Azure Skills Evangelist and Cloud Solutions Architect, Daniel Baker, comes back on the show and this time he is very passionate about the resources, tips and tricks for getting skilled in Azure. Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode251.mp3   Azure Learn - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/azure Azure Labs - https://www.microsoft.com/handsonlabs  Azure Interactives - http://azureinteractives.azurewebsites.net  Microsoft YouTube -  https://www.youtube.com/user/MSCloudOS  Citadel - https://azurecitadel.github.io  Azuredan – http://www.azuredan.co.uk  Pluralsight - https://www.pluralsight.com    Other updates: You can now choose which sets of user accounts should be synchronized into a managed domain. You do this by selecting groups in Azure Active Directory whose members should be synchronized to the managed domain. The current experience is PowerShell based. We’ve improved the sync performance in multiple stages. For large benchmark customers, we’ve been able to bring initial sync down to a few days. Further, the virtual machine SKU on which Azure AD DS is hosted scales automatically based on the number of objects in the directory. This enables larger customers to get better sync performance—for both initial and ongoing sync from Azure AD. Accessibility and array support with Azure Blockchain Workbench 1.4.0 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/accessibility-and-array-support-with-azure-blockchain-workbench-1-4-0/ Sweet updates about Truffle on Azure https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/sweet-updates-about-truffle-on-azure/ Improved governance experience with Ethereum Proof-of-Authority 1.2 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/improved-governance-experience-with-ethereum-proof-of-authority-1-2/ Azure IoT Reference Architecture 2.1 release https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-iot-reference-architecture-2-1-release/ Azure Cognitive Services available in new regions Wednesday, October 17, 2018 New regions are now available for Azure Cognitive Services. The Content Moderator, Computer Vision, Face, Translator Text, and Language Understanding (LUIS) Services are now generally available in US Government regions. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/content-moderator/ Azure Digital Twins | Public Preview disclosure Azure Digital Twins is the first of its kind cloud service that virtually represents the physical world across people, places and devices, and will enter public preview in mid-October. Azure Digital Twins significantly reduces time and complexity for building next generation IoT solutions by automating endpoint actions based on incoming telemetry and using predefined templates that are attuned to specific industries. Azure Digital Twins enables customers to build solutions that analyze how space is used and then optimize it to better serve your needs at every level. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-iot-reference-architecture-2-1-release/ 

Microsoft Developer Advocate Anthony Chu gives us the details on the newly released Azure SignalR Service that allows web and mobile applications to display real-time data with minimal effort, Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode250.mp3 Azure SignalR Service documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-signalr/?WT.mc_id=signalrservice-azpodcast-antchu Azure SignalR Service bindings for Azure Functions documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-functions/functions-bindings-signalr-service?WT.mc_id=signalrservice-azpodcast-antchu Develop real-time features with Azure SignalR Service https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/66604?WT.mc_id=signalrservice-azpodcast-antchu Build real-time serverless apps with Azure Functions and SignalR Service https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/66631?WT.mc_id=signalrservice-azpodcast-antchu   Other updates: Advanced Threat Protection for Azure Storage now in public preview - Azure Storage Advanced Threat Protection detects anomalies in account activity and notifies you of potentially harmful attempts to access your account. This layer of protection allows you to address threats without the need to be a security expert   or manage security monitoring systems. Threats are surfaced by defining security alerts that trigger when anomalies in activity occur. These alerts integrate with Azure Security Center which include details of suspicious activity and recommendations on how to investigate and remediate threats. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/advanced-threat-protection-for-azure-storage-now-in-public-preview/ Cloud Scale Analytics meets Office 365 data – empowered by Azure Data Factory - Azure Data Factory enables you to bring the rich organizational data in your Office 365 tenant into Azure in a scalable way and build analytics applications and extract insights based on these valuable data assets. Microsoft Graph contains rich data about workers and their workplace, including information about how people work and how they communicate, collaborate, and manage their time. Microsoft Graph data connect brings this data to Microsoft Azure, which gives you access to the best development and hosting tools to work with this data. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-graph-data-connect-empowered-by-data-factory/ Bring Your Own Keys for Apache Kafka on HDInsight - Azure HDInsight includes Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) support for Apache Kafka. This capability lets you own and manage the keys used to encrypt data at rest. All managed disks in HDInsight are protected with Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE). By default, the data on those disks is encrypted using Microsoft-managed keys. If you enable BYOK, you provide the encryption key for HDInsight to use and manage it using Azure Key Vault. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/bring-your-own-keys-for-apache-kafka-on-hdinsight/ Ephemeral OS Disk in limited preview - Ephemeral OS Disk is a new type of OS disk created directly on the host node, providing local disk performance and faster boot/reset time. Ephemeral OS Disk is supported for all virtual machines (VM) and virtual machine scale sets (VMSS). Ephemeral OS Disk is ideal for stateless workloads that require consistent read/write latency to OS disk, as well as frequent reimaging operations to reset VMs to their original state. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/mariadb-public-preview/ Public preview: Azure Database for MariaDB - The Azure Database for MariaDB service is now available in preview. It offers an enterprise-ready, fully managed database service that uses the community edition of MariaDB. The service features open-source compatibility, built-in high availability, dynamic scaling, and flexible pricing. Customers can lift and shift to the cloud and use languages and frameworks of their choice, leveraging the power of MariaDB running on Azure.

The team talks to Identity PM Arturo Lucatero about Managed Identities, that help make resource access easier to manage in Azure. Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode249.mp3   Other updates: Preview of AzureRM.Automation cmdlets We have released a preview version of the AzureRM.Automation cmdlets. This version contains new cmdlets for the Update Management and Source Control features. You can get the preview modules from the PowerShell Gallery. https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/AzureRM.Automation/6.0.0-preview Building with blockchain on Azure https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/building-with-blockchain-on-azure/ Fuel My Awesome: Celebrating developers and what makes them awesome https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/fuel-my-awesome-celebrating-developers-and-what-makes-them-awesome/  

A whole bunch of Azure updates were announced at Ignite so Cynthia, Cale and Sujit try to cover as much as possible in 30 minutes! Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode248.mp3     Azure Policy for Azure DevOps is in preview Ensure your applications are always compliant with Azure Policy native integration with Azure DevOps. It surfaces policy violations predeployment and policy compliance assessment during post-deployment. Plus, author and create policy in Azure DevOps to take advantage of its source control and versioning capabilities for continuous iteration and improvement.      Azure Blueprints is in preview Design and build apps that meet organizational standards with Azure Blueprints, which enables quick creation of governed subscriptions. Azure Blueprints is composed of artifacts such as templates, policies, scripts, and virtual machine (VM) images. Configure Azure Blueprints to lay foundational blocks like networking and naming conventions while getting flexibility in resource selection and application design.    Azure Resource Graph is in preview Explore all your cloud resources and more effectively manage your cloud inventory with Azure Resource Graph. Access resource information across all your environments through querying capabilities for deeper insights from your resources. Get insights by using rich aggregation and parsing of detailed properties. Use Resource Graph via the Azure portal, PowerShell, or CLI.      Azure Cost Management is in preview in the Azure portal Take advantage of Azure Cost Management, which is enabled by default in the Azure portal. Use it for free to manage spend on all your Azure resources.      Azure Service Fabric and Azure Service Fabric mesh updates Focus on building mission-critical applications and let Azure solve the distributed microservices system challenges such as reliability, scalability, management, and latency with Azure Service Fabric. With this release, access multiple updates to Service Fabric (Service Fabric, Service Fabric mesh [preview], and Service Fabric standalone), which incorporate new features and improve existing functionality.      Video Indexer is generally available Take advantage of generally available Video Indexer, the artificial intelligence (AI)-based media metadata extraction service. Access additional functionality included with this release such as new machine learning models, a new RESTful API version, and a new connector version for Azure Logic Apps and Microsoft Flow. General availability (GA) pricing will be effective on November 1, 2018.      New regions are available for the Av2-series in Azure HDInsight Use Azure HDInsight for your open source analytics, and then take advantage of an increased range of VM infrastructure with the Av2-series VMs. They're available in all regions where the Av2-series Azure Virtual Machines are available. Read more about HDInsight on Azure updates.     Azure Key Vault supports new advanced key lengths Safeguard and control cryptographic keys and other secrets used by cloud apps and services with Azure Key Vault. Then, take advantage of support for new advanced key types that are now generally available in Key Vault. Pricing will be effective on November 1, 2018.    Azure SQL Data Warehouse updates Quickly implement a high-performance, globally available, and low-cost cloud data warehouse with Azure SQL Data Warehouse. Then, take advantage of these updates.   User-defined maintenance windows This new feature seamlessly integrates the Azure Service Health planned maintenance notifications with Resource Health monitor services. Choose a preferred maintenance window based on your workstreams. Plan around the scheduled maintenance events SQL Data Warehouse uses to roll out new features, upgrades, and patches.   Intelligent insights Access intelligent performance ins

Cynthia, Evan and Cale talk to Leo Giakoumakis, head of Snowflake's Seattle Development Center, about their Data warehouse platform built for the cloud (and now available on Azure).   https://www.snowflake.com/ Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode247.mp3   Other updates: Troubleshoot connectivity issues in a virtual network Thursday, August 30, 2018 The Virtual Network blade in the Azure portal has been enhanced to troubleshoot connectivity and performance issues or continually monitor your network endpoints from virtual machines (VMs) in a virtual network. You can: • Check for connectivity between source (VM) and destination (VM, URI, FQDN, IP address). • Identify configuration issues that are affecting reachability. • Provide hop-by-hop paths from source to destination; hop-by-hop latency; minimum, maximum, and average latency between source and destination; and a topology (graphical) view from source to destination. From https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/azure-cyclecloud/   Securing your Azure workloads has become easier with the release of Azure Security Center (ASC) official PowerShell Module!   Many organizations are looking to automate more tasks, as manual work is prone to human error and creates a potential for duplicative work. The need for automation is especially prevalent when it comes to large scale deployments that involve dozens of subscriptions with hundreds and thousands of resources – all of which must be secured from the beginning.   To streamline the security aspects of the DevOps lifecycle, ASC has recently released its official PowerShell module. This enables organizations to programmatically automate onboarding and management of their Azure resources in ASC and adding the necessary security controls. General availability: Immutable storage for Azure Blob storage Tuesday, September 18, 2018 Financial services organizations regulated by SEC, CFTC, FINRA, IIROC, FCA, etc., are required to retain business-related communications in a Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) or immutable state to ensure that they're non-erasable and non-modifiable for a specific retention interval. The immutable storage requirement is not limited to financial organizations. It also applies to industries such as healthcare, insurance, media, public safety, and legal services. To address this requirement, immutable storage for Azure Blob storage is now generally available in all Azure public regions. Through configurable policies, users can keep Azure Blob storage data in an immutable state where blobs can be created and read, but not modified or deleted. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-immutable-storage-for-azure-storage-blobs/   Deep dive into Azure Test Plans https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deep-dive-into-azure-test-plans/ Jenkins Azure ACR Build plugin now in public preview https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/jenkins-acr/

Last week the South Central US datacenter experienced a significant outage which resulted in many Azure services and customers being impacted. Kendall, Evan and Sujit break down the outage and try to understand how Microsoft and its customers can be better prepared from such unplanned events. Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode246.mp3 Preliminary RCA: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/status/history/   Other updates: Azure Stack is now integrated with the Azure Government cloud, enabling connections to Azure Government identity, subscription, registration, billing, backup/DR, and Azure Marketplace. Azure Stack unlocks a wide range of hybrid cloud use cases for government customers, such as tactical edge and regulatory scenarios. Now in preview, you can migrate PostgreSQL databases to Azure Database for PostgreSQL with minimal downtime by using the Azure Database Migration Service (DMS). Use the Azure CLI to provision an instance of the DMS service to perform migrations from PostgreSQL on-premises or on virtual machines to Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Azure SQL Data Warehouse Gen2 is now available in government cloud Azure SQL Data warehouse is a fast, flexible and secure analytics platform. The Compute Optimized Gen2 tier of Azure SQL Data Warehouse is now available in US Government cloud. We recently made the service available in US Government Virginia and US Government Arizona regions. Compute Optimized Gen2 tier, using adaptive caching and instant data movement, brings at least 5x better performance for all our customers, compared to before. To find out more, go to Azure.com/sqldw. Azure DevOps The single service that was Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is now becoming a new set of Azure DevOps services. Throughout our documentation and websites, and in the product, you'll start to notice new icons and names for Azure DevOps and each of the services within it:  · Azure Pipelines to continuously build, test, and deploy to any platform and cloud.  · Azure Boards for powerful work management.  · Azure Artifacts for Maven, npm, and NuGet package feeds.  · Azure Repos for unlimited cloud-hosted private Git repos.  · Azure Test Plans for planned and exploratory testing. With the launch of Azure Pipelines, we've introduced a new app to the GitHub Marketplace, refreshed a number of the experiences to help you get started, and begun to offer unlimited CI/CD minutes and 10 parallel jobs for open-source projects.  

Microsoft Consultants Doug Strother and John Miller, both veterans of certifications, share some tips on getting your Azure certification.   Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode245.mp3 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwmiller5/   Other updates: You can use the Azure Backup service to help protect SQL Server instances running on an Azure VM. Azure Data Factory now supports service principal and MSI authentication for Azure Blob connectors. G-series VMs are available in Azure HDInsight. Azure Data Box: Expanded availability, plus support for NFS and RBAC From Virtual network service endpoints are generally available for Azure Key Vault in all public Azure regions. Avere vFXT for Microsoft Azure now in public preview https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/avere-vfxt-for-microsoft-azure-now-in-public-preview/ Transparent data encryption or always encrypted https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/transparent-data-encryption-or-always-encrypted/ Azure.Source - Volume 47 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-source-volume-47/ Two seconds to take a bite out of mobile bank fraud with Artificial Intelligence https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/two-seconds-to-take-a-bite-out-of-mobile-bank-fraud-with-artificial-intelligence/  

Justin Luk, a PM on the Azure Compute team, breaks down ACI for us, giving advice on why and when you should consider this new service for your container workloads.   Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode244.mp3 Product page = https://aka.ms/aci  Docs = https://aka.ms/aci/docs  Samples = https://aka.ms/aci/samples  Pricing = https://aka.ms/aci/price  Virtual-kubelet project = https://github.com/virtual-kubelet/virtual-kubelet   Other updates: NPR's Ask Me Another - https://www.npr.org/player/embed/640342676/640343477 https://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/32747/Microsoft-Azure-IAAS-platform-SMTP-Restrictions-and-Alternatives.html Cross-subscription disaster recovery for Azure virtual machines Monday, August 27, 2018 Azure Site Recovery now supports cross-subscription disaster recovery (DR) for Azure virtual machines. You can configure DR for Azure IaaS applications to another region in a different subscription within the same Azure Active Directory tenant. For more information, see the detailed blog post. From Microsoft Azure Data welcomes attendees to VLDB 2018 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-azure-data-welcomes-attendees-to-vldb-2018/ Helping Go developers build better cloud apps faster https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/helping-go-developers-build-better-cloud-apps-faster/ Turn your whiteboard sketches to working code in seconds with Sketch2Code https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/turn-your-whiteboard-sketches-to-working-code-in-seconds-with-sketch2code/ Azure.Source - Volume 46 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-source-volume-46/ OMS portal moving to Azure portal https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/oms-portal-moving-to-azure-portal/

Sibonay Koo, a PM in the Azure Files team, talks to us about a new service that just went GA - Azure File Sync. She gives us use-cases for using the new service as well as tips and tricks for getting the most out of it.   Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode243.mp3 Resources: Azure File Sync GA announcement: https://azure.microsoft.com/blog/score-one-for-the-it-pro-azure-file-sync-is-now-generally-available/ AFS planning guide: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-sync-files-planning Answer to the question on encryption: All traffic between the server and cloud is encrypted in transport via SSL. There is also encryption at rest in the cloud that’s comparable to BitLocker. As for encryption on the server, you can essentially use whatever service you want as long as AFS can access the location. It’s fine to use BitLocker or to use RMS to encrypt individual files – because AFS does not interpret file content, we just need to see that the file exists. https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/storage/common/storage-service-encryption Also she corrected her statement - Azure File Sync’s underlying sync technology is actually completely different from One Drive’s.   Other Updates: https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/suse-builds-a-custom-linux-kernel-to-boost-microsoft-azure-performance/2018/08/ Announcing VNet service endpoints general availability for MySQL and PostgreSQL Azure API Management – VSTS extension v2.0 release Reduce your exposure to brute force attacks from the virtual machine blade https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/reduce-your-exposure-to-brute-force-attacks-from-the-virtual-machine-blade/ Expanded Azure Blueprint for FFIEC compliant workloads https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/expanded-azure-blueprint-for-ffiec-compliant-workloads/ DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) for Linux VMs now generally available https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/dpdk-data-plane-development-kit-for-linux-vms-now-generally-available/ Multi-member consortium support with Azure Blockchain Workbench 1.3.0 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/multi-member-consortium-support-with-azure-blockchain-workbench-1-3-0/ Blockchain Airlift in the UK for Partners - September 10-11, 2018 at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel in London. (Contact Russell) Update Management: Reboot control https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/update-management-reboot/

Principal PM Alex Uy gives us the inside scoop into the Azure FastTrack program that helps companies move their workloads to Azure with support from the Engineering teams.  Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode242.mp3 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/programs/azure-fasttrack   Other updates: Microsoft Azure at SIGGRAPH 2018 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-azure-at-siggraph-2018/ #Contest Microsoft AI Idea Challenge - AI’s next breakthrough is you! https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/contest-microsoft-ai-idea-challenge-ai-s-next-breakthrough-is-you/ Azure.Source - Volume 44 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-source-volume-44/ Azure Data Factory Visual tools now supports GitHub integration https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-data-factory-visual-tools-now-supports-github-integration/ How Microsoft drives exabyte analytics on the world’s largest YARN cluster https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/how-microsoft-drives-exabyte-analytics-on-the-world-s-largest-yarn-cluster/ https://github.com/Azure/app-service-announcements/issues/129 https://gotcosmos.com - Awesome Cosmos DB one-stop learning resource