The dynamic Sean McKenna, Lead PM for AKS, gives us all the details about the service and why and when you should use it for your cloud compute needs. Russell and Kendall get together with him @ Microsoft Ready for a great show.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode266.mp3

 Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/44d9b32072/

Other updates:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-disaster-recovery-guidance

Disaster recovery and storage account failover (preview) in Azure Storage

From <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-disaster-recovery-guidance>

Azure Cost Management for pay-as-you-go customers is now available in preview. Azure Cost Management brings the functionality of Cloudyn right into the Azure Portal so you can get visibility into your Azure spend through easy to use dashboards, create budgets, and optimize your spend so you get more value out of Azure.

Migrate from on-premises or cloud implementations of MongoDB to Azure Cosmos DB with minimal downtime by using the Azure Database Migration Service. Perform resilient migrations of MongoDB data at scale and with high reliability using Azure Database Migration Service. Provision an instance of Azure Database Migration Service from the Azure portal or via Azure CLI and create a migration project to perform the migration. 

SQL Server Migration Assistant support for Azure SQL Database Managed Instance is now generally available
Take advantage of generally available functionality in SQL Server Migration Assistant version 8.0 to migrate from Oracle, MySQL, DB2, and SAP ASE (Sybase) to the Azure SQL Database Managed Instance platform. The latest version of SQL Server Migration Assistant enables users to perform an assessment, convert the schema, and move data to the fully managed database service in the cloud

Update 19.02 for Azure Sphere public preview now available

New features around support for more broader enablement of device capabilities; more connectivity options, more space for applications, and some samples in the github repo on how to use bluetooth, IoT, private networking, etc.

Actuating mobility in the enterprise with new Azure Maps services and SDKs

Some services moving to GA from Public preview - Improved map canvas, and some enhanced spatial operations services for helping with analytics solutions.  New Android and Web SDK launched for developers.  Due to partnership with TomTom updates to maps will become quicker as well, as they move their map-making compute workloads to Azure as well.

Individually great, collectively unmatched: Announcing updates to 3 great Azure Data Services

Cynthia and Evan talk to Jamie Cool, Director of Program Management at Microsoft, who gives us all the details and potential use-cases for the Azure DevOps Server in your organization.

,

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode265.mp3

Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/c9d39b86a3/

https://azure.com/devops

Other updates:

Availability Zones (AZ) is a high availability offering from Azure that protects applications and data from datacenter failures. By using AZ with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), customers will get higher reliability and resiliency for their applications running on Kubernetes. 

Node auto-repair monitors nodes in a cluster and initiates a repair process if a node fails to meet health criteria. This ensures that the nodes in a cluster are always in a healthy, running state

It is often useful to have different VM sizes and configurations within a single cluster to support a wide variety of workloads, including those that require specialized hardware like GPUs. With the support of multiple node pools, you can deploy applications to different types of VMs within a single cluster, from a single control plane, improving resource management and utilization.  You can also create, upgrade, and delete node pools individually without affecting the whole cluster.

Stay up to date with the latest and greatest of Kubernetes and get patching and security updates automatically.  Cluster auto-upgrade simplifies the task of keeping your Kubernetes service up to date by eliminating the need to do this manually, and ensures a higher level of security by automatically deploying important security fixes on a timely basis.

User-defined network policy enables secure network segmentation within Kubernetes.  It allows cluster operators to control which pods can communicate with each other and with resources outside the cluster. You can implement your network policy in AKS clusters either through Azure policy plugin or through the popular open source project, Calico.

With audit logging in AKS, customers can keep a chronological record of calls that have been made to the Kubernetes API server, a.k.a. control plane. Using these logs with tools like Log Analytics, customers can investigate suspicious API requests, collect statistics, and create monitoring alerts for unwanted API calls.   

Authorized IP ranges allows organization to restrict access to their Kubernetes control plane running in AKS to specific IP addresses or IP ranges. By restricting access to only trusted network locations, you can further protect your AKS cluster.  

Azure Monitor for containers support for AKS-engine is now available in public preview. Customers can now monitor both Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and AKS-engine by using Azure Monitor for containers.

NuGet, npm, and other Artifacts tasks support proxies - Sprint 147 Update
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/nuget-npm-and-other-artifacts-tasks-support-proxies-sprint-147-update/

The team talks to Kip Kniskern, managing editor of OnMSFT.com about his impressions of Azure after he finished migrating OnMSFT.com to Azure.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode264.mp3

Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/624dbce40b/

https://www.onmsft.com/
https://www.onmsft.com/news/onmsft-on-azure-first-impressions-on-our-move-to-microsofts-cloud

Other updates:

Migrate Amazon RDS for SQL Server to Azure SQL Database with minimal downtime by using generally available functionality in the Azure Database Migration Service. To learn more about how to use the Azure  Database Migration Service to perform online migrations from Amazon RDS for SQL Server to Azure SQL Database with minimal downtime, read the tutorial Migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL Database online using  Database Migration Service.

Availability Zones support is now generally available for Azure Service Bus premium and Azure Event Hubs standard in every Azure region that has zone redundant datacenters. Note that this feature won’t work with existing namespaces—you will need to provision new namespaces to use this feature.

Azure HDInsight Tools for VSCode
The Azure HDInsight Tools for VSCode are now generally available. They provide you with best-in-class authoring experiences for Apache Hive batch jobs, interactive Hive queries, and PySpark jobs. HDInsight Tools for VSCode feature a cross-platform, lightweight, keyboard-focused code editor which removes constraints and dependencies on a platform. It can be run smoothly on Windows, Linux and Mac.
Learn more in our documentation and blog.
 
Spark diagnosis and debugging toolkit
 A number of enhancements have been added to the rich development and debugging capabilities of HDInsight for Spark developers, including:
· Job graph with playback and heatmap identifying read/write bottlenecks.
· Executor usage analysis showing executors’ utilization and job execution efficiency.
· Data skew detection and analysis.
· Job specific data management including data preview, download, and copy.

Azure Guest OS Family 6, based on Windows Server 2019, is now generally available. Windows Server 2019 is the operating system that bridges on-premises environments with Azure, adding layers of security while helping you modernize your applications and infrastructure.

DNS Flag Day is February 1, 2019. On this day, DNS providers will stop supporting certain workarounds that enable name resolution for domains hosted on DNS servers that don't fully conform to EDNS standards. For more information, visit dnsflagday.net. You can test domains for compliance by using tools on that page. 
At this time, DNS services across Microsoft are testing as "All ok" or "Minor problems detected" on dnsflagday.net. Domains that test as "Minor problems detected" will not be affected on DNS Flag Day. Azure DNS and Azure Traffic Manager fixes are currently being rolled out to resolve these minor issues. Fixes for microsoft.com, xbox.com, and other domains are in progress. Some of these fixes will not be fully deployed until after DNS Flag Day. This is not expected to cause any impact to our customers or services.

Hyperledger Fabric updates now available
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/hyperledger-fabric-updates-now-available/

Microsoft Azure Cloud Features Waves’ Smart Assets and Smart Accounts
https://blog.wavesplatform.com/microsoft-azure-cloud-features-waves-smart-assets-and-smart-accounts-1a71b3c23c2b

Azure Security Center can detect emerging vulnerabilities in Linux
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-security-center-can-detect-emerging-vulnerabilities-in-linux/

Azure Marketplace new offers – Volume 30
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-marketplace-new-offers-volume-30/

Liz Rice, Technical Evangelist at Aqua Security and master of all things Security in Kubernetes, talks to us about her philosophy on security and gives us the some great tips-n-tricks on how to secure your container workloads in Azure, on-prem or any cloud. 

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode263.mp3

Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/6283960fb7/

@lizrice
@aquasecteam
Aqua web site: https://aquasec.com
Aqua in the Azure marketplace: https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en/marketplace/apps/aqua-security.aqua-security?tab=Overview

kube-hunter - open source pen testing tool for Kubernetes https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-hunter
microscanner - free vulnerability scanning for container images. It's the same package vulnerability scanner as in the commercial product, but you can use it for free, running security scanning as part of your container image build process. https://github.com/aquasecurity/microscanner
Co-author with Michael Hausenblas of O'Reilly Kubernetes Security book https://kubernetes-security.info/

Other updates:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/expressroute/expressroute-troubleshooting-network-performance

Azure SQL DB metrics infrastructure improvements
Azure SQL Database is upgrading the infrastructure for monitoring and alerts. This upgrade will improve stability and lay the foundation for enabling next-generation alerts. The upgrade will take place from January 22, 2019 to January 28, 2019.  
 
How will this affect me?  
 
During this upgrade, there will be no change to metric data and charts available in the Azure portal. However, customers who are using the Azure Monitor REST API will no longer be able to query for metric data written before December 21, 2018.  
 
What do I need to do?  
 
If you need metric data before December 21, 2018, please make a copy of the data before January 21, 2019. Moving forward, metric history will be built up to 93 days and maintained as such.  
 
For guidance on saving metric data to a data store, see the Azure Monitor REST API walkthrough and Microsoft Azure Monitor REST API reference. 
 
For any questions or concerns, please contact support. 

Public preview: Read replicas in Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Posted on Monday, January 21, 2019
You can now replicate data from a single Azure Database for PostgreSQL server (master) to up to five read-only servers (read replicas) within the same Azure region. This feature uses PostgreSQL's native asynchronous replication.

Connecting Node-RED to Azure IoT Central
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/connecting-node-red-to-azure-iot-central/

Azure Backup now supports PowerShell and ACLs for Azure Files
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-backup-now-supports-powershell-and-acls-for-azure-files/

We are fortunate to have John Kozell, a Principal Consultant at Microsoft and an expert in all things Cosmos DB, specially when it comes to the Enterprise world. He gives us some unique perspectives on what Enterprises should do in order to make effective use of Cosmos DB to and also meet their compliance and operational goals.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode262.mp3

Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/467ae71b3c/

• 5-Minute Quickstarts: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/
• Global distribution: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/distribute-data-globally
• Backup & Restore/Compliance: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/online-backup-and-restore
• Monitoring: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/use-metrics
• Performance Tips: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/performance-tips

Other updates:

Microsoft announces partnership with Citrix to support Windows Virtual Desktop

Questions on data residency and compliance in Microsoft Azure? We got answers!
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/questions-on-data-residency-and-compliance-in-azure-we-got-answers/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/release-notes/2019/sprint-146-update?branch=releasenotes%2Fsprints145-146#features
Azure Boards:
 · Simplify the organization of your work using the Basic process
Azure Pipelines:
 · GitHub Enterprise support in the pipeline wizard
 · Automatic GitHub service connections in pipelines
 · Display status for each pipeline job in GitHub Checks
 · Default authorization for YAML resources in GitHub
 · Service containers for YAML pipelines
 · Work items linked to GitHub commits in Release Summary
 · New Azure App service tasks optimized for YAML
 · Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication support in Azure SQL task
 · Grafana annotations service hook
 · Query Azure Monitor alerts tasks
 · Inline input of spec file in Deploy to Kubernetes task
 · Docker CLI Installer task
 · Java long-term support (LTS) on Microsoft hosted agents
 · YAML support for Bitbucket Cloud pipelines
 · Avoid triggering multiple CI builds for pull requests
 · Change build numbers, upload and download artifacts in forked repository builds
 · New option in Publish Test Results task to fail build on failed tests
 · Updates to the Azure portal for creating an Azure DevOps project
 · Use the Azure portal to set up and deploy to an Azure Cosmos DB database
 · Set up builds and release pipelines for Functions in the Azure portal
Azure Artifacts:
 · Package usage stats
Wiki:
 · Monospaced font for wiki Markdown editor
 · Bold wiki page titles
 · Insert Markdown table
 · Embed Azure Boards query results in wiki
Administration:
Restore deleted projects

Azure Migrate is now available in Asia and Europe
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-migrate-is-now-available-in-asia-and-europe/

Kendall, Cale and Evan talk to Sami Kubba, a Senior PM Lead in the Azure CXP org, about how they handle communications of outages and other issues in Azure. Great insight into what goes on behind to scenes to maintain full transparency into the workings of Azure.

Media file:

https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode261.mp3

Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/6962df0b56/

Resources:

Understand Azure service health: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/service-health/  
Configure service health alerts: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/alerts-activity-log-service-notifications?toc=%2fazure%2fservice-health%2ftoc.json 
Configure resource health alerts https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-health/resource-health-alert-arm-template-guide

Other updates for the week:

Use Azure Database Migration Service to migrate PostgreSQL databases hosted on-premises, on a virtual machine, or on AWS RDS PostgreSQL, to Azure Database for PostgreSQL while the source database remains online during migration.

Use Azure Database Migration Service to migrate MySQL databases hosted on-premises, on a virtual machine, or on AWS RDS MySQL, to Azure Database for MySQL while the source database remains online during migration. 

Migrate SQL Server databases to Azure SQL Database with minimal downtime by using  Azure Database Migration Service. Learn how to use Azure Database Migration Service to perform online migrations from SQL Server on-premises or on virtual machines to Azure SQL Database with minimal downtime by reading  this tutorial.

Over the last 12 months, Operations Management Suite (OMS) monitoring, management, and security capabilities have been incorporated into the Azure portal. We’ve also enhanced the Azure portal with many new features and capabilities.
Because the Azure portal fully replaces it, the OMS portal will be retired on January 15, 2019. You can continue to use your existing services and licensing in the Azure portal.
You can read more about the move from the OMS portal to the Azure portal in the documentation. If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to us at LAUpgradeFeedback@microsoft.com.

CES 2019: Microsoft partners, customers showcase breakthrough innovation with Azure IoT, AI, and Mixed Reality
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/ces-2019-microsoft-partners-customers-showcase-breakthrough-innovation-with-azure-iot-ai-and-mixed-reality/

Streamlined development experience with Azure Blockchain Workbench 1.6.0
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/streamlined-development-experience-with-azure-blockchain-workbench-1-6-0/

To infinity and beyond: The definitive guide to scaling 10k VMs on Azure
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/to-infinity-and-beyond-the-definitive-guide-to-scaling-10k-vms-on-azure/

Cale, Russell and Sujit break down the Azure Sphere offering from Microsoft and what it means for the future of IoT development.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode260.mp3

Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/f4130c2bbc/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/azure-sphere/

Other updates:

SQL Data Warehouse integration with Informatica iPaaS on Azure
Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS) on Azure is now generally available, enabling an intelligent discovery-driven approach to migrate legacy data warehouse workloads to Azure SQL Data Warehouse. IICS on Azure optimizes multi-cloud, hybrid environments with a streamlined experience for Azure customers, allowing them to launch IICS with a single click, directly from the Azure portal. Two key use cases enabled by IICS on Azure are data integration with prebuilt mappings and data accelerator for simplified migration to Azure SQL Data Warehouse.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/sql-data-warehouse-integration-with-informatica-ipaas-on-azure/>

Virtual Network Service Endpoints for serverless messaging and big data
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/virtual-network-service-endpoints-for-serverless-messaging-and-big-data/

Virtual Networks and Firewall rules for both Azure Event Hubs and Azure Service Bus are now generally available. This
feature adds to the security and control you have over your cloud environments. Take advantage of the Azure backbone network to secure access to your premium Azure Service Bus namespaces and standard and dedicated Azure Event Hubs offerings on all public regions. 

Anatomy of a secured MCU
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/anatomy-of-a-secured-mcu/

Azure.Source - Volume 63
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-source-volume-63/

Azure Marketplace new offers – Volume 28
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-marketplace-new-offers-volume-28/

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Azure-Sphere-MT3620-Development-Kit-US-Version-p-3052.html

Developer Evangelist David Gristwood and Cloud Solution Architect Robin Lester, from Microsoft UK, are enthusiastic about the AI hacks they do with partners to help them quickly realize an application that uses Azure's AI capabilities. They discuss common patterns and tips and tricks from their various hacks.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode259.mp3

Transcript: https://www.videoindexer.ai/accounts/aca83d23-620b-46d6-beec-e920bff88847/videos/d4f658c21b/

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

We are live at KubeCon+CloudNative in Seattle where Microsoft, together with the whos-who of the tech world, are talking about Kubernetes, We are very fortunate to get Lachie Evenson, Principal PM in the Azure team, Tommy Falgout, a Cloud Solution Architect and Daniel Selman, a Kubernetes Consultant, together in a room to discuss the current state of Kubernetes and AKS.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode258.mp3

Yair Tor, a Principal PM in the Azure Networking team, gives us the scoop on the newly released Firewall service. He talks to us about the use-cases where it makes sense to use the service, pricing and future plans.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode257.mp3

Azure Firewall Product Page

Azure Firewall Documentation

Other updates:

The Security Center network map is GA 
The interactive network map in Azure Security Center provides a graphical view with security overlays, giving you recommendations and insights for hardening your network resources. Using the map, you can see the network topology of your Azure workloads, along with connections between your virtual machines and subnets. You can drill down from the map into specific resources and the recommendations for those resources. For more information, see Protect your network resources in Azure Security Center. 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Azure-Active-Directory-Identity/Azure-portal-and-the-new-account-manager/ba-p/283709?WT.mc_id=ITOpsTalk-blog-socuff

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/automation-change-tracking

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-for-azure-services

 
Azure Container Service will retire on January 31, 2020
In 2017, we introduced Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for simplifying Kubernetes management, deployment, and operations. Because it fully replaces Azure Container Service capabilities for Kubernetes, Container Service will be retired as a standalone service on January 31, 2020.

Microsoft Connect sessions are available online
Session called 5 azure services every developer should know
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/connectevent