Azure Weekly Issue 87: 7th August 2016

On the endjin blog, Jess Panni compares AWS, Azure and the Google Cloud Platform on Compute, Storage & Content Delivery and Database. 

Corey Sanders announces that the Azure N-Series preview is now available, while James Staten explains why IaaS isn't your only path to outsized gains, and Nicole Herskowitz disscusses how Microsoft is a Gartner cloud computing leader across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. 

On the Azure blog, Mike Gresley writes about the new visual alerts added to Application Insights metric widget for VSTS dashboards, and talks about an Application Insights work item integration with GitHub. 

Tejas Karmarkar announces that ANSYS CFD and Microsoft Azure perform the best HPC scalability in the cloud, and Alice Rison unveils that Microsoft has obtained new cloud-centric ISO 27017 certification.  

Christina Compy announces the Internal Load Balancer and Resource Manager have VNet support, meanwhile Frank Weigel reveals the general availability of Azure Logic Apps. 

Aditi Gangwar writes about incremental backups on Microsoft Azure Backup and saving on long term storage, and Jan Engelsberg announces that Azure SQL Database new premium performance level P15 is generally available.

Mingfei Yan shares the news that Apple FairPlay Streaming for Azure Media Services is generally available, whilst Shubha Vijayasarathy writes about Service Bus and the new Azure portal.  

Mirek Sztajno discusses GA for Azure AD authentication in SQL Database and SQL Data Warehouse, and Sam George introduces Azure IoT support for X.509 certificates.

Finally Swaroop Krishnamurthy announces that Azure Active Directory B2C is generally available in North America.

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 the Azure blog, Jan Engelsberg announces that Azure SQL Database new premium performance level P15 is generally available.

• On the Azure blog, Mirek Sztajno discusses GA for Azure AD authentication in SQL Database and SQL Data Warehouse.

• James van Den Berg (@JamesvandenBerg) talks about migrating Microsoft SQL Server Databases to Azure Guidelines.

• On MSDN, Saveen Reddy (@saveenr) introduces File and Folder ACLs for the Azure Data Lake Store. 

• Michele Usuelli talks about analysing data in SQL Server 16 and combining R and SQL. 

• Yochanan Rachamim asks how big is your Azure SQL database. 

• On the Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave blog, Pinal Dave (@pinaldave) explains what to do if you're unable to create listener for the AlwaysOn Availability Group in Azure via Template Deployment and blogs about setting firewall settings with Azure SQL Server VMs. 

• On TechNet, Shannon Gowen blogs about using Elastic Jobs for day to day tasks.

• Tim Smith (@sqlhawty) offers solutions for the Throttle Log Wait of 'HADR_THROTTLE_LOG_RATE_GOVERNOR'. 

• On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) has a simple way of reporting from the FIM/MIM Metaverse to PowerBI using the Lithnet FIM/MIM Sync Service PowerShell Module. 

Compute

Covering: Virtual Machines, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Cloud Services, Linux Virtual Machines, SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances

• On the endjin blog, Jess Panni (@JessPanni) compares AWS, Azure and the Google Cloud Platform on Compute, Storage & Content Delivery and Database. 

• Nicole Herskowitz (@nicolelamb) disscusses how Microsoft is a Gartner cloud computing leader across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. 

• Also on MSDN, Lee Stott (@lee_stott) covers getting started with Blockchain as a Service using Microsoft Azure Dev Test Labs. 

• On the Azure blog, Corey Sanders (@CoreySandersWA) announces that the Azure N-Series preview is now available. 

• Tejas Karmarkar announces that ANSYS CFD and Microsoft Azure perform the best HPC scalability in the cloud. 

• James Staten (@Staten7) explains why IaaS isn't your only path to outsized gains. 

• Richard M. Hicks (@richardhicks) unveils that DirectAccess is now a supported workload in Microsoft Azure. 

• On the .NET Curry blog, Kunal Chandratre (@kunalchandratre) Demystifyies the Microsoft Azure platform. 

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

• Swaroop Krishnamurthy announces that Azure Active Directory B2C is generally available in North America.

• On Channel 9, Richard Dizerega (@richdizz) talks about app-only permissions and the Microsoft Graph. 

• On the Kloud blog, Darren Robinson (@darrenjrobinson) talks about Set-AzureADUser & Azure Graph API and adding or removing User Office365 Licences using PowerShell and the Azure AD Graph RestAPI.

• Simon Waight (@simonwaight) looks into creating Azure AD B2C service principals with PowerShell. 

• On TechNet, Dishan Francis (@rebeladm) writes about managing Azure Active Directory Domain Service via the Virtual Server. 

• Richard Hay discusses the announcement of the upcoming release of a new authenticator app. 

Integration

Covering: Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid

• On the Azure blog, Shubha Vijayasarathy writes about Service Bus and the new Azure portal. 

• On TechNet, Shawn Gibbs (@shawngibbs) blogs about working directly with the Resource Manager API Layer for Azure Stack APIs. 

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

• Alice Rison unveils that Microsoft has obtained new cloud-centric ISO 27017 certification. 

• On MSDN, Yuri Diogenes (@yuridiogenes) covers Operations Management Suite–Security Now Generally Available, while Thomas W Shinder (@tshinder) writes about New Microsoft Virtual Academy Course–Introduction to Azure Security Center and discusses Leveraging Azure Security Center and OMS Security for Incident Response

• James van Den Berg (@JamesvandenBerg) asks what is Operations Management Suite. 

• On the Azure blog, Mike Gresley writes about the new visual alerts added to Application Insights metric widget for VSTS dashboards, and talks about an Application Insights work item integration with GitHub. 

• Seth Juarez (@sethjuarez) explores the Azure Service Profiler. 

• On TechNet, Yuri Diogenes (@yuridiogenes) examines the Crash Dump in Azure Security Center. 

• Stefan Stranger (@sstranger) covers setting up Source Control for Azure Automation.

• John Savill (@NTFAQGuy) discusses viewing fault and update domains in Azure Resource Manager. 

• The Microsoft Azure team (@Azure) tell you how to rack up new Azure dev skills at Microsoft Ignite. 

Media

Covering: Media services, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Media Analytics, Video Indexer

• Radu Vunvulea (@RaduVunvulea) talks about the available features and functionality in Azure CDN. 

• On the Azure blog, Mingfei Yan (@mingfeiy) announces that Apple FairPlay Streaming for Azure Media Services is generally available. 

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 the Azure blog, Christina Compy (@ccompy) announces the Internal Load Balancer and Resource Manager have VNet support. 

• On Codehollow.com, Armin Reiter (@arminreiter) writes about Azure VNet peering and connecting two virtual networks. 

• Trevor Sullivan (@pcgeek86) shares a Change Allocation method for the Azure Network interface. 

• John Savill (@NTFAQGuy) asks if you need to use a non-Azure gateway for site-to-site VPN. 

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

• John Savill (@NTFAQGuy) asks what on-premises components are required when using Azure Site Recovery with VMware. 

• On the Azure blog, Aditi Gangwar writes about incremental backups on Microsoft Azure Backup, and saving on long term storage. 

• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) walks through copying blob data between storage accounts on Azure (part 1).

• On Code Project, Duncan Edwards Jones (@Merrion) clears out a partition in the Azure Table.

Web

Covering: App Service (Web), API Management, Content Delivery Network, Azure Search, Web apps, Azure SignalR Service

• On the Azure blog, Frank Weigel (@FrankWeigel) announces the general availability of Azure Logic Apps. 

• On MSDN, Jeff Hollan (@jeffhollan) discusses creating codeless Swagger Connectors for Logic Apps. 

• Jeff Sanders (@jsandersrocks) explores adding custom Mobile Apps API routes with Node SDK.

• On the .NET Curry site, Subodh Sohoni (@subodhsohoni) blogs about cross platform mobile development in a team using Xamarin, VSTS and Azure. 

• Sam George (@samjgeorge) introduces Azure IoT support for X.509 certificates.

• Jon Gallant (@jongallant) explains how to run the Azure IoT Field Gateway on a Raspberry Pi 3.