Do you find it difficult to keep up-to-date on the frequent updates and changes in the Microsoft Azure cloud? If so, Build Azure Weekly is the solution you’ve been looking for! Build Azure Weekly is a weekly newsletter that includes all the latest Microsoft Azure Service Updates from the week in addition to links to many other blog articles, podcasts and videos from all over the Internet.
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Azure Sphere: New Linux Powered IoT Microcontroller
Microsoft announced the introduction of Azure Sphere, a new solution for creating highly-secured, internet connected micro controller devices. It combines Microsoft’s cloud expertise, software, and hardware devices to create a secured platform that starts with silicon and extends into the cloud. This is done by combining Azure Sphere MCUs (microcontrollers), Azure Sphere secured operating system (OS), and a turnkey cloud security service. All this is designed to provide you with “the confidence and power to reimagine your business and create the future.”
The operating system Microsoft chose for the new Azure Sphere “secured operating system” is Linux; not Windows. The reason is not that Linux might be more secure than Windows. Presumably, the reason Microsoft chose Linux is more to do with the fact that most IoT device platforms are powered by Linux rather than Microsofts Windows 10 IoT Core operating system. So, to compete better in the IoT MCU space, they likely needed to choose Linux. Although, it’s not stated that Linux will be the only option, so we’ll see if Windows 10 IoT Core make an appearance in the Azure Sphere space some time in the future.
You can learn more about Azure Sphere here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-sphere/
The Weeks Top Links
Here are some of the most notable links from the week:
- Using Chocolatey with Azure VMs by Dan Patrick
- Supreme Court drops Microsoft data privacy case, but the battle isn’t over via ZDNet
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 116 – Easily Upload and download Azure dashboards by Michael Crump
- Microsoft Azure Sphere and teaching students about the next generation of security for MicroControllers by Lee Stott
- Azure Service Fabric – announcing Reliable Services on Linux and RHEL support by Subramanian Ramaswamy
- Microsoft offers limited-time 30 percent discount on SQL Server on Linux via ZDNet
- How to disable/enable HTTP/2, Azure App Service by Benjamin Perkins
- Gartner recognizes Microsoft as a leader in enterprise integration by Jon Fancey
- Azure DDoS Protection for virtual networks generally available by Anupam Vij, JR Mayberry
- Microsoft brings AI-powered translation to end users and developers, whether you’re online or offline by Microsoft Translator
- Announcing new GPUs in Azure Government with NV-Series by Kyle Deeds
- Announcing the launch of Azure M-series VMs with up to 4TB RAM in USGov Virginia region by Kyle Deeds
- Transparent Data Encryption with customer managed keys in Azure SQL Database generally available by Alice Kupcik
- App Service and Functions hosted apps can now update TLS versions! by Oded Dvoskin
- Announcing new Azure Security Center capabilities at RSA 2018 by Gilad Elyashar
Azure Service Updates
Here’s a list of the Microsoft Azure Service Updates from over the past week:
- HTTP/2 support for Azure App Service is now available
- GUID migration: Zone Redundant Storage
- Name changes: Azure SQL Database long-term backup retention
- GUID migration: Linux support
- GUID migration: Azure Security Center, US Government regions
- GUID migration: Azure Redis Cache
- GUID migration: Azure Security Center
- Name changes: Azure SQL Database long-term backup retention, US Government regions
- Deployment for Azure MySQL, Kubernetes Helm, and Ruby – VSTS Sprint 133 Update
- GUID migration: Azure Redis Cache, US Government regions
- Name changes: Cosmos DB
- Updates to global subscription filtering
- Name changes: Azure Cosmos DB, US Government regions
- Recovery Services vault limit increased to 500 vaults per subscription per region
- What’s new in Azure Log Analytics – April 2018
- Configuration of TLS versions in App Service and Functions apps now available
- What’s new in Azure DNS – Metrics and alerting
- General availability: Azure Database for MySQL
- General availability: Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- Region expansion: Global VNet Peering
- General availability: Transparent Data Encryption with customer managed keys for Azure SQL
- Azure Backup now supports network-restricted storage accounts
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Blog Articles
Here’s a collection of some of the most note worthy blog articles posted over the past week:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Lesson Learned #41: Using VNET with Azure SQL Database by Jose M Jurado
- How to Add the OMS Client to a VM Scale Set by Tim Omta
- Azure Backup now supports storage accounts secured with Azure Storage Firewalls and Virtual Networks by Sonia Gupta
- Azure DDoS Protection for virtual networks generally available by Anupam Vij, JR Mayberry
- Recovery Services vault limit increased to 500 vaults per subscription per region by Sonia Gupta
- Faster & Bigger Azure Backup for Azure VMs by Aidann Finn
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- FHIR Server in Azure (PaaS) by Michael S. Hansen
- Reverse Proxy with Basic Authentication in Azure Web App by Michael S. Hansen
- Make changes to Azure App Service setting using Postman by Benjamin Perkins
- How to disable/enable HTTP/2, Azure App Service by Benjamin Perkins
- Azure API Management Release notes – April 18, 2018 by Vlad Vinogradsky
- Web Server Logging, IIS logs, deployment slots and swaps by Benjamin Perkins
- App Service and Functions hosted apps can now update TLS versions! by Oded Dvoskin
- iTop (ITSM) in Azure Web App with AAD Authentication by Michael S. Hansen
Serverless and Functions as a Service (FaaS)
- Gartner recognizes Microsoft as a leader in enterprise integration by Jon Fancey
- Using HTTPS with Azure Functions in local development by Christos Matskas
- App Service and Functions hosted apps can now update TLS versions! by Oded Dvoskin
Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Dynamics 365 – Prospect to Cash Integration by Rojy Thomas
- Authenticate with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations web services in on-premise by Tariq Bell
- Cumulative Update 42 for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 has been released by navteam
- What’s new in portal capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 version 8.4.1 by 365blog
Command-Line / ARM Templates
- Using Chocolatey with Azure VMs by Dan Patrick
- Using VSTS API with PowerShell to scaffold Team Projects by Art Garcia
- Deploying Linked ARM Templates with VSTS by ddeeb
- Preview: programmatically create Azure enterprise subscriptions using ARM APIs by John Lian
Database / Big Data
- Migrating MongoDB databases from Mongo Lab to Cosmos DB by Ali Mazaheri
- Configure Alerts for a Hung/Stuck SQL Agent Job step by Pooja Kamath
- Microsoft offers limited-time 30 percent discount on SQL Server on Linux via ZDNet
- Microsoft Azure Data Bricks–Collaborative Apache Spark Analytics Platform by Lee Stott
- Python Version in Databricks by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
- Spring Data Azure Cosmos DB: NoSQL data access on Azure by Yitao Dong
- Released: Microsoft Azure SQL Database Management Pack (7.0.4.0) by SQL Server Engineering Team
- Issues and Resolutions in starting R and R Server on SQL Server 2017 by Jen Stirrup
- Transparent Data Encryption with customer managed keys in Azure SQL Database generally available by Alice Kupcik
- Iterative development and debugging using Data Factory by Gaurav Malhotra
Internet of Things (IoT)
- Microsoft Azure Sphere and teaching students about the next generation of security for MicroControllers by Lee Stott
- Automating Industrial IoT Security by Erich Barnstedt
- New IoT security solutions showcase Microsoft’s commitment to trust by Sam George
- Thinking About Azure Sphere and Licensing (Premium) by Paul Thurrott
- Did Microsoft Choose Linux Because It’s More Secure Than Windows? (Premium) by Paul Thurrott
- Introducing Microsoft Azure Sphere: Secure and power the intelligent edge by Galen Hunt
- Microsoft introduces Azure Sphere for securing IoT devices via ZDNet
- Microsoft’s Next OS is Based on Linux, Not Windows by Paul Thurrott
Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence
- Azure Bot Function by Prashant Pratap
- Connecting Your Azure Bots with QnA Maker Services by Abhijit Jana
- Deploying Deep Learning Models on Kubernetes with GPUs by Mathew Salvaris, Fidan Boylu Uz
- Microsoft brings AI-powered translation to end users and developers, whether you’re online or offline by Microsoft Translator
Development and DevOps
- Release Flow: How We Do Branching on the VSTS Team by Edward Thomson
- What’s new in VSTS Sprint 132 Update by Alex Nichols
- Learn to interact with Azure services through code – Azure Code Samples by Abhijit Jana
- Creating an Azure VM Scale Set from a legacy, file-sharing, ASP.NET app by Richard Seroter
- Power BI and VSTS – Integration made easy by Romi Kolfman
- Deploying Your Dockerized Angular Application To Azure Using VSTS – Part 2 by Wael Kdouh
Containers / Service Fabric
- Running Docker Windows and Linux Containers Simultaneously by Premier Developer
- Azure Service Fabric – announcing Reliable Services on Linux and RHEL support by Subramanian Ramaswamy
- Service Fabric 6.2 Release by Service Fabric Team
- TWO NEW AZURECAT EBOOKS: Build and Deploy a Multi-Container Application (Service Fabric & Azure Container Service) by Ed Price
- Docker Blog Series Part 6 – How to use Service Fabric Reverse Proxy for container services by Monu Bambroo
- Building Microservices with AKS and VSTS — Part 4 by Andreas Helland
- Azure Developer – Now Service Fabric is going open source by Deva
Security / Privacy
- Azure Key Vault connected service in Visual Studio 2017 by Abhijit Jana
- How to find the Global Admin for your Azure AD tenant by friis[at]microsoft.com
- Query String is not allowed in redirect_uri for Azure AD by Bac Hoang
- Announcing new Azure Security Center capabilities at RSA 2018 by Gilad Elyashar
- The 3 ways Azure improves your security by Arpan Shah
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 115 – Remove Azure Secrets committed to GitHub by Michael Crump
- Streamlining GDPR requests with the Azure portal by Tom Keane
Learning / Certification
- Building your own educational visualisation learning platform with .Net Core & Azure by David Buchanan
- I’m Certified in Big Data by Thomas LaRock
Azure Government
- Announcing new GPUs in Azure Government with NV-Series by Kyle Deeds
- Announcing the launch of Azure M-series VMs with up to 4TB RAM in USGov Virginia region by Kyle Deeds
Events
- Azure CosmosDB, Azure Data Lake Analytics and R sessions at Microsoft Data and BI Summit BA by Jen Stirrup
- Microsoft at PostgresConf US 2018 by Rohan Kumar
- Thinking About Build and the Future by Paul Thurrott
Other
- Supreme Court drops Microsoft data privacy case, but the battle isn’t over via ZDNet
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 116 – Easily Upload and download Azure dashboards by Michael Crump
- How to quickly refer all available Azure services? by Abbhijit Jana
- Altair democratizes access to computer-aided engineering with Azure by Ben Cotton
- A new challenge: Joining the “AI for Earth” team at Microsoft by jennmar
- Azure Marketplace new offers in March 2018 by Christine Alford
- Azure Solution Reference Architectures by Abhijit Jana
- Lots of New Region News in Azure by Aidan Finn
- First week as a Microsoft Regional Director – what did I learn? by Jen Stirrup
Videos
Here are links to some of the videos that have been posted over the past week:
- Deploy Bitnami Node.js HA Cluster with Azure Cosmos DB | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- Microsoft Build 2018: Seattle Eats | Microsoft Build 2018 via Channel 9
- Moving your Data Warehouse to the Cloud | The DevOps Lab via Channel 9
- Deploy Bitnami Node.js HA Cluster with Azure Cosmos DB via Azure Friday
- Using resource tokens with Azure Cosmos DB | On .NET via Channel 9
- LearnAI-Bootcamp for Emerging AI Developers: Computer Vision API, Custom Vision Service, LUIS [Part 1/2] | AI Show via Channel 9
- Episode 14: Five Things About IndexedDB | Five Things via Channel 9
- Retry logic in device SDKs for Azure IoT Hub | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
- Continuous integration and deployment using Azure Data Factory | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- Part 2 of 4: Use Azure Resource Manager to create managed Kubernetes cluster | The Open Source Show via Channel 9
- Guillermo Bellman on Azure Service Fabric by David Giard
Audio / Podcasts
To complete the collection of different mediums to allow you to consume your Azure news / info in any way you want, here’s a list of the podcasts released this week:
- Episode 225 – Azure CXP via The Azure Podcast
- Episode 59 – Azure Network Security via Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast
- Episode 247 | Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Listener Questions and Picks! via Microsoft Cloud Show
General Cloud / Related
Here’s some noteworthy links about Cloud computing and other related topics that aren’t necessarily specific to Microsoft Azure:
- Microsoft makes Windows Defender anti-phishing plugin available for Chrome via ZDNet
- Docker Inevitably Embraces Kubernetes Container Orchestration by Timothy Prickett Morgan
- Running Docker on Docker Enterprise Edition 2.0 by Brett Inman
- Announcing Docker Enterprise Edition 2.0 by Vivek Saraswat
- Apple Expands Its Machine Learning Hub in Downtown Seattle by Joe Rossignol
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