Jakub Jedryszek, a Software Engineer in the Azure Team, gives us the inside scoop about the Azure Mobile app currently available for iOS and Android and coming soon for Windows devices.

blog: jj09.net

twitter: @JakubJedryszek

User feedback: aka.ms/azuremobilefeedback

Under the hood of the Azure Mobile App: https://jj09.net/under-the-hood-of-the-azure-mobile-app/

Download iOS app: aka.ms/azureapp/ios

Download Android app: aka.ms/azureapp/droid

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode186.mp3

Other updates:

Announcing new set of Azure Services in the UK
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-new-set-of-azure-services-in-the-uk/

Enhanced app usage monitoring and investigative features in Azure Application Insights
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/enhanced-app-usage-monitoring-and-investigative-features-in-azure-application-insights/ 

The guys (yes Cale as well) talk to Joe Losinski who is a Microsoft Technical Account Manager that focusses on Azure customers. He gives us the inside scoop on this critical customer-facing role and how he works with customers to make their journey to Azure a successful one. Along the way he provides some great insights and advice on moving to the cloud.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode185.mp3

http://www.linkedin.com/in/JoeLosinski

Other updates:

Accounting Coalition Moves to Work with Regulators on Blockchain Innovation
http://www.coindesk.com/accounting-coalition-moves-to-work-with-regulators-on-blockchain-innovation/
Power to the User: Accenture & Microsoft Are Changing Identity with Ethereum
http://www.coindesk.com/power-to-the-user-accenture-and-microsoft-are-changing-identity-with-ethereum/
Petya ransomware prevention & detection in Azure Security Center
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/petya-ransomware-prevention-detection-in-azure-security-center/
Event Hubs Capture (formerly Archive) is now Generally Available
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/event-hubs-capture-formally-archive-is-now-generally-available/

Azure Site Recovery now supports Ubuntu
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/business-continuity-for-ubuntu-workloads-with-asr/

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/move-over-bitcoin-ether-is-the-rising-digital-currency/ar-BBCUjfq?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Azure SQL Data Warehouse now supports the IDENTITY property.
Azure SQL Database will be accessible only through the Azure portal from July 1, 2017.
Mssql-scripter is the multiplatform command-line equivalent of the widely used Generate Scripts Wizard experience in SQL Server Management Studio.

Evan and Sujit chat with Martin Howell, IT Director for the Eos Group, about how he is migrating his company's infrastructure to Azure. He gives us some eye-opening advice, checklists, things to watch for and tips.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode184.mp3

@martinehowell

http://www.eosgroup.com

Other updates:

Scheduled runbooks will use the latest modules in your automation account
Azure Automation currently uses the version of the modules in your automation for scheduled runbook jobs at the time the schedule was created. This behavior has caused confusion for customers because when they update their modules, they expect that all future scheduled jobs will use the latest version.
To address this feedback, Azure Automation will start using the latest modules in your automation account when a new scheduled job is run. You should test any runbooks that have linked schedules by starting them manually. This will validate that your scheduled runbooks continue to work correctly.
If you have not updated any modules since you created your schedules, this change won't affect you.

In Azure Traffic Manager, two new features related to endpoint health are now generally available: Fast Failover and TCP Probing.

Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE) is now supported for Azure Managed Disks. SSE provides encryption-at-rest and helps safeguard your data.

Evan, Russell and Sujit have a good discussion on all topics Data with CSAs Phil Harvey and Robin Lester from Microsoft UK.

@CodeBeard

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/robinlester/

Media File: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode183.mp3

Transcribed and Indexed https://www.videoindexer.ai/media/a17d83e363/

Other updates:

Update: In-Memory OLTP in Azure SQL Database Premium
Monday, June 5, 2017
Starting today, you can take advantage of the following improvements to In-Memory OLTP technology in Azure SQL Database Premium:
 • You can create more than eight indexes on memory-optimized tables.
 • You can use sp_rename for renaming memory-optimized objects.
 • We have eliminated the limit on the number of commit dependencies. You will no longer receive the corresponding error message.
 • You can use the CASE expression, the CROSS APPLY operator, and all JSON functions in natively compiled T-SQL modules.
 • You can create computed columns in memory-optimized tables.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/in-memory-oltp-update-q1-2017/?v=17.23h>

Microsoft joins Cloud Foundry Foundation
However, we aren’t done. Far, far from it. Today, at the Cloud Foundry Summit in Santa Clara, I am honored to join Abby Kearns, executive director of the Cloud Foundry Foundation on stage to announce that we have joined the Cloud Foundry Foundation as a Gold Member. Cloud Foundry on Azure has seen a lot of customer success, enabling cloud migration with application modernization while still offering an open, portable and hybrid platform. The partnership with the Cloud Foundry Foundation extends our commitment to deeply collaborate and innovate in the open community. We remain committed to create a diverse and open technology ecosystem, to offer you the freedom to deploy the application solution you want on the cloud platform you prefer.
In addition to joining the Cloud Foundry Foundation, we are also extending Cloud Foundry integration with Azure. This includes back-end integration with Azure Database (PostgreSQL and MySQL) and cloud broker support for SQL Database, Service Bus, and Cosmos DB. We even included the Cloud Foundry CLI in the tools available in the Cloud Shell for easy CF management in seconds. Here are some additional details on the integration offered between Azure and Cloud Foundry.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/microsoft-joins-cloud-foundry-foundation/>

POWER BI PREMIUM Now generally available (not azure)
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-premium-generally-available/

Russell and Sujit have a great chat with Daniel Baker (a.k.a. @AzureDan), a Partner Development and Learning Specialist at Microsoft, about the resources available to ramp up and get certified on Azure.

Cloud and Proud
www.cloudandproud.info

Tuesdays with Corey
https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Tuesdays-With-Corey

Azure Fridays
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/videos/azure-friday/

All of the following links are under https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/community/training/ along with the Pluralsight videos.

Azure Skills Initiative
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=847447&clcid=0x409

Learn about Azure Certification
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/browse-all-certifications.aspx?technology=Microsoft%20Azure

Explore Certification Offers
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/skills/

Learning Partners
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/azure-learning-partner-offers.aspx

Microsoft IT Pro Career Center
https://www.itprocareercenter.com/

Microsoft IT Pro Cloud Essentials
https://www.itprocloudessentials.com/

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode182.mp3

Other updates:

New language support for Azure Media Indexer v2
Russian, British English, and Mexican Spanish support in Azure Media Indexer v2

HDInsight tools for IntelliJ May updates
The primary focus for our May updates is to make the Spark development work easier for you in IntelliJ! In this release, your spark remote debugging experience is significantly improved. Scala SDKs…

Diagnose sudden changes in your app behavior with a click!
Spikes or steps in the telemetry of your app can now be easily diagnosed. When you use Application Insights Analytics to explore app metrics over time, sudden changes, such as spikes or dips, are highlighted. With one click, Smart Diagnostics will find a pattern (a series of data with common values) that correlates with the change, and explain the reason behind it.

Azure Security Center adds Context Alerts to aid threat investigation
In two recent articles Greg Cottingham and Jessen Kurien described investigation processes triggered by a security alert. If you haven't already done so, please read “How Azure Security Center helps…

V2 VPN Gateway SKUs available
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-about-vpngateways#a-namegwskuagateway-skus

Azure SQL Data Sync Refresh
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-get-started-sql-data-sync

Higher database eDTU limits for Standard elastic pools in Azure SQL Database

Spark Connector for #CosmosDB - seamless interaction with globally-distributed, multi-model data

Good technical chat with Azure PM Arturo Lucatero about Azure Active Directory Domain Services.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode181.mp3

Experimental Cognitive Indexed file: https://www.videoindexer.ai/media/664d29ee13/

Other Updates:

Storage accounts available only in the Azure portal from May 15
 
portal Effective May 15, 2017, storage accounts will be available only in the Azure. Access from the classic portal to storage accounts will no longer be supported. Azure resources that are in classic portal and that depend on storage accounts will continue to be accessible from the classic portal.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-batch-updates-may-2017/

We continue to add new capabilities to our lightweight R package, doAzureParallel, built on top of  Azure Batch that allows you to easily use Azure's flexible compute resource right from your R session. Combined with the recently announcedlow-priority VMs on Azure Batch, you can now run your parallel R jobs at a fraction of the price. We also included other commonly requested capabilities to enable you to do more, and to do it more easily, with doAzureParallel.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/run-massive-r-jobs-in-azure-directly-from-r-studio-at-a-fraction-of-the-price/>

I am excited to announce the public preview of disaster recovery for Azure IaaS virtual machines (VMs) using Azure Site Recovery (ASR). You can now easily replicate and protect IaaS based applications running on Azure to a different Azure region of your choice without deploying any additional infrastructure components or software appliances in your subscription. This new capability, along with Azure Backup for IaaS virtual machines, allows you to create a comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategy for all your IaaS based applications running on Azure.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-disaster-recovery-for-azure-iaas-vms-using-asr/>

One of the key endeavors of the cloud-first approach of Azure Backup is to empower enterprises to recover from security attacks, corruptions, disasters, or data loss situations quickly, securely, and reliably.  Restoring servers efficiently in the wake of evolving IT threats involves going beyond recovering data alone from backups. Our customers have expressed varying degrees of complexity in how their operating systems and applications are configured. Restoring this dynamic configuration captured in the form of the Windows Server System State, in addition to data, with minimum infrastructure, forms a critical component of disaster recovery.
Today we are extending the data backup capabilities of the Azure Backup agent to enable customers to perform comprehensive, secure, and reliable Windows Server recoveries. We are excited to preview the support for backing up Windows Server System State directly to Azure with Azure Backup.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/windows-server-system-state-backup-azure/>

Announcing the preview of Azure’s Largest Disk sizes
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
At Build Conference, we announced the addition of new Azure Disks sizes – which provide up to 4TB of disk space. These new sizes allow you to perform up to 250 MBps of storage throughput and 7,500 IOPS. The details of the announcement are captured in the build session here.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/>

Earlier this month at BUILD 2017, we announced the public preview of Video Indexer as part of Microsoft Cognitive Services. Video Indexer enables customers with digital and audio content to automatically extract metadata and use it to build intelligent innovative applications. You can quickly sign up for Video Indexer from https://vi.microsoft.com/ and try the service out for free during our preview period.
On top of using the portal, developers can easily build custom apps using the Video Indexer API. In this blog, I will walk you through an example of using the Video Indexer API to do a search on a keyword, phrase, or detected person’s name across all videos in your account as well as sample videos and then to get the deep insights from one of the videos in the search results.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/gettingstartedwiththevideoindexerapi/>

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/video-indexer/

Azure BizTalk Services: Simplifying our Azure offerings

To simplify the customer experience across our enterprise integration services, we have incorporated the Azure BizTalk Services capabilities into Logic Apps and Azure App Service Hybrid Connections. Effective May 31, 2017, Microsoft has removed Azure BizTalk Services as an option for new subscribers.
For existing customer subscriptions, BizTalk Services will be retired on May 31, 2018. All existing subscriptions should transition to Logic Apps and App Service Hybrid Connections before this date. To get started, please follow the guidance in the documentation. If you have questions or need help, contact logicappsemail@microsoft.com.
Note that BizTalk Services Hybrid Connections is in preview status, and these capabilities are generally available as part of Azure App Service Hybrid Connections. Customers who are using these capabilities should transition to Azure App Service Hybrid Connections to access GA functionality. 
This consolidation is not changing the BizTalk Server product.

HPC/Batch experts Felipe Ayora and Martijn de Vries talk to us about hosting CPU-intensive apps on-premises bursting to Azure.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode180.mp3

Experimental cognitive analysis of the podcast (allows you search it for keywords/content): https://www.videoindexer.ai/media/31d16ff57c/

 - Main HPC site for all HPC solutions: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/high-performance-computing/
- Azure Batch: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/batch/
- Blog post about the 100K cores job with Willis towers Watson: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/what-would-you-do-with-100000-cores-big-compute-at-global-scale/
- Recent announcements:
  - Low-priority VMs through Batch at a fraction of the price: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-public-preview-of-azure-batch-low-priority-vms/
  - Azure Batch Rendering preview: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/massive-scale-cloud-rendering-with-autodesk-on-azure/
  - New Pascal GPUs coming to Azure: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/more-gpus-more-power-more-intelligence/

http://www.brightcomputing.com/whats-new-in-8.0

Twitter: @brightcomputing

Other updates: 

New 400GB and 200GB caches available on Azure Analysis Services

In April we announced the general availability of Azure Analysis Services, which evolved from the proven analytics engine in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. The success of any modern data-…

Sneak Peek - PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell

At BUILD 2017, we announced the public availability of Azure Cloud Shell, which supports the Bash shell in a Linux environment. We are working to add PowerShell support to the Azure Cloud Shell. Our goal is to give you the choice to use the shell that you are most comfortable with to get your work done. To sign-up for a limited preview of PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell, please fill out this sign-up form.

Azure enables cutting edge Virtual Apps, Desktops and Workstations with NVIDIA GRID

Professional graphics users in every industry count on an immersive, photorealistic, responsive environment to imagine, design, and build everything from airplanes to animated films.

Azure Analysis Services new modeling and tooling features

Following the announcement barely a couple of weeks ago that 1400 models are now in Azure Analysis Services, we haven’t stopped there! We are pleased to announce the following further features for 1400 models in Azure.

Use SaaS patterns to accelerate SaaS app development on SQL Database

Announcing availability of a sample SaaS application, management scripts and tutorials that implement a series of SaaS-focused design and management patterns that can used to accelerate SaaS application development on SQL Database.

Price reductions on General Purpose Virtual Machines

We believe in providing the most innovative cloud offering, yet have a longstanding commitment to match AWS on price drops. Today, we are lowering prices on previously launched Dv2 Promo Virtual…

New smaller Windows Server IaaS Image

We continue to find ways to make Azure a better value for our customers. Azure Managed Disks, a new disk service launched in Feb '17, simplifies the management and scaling of Virtual Machines (VM). You can choose to create an empty Managed Disk, or create a Managed Disk from a VHD in a storage account, or from an Image as part of VM creation

Azure IoT Suite adds physical IoT device/gateway tutorials

There are many facets to an IoT Solution - device code, cloud solution code, and application code - all working together to realize a business goal. Azure IoT Suite is designed to get you started quickly and realize business value from IoT.

The Microsoft vision for accelerating enterprise blockchain development

Next week, Microsoft is headed to Consensus 2017 in New York City to meet with blockchain developers and share new additions to our Microsoft Azure Blockchain portfolio. We’re thrilled to sponsor and participate in a forum that brings together businesses, partners, and communities who are passionate about taking blockchain to enterprise.

Announcing support for additional Blockchain Protocols on Azure

As we approach Consensus 2017, it is with great pleasure that we announce support for complex blockchain network deployments for many more blockchain and distributed ledger protocols on Azure, including HyperLedger Fabric, R3 Corda, Quorum, Chain Core, and BlockApps, to further our goal and meet customers where they are. 

Azure introduces a new blockchain proof of concept framework for developers

This blog post was authored by Marc Mercuri, Director, Microsoft Digital. Microsoft is laser-focused on enabling and accelerating enterprise adoption of blockchain technologies. Our blockchain offerings are well known for providing the ability to rapidly and consistently deploy blockchain infrastructure.

Evan and Russell talk to Giles Davies, an Azure specialist from the UK, about the Dev/Test Labs service.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode179.mp3

 Resources:

1. Azure DevTest Labs link: http://aka.ms/dtl
2. Azure DevTest Labs Service Updates feed: http://aka.ms/DtlUpdates
3. Video summary: https://channel9.msdn.com/events/Build/2017/P4071

Other updates:

WannaCrypt attacks: guidance for Azure customers
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/wannacrypt-attacks-guidance-for-azure-customers/

Application Insights support for Microservices and Containers
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/app-insights-microservices/

New Azure Quickstart template - Cloudera CDH and Tableau Server by Slalom
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-integrated-cloudera-cdh-with-tableau-server-solution-on-azure/

Migrating to Azure Data Sync 2.0
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/migrating-to-azure-data-sync-2-0/

All the latest Azure updates from Build 2017 (just day 1!).

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode178.mp3

Meghan Liese from HashiCorp tells us about their Azure-related offerings and services and provides her perspective on cloud development in a hybrid environment.

About HashiCorp and the suite: https://www.hashicorp.com/  

Open Source Tools:
Vagrant: https://www.vagrantup.com/
Packer: https://www.packer.io/intro/
Terraform: https://www.terraform.io/
Vault: https://www.vaultproject.io/
Nomad: https://www.nomadproject.io/
Consul: https://www.consul.io/

Applying Graph Theory to Infrastructure as Code (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce3RNfRbdZ0

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode177.mp3

Other resources:

Newly created Azure SQL DBs will be encrypted at rest by default

Announcing Azure Time Series Insights
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-azure-time-series-insights/

New Power BI content pack for Azure Enterprise users
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/new-power-bi-content-pack-for-azure-enterprise-users/

Azure IoT Gateway SDK packages now available
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-iot-gateway-sdk-packages/