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!
Top Links
Here are some of the most notable links from the week:
- 2017: Build Azure Year in Review by Chris Pietschmann
- Securing Azure customers from CPU vulnerability via Microsoft Azure
- Announcing preview of new high performance computing capability: H-Series VMs by Kyle Deeds
- StorSimple and Intel Meltdown & Spectre by StorSimple Team
- Exploring the Azure IoT Arduino Cloud DevKit by Scott Hanselman
- How to Check if Your Database Server Is Protected Against Meltdown and Spectre by Thomas LaRock
- Maximize your VM’s Performance with Accelerated Networking – now generally available for both Windows and Linux by Gabriel Silva
- Build Any App with Visual Studio App Center by derpixeldan
- Microsoft Azure Started Patching Reboots Yesterday by Aidan Finn
- Microsoft Acquires Hybrid Cloud Storage Vendor Avere Systems by Nicole Henderson
- Designing, building, and operating microservices on Azure by Peter Taylor
- XBox: Analytics on petabytes of gaming data with Azure HDInsight by Ashish Thapliyal
- Azure CosmosDB in Banking Sector by sudhirblog
- Azure #CosmosDB: Recap of 2017 by Rimma Nehme
- Migration checklist when moving to Azure App Service by Yusuf Rangwala
- Load Tests are not in every VSTS Region by Donovan Brown
- Code Magazine Article: Securing IIS Web Sites with Let’s Encrypt Certificates by Rick Strahl
- Lets Encrypt Azure Functions and Managed Service Identity by Simon J.K. Pedersen
Service Updates
Here’s a list of the Microsoft Azure Service Updates from over the past week:
- Change the subscription directory in the Azure portal
- Developer services available only in the Azure portal from January 8, 2018
- Expanded options for accessing Cloud Shell
- February version updates for PHP on App Service
- Public preview: Application security groups in all regions
- General availability: Augmented rules for NSGs
- Azure Backup now supports BEK-encrypted Azure virtual machines
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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)
- Savill’s FAQs: Using chkdsk and Networking Protocols in Azure by John Savill
- Announcing preview of new high performance computing capability: H-Series VMs by Kyle Deeds
- Finding a VM Image Reference, Publisher & SKU by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
- Maximize your VM’s Performance with Accelerated Networking – now generally available for both Windows and Linux by Gabriel Silva
- SAP on Azure: General Update – January 2018 by Cameron
- Microsoft Azure Started Patching Reboots Yesterday by Aidan Finn
- Set auto-shutdown for Virtual Machines in Azure by Tanmayee Kamath
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Application Insights Integration by Miao Jiang
- Change domain contact information for App Service Domain by mksunitha
- Deploy to an Azure App Service using KUDU and a zip file by Benjamin Perkins
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 77 – Working with Azure Storage Explorer by Michael Crump
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 76 – Uploading and Downloading a Stream into an Azure Storage Blob by Michael Crump
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 75 – Create an Azure Storage Blob Container through C# by Michael Crump
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 74 – Working with Azure Storage Blobs and Files through the Portal by Michael Crump
- 64 bit ASP.NET Core on Azure App Service by Glenn Condron
- Azure App Service Disk Length Queue
- How to disable preloadEnabled on an Azure App Service by Benjamin Perkins
- Azure App Service : Automate VNET Re-sync in case of failure by Karan Singh
- Continuous Deployment with VSTS/TFS and App Service Environment (ASE) by Michael Hansen
- Asynchronous refresh with the REST API for Azure Analysis Services by Christian Wade
- Microsoft Acquires Hybrid Cloud Storage Vendor Avere Systems by Nicole Henderson
- Microsoft acquires Avere Systems, file-storage vendor for Windows and Linux via ZDNet
- Where Did Application Insights Put my Performance Counter Data? by Pam Lahoud
- Custom Schedule for Azure Web Job Timer Triggers by Amit Agarwal
- Migration checklist when moving to Azure App Service by Yusuf Rangwala
- How to capture an ASP.NET Core memory dump on Azure App Service by Benjamin Perkins
Serverless and Functions as a Service (FaaS)
- Inbound / outbound maps in Logic Apps by Toon Vanhoutte
- Azure Function Apps: Trigger in Azure SQL /SQL Server to execute Azure Function by Amit Agarwal
- Creating Durable Functions in the Azure Portal by Mark Heath
- Scale your Azure SQL Database with Azure Functions by Simon J.K. Pedersen
- Lets Encrypt Azure Functions and Managed Service Identity by Simon J.K. Pedersen
- Lets Encrypt on Azure Web Apps using a Function App for Automated Renewal by Simon J.K. Pedersen
Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Five reasons we’re celebrating Dynamics 365 this year by teresa
- Get Excited About Microsoft Flow by Pam Lahoud
Command-Line / ARM Templates
- Ensuring HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) Compliance without System Modification – Powershell Automation by Michael S. Hansen
- Microsoft delivers PowerShell Core for Windows, Linux, macOS via ZDNet
- The Azure Cloud Shell Empowers You to run Scripts in Your Browser by David Giard
- Savill’s FAQs: View Your Azure Resources Using PowerShell by John Savill
Database / Big Data
- Power BI and VSTS Analytics by Gregg Boer
- Using Microsoft Azure Data Science Virtual Machines in your teaching and Research Labs by Lee Stott
- Compatibility Level 140 is now the default for Azure SQL Database by Joseph Sack
- How to Save Money and Control Costs with Azure Data Lake Analytics by Saveen Reddy
- #Azure #SQLDW, the cost benefits of an on-demand data warehousing by Arnaud Comet
- DevOps for Data Science – Automated Testing by Buck Woody
- Walk through of using the PowerApps custom visual in Power BI by Charles Sterling
- Using Qubole Data Service on Azure to analyze retail customer feedback by Ron Abellera
- SQL Server Management Studio Provides–“XE Profiler” by RDORR
- DevOps for Data Science – Continuous Delivery by Buck Woody
- Azure Data Lake tools integrates with VSCode Data Lake Explorer and Azure Account by Jenny Jiang
- Azure HDInsight Performance Insights: Interactive Query, Spark and Presto by Ashish Thapliyal
- XBox: Analytics on petabytes of gaming data with Azure HDInsight by Ashish Thapliyal
- Azure CosmosDB in Banking Sector by sudhirblog
- Azure #CosmosDB: Recap of 2017 by Rimma Nehme
- Azure Log Analytics (OMS) Agent now collects SQL Server audit logs by Gilad Mittelman
Internet of Things (IoT)
- Manage and Auto-scale your IoT solution with a predictable IoT Cloud by Steve Busby
- Exploring the Azure IoT Arduino Cloud DevKit by Scott Hanselman
- CES 2018: Microsoft’s IoT strategy is about the cloud more than the ‘things’ via ZDNet
- JCI smart GLAS thermostat uses Microsoft IoT to cut energy costs by Microsoft IoT
- Whitepaper: Selecting the right secure hardware for your IoT deployment by Eustance Asanghanwa
Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence
- DevOps for Data Science – Release Management by BuckWoody
- Microsoft Project Shows Promise of Machine Learning in Healthcare by Todd R. Weiss
- How to Run Large-Scale Educational Workshops in Deep Learning & Data Science by Cortana Intelligence and ML Blog Team
- Will Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning help BizTalk Server Monitoring? by Saravana Kumar
- OxfordHack Winners of the Microsoft Cognitive Challenge by Lee Stott
- Can you implement a Chat Bot with Microsoft Bot Framework without Azure? by Aram Koukia
- Introduction to Cognitive Services by Microsoft Student Partners by Lee Stott
- Cognitive Services Optical Character Recognition by David Giard
- Using the Cognitive Services Emotion API by David Giard
- Using Cognitive Services to Generate a Thumbnail Image by David Giard
- Cognitive Services Make It Easier to User Machine Learning in Your Application by David Giard
- Generating a Cognitive Services API Key by David Giard
Development and DevOps
- Link wiki pages and work items, write math formulas in Wiki, Keyboard shortcuts and more… by Sandeep Chadda
- Load Tests are not in every VSTS Region by Donovan Brown
- Visual Studio updates empower developers to optimize code, build better apps by Microsoft Cloud Perspectives Blog Team
- Microsoft’s Performance Contributions to Git in 2017 by Derrick Stolee
- New Visual Studio Code Extensions for Java Developers: Maven, Tomcat, and Checkstyle by Visual Studio Blog
- Sharing of Deployment Groups across projects by Abhishek Agarwal
- Using Azure database for PostgreSQL in ASP.NET Core (with EF Core) by Mahesh Sabnis
- Visual Studio App Center by Pam Lahoud
- Deploy the ASPNET Core App on Linux and Capture Perfview traces by Naveen Baliga
- Better Decisions Through Better Analytics: Visual Studio App Center with Azure Application Insights by Blanca Delgado Parra
- VSTS will no longer allow creation of new MSA users with custom domain names backed by AzureAD by Justin Marks
- Open your current project in Visual Studio Code directly from Visual Studio IDE by Abhijit Jana
- High Availability Team Foundation Server (TFS) in Azure by mihansen
- Build Any App with Visual Studio App Center by derpixeldan
- Designing, building, and operating microservices on Azure by Peter Taylor
- NuGet Package Management in VSTS by Subodh Sohoni
- Visual Studio ALM/DevOps VM 2017 Update Available by Sachin Hridayraj
- How to use Visual Studio Azure Resource Group with Azure DevTest Lab: Deploy VM to DevTest Lab by Tanmayee Kamath
- Top 12 Visual Studio App Center Tips and Tricks of 2017 by Lacey Butler
- Deploying Your Dockerized Angular Application To Azure Using VSTS by Wael Kdouh
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 73 – Send Emails through Azure with C# and SendGrid by Michael Crump
- Setting up CI/CD targeting Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Using VSTS by ddeeb
- Quick way to deploy an Azure App Service from Visual Studio by Benjamin Perkins
- Network virtualization using SCVMM and TFS/VSTS for your Build-Deploy-Test scenarios by Ashok Kirla
Containers and Service Fabric
- Service Fabric in DevTest Lab Environments by Elizabeth R Maher
- [Service Fabric] How to troubleshoot deployment errors in Service Fabric Windows cluster by Pam Lahoud
- Using Azure Container Registry on Cross Subscription by Paras Patidar
- Run Shadowsocks in Azure Container Instances by Zhiliang Xu
- [Service Fabric] Auto-scaling your Service Fabric cluster–Part II by Pam Lahoud
Security
- Securing Azure customers from CPU vulnerability via Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft Azure Threat Detection Types by Thomas LaRock
- StorSimple and Intel Meltdown & Spectre by StorSimple Team
- How to Check if Your Database Server Is Protected Against Meltdown and Spectre by Thomas LaRock
- Azure Security Center and Microsoft Web Application Firewall Integration by Shalini Pasupneti
- Publishing ADFS through pfSense with HAProxy by Andreas Helland
- Last week in Azure: Securing Azure infrastructure from CPU vulnerability, and more by Rob Caron
- Harden Your Azure Infrastructure Using Azure Security Center Just-In-Time VM Access by Thomas Janetscheck
- Savill’s FAQs: Using Microsoft Azure AD Domain Services by John Savill
- Code Magazine Article: Securing IIS Web Sites with Let’s Encrypt Certificates by Rick Strahl
Learning / Certification
- Cloud vs. On-Premises Certification by Selina Winter
- Win Big with Next Up Azure Exam Camp Training by Sarah Arnold
- Exploring Big Data: Course 10 – Microsoft Professional Capstone: Big Data by Samuel Lester
- The Microsoft Professional Program Now Includes IT Support via Born to Learn
- Microsoft Learning Tools: Education and Technology by Kristy Hill
- Want more girls interested in STEM? Retrain music and dance teachers to run computer science lessons, say educators by Kristy Hill
Azure Government
- Join us Jan. 31! Jumpstart Your Move to the Cloud – Gov Edition by Karina Homme
Blockchain
- Mastering Blockchain Book from Imran Bashir by Chris Pietschmann
- Tell me something I should know – Blockchain as a Service on Microsoft Azure by Lee Stott
- Cryptocurrency’s liquidity problem by tzink
- Will blockchain turn out to be another one of tech’s false prophets? by tzink
Other
- How to Start Spring Boot with Azure Media Service by Wu Shuai
- Optimize your Azure spend by Premier Developer
- Today’s requirements for hybrid cloud strategy by IT Pro
- Azure Marketplace new offers in December 2017 by Christine Alford
- 2017: Build Azure Year in Review by Chris Pietschmann
- What happened in Microsoft Integration space in 2017? by Lex Hegt
- Geocoding and Routing improvements added to Bing Maps by Bing Team
- My Backups are failing, Let’s open a support ticket by Ahmed Elnably
- Azure Content Spotlight – More cloud growth in store for 2018 by chilberto
- Lets bring in the New Year together – Make 2018 Epic by adding Microsoft Azure to your skills bag! by Sarah Arnold
Videos
Here are links to some of the videos that have been posted over the past week:
- Remote debug Azure Functions written in Java using VS Code | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- Corey is all in on Azure Policy | Tuesdays With Corey via Channel 9
- Apache Spark Connector for Azure Cosmos DB | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- Extending Azure HDInsight to install open source components | Data Exposed via Channel 9
- Azure HDInsight Application Platform Overview | Data Exposed via Channel 9
- Azure SQL Data Warehouse compute optimized performance tier | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- Azure Advisor Updates via Azure Friday
- Azure Analysis Services Scale Out & Diagnostics via Azure Friday
- Interview with Jasmine Greenaway, Cloud Developer Advocate on .NET | GALs 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 211 – Azure Monitor via The Azure Podcast
- Episode 233 | Meltdown, Spectre, Predictions, Wishes & Thoughts from 2017 and for 2018q via Microsoft Cloud Show
- Episode 210 – CPU Vulnerability via The Azure Podcast
- Vision, AI and More with Tim Huckaby via .NET Rocks!
- Functional Programming, F#, and Cloud Containers with Lena Hall via Hanselminutes
- Serverless and OpenFaas with Alex Ellis via Hanselminutes
- Episode 232 | Looking Back at 2017 – the Show & Cloud News via Microsoft Cloud Show
- Xamarin Development Gets Faster with James Montemagno via .NET Rocks!
General Cloud / Related
Here’s some noteworthy links about Cloud computing and other related topics that aren’t necessarily specific to Microsoft Azure:
- Intel’s Response to Chip Meltdown Deepens Rift With Microsoft by Bloomberg
- First Impressions: Asus Tinkerboard and Docker by Alex Ellis
- Google Technique Offers Spectre Vulnerability Fix with No Performance Loss by Nicole Henderson
- Intel, Nervana Shed Light on Deep Learning Chip Architecture by Nicole Hemsoth
- Using Your Own Private Registry with Docker Enterprise Edition by Patrick Devine
- AWS’s Linux in the Cloud Goes On-Prem by Christine Hall
- A Simplified Explanation of the “Meltdown” CPU Vulnerability by Cantibile
- Quantum Computing Enters 2018 Like It Is 1968 by Timothy Prickett Morgan
- New Supercomputer to Extend NOAA’s Weather Predictions by Six Days by Christine Hall
- Top 5 blogs of 2017: LinuxKit, A Toolkit for building Secure, Lean and Portable Linux Subsystems by Justin Cormack
- Microsoft Denies That Cortana is Dead (Premium) by Paul Thurrott
- Docker for Mac with Kubernetes by Jim Armstrong
- First impressions: Docker for Mac with Kubernetes by Alex Ellis
- Employee Cloud Adoption Requires New Perimeter Defenses by Andrew Mayo
- How Red Hat Is Dealing With the Spectre of the CPU Meltdown by Christine Hall
- The Spectre And Meltdown Server Tax Bill by Timothy Prickett Morgan
- From Patching to Performance: What Enterprises Need to Know About Meltdown and Spectre by Nicole Henderson
- Robert Martin on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programming by David Giard
- Intel Officially Launches New 8th Gen Core Processors With AMD Radeon Graphics by Mehedi Hassan
- Meet Some of the Women Building Comcast’s Next-Generation IoT Experiences by Ashley Reed
- You Will Soon Be Able to Pre-Order This Beautiful Cortana-Powered Smart Thermostat for $319 by Mehedi Hassan
- Intel, Microsoft Deal With Widespread Computer-Chip Weakness by Bloomberg
- What You Need to Know About the Big Chip Security Problem by Bloomberg
- 5 tips to learn Docker in 2018 by Victor Coisne
- Multi-Cloud Strategy Can Be Tough, But Worthwhile: Study by Todd R. Weiss
- What Artificial Intelligence Trends Say About Cloud in 2018 by Nicole Henderson
- Using Docker to Scale Operational Intelligence at Splunk by Jenny Fong
- 5 keys to create a killer CLI in Go by Alex Ellis
- Top 5 Blogs of 2017: Docker Platform and Moby Project add Kubernetes by Patrick Chanezon
- Blockchain Pumping New Life Into Old-School Companies Like IBM by Bloomberg
- Kodi Releases Its Official UWP App for the Xbox One by Mehedi Hassan
- Source Code for Apple’s Lisa Operating System to be Released for Free in 2018 by Juli Clover
- Two Data Science Courses to Boost Biohacking Insights via Adafruit Industries by Mikey Sklar
- The state of netbooting Raspberry Pis by Alex Ellis
- CISO Perspective: How using the NIST Cyber Security Framework improves security visibility by IT Pro
Feedback
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