Build Azure Weekly provides your go-to source to keep up-to-date on all the latest Microsoft Azure news and updates. Included within Build Azure Weekly newsletter are blog articles, podcasts, videos, and more from Microsoft and the greater community over the past week. Be sure to subscribe to Build Azure Weekly to get the newsletter in your email every week and never miss a thing!

The Weeks Top Links
Here are some of the most notable links from the week:
- Book Launch: Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Certification via Chris Pietschmann
- Goodbye, Microsoft Professional Program is Retiring via Chris Pietschmann
- Tips for Preparing for Microsoft Certification Exams via Chris Pietschmann
- Azure IoT Edge on Ubuntu VM via Sander van de Velde
- Announcing the general availability of Python support in Azure Functions via Daria Grigoriu
- New for developers: Azure Cosmos DB .NET SDK v3 now available via Deborah Chen
- Azure IoT DevOps Projects now General Available to help you easily initialize a CI/CD ready IoT Edge project via Chaoyi Yuan
- Rapidly develop blockchain solutions, but avoid the complexities via Diego Tamburini
The Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Certification
Advance your career through cloud certification
Book written by Chris Pietschmann
This book will guide you through choosing which certification path(s) to follow you’re your unique career goals and technical background. It’ll also explore all the different certifications Microsoft offers, as well as many of your questions, like:
- Which certification is right for me?
- How much does it cost to get certified?
- What are the exams like?
- How do I get started?
- How do I study?
Microsoft and cloud certification helps you keep up-to-date on the latest technologies in a structured, easy to follow path, that is also verifiable by your peers and future career opportunities.
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)
- Azure Firewall – Where to Start? via Joe Carlyle
- Azure IoT Edge on Ubuntu VM via Sander van de Velde
- Improving Azure Virtual Machines resiliency with Project Tardigrade via Mark Russinovich
- How to – Troubleshoot your Azure Virtual Network Gateway via Joe Carlyle
Serverless and Functions as a Service (FaaS)
- Announcing the general availability of Python support in Azure Functions via Daria Grigoriu
Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Microsoft Poised to Release New OneDrive Storage Plans via Paul Thurrott
Command-Line and ARM Templates
- Azure Datacenter IP ranges from PowerShell to XML via Thomas Thornton
Database and Big Data
- Azure Datacenter IP ranges from PowerShell to XML via Thomas Thornton
- New for developers: Azure Cosmos DB .NET SDK v3 now available via Deborah Chen
Internet of Things (IoT)
- IoT Edge group enrollments using symetric keys via Sander van de Velde
- Azure IoT Edge on Ubuntu VM via Sander van de Velde
- Azure IoT DevOps Projects now General Available to help you easily initialize a CI/CD ready IoT Edge project via Chaoyi Yuan
DevOps and Development
- Announcing the general availability of Python support in Azure Functions via Daria Grigoriu
- Microsoft acquires jClarity for optimizing Java workloads on Azure via ZDNet | microsoft RSS
- Understanding delta file changes and merge conflicts in Git pull requests via Aram Maliachi
- Recommending VSCode extensions within your Open Source projects via Shayne Boyer
- Better together, synergistic results from digital transformation via Diego Tamburini
- F# from a C# Developers Perspective – Part 4 via James
- August patches for Azure DevOps Server and Team Foundation Server via Erin Dormier
- Announcing the preview of GitHub Actions for Azure via Atul Malaviya
- New for developers: Azure Cosmos DB .NET SDK v3 now available via Deborah Chen
- Azure IoT DevOps Projects now General Available to help you easily initialize a CI/CD ready IoT Edge project via Chaoyi Yuan
- TWC9: GitHub Actions Get CI/CD, New VS Code, Windows Terminal Updates, Retro Video Games and more via Microsoft Developer
Containers (Docker, Kubernetes, etc) and Service Fabric
- Developing Docker-Powered Applications on Windows with WSL 2 via Antonis Kalipetis
- Developing with Docker and ASP.NET Core via shawn@wildermuth.com (Shawn Wildermuth)
Blockchain and Smart Contracts
- Rapidly develop blockchain solutions, but avoid the complexities via Diego Tamburini
Learning and Certification
- Book Launch: Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Certification via Chris Pietschmann
- Microsoft Professional Program is retiring. Explore our new role-based training and certifications. via Alex Payne
- Tips for Preparing for Microsoft Certification Exams via Chris Pietschmann
- Why you should become Microsoft Azure Certified via Thomas Maurer
Other
- The Secret Sauce That Devs Don’t Want IT Pros to Know About via AFinn
- Azure Archive Storage expanded capabilities: faster, simpler, better via Xin Huang
- Goodbye, Microsoft Professional Program is Retiring via Chris Pietschmann
- Azure Ultra Disk Storage: Microsoft’s service for your most I/O demanding workloads via Mark Russinovich
- Announcing the general availability of Azure Ultra Disk Storage via Tad Brockway
- Microsoft MVP Award – How do you become an MVP? via Gregor Suttie
- Inter-Region Resiliency for Zone Redundant Storage via AFinn
- Cloud Native Show: What’s Cloud Native, Really? via Microsoft Developer
- What Does Your IDE/Code Editor Look Like? via Emma Wedekind ✨
- What is Azure Dedicated Host? via Joe Carlyle
- Geo Zone Redundant Storage in Azure now in preview via Art Khlobystin
- Your single source for Azure best practices via Saket Gupta
- Azure SDK August 2019 preview and a dive into consistency via Maggie Pint
- Johnson Controls is removing Microsoft’s Cortana from the GLAS thermostat via ZDNet | microsoft RSS
- What Impact on You Will AMD EPYC Processors Have? via AFinn
- Azure Cost Management – 8 tools to help optimise spending and maximise potential in the cloud via Gregor Suttie
- Six ways we’re making Azure reservations even more powerful via Yashesvi Sharma
- Kevin Gates on Cloud Architecture via David Giard
- Microsoft Announces Azure-focused Partnership With India’s Jio via Mehedi Hassan
Videos
Here are links to some of the videos that have been posted over the past week:
- An introduction to decentralized identities via Azure Friday (HD) – Channel 9
- An introduction to Azure Dedicated Hosts | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- An introduction to decentralized identities | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- Introducing Azure Anomaly Detector | AI Show via Channel 9
- Train with Azure ML and deploy everywhere with ONNX Runtime | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
Podcast
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 311 | Exploring Microsoft Application Insights Js V2 and Recent News via Microsoft Cloud Show
- Episode 312 | Inspire Tidbits and Big Cloud Wins via Microsoft Cloud Show
- Episode 313 | Solo Cj and the News via Microsoft Cloud Show
- Episode 314 | Azure Is the New Mainframe With Steve Steuart via Microsoft Cloud Show
- Episode 315 | Catch Up on the Latest Microsoft Azure Office 365 News via Microsoft Cloud Show
- Episode 292 – Logic Apps ISE via The Azure Podcast
- Episode 138 – Slaying PowerShell Dragons via Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast
- Episode 315 | Catch up on the Latest Microsoft Azure + Office 365 News via Microsoft Cloud Show
Azure Service Updates
Here are the latest service updates from Microsoft over the last week:
- General availablility of Managed Identity for Linux in App Service and Functions
- General availability of user-assigned managed identities for App Service and Azure Functions
- New Quick Action Transformations Added to Data Factory Mapping Data Flows
- Update to Azure SQL Database serverless increases compute scale limits by 4x
- Microsoft Azure Ultra Disks now generally available
- Azure Service Fabric 6.5 Second Refresh Release is Now Available
- Service Fabric Azure Resource Manager (ARM) application and service deployment is now generally available
- Visual Authoring API for Power BI Embedded now available
- The service principal is now available for Power BI Embedded
- New tool for automating load testing of Power BI Embedded capacities now available
- Recent Rendering performance improvements now available in Power BI Embedded
- New filters experience is available in Power BI Embedded
- New region: Johannesburg (South Africa North) now supports Power BI Embedded
- Email notifications available for Azure Government alerts
- Public Preview of Managed Identity for Azure Service Fabric applications
- New PowerShell scripts to streamline Azure Monitor Logs query and data collection
- Announcing Azure Backup limited public preview support for large disks up to 30TB size
- FastTrack for Azure
- Azure SignalR Service introduces Event Grid integration feature
- Azure Datacenter IP ranges (XML files) will be deprecated by June 30, 2020
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Chris Pietschmann
Microsoft MVP – Azure
Founder, BuildAzure.com