Azure Weekly Issue 57: 13th December 2015
There's a lot of buzz around Cortana Analytics, Machine Learning and data analysis this week including a case study on forecasting wind predictions using Azure ML, an announcement that Azure ML models can now be applied on top of streaming data to get real time insights and a look at some pretty incredible visualisations in PowerBI. In addition, the Cortana Analytics Gallery has been getting a lot of interest since it's launch earlier this year, reinforcing this as a really exciting space.
In other news, starting in 2016 Microsoft will offer their cloud services Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online from within German datacenters.
AI + Machine Learning
Covering: Azure Batch AI, Azure Bot Service, Microsoft Genomics, Machine Learning services, Machine Learning Studio, Cognitive Services, Bing APIs, Computer Vision API, Content moderator, Custom Services, Emotion API, Face API, Language Understanding (LUIS), Linguistic Analysis API, QnA Maker API, Speaker Recognition API, Text Analytics API, Translator Speech API, Translator Text API, Web Language Model API
Analytics
Covering: Azure Databricks, HDInsight, Data Factory, Stream Analytics, Data Lake Analytics, Event Hubs, Power BI, Azure Analysis Services, Apache Spark for HDInsight, Apache Storm for HDInsight, R Server for HDInsight, Data Catalog
- On TechNet, the ML Blog Team describes how ServusNet forecasts wind power using Cortana Analytics Suite
- Also on TechNet, the ML Blog Team announces that Azure ML is now available as a function in Azure Stream Analytics
- Also on TechNet, the ML Blog Team talk about the success of the Cortana Analytics Gallery
- On MSDN, Dr Kenji Takeda provides useful resources about data science for researchers using Microsoft Azure
- Sandrino Di Mattia blogs about connecting Auth0 to Power BI with Stream Analytics and a Webtask
- On the Azure blog, Andrew Hoh announces Azure DocumentDB integration with Visual Studio Cloud Explorer
- Also on the Azure blog, Nate Ko discusses Lucene query language in Azure Search
- Also on the Azure blog, Omid Afnan answers writes about running U-SQL scripts locally with the updated Azure Data Lake Tools for Visual Studio
- Also on the Azure blog, Rashim Gupta blogs about using Ambari Views to author Hive and Pig Queries in HDInsight
- Also on MSDN, the Power BI Team writes about the Synoptic Panel
- Also on TechNet, Xuedong Huang, Chief Speech Scienist discusses how the Microsoft Computational Network Toolkit offers the most efficient distributed deep learning computational performance
- Also on TechNet, Jos de Bruijn describes speeding up transactions with In-Memory OLTP in SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database
- On the Journey to SQL Authority blog, Pinal Dave describes InMemory Tables on SQL Azure DB and explains how to connect to Azure SQL DB
- Also on MSDN, Igor Pagliai discusses SQL Server in Azure - comparing PaaS (SQLDB) and IaaS (Virtual Machine)
Compute
Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
- On MSDN, Cesar de la Torre talks about Azure Service Fabric and the Microservices Architecture
- Also on MSDN, Stacey Haffner talks about support ending for the .NET Framework 4, 4.5 and 4.5.1 and how that affects Azure deployments
- Also on MSDN, Thomas W Shinder writes about best practices for updating virtual machines in Microsoft Azure IaaS deployments
- On TechNet, 'RalfWi' talks about the Microsoft Cloud in Germany
- Also on TechNet, Diego Viso blogs about migrating Azure Virtual Machines from ASM to ARM
- Harald Schult Ulriksen (@hsulriksen) talks about availability in an unreliable cloud
- Trond Hindenes (@trondhindenes) describes deploying passwordless SSH key Linux VMs in Azure ASM
- On the PaaS Mag site, the GCP Team explains why measuring cloud performance just got easier and better
- On the Microsoft Openness site, the Openness Team announces the new professional certification for Linux on Azure
Containers
Covering: Container Registry, Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Web App for Containers
Databases
Covering: Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, SQL Data Warehouse, Redis Cache, SQL Server Stretch Database, SQL Server on virtual machines, Table storage, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for MySQL
Developer Tools
Covering: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Developer tool integrations, CLIs, Blockchain Workbench
DevOps
Covering: Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), Azure DevTest Labs, DevOps tool integrations, Azure DevOps Projects, Azure Lab Services
Identity
Covering: Azure Active Directory, Multi-factor Authentication, Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Azure Active Directory B2C
- On MSDN, Rajesh Makhija announces that enforcing Office 365 identity in Yammer is now available
- On TechNet, Alex Simons announces custom roles in Azure RBAC is now GA
- Also on TechNet, Shannon Gowen announces significant compliance milestones in Azure Government
- Also on TechNet, Alex Simons also answers questions received by the Customer Success team in a new series - The Azure AD Mailbag
- Also on TechNet, Harry Eagles talks about reducing risk and enhancing security
Integration
Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid
Internet of Things
Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Suite, IoT Edge, IoT Central, IoT solution accelerators, Time Series Insights, Azure Maps, Azure Sphere
Management and Governance
Covering: Backup, Site Recovery, App Insights, Azure Advisor, Sceduler, Automation, Log Analytics, Azure Monitor, Security & Compliance, Protection & Recovery, Automation & Control, Insight & Analytics, Azure Service Health, Microsoft Azure portal, Azure Resource Manager, Cloud Shell, the Azure mobile app, Azure Policy, Cost Management, Azure Managed Applications
- On the Azure blog, Joe Levy (@Jodoglevy) announces Azure Resource Manager support in Azure Automation runbooks
- Also on the Azure blog, Marley Gray provides an update on Azure Blockchain as a Service
- Also on the Azure blog, Pranav Rastogi, Program Manager - Azure ASP.NET and Cache, blogs about the Azure WebJobs SDK 1.1.0 RTM
- On the Kloud blog, Simon Waight explains how to get started with the Azure Security Center
- On Channel 9, Corey Sanders talks about the Debian GNU/Linux and Azure Container Service
- Jan Hentschel (@Horizon_Net) writes about continuous delivery of Azure WebJobs via Git
- Ravikanth Chaganti (@ravikanth) looks at defining resource dependencies when building Azure Resource Manager templates
- Mike Lanzetta blogs about TensorFlow on Azure using Docker
Media
Covering: Media services, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Media Analytics, Video Indexer
Microsoft Azure Stack
Covering: Azure Stack
Migration
Covering: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, Data Box
Mobile
Covering: App Service (Mobile), Notification Hubs, Mobile apps, API apps, Visual Studio App Centre, Xamarin
Networking
Covering: ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Virtual Network, Traffic Manager, Load Balancer, VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, Network Watcher
- On TechNet, Giulio Astori describes the exciting new solutions soon to be available in OMS
- Also on TechNet, Keith Mayer (@KeithMayer) writes about capturing Azure Resource Manager ARM VNET Gateway diagnostic logs
Security
Covering: Azure Information Protection, Key Vault, Security Center, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection
Storage
Covering: Storage, StorSimple, Data Lake Store, Blob Storage, Disk Storage, Managed Disks, Queue Storage, File Storage, Storage Explorer, Archive Storage
- On the Azure blog, Giridhar Mosay, Program Manager Cloud and Enterprise, discusses how cloud backup of enterprise data gets better with Azure Backup
- On the Database Journal site, Marcin Policht discusses Azure SQL database resiliency - point-in-time restore
- On the Tallan blog, Greg Szilagyi walks through increasing IOPS for Microsoft SQL in Azure without using premium storage
- Simon Timms (@stimms) blogs about copying Azure blobs
- On Channel 9, Haishi Bai Chris Risner talks about Azure Redis Cache Premium Tier with Pranav Rastogi on the Microsoft Azure Cloud Cover Show
Web
Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service
- On MSDN, Visual Studio Blog summarises the HealthClinic.biz demos that were demoed at Connect(); //2015
- Also on MSDN, Michael S. Collier (@MichaelCollier) explains how to deploy a WordPress Azure Web App with an alternative MySQL database
- Also on MSDN, Mike Richter explains how to migrate existing ASP.NET websites to Azure Cloud Services
- On Channel 9, Greg Duncan talks about his Windows 10 IoT Core Breathalyzer project
- On the Azure blog, Steve Danielson announces new API Management policies to integrate external services
- On the Tallan blog, Stephen Kimble asks why should you use Azure IoT Suite over Event Hub
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