Azure Weekly #160 - 4th February 2018

Azure Weekly Newsletter Issue #160

powered by endjin

Interesting news this week when Microsoft reported the results of second quarter of fiscal year 2018 Azure revenue nearly doubled, and marks the tenth straight quarter of reports that Azure revenue grew 90% or more on a year-over-year basis.

On the training front, Exam Ref 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, Second Edition is out, and there's a new Azure Data Factory self-paced hands-on lab for UI.

A number of new services and features have reached General Availability this week: Azure Event Grid, Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage, Network Watcher Connection Troubleshoot, Stream Analytics: sub-streams, query compatibility, Azure Storage SDKs for Python, Ruby and PHP, and finally Microsoft Graph APIs for Intune.

If you haven't been watching the AI Show on Channel 9, it covers some really interesting topics; this week it focuses on one of the hidden gems in Azure: Machine Learning with Azure Notebooks. Other highlights of the week are: Lambda Architecture using Azure CosmosDB: Faster performance, Low TCO, Low DevOps, enhancements to Azure Budgets API supporting Resource Groups and Usage Budgets, Stakeholders can now view VSTS Analytics widgets, and finally Jenkins on Azure: from zero to hero

If you have any content you'd like to contribute to the newsletter, please tweet @AzureWeekly or ping an email to AzureWeekly@endjin.com.

@HowardvRooijen | @endjin

Compute

Covering: Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Functions, Batch, Service Fabric, Cloud Services

• On the Azure podcast Nir Mashkowski, Product Management Director for various Azure PaaS services talks about Functions Microservices
• On Channel 9, Corey Sanders and Jeff Hollan talk about Azure Functions and Logic Apps on Tuesdays With Corey
• On MSDN, Maheshk (@MahesKBlr) covers How to login Azure Linux VMs using SSH key pair

Networking

Covering: Virtual Network, Load Balancer, Application Gateway, VPN Gateway, Azure DNS, Content Delivery Network, Traffic Manager, ExpressRoute, Network Watcher, Azure DDos Protection,

• On the Azure blog, Abhishek Pathak announces that the Network Watcher Connection Troubleshoot is now generally available
• Also on the Azure blog, Alan Stephenson and Anitha Adusumilli announces that Virtual Network Service Endpoints and Firewalls for Azure Storage now generally available
• Yousef Khalidi describes the Azure ExpressRoute updates – New partnerships, monitoring and simplification
• Sameera Perera (@sameera_man) writes about One VNET to Multiple On-Premises environments with Different Gateway Types

Storage

Covering: Blob storage, Queue storage, File storage, Disk storage, Data Lake Store, StorSimple, Backup

• On the Azure blog, Sercan Guler announces that Azure Storage SDKs for Python, Ruby and PHP now generally available
• Also on the Azure blog, Kartik P V R writes Customer success stories with Azure Backup: Russell Reynolds
• On MSDN, Mike Lapierre describes How to shrink a managed disk
• Gaurav Mantri (@gmantri) writes Zone Redundant Storage Preview v/s Classic–Compared & Contrasted
• On TechNet, Srinath Vasireddy writes Troubleshooting Backup/Restore failures when using Azure Files Backup
• Michael Crump (@mbcrump) writes Azure Tips and Tricks Part 86 - Deleting an item from a Azure Storage Table, Part 87 - Avoid Bad Request Errors in Azure Storage Table, Part 88 - Whats the purpose of ETag in Azure Storage Table and Part 89 - Shared Access Tokens with Azure Storage Blob Containers

Web & Mobile

Covering: App Service, Web apps, Mobile apps, API apps, Content Delivery Network, Media Services, Azure Search

• On MSDN, Ben Perkins (@csharpguitar) discusses The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. 404.63.0
• Also on MSDN, Jeff Sanders (@jsandersrocks) covers Azure Mobile Apps: Disable Swagger
• Jeff Sanders (@jsandersrocks) discusses the Azure App Service error: AADSTS50011: The reply address http://.azurewebsites.net/signin-oidc does not match the reply addresses configured for the application:
• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) explains how to Restrict public access to your Azure Web Apps with the IPSecurityRestrictions option

Containers

Covering: Container Service, Container Instances, Container Registry, Web App for Containers

• On Channel 9, Robert Green and Erika Ehrli talks about SmartHotel360 Demo App Overview and Maria Naggaga talks about SmartHotel360 Demo App Web Site
• On MSDN, Steve Lasker (@SteveLasker) describes Working with ACR Geo-replication notifications

Databases

Covering: SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server Stretch Database, Azure Cosmos DB, Table storage, Redis Cache, Data Factory

• Mark Kromer writes about the New Azure Data Factory self-paced hands-on lab for UI
• Denny Lee describes Lambda Architecture using Azure CosmosDB: Faster performance, Low TCO, Low DevOps
• On the Kloud blog, John Downs writes Cosmos DB Server-Side Programming with TypeScript – Part 4: Triggers
• On MSDN, Julien Oudot covers Designing a Cosmos DB database
• Leon Hao covers Using EXPLAIN to profile slow queries in Azure Database for MySQL
• Sean Li describes Using the MySQL sys schema to optimize and maintain a database

Analytics

Covering: HDInsight, Stream Analytics, Data Lake Analytics, Azure Databricks, Power BI Embedded, Data Catalog

• On Channel 9, Pranav Rastogi (@rustd) talks about AtScale on Azure HDInsight on Data Exposed
• Vincent-Philippe Lauzon writes Azure Databricks – Transforming Data Frames in Spark
• On the Revolution Analytics blog, David Smith (@revodavid) writes Speed up R with Parallel Programming in the Cloud
• Chris Webb (@Technitrain) talks about Using SSAS Multidimensional As A Data Source For Power BI Video
• On MSDN, Rob Reilly explains how to Integrate Power BI Dashboards, Reports and Tiles into a WPF Application
• Also on MSDN, Buck Woody writes 'Analytics is Width. Feature Selection is Depth.'
• On the MSSQL Tips site, Siddharth Mehta (@siddhumehta) describes Schedule analysis using Gantt chart in Power BI Desktop
• Devin Knight @knight_devin) presents Power BI Custom Visuals Class Module 88 – Pulse Chart

AI + Machine Learning

Covering: Machine Learning, Bots, Computer Vision API, Face API, Bing Web Search API, Customised speech service, Custom Vision Service, Language Understanding Intelligent Service, Bing Custom Search

• On Channel 9, Paige Bailey and Lois Smith talk about Machine Learning with Azure Notebooks AI Show
• On the Azure blog, Milan Gada writes How is AI for video different from AI for images
• James Montemagno talks about Custom Vision – Machine Learning Made Easy with Jim Bennett on The Xamarin Show
• On TechNet, Sasindu Kavinda (@kaviliya123) explains how to Find real Emotions using Emotion API
• On the .NET Curry blog, Gerald Versluis describes Adding Artificial Intelligence AI to your Xamarin Apps

Internet of Things

Covering: IoT Hub, IoT Edge, Event Grid, Stream Analytics, Notification Hubs, Time Series Insights, Azure Location Based Services

• On the Azure blog, Corey Sanders (@CoreySandersWA) announces the general availability of Azure Event Grid
• Also on the Azure blog, Krishna Mamidipaka announces New in Stream Analytics: General availability of sub-streams, query compatibility, and more
• On Channel 9, Olivier Bloch talks about Serverless and Internet of Things with Bahram Banisadr, talks about Azure IoT Hub Integration with Azure Event Grid with Ashita Rastogi and talks about Machine Learning in IoT solutions with Ted Way on the Internet of Things Show

Enterprise Integration

Covering: Logic Apps, Service Bus, API Management, BizTalk Services

• On TechNet, Dave Randall announces that Microsoft Graph APIs are generally available for Intune
• On MSDN, Ch. Wolf explains How to setup alerts on the new metrics for Azure Service Bus
• Sean Feldman delves into Azure Service Bus with Managed Service Identity
• Shashidharan Krishnan writes about the Logic apps Service bus connector not honoring Maximum message count
• On the Daily Dot Net Tips blog, Abhijit Jana (@AbhijitJana) discusses Sending Your Azure Application Insights Alerts to Team Sites using Azure Logic App
• Thomas Maurer (@thomasmaurer) describes how to Setup an Azure Stack Cloud Operator and Developer Workstation Environment

Security + Identity

Covering: Security Center, Azure Active Directory for developers, Key Vault, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Multi-Factor Authentication

• On the Kloud blog, Kieran Jacobsen describes Using Intune and AAD to protect against Spectre and Meltdown
• On MSDN, Justin Marks writes about VS Subscriptions and linking your VSTS account to AzureAD and describes Supporting AzureAD Conditional Access Policy across VSTS
• Also on MSDN, Maheshk (@MahesKBlr) writes AAD How to create Service Principal through CLI
• Srinivas Varukala describes the PowerShell to list all Azure AD Apps with expiration dates
• Ganesh Shankaran talks about Security: Test automation From Build and Release pipe using Secrets in Key vault
• On the Azure blog, Brijesh Desai describes Managing Azure Secrets on GitHub Repositories
• Also on the Azure blog, Miri Landau describes how to Integrate Azure Security Center alerts into SIEM solutions

Developer Tools

Covering: Visual Studio Team Services, Azure DevTest Labs, HockeyApp, Developer tools and SDKs, Xamarin, Storage Explorer

• On MSDN, Gregg Boer announces that Stakeholders can now view VSTS Analytics widgets
• Also on MSDN, Nilay Shah blogs about VSTS CI to Build and Test Node.js app with Gulp and Mocha
• Rui Melo writes about the VSTS Gems- Three ways to beef up your boards
• On Channel 9, James Montemagno and Damian Brady talk about Real World Mobile DevOps with VSTS and App Center
• Michael Hansen describes the Team Foundation Server 2015 CI/CD Pipeline for Web App in Azure Government
• On the Azure blog, Pui Chee Chan blogs about Jenkins on Azure: from zero to hero
• K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) covers Setting Up Service Principals to Use the Azure Management APIs
• Christos Matskas (@ChristosMatskas) walks through Debugging C# .NET Core Azure Functions with VS Code
• On Channel 9, Donovan Brown and Kylie Liang talk about Running Ansible on Azure Azure Friday
• Corey Sanders (@CoreySandersWA) provides A great developer experience for Ansible

Monitoring + Management

Covering: Microsoft Azure portal, Azure Policy, Cost Management, Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics, Site Recovery, Scheduler

• On the Catapult Systems blog, Cameron Fuller walks through Creating dashboards with content spanning Log Analytics, Application Insights and Azure
• On MSDN, the Application Insights Service Team writes that All octets of IP address will be set to Zero
• K. Scott Allen (@OdeToCode) discusses Choosing an Approach to Work with Azure REST APIs
• Simon Waight (@simonwaight) covers Recommendations on using Terraform to manage Azure resources
• Henry Allsworth's Blog highlights an OMS issue Azure Update Management – Newly added systems show "Not Assessed" for Compliant status

Thought Leadership from endjin

• Unlocking Digital Transformation with Azure API Management - a training session from endjin, explaining what Digital Transformation is, and how to use Azure API Management to take your first steps. Three versions are available: 5 minute exec summary, 20 minute overview or 50 minute deep dive.
• How to plan your cloud transformation journey - an article explaining how you should use the various bits of thought leadership content from endjin to plan your cloud journey.
• API Maturity Matrix - a spreadsheet to help you assess your organization's ability to build, test, deploy, manage and monetize an API Platform.
• Azure Technology Selector - a flowchart which guides you through the process of chosing the best Azure service for your needs.
• Cloud Comparison Poster - a free poster, comparing the three major cloud platforms - Azure, AWS & Google Cloud Platform. For more information, see the accompanying blog series.
• Cloud Migration Process - a free poster, outlining our process for cloud adoption.
• Cloud Adoption: Risk & Mitigations - The Swiss Cheese Model - a free poster from endjin & Hymans Robertson outlining the risk and mitigations of adopting public cloud.
• Embracing Disruption: Financial Services & the Microsoft Cloud - a free ebooklet from endjin describing how companies in FS can take advantage of Azure.

Solutions from endjin

• Modern Data Platform Blueprint - our opinionated architecture over Azure Data Lake, which solves common security, ingestion, and data processing requirements.
• API Economy Platform Blueprint - our solution accelerator for building an API first architecure on Azure.

Useful Links

• The Developer's Guide to Microsoft Azure (2nd Edition) - ebook from Microsoft showcasing architectural approaches and common design patterns you face when building modern applications.
• Azure Virtual Datacenter - ebook from Microsoft highlighting an approach to isolation, security, and trust in the Microsoft cloud.
• Cyber Security Demystified - ebook from Microsoft describing how to keep your organisation safe.
• Microsoft's What is Azure poster - a visual overview of Azure's services and features.
• Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure - a free ebook from Microsoft Press, by Michael S. Collier and Robin E. Shahan.
• Data Science in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and R - a free ebook on Azure Machine Learning, by Stephen F. Elston.
• Protecting Data in Microsoft Azure - a whitepaper that describes the various mechanism you can you can leverage for managing sensitive data in the Azure platform.
• A-Z of the Azure ecosystem - a slide deck outlining current Azure services.
• Azure Architecture Center - guidance from the Patterns & Practices team covering API Design, API implementation, Autoscaling, Background jobs, CDN, Caching, Data partitioning, Monitoring and diagnostics, Retry, Scalability and availability.
• Azure Architect's Reference - if you are an architect responsible for building an application on Azure, or are trying to figure out how you could migrate an application and need to dig deep into the workload, cost, security, capacity, availability, deployment and operational modelling this invaluable resource should be your first stop. An open source project, with contributions from several experienced architects, it gathers data from many different references into a single, useful guide that is constantly updated by the community.
• Azure Table Storage Design Guide - a guide from the storage team.
• Azure infrastructure services implementation guidelines - key design and implementation guidelines for deploying an IT workload in Azure infrastructure services.
• Azure Speed Test - a simple web tool that measures the latency between you and Azure Datacenters to suggest which might be fastest for you location.
• Azure Websites Cheatsheet - everything you need to know about configuring & managing Azure Websites on a single page.
• SQL Database Migration Wizard - a very useful tool for migrating existing SQL databases to SQL Azure; will fix some common conversion errors automatically.
• Azure SQL DTU Calculator - a tool to help you determine the number of DTUs for your existing SQL Server database(s) as well as a recommendation of the minimum performance level and service tier that you need before you migrate to Azure SQL Database.
• Microsoft Azure Symbol/Icon Set - a set of Visio and PowerPoint shapes for use in architecture diagrams / presentations.
• Service Bus Explorer - a free and open source tool for managing and exploring Azure Service Bus(including Event Hubs).
• Best practices for designing Azure Resource Manager Templates - guidance based on the whitepaper 'World Class ARM Templates Considerations and Proven Practices'.
• Microsoft Cloud Networking for Enterprise Architects - a downloadable guide to Azure networking, covering topics such as cloud migration and networking for PaaS and SaaS services