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!

First-class Support for CloudEvents on Azure

In addition to the default event schema of Azure Event Grid, Microsoft has added support for events using the CloudEvents JSON schema. CloudEvents is an open standard specification for describing event data in a common way, and Microsoft Azure is the first cloud provider to release support for CloudEvents!

The CloudEvents specification has been contributed to by many organizations; including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, VMWare, and more. The CloudEvents schema simplifies interoperability by providing a common event schema for publishing, and consuming cloud based events. This enables uniform tooling, a standard way for routing and handling events, and universal ways of deserializing the outer event schema. With this common CloudEvents schema, you can more easily integrate work across platforms!

The Azure documentation contains some documentation how to use CloudEvents with Azure Event Grid.

The Weeks Top Links

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

• Announcing first-class support for CloudEvents on Azure by Corey Sanders
• Understanding RPO and RTO considerations of Azure Solutions by Trey Talbott
• Azure Functions Recipes by Anthony Chu
• Announcing low-priority VMs on scale sets now in public preview by Meagan McCrory
• The Azure Cloud Collaboration Center: A First-of-Its Kind Facility by Jason Zander
• Region expansion for the next generation of SQL Data Warehouse by Kevin Ngo
• Write Accelerator for M-Series virtual machines now generally available by Rashmi lyer
• AzCopy on Linux now generally available by Sercan Guler
• Global VNet Peering now generally available by Anavi Nahar
• Team Foundation Server and GitHub Enterprise in Azure by Michael S. Hansen
• Azure M-series VMs are now SAP HANA certified by Juergen Thomas

Azure Service Updates

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

• Breaking change for SNI-SSL host names on Azure App Service
• Data Factory supports wildcard file filters for Copy Activity
• Preview: The vCore-based purchasing model for Azure SQL Database is extended with additional compute and storage options
• General availability: Azure Database for PostgreSQL in new regions and compute generation
• General availability: Azure Database for MySQL in new regions and compute generation

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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 Virtual Datacenter: New Portal and Presentation Deck by Ed Price
• Azure Log Analytics: Queries, Has the Hostname been changed? by CliveW
• Understanding your GPU Performance on Azure with GPU Monitor by Lee Stott
• Announcing low-priority VMs on scale sets now in public preview by Meagan McCrory
• Azure Availability Zones Quick Tour and Guide by Igor Pagliai
• Write Accelerator for M-Series virtual machines now generally available by Rashmi lyer
• Global VNet Peering now generally available by Anavi Nahar
• Monitor Microsoft peering in ExpressRoute with Network Performance Monitor – public preview by Abhave Sharma
• Azure M-series VMs are now SAP HANA certified by Juergen Thomas

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• Exploring Azure App Service – Introduction by Andrew B Hall
• General availability: Azure Storage metrics in Azure Monitor by Francis Yu
• Breaking change for SNI-SSL hostnames on Azure App Service by Oded Dvoskin
• Exploring Azure App Service – Introduction by Andrew B Hall
• App Service Command Line Tools Resources by Ahmed Elnably

Serverless and Functions as a Service (FaaS)

• Enterprise Integration made easy in Azure by Deepa Chandramouli
• Azure Functions Recipes by Anthony Chu
• Serverless WebApi – Host an ASP.NET Core WebApi in Azure Functions. by Boris Wilhelms
• Bring the power of serverless to your IoT application and compete for cash prizes by Gorka Madariaga

Software as a Service (SaaS)

• Microsoft touts LinkedIn, Graph API and AI foundations of its new Bing ad service via ZDNet
• Focus on your code, Let Microsoft Teams worry about the UI by Kyle Kapphahn

Command-Line / ARM Templates

• 5 Simple Steps to Get a Clean ARM Template by Frank Boucher
• How to use a different version of DSC modules available in Azure DSC Module Gallery by Kanwartej Basrai
• AzCopy on Linux now generally available by Sercan Guler
• posh-HumpCompletion in Azure Cloud Shell by Stuart Leeks
• Best Practices For Using Azure Resource Manager Templates by Peter Groenewegen, Pascal Naber
• Azure Tips and Tricks Part 120 – Run Azure PowerShell Cmdlets in Visual Studio 2017 by Michael Crump
• Bulk VM creation from CSV using Azure PowerShell by Wriju Ghosh

Database / Big Data

• Announcing first-class support for CloudEvents on Azure by Corey Sanders
• Learn How To Move Your Data To The Cloud With The DevOps Lab via MVP Award Program
• Adaptive caching powers Azure SQL Data Warehouse performance gains by Tomas Talius
• Region expansion for the next generation of SQL Data Warehouse by Kevin Ngo
• Turbocharge cloud analytics with Azure SQL Data Warehouse by Rohan Kumar
• Blazing fast data warehousing with Azure SQL Data Warehouse by Igor Stanko
• Python, Node.js, Go client libraries for Azure Event Hubs in public preview by Shubha Vijayasarathy
• Explore SaaS analytics with Azure SQL Database, SQL Data Warehouse, Data Factory, and Power BI by Anum Jang Sher
• CPU and Memory Allocation on Azure SQL Database Managed Instance by Dimitri Furman
• Azure Content Spotlight – Azure Data Factory by chilberto
• Azure SQL DB Managed Instance – sp_readmierrorlog by Borko Novakovic, Arvind Shyamsundar, Mike Weiner

Internet of Things (IoT)

• Welcome to the Azure IoT, Devices and Cognitive Services CSS Team Blog by Enes Uysal
• Microsoft rolls out Windows 10 April 2018 Update for Windows 10 IoT via ZDNet

Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence

• Welcome to the Azure IoT, Devices and Cognitive Services CSS Team Blog by Enes Uysal
• Azure Notebooks at Imperial College Machine Learning Society by Lee Stott
• Running YOLO v2 on the Microsoft Data Science Virtual Machine by Lee Stott
• Microsoft extends AI support to PyTorch 1.0 deep learning framework via Microsoft Azure
• How to Develop a Currency Detection Model using Azure Machine Learning by Xiaoyong Chu, Anirudh Koul, Wee Hyong Tok
• TensorFlow on Azure: Enabling Blob Storage via Alluxio by Jing Chang

Development and DevOps

• Integrating Angular Unit Tests With Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) Using Headless Chrome and Puppeteer by Wael Kdouh
• How to Add a New Visual Studio Solution to an Existing VSTS Repository by Benjamin Xue
• Announcing the DevOps Resource Center by Sam Guckenheimer
• Team Foundation Server and GitHub Enterprise in Azure by Michael S. Hansen

Containers / Service Fabric

• Linux Containers on Windows (LCOW) by TheRookery
• Running your DVWA on Azure AKS by David-Sanchez
• Azure Container Registry – Getting Started by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
• Troubleshoot Service Fabric Cluster Upgrade Issues by Hui_Zhu

Blockchain / Smart Contracts

• Kubernetes Load Testing by Daniel Grecoe

Security / Privacy

• Granting Tenant Admin Consent for Microsoft Graph Explorer by Frank Hu
• Azure expands certification scope of Health Information Trust Alliance Common Security Framework by Matt Rathbun
• Calling an Azure AD secured REST API from PowerApps using Flow by keydet
• Secure credential management for ETL workloads using Azure Key Vault and Data Factory by Gaurav Malhotra

Learning / Certification

• Cloud Computing a blended learning approach to education by Lee Stott
• Get a Professional Certification in Java or Python via Microsoft Learning
• 70-776: Perform Big Data Engineering on Microsoft Cloud Services Certification Exam (20776) by Chris Pietschmann

Azure Government

• General Availability in China and US Government Cloud by Miao Jiang

Events

• Microsoft Build: Come for the tech, stay for the party via Microsoft Azure Blog

Other

• Understanding RPO and RTO considerations of Azure Solutions by Trey Talbott
• Digital Transformation – Investing in the Core by Vincent-Philippe Lauzon
• The Azure Cloud Collaboration Center: A First-of-Its Kind Facility by Jason Zander
• Microsoft renames its Ventures unit ‘M12’ via ZDNet
• Azure Marketplace new offers: April 1–15 by Christine Alford

Videos

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

• On the Road to Build: Windows IoT updates | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
• mssql-cli, an open source and cross-platform CLI for SQL Server | Data Exposed via Channel 9
• On the Road to Build: Azure Sphere | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
• Low-Priority VM Scale Set (VMSS) | Azure Friday via Channel 9
• VS Code for Java Microservices in Kubernetes | Azure Friday via Channel 9
• On the Road to Build: Azure IoT Solutions | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
• Part 4 of 4: Terraform for Azure Container Service | The Open Source Show via Channel 9
• On the Road to Build: Azure IoT Platform Services | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
• On the Road to Build: Azure IoT Hub updates | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
• On the Road to Build: Azure IoT Edge updates | Internet of Things Show via Channel 9
• Microsoft Build 2018: Seattle Coffee | Microsoft Build 2018 via Channel 9
• Deploying Azure Functions with VSTS | The DevOps Lab 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 227 – Azure SRE via The Azure Podcast
• Episode 61 – Listener Question: Cloud File Shares via Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast
• Episode 249 | HashiCorp Terraform with Microsoft Azure via Microsoft Cloud Show
• RavenDB V4 with Kamran Ayub 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:

• Windows 10’s New Redstone 5 Build Brings a New Screenshotting Tool by Mehedi Hassan
• A Secure Supply Chain for Kubernetes by Jenny Fong
• Still struggling with Windows as a Service? by David das Neves
• Being a Microsoft Regional Director: faith, trust and pixie dust for good by Jen Stirrup
• How Are Salary Trends Changing in the IT Industry After the Introduction IoT and AI? by jamesgrills07
• 86% of Passwords are Terrible (and Other Statistics) by Tory Hunt
• Bluetooth 5.0 – Yes, Version 5 – Primer | #IoT #IoTuesday by nick normal
• Docker Government Summit 2018 by Betty Junod
• What are Docker Captains looking forward to at DockerCon by Victor Coisne
• Docker Compose and Kubernetes with Docker for Desktop by Mike Coleman

Feedback

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