The Azure Podcast

The team speaks with Nikhil Vimal from Chat Mode about different use cases where combinations of Azure services can be used to infuse AI or leverage machine learning into automating processes. Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode391.mp3 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOmYhLbdyw Resources: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai Power Automate Desktop Power Automate RPA Power Automate UI Flow Power Virtual Agents (AI Chatbots) Microsoft Teams Bots Azure Bot Services   Microsoft AI Research Updates: Genomics testing on the ISS with HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 and Azure

Melissa Ma, a Senior PM in the Azure product group, talks to us about the new Pronunciation Assessment service and SDK which makes it easy to build linguistic applications that can provide the user with realtime feedback on their speech.   Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode390.mp3  YouTube: https://youtu.be/SdGeTmJtORw Resources:  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/speech-service/how-to-pronunciation-assessment?pivots=programming-language-java https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/1379625676815325642-pearson-education-azure-cognitive-services https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-ai/speech-service-update-pronunciation-assessment-is-generally/ba-p/2505501 The Speech SDK supports pronunciation assessment, which assesses the pronunciation quality of speech input, with indicators of accuracy, fluency, completeness, etc.docs.microsoft.com   Other updates: General availability: GitHub Codespaces How to re-size Azure virtual networks that are peered—now in preview Azure Blob storage - Inventory generally availability Upgrade to Text-to-Speech Neural Voice  by 31 August 2024  

The team talks to Bec Lyons, Program Manager of Logic Apps about the latest offering of Standard Logic Apps, connectors, and how to decide when to use Power Automate or Logic Apps.    Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode389.mp3 YouTube: https://youtu.be/tV6w5Tlgt9E Resources: 1.Find our documentation at https://aka.ms/LogicApps/Docs 2.Get started with Logic Apps at https://aka.ms/IntroToLogicApps 3.Samples: https://github.com/azure/logicapps  

April Dunnam, one of the premier experts on the Power Platform, and now a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, talks to us about how it facilitates easy app development on Azure. She talks about the scenarios for these apps, the connector ecosystem and the underlying architecture that make these apps work great on Azure.   Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode388.mp3 YouTube: https://youtu.be/kURXnErpOSU Resources: https://aka.ms/learn-fusiondev https://aka.ms/powerapps-devplan https://youtube.com/c/aprildunnam   Other updates: Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare expands portfolio with Azure Healthcare APIs https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-cloud-for-healthcare-expands-portfolio-with-azure-healthcare-apis/ Advancing Azure Virtual Machine availability transparency https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/advancing-azure-virtual-machine-availability-transparency/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/immutable-storage-with-versioning-for-blob-storage-is-now-in-public-preview/  

Lior Kamrat, a Cloud Solution Architect focused on the Hybrid landscape, discusses the role Azure Arc plays and the scenarios is addresses.  Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode387.mp3 YouTube: Azure Podcast - Azure Arc - YouTube Resources: Azure Arc Jumpstart: aka.ms/AzureArcJumpstart Updates: New ways to deliver a secure hybrid workplace with Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 General availability: Built-in Azure Policy support for Network Watcher Traffic Analytics

Azure Principal PM Daria Grigoriu discusses the new Static Web Apps service. She explains how the service works, the use-cases, and patterns that the service addresses and resources to get started.  Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode386.mp3 YouTube: https://youtu.be/ht8lM7p03Cg Resources: https://aka.ms/swadocs https://github.com/Azure/static-web-apps   Other updates: Use Azure Cosmos DB as an ASP.NET session state and caching provider https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/session-state-and-caching-provider What's in development, preview, or GA? https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/ Azure VM Image Builder Service Now Generally Available https://www.infoq.com/news/2021/07/azure-image-builder/ Enhance your cloud skills and accelerate digital transformation with Inside Azure for IT https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-infrastructure/enhance-your-cloud-skills-and-accelerate-digital-transformation/ba-p/2524275  

Rob Vettor, a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, has a lot to say about Cloud Native Apps and tells us how to host them on Azure. Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode385.mp3 YouTube: https://youtu.be/nZjUkAyt4Jc Resources: Cloud Native eBook: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/architecture/cloud-native/ Dapr eBook: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/architecture/dapr-for-net-developers/ DotNet Conf on Microservices – 6 hour training class (June 30th, 2020) • Microservices Workshop Module 1: Introducing microservices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMDufMYAsmw&t=168s • Microservices  Module 2: Modeling and architecting microservices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7MM21aIsqk • Microservices  Workshop Module 3: Microservice communication https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL3Kxd4Auys • Microservices Workshop Module 4: Deploying microservices to Kubernetes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G7NB4waGbk • Microservices Workshop Module 5: Deploying service mesh to Kubernetes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEfynnevEU • Microservices Module 6: Distributed data https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kVmb747vfM Blog: www.thinkingincloudnative.com   Other updates: General availability: Azure Spring Cloud Pricing Model Change | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure Public preview: Azure Spring Cloud New Relic One integration and additional feature updates | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure General availability: Application Insights integration with App Services for Java & Node.js apps | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure Public preview: Create AKS clusters without local user accounts | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure Public preview: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) smart defaults | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure   Drive growth with the most partner-focused business platform https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/drive-growth-with-the-most-partnerfocused-business-platform/   Manage RDP and SSH connectivity at scale with Azure Bastion  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/manage-rdp-and-ssh-connectivity-at-scale-with-azure-bastion/   Innovate from cloud to edge on your terms with Azure https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/innovate-from-cloud-to-edge-on-your-terms-with-azure/   Public preview: API Management and Event Grid integration  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-api-management-and-event-grid-integration/

Principal Program Manager Cristina del Amo Casado talks to us about the Sae Deployment Practices framework and tools that are used to deploy software updates to millions of servers in Azure. Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode384.mp3 YouTube: Episode 384 - Safe Deployment Practices - YouTube Updates: Announcing App Service Environment v3 GA Public Preview: Form Recognizer container support Advancing safe deployment with AIOps—introducing Gandalf  

Cynthia, Evan and Sujit discuss some recent work with various Azure services that are noteworthy and interesting. Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode383.mp3 YouTube: https://youtu.be/VqrntUY1FXQ    

Brandy Brown and Sherryl Manalo, from the Commercial Software Engineering team at Microsoft share an innovative approach to reducing carbon emissions by using Spot VMs in Azure for data analytics workloads. Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode382.mp3 YouTube: Episode 382 - Reducing carbon emissions with Spot VMs - YouTube Resources: GitHub Repo: https://github.com/hybridflux/SparkOnSpot/ Updates: Microsoft Azure available from new cloud regions in Arizona Five more free services available with an Azure free account   Azure IoT Edge integration with Azure Monitor is now in public preview