The Azure Podcast

The guys discuss all the latest updates to the Azure service and then Cale geeks out a bit on his experience with the Bot framework.     Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode131.mp3 Other updates: The Ethereum Foundation welcomes Microsoft as the Premiere Sponsor of Devcon2, Shanghai 19-21 September, 2016 https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/06/14/ethereum-welcomes-microsoft-devcon/ Introducing Project Bletchley and elements of blockchain born in the Microsoft Cloud https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/bletchley-blockchain/ Application Insights: Work item integration with Visual Studio Team Services https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/application-insights-work-item-integration-with-visual-studio-team-services/ Update on transitioning Mobile Apps from Application Insights to HockeyApp https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/update-on-transitioning-mobile-apps-from-application-insights-to-hockeyapp/ Announcing SQL Server 2016 Developer image in the Azure Gallery https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-sql-server-2016-developer-image-in-the-azure-gallery/ Running Docker Container on Azure Batch https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/running-docker-container-on-azure-batch/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/apache-spark-for-azure-hdinsight-now-generally-available/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/storage-explorer-june-update/      

Cale and Sujit talk about the features of the Google Cloud Platform and how it maps to the features in Azure to give our listeners a sense of how GCP has matured over these past few years.      Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode130.mp3 https://cloud.google.com/products/ Other updates: Azure Architecture Training https://www.edx.org/course/architecting-microsoft-azure-solutions-microsoft-dev205bx-0 Preview update: DocumentDB protocol support for MongoDB https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/documentdb-protocol-support-for-mongodb-preview-update/ Azure Redis Cache May 2016 update https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-redis-cache-may-2016-update/ SQL Server 2016 is generally available today https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/06/01/sql-server-2016-is-generally-available-today/ Azure SQL Data Warehouse introduces Premium Storage for greater performance predictability https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-sql-data-warehouse-introduces-premium-storage-for-greater-performance/ Microsoft to Develop Identity Platform for Multiple Blockchains http://www.coindesk.com/microsoft-identity-platform-multiple-blockchains/

The guys talk to Manoj Parvathaneni, a senior support escalation engineer in the Azure Backup team, about the service. He gives us use-cases for using Backup and some valuable tips to make Backup work seamlessly in both on-premises and cloud scenarios. Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode129.mp3 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/backup-introduction-to-azure-backup https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/site-recovery-workload     Other updates: Speaker Recognition API for Microsoft Cognitive Services in public preview Microsoft Cognitive Services is a collection of APIs available to developers to make their applications more intelligent and engaging. This set of services expands on our evolving portfolio of machine learning APIs and lets developers easily add intelligent features to their solutions. Speaker Recognition API is now in public preview, and its features include:   • Speaker verification, using voice for authentication. The API can be used to power applications with an intelligent verification tool; for example, if the speaker claims a certain identity, you can use their voice to verify this claim. • Speaker identification, to recognize who is speaking. The API can be used to determine the identity of an unknown speaker. Input audio of the unknown speaker is compared to a group of selected speakers and if a match is found, the speaker’s identity is returned. Speaker Recognition API is available as a standalone service, and public preview pricing went into effect on May 2, 2016. Support deprecation for Create Affinity Group and Create Storage Resource using affinity groups in the Azure classic portal Affinity groups is a legacy concept originally intended to improve virtual-machine-to-virtual-machine network performance in early Azure network designs and to support the initial release of virtual networks limited to a small set of hardware in a region. The current Azure network within a region is designed so affinity groups are no longer required. Due to these improvements, we no longer recommend that customers use affinity groups. The use of an affinity group will unnecessarily associate your virtual machines to specific hardware, limit the choice of virtual machine sizes available to you, and may lead to capacity-related errors when attempting to add new virtual machines. Affinity group features are already deprecated in Azure Resource Manager and in the Azure portal. In the upcoming release, we will deprecate support for creating affinity groups and creating storage resources pinned to an affinity group from the Azure classic portal. Existing cloud services using an affinity group don’t need to be modified. New cloud services shouldn’t use affinity groups unless recommended by an Azure support professional. Azure Backup generally available in the Azure portal Pricing | Azure Backup webpage Customers are finding it easier than ever to leverage Microsoft Operations Management Suite for diverse data protection needs on-premises and in Azure. With the release of Azure Backup on the Azure portal, customers can seamlessly back up Azure Resource Manager-based virtual machines, as well as virtual machines created from the Azure classic portal, under the newly introduced recovery services vault. Customers can use this Azure resource to back up their on-premises Windows Server machines and tier backups to the cloud from Azure Backup Server and System Center Data Protection Manager machines. The vault will form the bedrock for unified data protection and management, including disaster recovery and hybrid backup scenarios. SharePoint Server 2016 dev/test farm in Azure https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/sharepoint-2016-devtest-farm/ Announcing general availability of Azure DevTest Labs https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-general-availability-of-azure-devtest-labs/ Continuous integration

Nir Mashkowski, a Senior Director in the Azure team, joins us to talk about Azure Functions, one of the latest services to be introduced. Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode128.mp3 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/functions/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/services/functions/ https://github.com/Azure/azure-webjobs-sdk-templates/   Other updates: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/sqldatabaseadvisorga/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/motion-detection/ https://jenkins.io/index.html  

The guys talk to Neil Mackenzie, a Cloud Solution Architect @ Microsoft. He gives us advice from his engagements helping customers do 'lift-n-shift' migrations to Azure. Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode127.mp3   Other updates: Platform supported migration of IaaS resources from Classic to Azure Resource Manager https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-windows-migration-classic-resource-manager/ Azure in Canada generally available Azure SQL Database elastic pools generally available Azure Content Delivery Network from Akamai now available in the Azure portal Test-drive feature now available on Azure Marketplace Announcing Azure Mobile Services transition to Azure App Service https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/transition-of-azure-mobile-services/ Microsoft Cloud accelerates in Canada and expands to South Korea https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-cloud-accelerates-in-canada-and-expands-to-south-korea/

Evan and Sujit are fortunate to chat with Bryan Belmont, a GM in the Azure organization, to give us some insight into what goes into offering top-notch support in the cloud and how it differs from on-premises support.  Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode126.mp3 Other updates: Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/microsoft_press/2016/04/20/free-ebook-introducing-windows-server-2016-technical-preview/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-egress-fee-waiver-for-the-academic-community/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-support-for-php-7-0-in-azure-app-service-and-notice-of-php-5-4-retirement/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-data-lake-introduces-java-sdks-in-public-preview-for-big-data-processing-in-java-applications/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-blockchain-update-8/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-the-azure-iot-gateway-sdk-beta/  

Evan rolls his own Azure API to fill a gap and allow ARM templates to query the range of Azure IP addresses when setting NSGs. Cale talks about his upcoming Blockchain Hackathon in NYC.   Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode125.mp3  MS Cloud IPs Web API List all the O365 services: http://mscloudips.azurewebsites.net/api/office365ips/operation/listservices List all the Azure regions: http://mscloudips.azurewebsites.net/api/azureips/operation/listregions List the O365 IPv4 addresses for a given service: http://mscloudips.azurewebsites.net/api/office365ips/service/EXO/addresstype/ipv4   List the O365 URLs for a given services: http://mscloudips.azurewebsites.net/api/office365ips/service/LYO/addresstype/url List the Azure IP addresses for a given region: http://mscloudips.azurewebsites.net/api/azureips/region/europenorth The timestamp of the last time the site updated the IPs: http://mscloudips.azurewebsites.net/api/office365ips/operation/update http://mscloudips.azurewebsites.net/api/azureips/operation/update   Other Updates Azure DevTest Labs now available in six more regions https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-devtest-labs-available-in-six-more-regions/ Azure Services SSL/TLS cipher suite update and removal of RC4 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-services-ssl-tls-cipher-suite-update-and-removal-of-rc4/ Customer success stories with Application Insights Analytics https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/customer-success-stories-with-application-insights-analytics-2/ Azure SQL Database now supports powerful geo-replication features for all service tiers https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-sql-database-now-supports-powerful-geo-replication-features-on-all-service-tiers/ 10 things to know about DocumentDB Partitioned Collections https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/10-things-to-know-about-documentdb-partitioned-collections/ Building Blocks Hackathon http://www.coindesk.com/events/consensus-2016/hackathon/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-create-storage-account/#blob-storage-accounts https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-blob-storage-tiers/  

Cale and Sujit talk about the newly released to GA, Azure Container Service (ACS). Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode124.mp3 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/container-service-intro/ Create an SSH public/private key - https://ranjanajain.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/using-azure-container-service-acs-on-azure/ Other updates: IoT Hub throttling and you https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/iot-hub-throttling-and-you/ Azure Media Services announces collaboration with THEOplayer https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-media-services-announces-new-collaboration-with-theoplayer/ Customize developer portal pages using Azure API Management templates https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/customize-your-developer-portal-pages-with-azure-api-management-templates/ Announcing face and emotion detection for Azure Media Analytics https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/face-and-emotion-detection/ JSON functionalities in Azure SQL Database (public preview) https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/json-functionalities-in-azure-sql-database-public-preview/ Optimizing document search using Machine Learning and Text Analytics https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/optimizing-document-search-using-machine-learning-text-analytics/  

The guys talk about VM Scale Sets - a neat new feature that let you scale up/down/autoscale your Windows and Linux VMs. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-vm-scale-sets-public-preview/ Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode123.mp3 Charlotte Azure Bootcamp - 4/16 http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-Microsoft-Cloud/events/229276524/ Other updates: DocumentDB: Everything you need to know about using the new pricing options https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/documentdb-use-the-new-pricing-options-on-your-existing-collections/ Tableau Server in the Azure Marketplace https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/tableau-server-in-the-azure-marketplace/ Bot Framework made better with Azure https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/bot-framework-made-better-with-azure/ Blockchain: the catalyst for a collaborative economy https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/blockchain-the-catalyst-for-a-collaborative-economy/ New Entry point for blockchain info! https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/blockchain/

We talk to Prashant Nayak about the Microsoft Premier Architecture Services program which gives customers that have never ventured to the cloud a quick 5-day workshop to get them started on their Azure journey. He discusses common blockers to adopting the cloud and how customers can prepare themselves to make the (eventual) move. Customers should talk to their TAMs about this cost-effective offering.     Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode122.mp3   Other resources and updates:   https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/privatecloud/2016/02/26/tool-arm-template-checker-for-microsoft-azure-stack/ http://www.nvidia.com/object/deep-learning-system.html http://www.nvidia.com/object/tesla-p100.html http://www.cntk.ai/