Except on the 27th! lol :p Happy Holidays!!

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.

If you want to receive the newsletter in your email every week, then you’ll absolutely want to Subscribe!

Service Updates

Here’s a list of the Microsoft Azure Service Updates from over the past week:

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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)

Why Use Azure DNS? by Aidan Finn
Benefits of migrating IaaS to Azure Resource Manager by Kay Singh
Azure Backup now supports BEK encrypted Azure virtual machines by Sonia Gupta
VMware virtualization on Azure by Corey Sanders

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Application Insights Debug Snapshot issue “Unexpected error has occurred” by Pam Lahoud
Getting started with Azure Table Storage by Simon Foster

Serverless and Functions as a Service (FaaS)

Azure Content Spotlight – Azure Logic Apps On-premises Data Gateway by Sjoukje Zaal
Take a Break with Azure Functions by Justin Clareburt
Azure Data Factory 2.0 – How is it different from Azure Logic Apps? by Tom Kerkhove
Azure Serverless Computing Explained in less than 5 minutes #LessThan5Min by ranand12

Command-Line / ARM Templates

Azure PowerShell Get to know about availability of the VM sizes by Wriju Ghosh
How to Fix the [ERROR] Get-ChildItem when Deploying an Azure Resource Group in Visual Studio by Frank Boucher
Announcing the preview release of subscription level budgets via ARM APIs by Vinod Kurpad
Azure Tips and Tricks Part 69 – Access and embed Azure Cloud Shell Anywhere by Michael Crump

Database / Big Data

SQL Server (2017) Always On with Cloud Witness – Azure Resource Manager Template by Michael Hansen
Azure HDInsight Performance Benchmarking: Interactive Query, Spark and Presto by Ashish Thapliyal
New connectors available in Azure Data Factory V2 by Linda Wang
Azure #CosmosDB: Entry point for unlimited containers is now 60% cheaper and other improvements by Rimma Nehme
XBox – Analytics on petabytes of gaming data with Azure HDInsight by Ashish Thapliyal
Azure HDInsight Integration with Azure Log Analytics is now generally available by Ashish Thapliyal
Azure Service Bus Geo-disaster recovery is now generally available by Ch. Wolf
Notice of upcoming change: Removing Azure SQL Server administrative access to Tiers 2, 3, 4, and 5 Sandbox environments deployed in Microsoft subscription by Dynamics Lifecycle Services Communication
Azure HDInsight Integration with Azure Log Analytics is now generally available by Ashish Thapliyal
Azure HDInsight announcements: Significant price reduction and amazing new capabilities by Rimma Nehme
Enterprise Security Package preview for Azure HDInsight by Bhanu Prakash
Announcing Apache Kafka for Azure HDInsight general availability by Raghav Mohan
Azure Databricks – Getting Started by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
Getting Started with CosmosDB SQL API by Jeremy Likness

Internet of Things (IoT)

Robot Avatars Help Sick Children Stay Connected With Schoolmates Using IoT by Jerry Lee

Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Cognitive Services: The Language Understanding (LUIS) by Lee Stott
Azure Deep Learning and ND, NC series with NVidia by Lee Stott
ICYMI: Recent Microsoft AI Platform Updates, Including in ONNX, Deep Learning, Video Indexer & More via Cortana Intelligence and Machine Learning Blog
Azure Tips and Tricks Part 72 – Sentiment Analysis with Cognitive Service and Azure by Michael Crump
Azure Tips and Tricks Part 71 – Language Detection with Cognitive Service and Azure by Michael Crump
How We Share the Latest AI & ML Developments Within Microsoft via Cortana Intelligence and Machine Learning Blog
Exploring Big Data: Course 9 – Developing Big Data Solutions with Azure Machine Learning by Samuel Lester
Azure Tips and Tricks Part 70 – Key Phrase Extraction with Cognitive Service and Azure by Michael Crump
Bring your own vocabulary to Microsoft Video Indexer by Dr. Royi Ronen
Azure Data Science Virtual Machine by Wriju Ghosh

Development and DevOps

Participate in the Developer Economics Survey by Rob Caron
Setting up your ASP.NET Core 2.0 apps and services for Azure AD B2C by Andrei Dzimchuk

Containers and Service Fabric

Docker Blog Series Part 5 – Understanding new container management features in Service Fabric by Monu Bambroo
Kubernetes Services task failing in VSTS. by jikuma
Microservices & Docker Architecture for Apps by Wriju Ghosh

Security

Using Managed Service Identities in Functions to Access Key Vault by Jason Boeshart
Azure Service Bus Managed Service Identity (MSI) and Role-based access control (RBAC) (preview) released! by Ch. Wolf
Azure Event Hubs Managed Service Identity (MSI) and Role-based access control (RBAC) (preview) released! by Ch.Wolf
How Azure Security Center detects vulnerabilities using administrative tools by Yossi Weizman
Accessing Azure Resources Protected With SAS Tokens Using Tokens Issued by Azure AD by Andreas Helland

Learning / Certification

Get certified. Get an Awesome T-shirt. by Selina Winter
4 tips for keeping your resolution to learn Azure by Rob Caron

Azure Government

Announcing the availability of DoD regions via Government CSP Program for Azure Government by Azure Gov Team

Blockchain

SAP’s blockchain strategy to build on supply chain base by Courtney Bjorlin

Azure Stack

Azure Stack Brings Microsoft’s Cloud Outside Microsoft Data Centers by Mary Branscombe

Events

Join on-demand recasts of Azure Cosmos DB and Azure SQL Database webinars! by Anitah Cantele

Other

Storage scales and analysis improves when data moves to the cloud by Microsoft Cloud Perspectives Blog Team
Deploying with Azure by Wriju Ghosh
Announcing the public preview for Adaptive Application Controls by Ben Kliger
Recurrent serverless batch job with Azure Batch by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
New Alerts (preview) in Azure Monitor by Shankar Sivadasan
Reference Architecture and automation for Financial Services web applications by Matt Rathbun
What’s new in Log Analytics? by CliveW
Microsoft Killing Off The Classic Azure Management Portal by Aidan Finn
Microsoft to shut down its Connect beta testing site by year end via ZDNet
Last week in Azure: Azure France regions, cost savings, and more by Rob Caron
New process to report a production outage through Lifecycle Services by Dynamics Lifecycle Services Communication
GDPR How-to: Get organized and implement the right processes by Eric Tierling
Azure Log Analytics: Queries, the basics explained – Part 4 by CliveW

Videos

Here are links to some of the videos that have been posted over the past week:

Chris Gillum – Serverless workflows with Durable Functions | On .NET via Channel 9
TWC9: Last Show of 2017 with Qbits, Hardhat Hololens, Azure bots, Mainframe Christmas Cards and more… | This Week On Channel 9 via Channel 9
Use the Azure portal to answer your billing questions via Azure Friday
Neuroscience with Azure Machine Learning | AI Show via Channel 9
Apache Kafka on HDInsight via Azure Friday
Dream.Build.Play December Update & Azure for Game Developers | Level Up via Channel 9
Meet the new Azure IoT Remote Monitoring Preconfigured Solution | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9

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 209 – DevOps with Kubernetes via The Azure Podcast
Machine Learning 101 with Paige Bailey via Hanselminutes
Episode 231 | FCC, Microsoft and VMWare Cloud News 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:

How to set up a 10″ Touchscreen LCD for Raspberry Pi by Scott Hanselman
Putting Docker Enterprise Edition on the Map with Kadaster and Capgemini by Jenny Fong

Feedback

Do you have any suggestions or general feedback on the Build Azure Weekly blog series? Please contact me and send it on over! Or tweet it over to @BuildAzure.

Please feel free to reach out and let me know your feedback on the Build Azure Weekly series. I post this weekly post as a service to others and really want to make it the best it can be.

You can also join the Build Azure Slack Group as well.

About the Author

Chris Pietschmann

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.