Azure Weekly
Issue #521 - 29th June 2025
There's lots of great Fabric content this week: Data engineers will be interested in the new Inline Scalar user-defined functions (UDFs) in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse (Preview). Developers can explore new capabilities with the features for Microsoft Fabric Extension in VS Code. The Fabric Data Agent has received an upgrade with Data source instructions for smarter, more accurate AI responses, and there's a comprehensive Fabric June 2025 Feature Summary which covers all the latest additions.
On the infrastructure side, there's practical guidance for Deploying an MCP Server Using Azure Container Apps. Here Microsoft is recognised for innovation, scale, and real-world impact with Serverless Compute on Azure. As you may know, we here at endjin are passionate about the ability of serverless compute to give small, medium and enterprise organisations a low resistance path to adoption!
For those working with data integration, James has provides an excellent walkthrough of reading structured data from SharePoint in Synapse Pipelines. Finally, Microsoft's commitment to security architecture is highlighted in Microsoft's journey towards durability at scale with Mark Russinovich.
⚙️ AI + Machine Learning
- April Gittens asks: I want to show my agent a picture - Can I? and on How do I control how my agent responds?
- Chang Liu explains how to Start your Trustworthy AI Development with Safety Leaderboards in Azure AI Foundry
- Hammad Omar walks through Developing Code Assist – a Multi-Agent Tool
- Jie Ding blogs about Voice Conversion in Azure AI Speech
- Richard Paw discusses Microsoft Discovery: The path to an agentic EDA environment
- Margaret Farmer explains how to Build, Deploy, & Manage AI with Azure AI Foundry
- Michael Flanakin blogs about Transforming FinOps in the era of AI
- Muhammad Suzarilshah bin Zakaria explains how to Create Stunning AI Videos with Sora on Azure AI Foundry
- David Ramel (@dramel) highlights that Microsoft Leads Cloud Hyperscalers in AI-Heavy Security Analytics Field
- Nina Harding highlights how Microsoft + Partners Make More Possible: Healthcare
🔎 Analytics
- On the endjin blog, James Broome (@jamesbroome_) discusses Reading structured data from SharePoint in Synapse Pipelines
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Srdjan Matin covers Inline Scalar user-defined functions (UDFs) in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse (Preview) and explains How to make your SQL scalar user-defined function UDF inlineable
- Panu Oksala discusses Building Modern Applications on Microsoft Fabric
- Nick Edwards describes How to Run T-SQL in Microsoft Fabric Python Notebooks
- Patrick LeBlanc (@patrickdba) provides the Fabric June 2025 Feature Summary
- Misha Desai discusses what's New in Fabric Data Agent: Data source instructions for smarter, more accurate AI responses
- Harmeet Gill covers Customer Managed Keys in OneLake: Strengthening Data Protection and Control
- Aaron Merrill runs through the OneLake security updates and news
- Chris Burt discusses Connecting the Healthcare Agent Orchestrator to your Electronic Health Record and Microsoft Fabric
- David Callaghan discusses Unleashing the Power of AI Functions in Databricks SQL, covers Databricks Next-Gen AI-Native OLTP Database and discusses A Risk-Free Approach to Enterprise AI
- Justine Coates (@iotgirl) describes Mastering Time with Microsoft Azure Maps Timezone API
🖥️ Compute
- The Azure Updates Team announces Azure FXv2-series Virtual Machines (GA) and Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk and Ultra Disk are now available in Malaysia West (GA)
- Hugo Affaticati talks about Performance at Scale: The Role of Interconnects in Azure HPC & AI Infrastructure
- On the Azure blog, Scott Hunter (@coolcsh) celebrates Innovation, scale, and real-world impact with Serverless Compute on Azure
🚢 Containers
- David Giard (@DavidGiard) talks about Grid Dynamics and AKS
- Richard Hooper (@Pixel_Robots) writes about Cost-Optimised Add-on Scaling in AKS: Right-Size Your System Add-ons (Preview)
- Mohamad Al Jazaery walks through Deploying an MCP Server Using Azure Container Apps
- Tobias Fenster writes about How to run IIS in a Windows Server 2025 Nano Server container using FoDs
- On The New Stack, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols highlights that the Linux Foundation has appointed Jonathan Bryce to Lead CNCF
🗄️ Databases
- Jaime Garcia de Alba runs through Getting timeouts and exceptions using Azure SQL DB Query Store
- Tameika Lawrence talks about Preparing for the Deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in Azure Databases
- Jill Armour describes Unlocking growth with Oracle Database@Azure: A strategic opportunity for partners
🛠️ Developer Tools
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Sunitha Muthukrishna announces new features for Microsoft Fabric Extension in VS Code
- David Giard (@DavidGiard) blogs about Adding GitHub Copilot Custom Instructions
- On the Visual Studio blog, Rhea Patel writes about Better Models, Smarter Defaults: Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-4.1, and More Control in Visual Studio
- Bobur Umurzokov explains how to Create a Database Schema and REST APIs with a Single Prompt Using GitHub Copilot in VS Code
- Dennis Eikelenboom runs through the new Azure AI Foundry resource, Developer APIs and Tools (MSBuild)
- Efe Abugo highlights the Copilot Control System Digital Deep Dive
🔩 DevOps
- Dieter Gobeyn blogs about Azure Load Testing at Scale: Governance Essentials Made Easy
- John Reilly (@johnny_reilly) describes Azure DevOps: pull requests and dynamic required reviewers
- On the Microsoft DevOps blog, Angel Wong describes Removing Azure Resource Manager reliance on Azure DevOps sign-ins
⚙️ Hybrid + Multicloud
- On Microsoft Fabric Blog, Leo Li highlights the On-premises data gateway June 2025 release
- On the Kubernetes Blog, Chaoyi Huang, Marcin Franczyk, and Vanessa Sochat discuss Image Compatibility In Cloud Native Environments
- On the Azure blog, Omar Khan blogs about A 306% ROI within 3 years using Ubuntu Linux on Azure
- Matthew Burrows explains how to Get started with Azure Managed Redis today: a step-by-step guide to deployment
🎭 Identity
- Joseph Dadzie explains how to Streamline user management across Microsoft clouds
- Nitika Gupta (@_nitika_gupta) describes OAuth consent phishing - explained and prevented
- Joseph Guadagno describes Using Certificates for Authentication with Microsoft Identity Library
🔌 Integration
- Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) describes how to Parameterize Linked Service in ADF with no Dynamic Content available
- Devi Priya explains how to Build and Deploy Logic App Workflows Using Visual Studio Code and CI/CD Pipeline
- Divya Swarnkar announces Organizational Templates in Azure Logic Apps (Public Preview)
- Haris Sohail walks through how Defender for Cloud Expands API security to Function Apps and Logic Apps (Unlocking API visibility)
- Kent Weare (@wearsy) introduces Agent in a Day: Build Agents with Azure Logic Apps
- Pedro Almeida discusses a Logic App Standard - When High Memory / CPU usage strikes, and what to do
📚 Learning
- Mindy Rosenthal highlights that AI-102 is Now Correctly Listed as 5-Day Course in Title Plan
- "Taylor Tech" covers Empowering Youth Through STEM and Motorsports with Rajah Caruth
⚖️ Management and Governance
- On Azure FinOps Essentials, Michiel van Oudheusden (@mivano) writes Idle by Design? Embracing Event-Driven Architecture for Cost Efficiency
- Luke Murray (@lukemurraynz) explains how to Automate Azure Bastion with Drasi Realtime RBAC Monitoring
- Eunji Gil blogs about Making the Most of Attack Simulation Training: Dynamic Groups, Automation, and User Education
- Zachary Cavanell introduces Microsoft Purview Alert Triage Agents for Data Loss Prevention & Insider Risk Management
- The Azure Updates Team announces Azure Advisor VM Right-Sizing Update – Expanded SKU support and series coverage (GA) and Monitor ingestion issues with Azure Monitor Workspace (Public Preview)
- Ren Woods splotlights People of Purview: Karen Lopez
- CH McConnell writes about Modern, unified data security in the AI era: New capabilities in Microsoft Purview
- Jack Tracey (@Jack_Ref) discusses Common questions about Azure landing zones
- On SQL Server Central, Tonie Huizer writes about Discovering the Hardware Beneath Azure SQL MI
- On IT Next, Michael Eichhorn talks about Setting up GKE Autopilot with Terraform and ArgoCD
🚌 Migration
- Kapil Samant runs through some Hidden pitfalls of Temporary Tables in Oracle to PostgreSQL Migrations
- Yogesh Jain describes Simplifying Azure Purview PaaS to SaaS Migration with a Custom Metadata Migration Accelerator
🌐 Networking
- The Azure Updates Team announces: Azure WAF integration in Microsoft Security Copilot (GA), and Azure Front Door now supports managed certificate for wildcard domains (GA), and Draft & Deploy on Azure Firewall (Public Preview) and Azure Virtual Network Manager IP address manaement (GA)
- Gopikrishna Kannan walks through Protecting networks from malware, including Lumma Stealer, with Azure Firewall Premium
🔐 Security
- The Azure Updates Team explains how to Transition existing platform-managed keys (PMK) to customer-managed keys (CMK) for Azure NetApp Files volumes without data migration
- George Rozo describes Delivering Compliant Solutions in the AI Era
- Karen Chen highlights that Key Attestation for Azure Managed HSM is now GA
- Sarah Lean (@TechieLass) describes How to secure your Azure Storage with Microsoft Defender for Storage
- On Microsoft Security blog, Mark Russinovich (@markrussinovich) covers Building security that lasts: Microsofts journey towards durability at scale
- Dinakar Nethi covers Immutability: A Powerful Shield Against Ransomware in SQL Environments
📦 Storage
- Chaminda Chandrasekara discusses Setting Up Azure Storage Blob Backups with Azure Backup Vault Using Terraform
- Raymond Tsai talks about how to Benchmark Different Capacities for EDA Workloads on Microsoft HPC Storages
🔗 Web
- Nitesh Jain describes Simplifying Secrets Management in Strapi on Azure App Service