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

Russell and Evan discuss the preview Azure API Center with Julia Kasper, Microsoft's Product Manager.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode490.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/mJnaCqgnPSg

Resources:

• Request features/raise issues on API Center functionality: Issues · Azure/api-center-preview (github.com)
• Video on API governance with APIC: Mastering API Governance with Azure API Center (youtube.com)
• Sign up for updates and news: Stay in touch with Azure API Center! (office.com)

Other updates:

• Public Preview: Modernizing Azure Resource Manager Throttling
• Microsoft open sources Retina: A cloud-native container networking observability platform
• Generally Available: Cost analysis add-on for AKS

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/

Jose Moreno a Customer Engineer in the FastTrack for Azure team joins Sujit and Russell to talk about Networking, and more specifically discusses best practices for Express Route configuration and monitoring with an eye on resiliency and performance.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode488.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/KUhODMaQjEU

Resources:

• FastTrack for Azure: FastTrack for Azure – Technical Enablement FAQ | Microsoft Azure
• Azure ER Locations (not to confuse with Azure Regions): Locations and connectivity providers for Azure ExpressRoute | Microsoft Learn
• Azure Connection Monitor: Connection monitor overview - Azure Network Watcher | Microsoft Learn

Other updates:

• GA: Azure API Management Developer Portal Unveils Enhanced Features for Increased Developer Productivity
• Public Preview: Regional Disaster Recovery by Azure Backup for AKS
• TLS/TCP Proxy Preview

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