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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Microsoft to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion
Last week Microsoft and GitHub both announced that Microsoft will be acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion. It has been stated that GitHub will remain an independent company and retain its “developer-first ethos” while it continues to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries.
The above photo shows (from left) Chris Wanstrath, Github CEO and co-founder; Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO; and Nat Friedman, Microsoft corporate vice president, Developer Services
After the acquisition is complete, Nat Friedman will be transitioned into the role of GitHub CEO. Chris Wanstrath is the current CEO of GitHub, and at that time he will transition to become a Microsoft Technical Fellow, and report to Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President.
Microsoft is not just picking some random executive to be the new GitHub CEO after the acquisition. Nat Friedman came to Microsoft from the acquisition of Xamarin; the maker of the open source Mono framework (an open source .NET Framework implementation) and maker of cross-platform development tools that allow developers to write mobile apps using C# and .NET tooling to target Windows, iOS, and Android with a single code base or shared code. Nat Friedman has a long history of Open Source, and should be a good steward to lead GitHub moving forward.
All across the Open Source world, there are mixed opinions as to whether this acquisition is a good thing or not. What do you think?
The Weeks Top Links
Here are some of the most notable links from the week:
- Underwater Azure Datacenter with Project Natick by Chris Pietschmann
- Microsoft buys GitHub for $7.5 billion via ZDNet
- Microsoft + GitHub by Paul Thurrott
- Microsoft’s ‘future CEO of GitHub’ speaks out on Atom, keeping GitHub independent and more via ZDNet
- Azure Backup for SQL Server on Azure now in public preview by Anurag Mehrotra
- First impressions on the CNTK and a comparison with Google’s TensorFlow. by Warren Park
- How to Deploy your Azure Functions Faster and Easily with Zip Push by Frank Boucher
- Save 50% on Microsoft Press videos, plus 35% on companion titles via Microsoft Press
- Announcing ML.NET 0.2 by Ankit Asthana
- App Service Deployment Center (Preview) by Byron Tardif
- Microsoft acquires Github – does it make sense? by Jen Stirrup
- VSTS and GitHub by Lori Lamkin
Azure Service Updates
Here’s a list of the Microsoft Azure Service Updates from over the past week:
- Public preview: Storage Explorer in the Azure portal
- PostgreSQL 10.3 released on Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- Standard SSD Disks for Azure Virtual Machines is now in public preview
- SQL Data Warehouse PolyBase support for Azure Storage Encryption using customer-managed keys
- General availability: Azure mobile app for Android and iOS
- General availability: Disaster recovery for Azure IaaS virtual machines
- Cognitive Services Speech SDK June 2018 update
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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)
- Azure Content Spotlight – Blue-Green deployments using Azure Traffic Manager by chilberto
- Offering the largest scale and broadest choice for SAP HANA in the cloud by Girish Bablani
- Site-to-Site VPN between pfSense Firewall and Azure using BGP by David Sanchez
- Microsoft touts progress on bringing SAP to Azure via ZDNet
- Azure Traffic Manager: Geography Versus Latency by Aidan Finn
- Providing the server name explicitly in user names Part 2: DNS alias for Azure SQL Database by Nick Lopez
- Why you should bet on Azure for your infrastructure needs, today and in the future by Corey Sanders
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Troubleshooting HTTP 502.5 startup issues in Azure AppService for ASP.NET Core Websites by Prashant Pratap
- Azure Preview – Standard SSD Disks by Aidan Finn
- (Preview) Standard SSD Disks for Azure Virtual machine workloads by Sirius Kuttiyan
- Azure Search is now certified for several levels of compliance by Liam Cavanagh
- Enterprise Deployment of an Internal Load Balancer with an App Service Environment v2 by Mariusz Kolodziej
- App Service Diagnostics – Profiling an ASP.NET Web App on Azure App Service by PuneetG
- App Service Deployment Center (Preview) by Byron Tardif
Serverless and Functions as a Service (FaaS)
- Generate the OpenAPI definition for Azure Function Apps by Abhijit Jana
- How to Deploy your Azure Functions Faster and Easily with Zip Push by Frank Boucher
Command-Line / ARM Templates
- Create a Batch AI instance with a file share from the Azure CLI by Cameron Vetter
- Detecting script-based attacks on Linux by John Booth
- Use Azure policy Service to manage Azure Resources and stay compliant with corporate standards by Srikanth Sankaran
- Locate Azure resources tags easily in Azure Portal by Abhijit Jana
- This Subscription Is Not Registered With The Microsoft.Insights Resource Provider by Aidan Finn
- Tag multiple Azure Resources from Azure Portal by Abhijit Jana
- API Management CI/CD using ARM Templates – Linked template by Eldert Grootenboer
- Create database on Azure SQL Managed Instance using PowerShell by Jovan Popovic
Database / Big Data
- 8 reasons to choose Azure Stream Analytics for real-time data processing by Siddarth Ramadoss
- Firely Vonk FHIR Server adds Cosmos DB (Mongo API) Support by Michael S. Hansen
- Process more files than ever and use Parquet with Azure Data Lake Analytics by Michael Rys
- Azure Backup for SQL Server on Azure now in public preview by Anurag Mehrotra
- Introduction to Azure Event Grid by Sjoukje Zaal
- Azure SQL Data Warehouse SQL Operations Studio Extension Available by Tim Salch
- Seamless migration of MySQL apps to Azure Database for MySQL with minimum downtime by Jim Toland
- Seamless migration of PostgreSQL apps to Azure Database for PostgreSQL with minimum downtime by Jim Toland
- Azure Data Lake Tools for VSCode supports Azure blob storage integration by Jenny Jiang
- What is a DTU? by Matt Go
- Azure is the best place for analytics by Rohan Kumar
- Event Hubs ingestion performance and throughput by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
- Complete guide to setting up Power BI connecting to Postgres w/ refresh enabled. by Chris Mitchell
Internet of Things (IoT)
- Smart buildings, built on Azure IoT by Bert Van Hoof
- Azure IoT Edge Preview 2 – Installing Prerequisites on Server Core by David Hardin
- Azure IoT Edge Preview 2 – Restart Error by David Hardin
- Azure IoT Edge Preview 2 – Module Networking by David Hardin
- Azure IoT Edge Preview 2 – Lessons Learned Series by David Hardin
- Azure IoT Edge Preview 2 – Windows Server 1709 is Core by David Hardin
- Azure IoT Edge Preview 2 – Debugging Container Exceptions by David Hardin
- Azure IoT Edge Preview 2 – Use Chrome with the Portal by David Hardin
- Using STMicroelectronics starter kits to connect to Azure IoT in minutes by Yi Zhong
- Use Azure Data Lake Analytics to query AVRO data from IoT Hub by Kevin Saye
- Enabling Central IT to become a Cloud broker by Steve Michelotti
- Regenerative Maps alive on the Edge by Chris Pendleton
- How Azure IoT helped me buy a new house – Part 4 – Azure IoT Hub by Steve St Jean
- Digging in with Azure IoT: Our interactive developer guide by Olivier Bloch
Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence
- Tips & tricks for using the Data Science Virtual Machine (DSVM) with GPU support for machine learning on Azure by jennmar
- First impressions on the CNTK and a comparison with Google’s TensorFlow. by Warren Park
- Announcing ML.NET 0.2 by Ankit Asthana
- Speech services now in preview by Grace Sturman
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 129 – Using OCR to extract text from images from the Azure Portal by Michael Crump
- Bot Framework triage between Luis and QnA Maker by Martin Kearn
Development and DevOps
- DevOps for VMs with VSTS and Octopus Deploy by Jafar Jaffery
- Azure DevOps Integration Tutorial Reference by Abhijit Jana
- Migrating a large collection from on premise TFS to Azure hosted service (VSTS) by Deepak Khare
- Ubuntu desktop setup for Azure Developers by Dave Glover
- VSTS and GitHub by Lori Lamkin
Containers / Service Fabric
- Preview of Visual Studio Kubernetes Tools by Visual Studio Blog
- Deploy and perform Rolling upgrade of containerised Applications in Azure Service Fabric by Srikantan Sankaran
Security / Privacy
- PowerShell sample for Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for Azure AD Roles by Anuj Chaudhary
- GUID Table for Windows Azure Active Directory Permissions by Frank Hu
- Blocking Legacy Clients with Azure AD Conditional Access by Mike Duddington
Learning / Certification
- Save 50% on Microsoft Press videos, plus 35% on companion titles via Microsoft Press
Azure Stack
- Microsoft Azure Stack expands availability to 92 countries by Talal Alqinawi
- Azure Stack for Born in the Cloud Providers by Kenny
Other
- Underwater Azure Datacenter with Project Natick by Chris Pietschmann
- Microsoft acquires Github – does it make sense? by Jen Stirrup
- Microsoft to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion @microsoft @github by Phillip Torrone
- Microsoft’s biggest challenge with GitHub: Overcoming its past via ZDNet
- Microsoft’s ‘future CEO of GitHub’ speaks out on Atom, keeping GitHub independent and more via ZDNet
- Use Azure Monitor to integrate with SIEM tools by John Kemnetz
- How to identify the Shared Dashboards in Azure Portal? by Abhijit Jana
- Check Out This MVP Book On Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions, And More On This Week’s Friday Five via Microsoft MVP Award Blog
- Identify Azure Services Availability by Region by Abhijit Jana
- Oh! No! The Azure EA portal converted my MSDN/VSTS subscription into EA subcription by gpillai
- Three ways you can improve data analysis from data expert Edward Tuft via Microsoft Cloud Perspectives Blog Team
- Mellanox uses Azure to accelerate network design by Ben Cotton
- Azure Tips and Tricks Part 128 – Download all Azure Documentation for offline viewing by Michael Crump
- Things you may consider when choosing a Microsoft Azure Region. by Martin Brandl
Videos
Here are links to some of the videos that have been posted over the past week:
- Tips for using the Gremlin API with Azure Cosmos DB | Azure Friday via Channel 9
- Tips for using the Gremlin API with Azure Cosmos DB via Channel 9
- Horizontal Partitioning in Azure Cosmos DB via Azure Friday
- GCast 1: A Lap Around Cloud and Azre by David Giard
- Azure IoT Hub device SDK for Python | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
- Interview with Kelly Anderson, Product Marketing Manager, Azure Security | GALs via Channel 9
- Combine Azure scheduled events with Event Grid | Tuesdays With Corey via Channel 9
- Getting started with Windows IoT Episode #1: Basics introductions before you start coding | Visual Studio Toolbox via Channel 9
- Video Moderation with Content Moderator | AI Show via Channel 9
- Image and Text Moderation with Content Moderator | AI Show via Channel 9
- Git patterns and anti-patterns for successful developers | Microsoft Build 2018 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 232 – Java on Azure via The Azure Podcast
- Azure Sphere and Microsoft’s new Linux with Caitie McCaffrey via Hanselminutes
- Episode 68 – SharePoint spaces and SharePoint 2019 with Bill Baer via Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast
- Episode 258 | Development with Microsoft Teams Live from Build 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:
- Ivory Coast Pharmacy Revolutionised by Two Raspberry Pis @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi via Adafruit Industries
- AMD Coils For 7 Nanometer Leap Over Intel And Nvidia by Timothy Prickett Morgan
- What Makes a Supercomputer? by Jessie Mae
- The Future Isn’t In Databases, But In the Data by Thomas LaRock
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