Cale and Sujit talk about the newly released to GA, Azure Container Service (ACS).

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode124.mp3

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/container-service-intro/

Create an SSH public/private key - https://ranjanajain.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/using-azure-container-service-acs-on-azure/

Other updates:

IoT Hub throttling and you
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/iot-hub-throttling-and-you/

Azure Media Services announces collaboration with THEOplayer
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-media-services-announces-new-collaboration-with-theoplayer/

Customize developer portal pages using Azure API Management templates
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/customize-your-developer-portal-pages-with-azure-api-management-templates/

Announcing face and emotion detection for Azure Media Analytics
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/face-and-emotion-detection/

JSON functionalities in Azure SQL Database (public preview)
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/json-functionalities-in-azure-sql-database-public-preview/

Optimizing document search using Machine Learning and Text Analytics
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/optimizing-document-search-using-machine-learning-text-analytics/

The guys talk about VM Scale Sets - a neat new feature that let you scale up/down/autoscale your Windows and Linux VMs.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-vm-scale-sets-public-preview/

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode123.mp3

Charlotte Azure Bootcamp - 4/16
http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-Microsoft-Cloud/events/229276524/

Other updates:

DocumentDB: Everything you need to know about using the new pricing options
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/documentdb-use-the-new-pricing-options-on-your-existing-collections/

Tableau Server in the Azure Marketplace
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/tableau-server-in-the-azure-marketplace/

Bot Framework made better with Azure
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/bot-framework-made-better-with-azure/

Blockchain: the catalyst for a collaborative economy
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/blockchain-the-catalyst-for-a-collaborative-economy/

New Entry point for blockchain info!
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/blockchain/

We talk to Prashant Nayak about the Microsoft Premier Architecture Services program which gives customers that have never ventured to the cloud a quick 5-day workshop to get them started on their Azure journey. He discusses common blockers to adopting the cloud and how customers can prepare themselves to make the (eventual) move. Customers should talk to their TAMs about this cost-effective offering.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode122.mp3

Other resources and updates:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/privatecloud/2016/02/26/tool-arm-template-checker-for-microsoft-azure-stack/

http://www.nvidia.com/object/deep-learning-system.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/tesla-p100.html

http://www.cntk.ai/

Cale is at Build 2016 in San Francisco and we discuss all the latest Azure related announcements.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode121.mp3

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-functions/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-service-fabric-is-ga/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-virtual-machine-scale-sets/

WARNING - GEEK episode! Cale takes us into the futuristic world of Blockchains and explains the technology to us mere mortals. We also explore what this means to host this technology on Azure.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode120.mp3

Resources:

https://ethereum.github.io/solidity/
https://www.ethernodes.org/network/1
https://bitnodes.21.co/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/partners/consensys/blockapps-strato/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/search/blog/?q=blockchain

Other resources and updates:

Microservices: An application revolution powered by the cloud
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microservices-an-application-revolution-powered-by-the-cloud/

Developer's introduction to Azure IoT
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/developer-s-introduction-to-azure-iot/

Application Packages and Task Dependencies now available on Azure Batch
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/application-packages-and-task-dependencies-now-available-on-azure-batch/

Full text search of audio and video files
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/full-text-search-of-audio-and-video-files/

Transitioning to the Resource Manager model
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/transitioning-to-the-resource-manager-model/

Cale and Sujit have a great chat with Azure Principal PM Arindam Chatterjee on the topic of Data Lake. Arindam demystifies the service for us and gives us some use-cases and scenarios where it makes sense to use it as opposed to other big data offerings from Azure.

Arindam Chatterjee is a Principal Program Manager in the Microsoft Azure Big Data team.  He comes to big data after extensive experience in Transaction Processing, Authentication & Authorization technologies in Windows Core OS, and designing the Microsoft Dynamics security model. Arindam and his team are now focused on building a scalable analytic workload service that your big data jobs can run on as efficiently and reliably as possible across thousands of machines. In addition, he is also responsible for making Azure Data Lake services ready for adoption by Enterprises by building the appropriate Security & Compliance features.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode119.mp3

Azure Data Lake links:

Azure Data Lake in 100 seconds (Video)

Azure Data Lake landing page is here.

Twitter: @azuredatalake & @azure

Other updates:

Azure DevTest Lab is a service that helps developers and testers quickly create environments in Azure while minimizing waste and controlling cost. You can test the latest version of your application by quickly provisioning Windows and Linux environments using reusable templates and artifacts. Easily integrate your deployment pipeline with DevTest Lab to provision on-demand environments. Scale up your load testing by provisioning multiple test agents, and create pre-provisioned environments for training and demos.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/devtest-lab-overview/>

Today we are announcing the Docker Volume Plugin for Azure File Storage. Leveraging the SMB 3.0 protocol support capabilities of Azure File Storage on Linux. This open source Docker volume plugin allows Docker containers to have data volumes stored outside the Virtual Machine and therefore makes it easy to migrate stateful containers between hosts.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/persistent-docker-volumes-with-azure-file-storage/>

Charles Joy from the Azure Stack team, joins us again for an update on the technical preview release of the product. He shares feedback received from customers and tips and tricks for getting ready for and testing Azure Stack.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode118.mp3

Azure Stack resources recommended by Charles:

http://aka.ms/AzureStackakaGuide
https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/TechNet+Radio/TNR1635
https://channel9.msdn.com/events/TechNetVirtualConference/TechNetVC2016/Day-3-Azure-Stack-QA-with-Matt--Charles-and-Closing-Remarks
https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Mechanics/An-early-look-at-Azure-Stack-and-what-it-means-for-IT-with-Jeffrey-Snover

Other updates and resources:

http://buildazure.com/2016/02/10/free-ebook-building-cloud-apps-with-microsoft-azure-devops-availability-storage-more

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-app-service-supports-v2-virtual-networks/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/app-service-advisor-recommendations/

Announcing SQL Server on Linux
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/07/announcing-sql-server-on-linux/

Transitioning Mobile Apps from Application Insights to HockeyApp
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/transitioning-mobile-apps-from-application-insights-to-hockeyapp/

Using the Azure WebJobs SDK to create custom Slack integrations
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/using-the-azure-webjobs-sdk-to-create-custom-slack-extensions/

Migrating your CDN resources from the classic Azure portal to the new Azure portal
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/migrating-your-cdn-resources-from-the-classic-azure-portal-to-the-new-azure-portal/

Deploy Java Web Apps to Azure using Eclipse
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deploy-java-web-apps-to-azure-using-eclipse/

We have a nice technical chat with Brian Laws, a Cloud Architect with Summit 7 Systems, about how he migrated Sharepoint for a major customer to Azure.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode117.mp3

Introducing the CloudPro: http://summit7systems.com/introducing-the-cloudpro/

Performance Impact of Premium Storage on Microsoft Azure: http://summit7systems.com/the-performance-impact-of-premium-storage-in-microsoft-azure/

Other updates:

New hybrid offerings deliver bottomless capacity for today's data explosion
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-s-new-hybrid-offerings-deliver-bottomless-capacity-to-manage-today-s-data-explosion/

Azure Search introduces new lower cost tier in preview
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-search-introduces-new-lower-cost-tier-in-preview/

Announcing general availability of the StorSimple Virtual Array
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-general-availability-of-the-storsimple-virtual-array/

Anatomy of a breach: How hackers break in
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/anatomy-of-a-breach-how-hackers-break-in/

Microsoft first global CSP to receive the Cloud Security Mark (Gold) accreditation
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-first-global-csp-to-receive-the-cloud-security-mark-gold-accreditation/

Guidance for running Elasticsearch on Azure
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/elasticsearch-on-azure-guidance/

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection
http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/01/microsoft-announces-windows-defender-advanced-threat-protection-for-enterprise-customers/

We discuss the exciting world of Azure ML and Data Science with an expert in the field, Microsoft's Buck Woody.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode116.mp3

Buck's blog: https://buckwoody.wordpress.com/

Cortana Analytics: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/cortana-analytics-suite/overview.aspx

Other updates:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-automation-classic-portal-will-redirect-to-the-new-azure-portal-march-2016/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/preview-temporal-tables-in-azure-sql-database/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-hdinsight-tools-for-intellij/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/logic-apps-improved-designer-and-managed-apis/

http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/02/24/microsoft-to-acquire-xamarin-and-empower-more-developers-to-build-apps-on-any-device/

The guys have a great chat with Matt Usher, a Senior PM in the Azure team, on the Azure SQL Data Warehouse. Matt gives us the low-down on the  service and also provides some deep insights into the MPP technology used in the service. 

Azure SQL Data Warehouse Overview: http://aka.ms/sqldw
Create a new SQL Data Warehouse: http://aka.ms/newsqldw
Matt's Twitter: http://twitter.com/two_under

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode115.mp3

Other updates for the week:

New Storage Explorer http://storageexplorer.com - cross platform tool and actively maintained.

Announcing more open options and choice on Microsoft Azure
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/more-open-source-innovation-azure/

Build an Azure App Service to record Raspberry Pi Sensor Data
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/build-an-azure-app-service-to-record-raspberry-pi-sensor-data/

Guidance for enterprises looking to take their application portfolio to the cloud
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/guidance-for-enterprises-looking-to-take-their-application-portfolio-to-the-cloud/

Azure welcomes Parse developers
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-welcomes-parse-developers/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/ssl-connection-pricing-changes/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/swagger-support-for-azure-mobile-apps-net-server-sdk/