The team catches up with Priyanka Khare to learn about recent advancements in Azure Advisor and how customers can use Advisor to help ensure their workloads are more stable.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode493.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y9LVYhSiGgE

Resources:

Azure Advisor: Advisor - Microsoft Azure

Advisor Workbooks: Advisor Workbooks

Advisor WAF Assessments: Advisor WAF Assessments

Advisor Recommendations: Advisor Recommendations

Advisor Manage Reviews: Advisor Manage Reviews

What's new on Azure Advisor: What's new in Azure Advisor - Azure Advisor | Microsoft Learn

Engage with Microsoft for a Resiliency Review: Azure Advisor resiliency reviews - Azure Advisor | Microsoft Learn

Evan and Sujit catch up on a number of recent news items in the Azure space spanning Networking, Open AI and IBM Mainframes???

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode492.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/WslylOKwXDM

Resources:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/apps-on-azure-blog/announcing-app-service-multi-plan-subnet-join/ba-p/3971493

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-of-azure-logic-apps-connectors-for-ibm-mainframe-and-midranges/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-of-azure-openai-and-ai-search-inapp-connectors-for-logic-apps-standard/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/alt-fairfax/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-backup-vm-disk-access-public-preview/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/write-to-delta-lake

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-high-performance-computing-leads-to-developing-amazing-products-at-microsoft-surface/

General availability: Azure Virtual Network encryption availability in all regions | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Azure Data Box Disk is now available with hardware encryption | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

General availability: HBv4-series & HX-series VMs are now available in Sweden Central. | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/expressroutemetro/

Public Preview – DR for Shared Disks – Azure Site Recovery | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Using Azure OpenAI speech to create our intro/exit segments in the podcast https://speech.microsoft.com/portal

The team talks with Amit Bajaj about the new Retirement Workbook customers can use to keep track of services they are using that are being retired.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode491.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z83s9lhOUTg

Resources:

Prepare migration of your workloads impacted by service retirements. - Azure Advisor | Microsoft Learn

Azure Service Retirement Workbook (microsoft.com) 

Visualize Azure Service Retirements (microsoft.com) 

3-Year Notification Subset - Microsoft Lifecycle | Microsoft Learn

Other updates:

Public preview: Public IP Domain Name Label Scope | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Public preview: Database watcher for Azure SQL | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Public Preview: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on VMware | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

In this episode, we delve into a cornerstone service within Azure that is sometimes underestimated or missed in design discussions: the Azure Storage service. Our guest, Ben Hummerstone, a seasoned Cloud Solution Architect based in the UK, brings his expertise in storage and other infrastructure services to the forefront. Ben shares a valuable set of guiding principles to assist you in crafting the optimal storage architecture for your application.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode489.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/XIKxPRI1G-Y

Resources:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-government/azure-secure-isolation-guidance#high-level-azure-storage-architecture

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-redundancy

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/scalability-targets

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/access-tiers-overview

Other updates:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-azure-functions-support-for-http-streams-in-nodejs/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-kubernetes-129-support-in-aks/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/cloud-services-classic-retirement-announcement-feb2024/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-azure-netapp-files-volume-enhancement-allow-the-same-file-path-for-volumes-in-different-availability-zones/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-os-sku-inplace-migration-for-linux-nodes/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/ga-istiobased-service-mesh-addon-for-azure-kubernetes-service/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-disable-network-policy-for-migration-in-aks/ 

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/generally-available-capacity-reservations-support-in-aks/

Fabian Gonzalez and Azure escalation engineer and Jack Lichwa, a PM in the Azure Key Vault team, revisit the Key Vault service which forms the backbone of any deployment. They remind us of the features that Key Vault offers and give us valuable tips and tricks to configure and deploy them effectively in your workloads.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode487.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Pd5seEyqTzI

Other updates:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-aks-cluster-control-plane-metrics-in-managed-prometheus/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-improvements-in-azure-key-vault/

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-developer-community-blog/accelerate-developer-onboarding-with-the-configuration-as-code/ba-p/4062416

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/generally-available-azure-blob-storage-cold-tier-support-on-change-feed-and-object-replication/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-customer-managed-key-encryption-for-enterprise-tier-caches/

Technical Program Manager in the Azure Commerce team, Obinna Nwokolo explains exactly what the new Azure Savings Plan is all about and how you can easily take advantage of it via the Portal experience. He digs into the various options for cutting costs in Azure and when the Savings Plan makes sense for you.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode486.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Qwt728PUz0U

Resources:

• SP product page - Azure Savings Plan for Compute | Microsoft Azure
• SP Recommendations 101 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HV9GT9kX6A&list=PLlrxD0HtieHjd-zn7u09YoGJY18ZrN1Hq&index=2&t=15s&pp=iAQB
• SP Benefit application 101 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZOyh1rl3kU&list=PLlrxD0HtieHjd-zn7u09YoGJY18ZrN1Hq&index=3&t=2s&pp=iAQB

Other updates:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/generalavailabilityofazuremonitormetricsdataplaneapi/

Santosh Somayajula, a Principal Product Manager in Azure, breaks down the new Copilot for Azure service which is currently in Private Preview in the Azure Portal. Using this feature, administrators and management can perform operations in the Portal using simple verbal commands instead of navigating the UI.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode485.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Gqv-qOOoK28

Resources: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/copilot/overview

 https://aka.ms/MSCopilotforAzurePreviewRequest

Other updates:

General Availability: Azure Virtual Network encryption | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Public preview: ExpressRoute guided portal experience for multi-site resiliency | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

General Availability: Azure MySQL Import feature for Azure Database for MySQL Single to Flexible Server migrations | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure 

Public Preview: Circuit Breaker in Azure API Management | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure  

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-azure-topology/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/mount-azure-storage-as-a-local-share-in-app-service-linux-now-supports-nfs/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/generally-available-continuous-model-monitoring-in-azure-machine-learning/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-azure-api-center-features/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-new-major-version-of-durable-functions-extension/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/generally-available-outbound-type-migration-in-aks/

Sean Klein joins Evan, Sujit, and Cale to talk about the Production LiveSite Review (PLR) process used by Azure Engineering for modern incident analysis and learnings.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode484.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/EsRrxguRn2Y

Resources:

How Complex Systems Fail

Etsy Engineering | Blameless PostMortems and a Just Culture

Other updates:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-testing/quickstart-create-and-run-load-test

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-testing/how-to-parameterize-load-tests#secrets

Azure Cloud Solution Architects Elena Krasteva and Sabine Blair help us understand what the Azure VMWare Solution is all about and how the Landing Zone Accelerator helps make it easier for customers looking to migrate VMWare workloads to Azure.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode483.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Onj876JxOaw

Resources:

1) Product page: https://aka.ms/avs 

2) LinkedIn: (20) Azure VMware Solution Pros | Groups | LinkedIn

3) Well Architected Workload Guidance: https://aka.ms/avswafdocs 

4) Landing Zone Accelerator: https://aka.ms/avsaccelerator

4) TechCommunity Blog: Azure Migration and Modernization Blog - Microsoft Community Hub

5) Learn Modules: Run VMware resources on Azure VMware Solution - Training | Microsoft Learn

6) Discovery Assessment: Azure VMware Solution assessment calculations in Azure Migrate - Azure Migrate | Microsoft Learn

Other updates:

Microsoft puts Azure Quantum Elements to work

https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/09/microsoft-puts-azure-quantum-elements-to-work/

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/apps-on-azure-blog/azure-spring-apps-enterprise-is-now-eligible-for-azure-savings/ba-p/4021532

Cale, Evan and Sujit discuss the often-overlooked Network Watcher service in Azure and how it can be used for monitoring, troubleshooting and logging of network operations in your VNETs.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode482.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/CYLtFrbXGck

Resources:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/network-watcher/network-watcher-overview

Other updates:

Application Insights Availability Tests TLS 1.3 Enablement | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Standard and High-Performance VPN Gateway SKUs will be retired on 30 September 2025 | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Generally Available: Azure Chaos Studio supports new faults for Service Bus | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Store and manage medical imaging data with Azure Data Lake Storage (Preview) | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-free-sql-managed-instance/