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!

The Weeks Top Links

Here are some of the most notable links from the week:

Penny Pinching in the Cloud: Deploying Containers cheaply to Azure by Scott Hanselman
Polynimbus is the future of the cloud by Chris Pietschmann
Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management in public preview by Yuan Zheng
How (I) would handle a timeout in Azure Function by Benjamin Perkins
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) GA – New regions, more features, increased productivity by Brendan Burns

Azure 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)

Enable Compression for Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) by Abhijit Jana
Note to myself: How to perform a CTRL+ALT+DEL inside an Azure Virtual Machine? by Sandro Pereira
Using Command Line Tools to Start and Stop Azure DevTest Lab Virtual Machines by Roger Best
AzureCAT Whitepaper: High-performance computing on Microsoft Azure: GlusterFS by Ed Price
AzureCAT eBook: Parallel Virtual File Systems on Microsoft Azure by Ed Price

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Quickly Generate Azure Dashboard from Application Insights Telemetry by Abhijit Jana
Implementing custom cultures, CultureInfo, localize Azure App Service by Benjamin Perkins
Azure API Management roadmap is moving to Azure Roadmap by Vlad Vinogradsky
Container? Why not App Services? by Casey Kriutzfield
CHALLENGE #6 – Access files stored in Azure Blob Storage (LEVEL 2) by FreddyDK
Use SSL certificates on your Azure WebApp by David Sanchez
Use Azure Storage from Visual Studio Code by Abhijit Jana
(Cross Post) Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management in public preview via Windows Azure Storage
Azure Mobile App – Monitor the health and status of your Azure Resources on the Go by Abhijit Jana
ASP.NET Core AppSettings for Azure App Service by Prashant Pratap

Serverless and Functions as a Service (FaaS)

Friday Five: Use Azure Serverless To Become GDPR Compliant, And More via MVP Award Program
How (I) would handle a timeout in Azure Function by Benjamin Perkins
Custom URL path for Pass-through SOAP connector for Azure Logic App by David Burg
Azure Tips and Tricks Part 130 – Manage Application Settings for Azure Functions within Visual Studio by Michael Crump
Using Azure API Management with Azure Function by Abhijit Jana
Azure Active Directory B2B Self Service Sign-Up using Logic Apps by Michael S. Hansen
How to add a HOST.JSON file to an Azure Function by Benjamin Perkins
How to setup Flic Smart Button and trigger a Microsoft Flow by Sandro Pereira
Azure Function 400 Bad Request by Benjamin Perkins
How to connect to a database from an Azure Function using Azure Key Vault by Benjamin Perkins
Using Managed Service Identity (MSI) with and Azure App Service or an Azure Function by Benjamin Perkins
Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management in public preview by Yuan Zheng

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Announcing new Microsoft 365 Business security features by Nicolas Charritton

Command-Line / ARM Templates

Enforcing TLS version on Azure WebApps with Resource Manager Policies by Christos Matskas
Using Azure Cloud Shell from Azure Mobile App by Abhijit Jana
Determine latest API version for a resource provider by Martin Brandl
Azure Tips and Tricks Part 131 – Quickly display a list of all Azure Web Apps URL from Azure Cloud Shell by Michael Crump

Database / Big Data

Pointing an existing ASPNET Core WebAPI from MongoDB to CosmosDB by Wriju Ghosh
Four steps to using data visualization to drive sales and growth by Microsoft Cloud Perspectives Blog
Quick Recovery Time with SQL Data Warehouse using User-Defined Restore Points by Kevin Ngo
A Power BI Data Analytics Pipeline for ISVs by Greg Oliver
New Akka Streams and Apache Flink tutorials/samples for Event Hubs for Kafka Ecosystems by Basil Hariri
Microsoft Azure Data welcomes attendees to ACM SIGMOD/PODS 2018 by Rohan Kumar
Process more files than ever and use Parquet with Azure Data Lake Analytics by MRys
Azure Data Lake Analytics and U-SQL Spring 2018 Updates: Parquet support, small files, dynamic output, fast file sets, and much more! by MRys

Internet of Things (IoT)

Visual Studio Toolbox: Getting started with Windows IoT Episode #2 by Robert Green

Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence

Building a Speech To Text Artificial Intelligence app in C# and Azure by Atanu Gupta
Microsoft Credits AI for April 2018 Update Rollout Success by Paul Thurrott
GCast 2: Azure Machine Learning Studio by David Giard
Adding Batch AI jobs the Easy Way with Autonaming by Cameron Better

Development and DevOps

Sharing Deployment Groups Across Team Projects in VSTS by Derrick Cawthon
Who is Blazor for Exactly? by Shawn Wildermuth
Monitoring Python Applications with Azure App Insights by Najib Zarrari

Containers / Service Fabric

Penny Pinching in the Cloud: Deploying Containers cheaply to Azure by Scott Hanselman
Announcing Microsoft OpenHack: Containers by Megan Mallin
Container Tooling for Service Fabric in Visual Studio 2017 by Cristy Gonzalez
SmartHotel360 Microservices on Azure Kubernetes Service by Brady Gaster
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) GA – New regions, more features, increased productivity by Brendan Burns
Using Azure Container Instances to complete automation by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
Easy steps to create Azure Kubernetes Service by Wriju Ghosh

Security / Privacy

Azure AD B2C settings menu unable to load for a small set of customers by Srinivas Nadimpalli
Accessing Applications protected using Azure AD by Srikantan Sankaran
Proactively Plan for your Critical Event in Azure with Enhanced Support and Engineering Services by Jon Guerin
How to fetch a user’s profile from Azure Active Directory using PowerShell by Chev Bryan
TLS Configuration now fixed to block 1.0 by Oded Dvoskin
Create an Azure Key Vault and Secret by Benjamin Perkins

Learning / Certification

Free Azure Training Resources by Nicole Welch

Azure Government

Publish your solutions to Azure Government – what, why and how by Steve Michelotti
#AzureGovMeetup recap – Harnessing cloud: how to accelerate your mission apps by Karina Homme

Events

Upcoming DevOps and Tech Conferences by Premier Developer

Other

Polynimbus is the future of the cloud by Chris Pietschmann
Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor via Bing Team
New free Go-To-Market Services for all marketplace publishers by Christine Alford
Accelerating Business Opportunities with Power Apps and Integration by Michael Stephenson
Participate in the 15th Developer Economics Survey by Rob Caron
Bing Visual Search and Entity Search APIs for video apps by Milan Gada
Exciting advances in Azure Alerts – From better alert management to Smart Groups by Manish Mittal
Rendering in Azure with Qube 7 by John Thurrott
Microsoft’s Next-Gen HoloLens is Codenamed Sydney; Arrives Q1, 2019 by Brad Sams

Videos

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

Service Fabric Extension for VS Code | Azure Friday via Channel 9
Custom Vison AI on Azure IoT Edge | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) GA via Azure Friday
Java in App Service on Linux via Azure Friday
Getting started with Windows IoT Episode #2: Creating, running and debugging with Pi hardware | Visual Studio Toolbox via Channel 9
Azure IoT Edge updates | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
Microservice Architecture with ASP.NET Core | On .NET via Channel 9
Horizontal Partitioning in Azure Cosmos DB | Azure Friday 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 233 – Live from Build 2018 – Serverless & IoT with Jeff Hollan via The Azure Podcast
Tips for Teaching Programming with Dr. Neil Brown via Hanselminutes
Episode 69 – PowerApps with Laura Rogers via Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast
Antifragility in Software Architecture with Barry O’Reilly via .NET Rocks!
Episode 259 | Plethora of Microsoft, Cloud, Hyperfish News! via Microsoft Cloud Show
Microsoft Buys GitHub with Phil Haack 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:

Roblox Has Kids Code With ‘Jurassic Park’ by Zay
Advice from a tech Mom on getting teens to learn to code by Jen Stirrup

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.

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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.