next, Hossein Kohzadi writes Dont Let Blob Sync Break Your.NET App—Try This Instead
- Siddhi Gupta writes about Effective Storage Account Monitoring through Storage Insights
🔗 Web
- diiyyani presents Architecture of AI chatbot solution with private links
- Renee Noble explains how to Build faster with this simple AZD template for FastAPI on Azure App Service
- shailesh14 covers Custom Tracing in API Management
⚙️ Azure Virtual Desktop
- Fernando Klurfan discusses Microsoft Teams VDI State of Union – Spring of 2025
- Travis Roberts (@Ciraltos) discusses AVD Update: Redirection Defaults are Changing