Join Cale and Sujit in this exciting episode as they dive into the world of Azure Confidential Ledger with special guests Shubhra Sinha Kamath and Yagnesh Setti Subramanian from the Azure Product Team. Discover the latest updates and features of this auditable, tamper-proof ledger service, and learn how it integrates with Azure SQL and BLOB storage to ensure data integrity and confidentiality. Explore real-world applications in financial services, healthcare, AI, and more. Don't miss out on insights into server-side programming, multi-party capabilities, and upcoming previews. Tune in for a comprehensive look at how Azure Confidential Ledger is revolutionizing data security and compliance.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode518.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/scWpKSKLsGs

Resources:

https://aka.ms/ACL-Docs

https://aka.ms/ACL2025Preview 

Othwr updates:

Creating better healthcare outcomes with Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Foundry

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/creating-better-healthcare-outcomes-with-azure-openai-service-and-azure-ai-foundry/

Learn more about what’s new with Microsoft Azure Storage at KubeCon Europe 2025

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/learn-more-about-whats-new-with-microsoft-azure-storage-at-kubecon-europe-2025/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/kubernetes-codeless

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/copilo

In this episode of the Azure Podcast, host Evan Basalik dives into the world of Azure ExpressRoute with special guest Duong Au. They discuss the benefits of ExpressRoute, its resiliency features, and the new validation tools available to ensure robust connectivity. Tune in to learn about the latest updates, practical applications, and how to optimize your network setup for maximum reliability.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode517.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/o_-NfWnYtxg

Resources:

Email to sign up for preview of the resiliency validation: exr-resiliency@microsoft.com

Resiliency Validation: Azure ExpressRoute Gateway Resiliency Validation (preview) | Microsoft Learn

Resiliency Insights: Resiliency Insights for ExpressRoute virtual network gateway (preview) | Microsoft Learn

Other updates:

SQL Server on Azure VM I/O Performance Analysis - Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Enhancements to Carbon Optimization APIs - Azure updates | Microsoft Azure 

In this episode, Sujit D'Mello and Cynthia Kreng are joined by special guest Mike Becker, an Azure Architect at Microsoft, to discuss how various Azure services can be combined to create a complex solution. Sujit covers the latest enhancements in AKS, including Azure CNI, load balancer support, network isolated clusters, cost recommendations, and GPU driver options. Mike shares insights into a comprehensive Azure cloud solution for collecting and analyzing economic data and media feedback about companies, highlighting the use of Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Power BI, and OpenAI for sentiment analysis. The discussion delves into the architectural decisions, technical challenges, and practical applications of these technologies in delivering robust and secure solutions.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode516.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/wG12eJymh54

Resources:

ADF how it works
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/introduction#how-does-it-work
Azure Data Factory- Best Practices
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1283307/azure-data-factory-best-practices
Azure Data Bricks Medallion architecture
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/lakehouse/medallion
Azure Data Bricks Best Practices
https://dzone.com/articles/azure-databricks-best-practices-for-a-developer
Sentiment Analysis with Azure AI services
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/synapse-analytics/machine-learning/tutorial-cognitive-services-sentiment
Power BI recommendations
https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Power-BI-Development-and-Best-Practices/m-p/4632985/highlight/true#M1386307
Improve Power BI model's performance
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/best-practice-rules-to-improve-your-models-performance/
GitLab best practices - if you cannot use Azure DevOps
https://about.gitlab.com/topics/version-control/what-are-gitlab-flow-best-practices/

In this episode of the Azure podcast, Sujit and the team, including Cale, Russell, and Cynthia, are joined by special guest Matteo Pagani, a Cloud Solutions Architect in the Tech Strategy team at Microsoft. Matteo provides insights into the agentic world of Co-pilot, explaining how agents can enhance business processes and improve efficiency. Tune in to learn about the practical applications of these technologies and how they can be integrated into existing workflows.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode515.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/qMJ88BLbTVo

Resources:

• Overview of Microsoft 365 Copilot extensibility: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/extensibility/
• Building declarative agents with Visual Studio Code, Copilot Studio and Agent Builder: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/extensibility/overview-declarative-agent
• Building custom engine agents with Visual Studio Code and Copilot Studio: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/extensibility/overview-custom-engine-agent
• My blog with some fun experiments with multi-agents scenarios: https://www.developerscantina.com/

Other updates:

Announcing GA for Azure Container Apps Serverless GPUs | Microsoft Community Hub

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-deep-reasoning-agent-flows-copilot-studio-charles-lamanna-n1zxc/

Let's try GitHub Copilot Agent mode in VS Code to build a FULL app!

In this episode of the Azure Podcast, Sujit D'Mello and the team, including Cynthia, Evan, and Cale, are joined by special guest Mario Hewardt, an engineering manager on the Sysinternals team. Mario shares insights into the evolution of Sysinternals tools, their cross-platform journey, and their integration with Azure services. The discussion covers the development process, challenges faced, and the innovative features being added to these essential diagnostic tools. Tune in to learn about the latest updates and how Sysinternals continues to support both Windows and Linux environments.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode514.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/6TAJfqnScuI

Resources:

Sysinternals (/Windows)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/

Email: syssite@microsoft.com

ZoomIt is open source as part of PowerToys - https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys

Sysinternals (/Linux)

ProcDump for Linux - https://github.com/microsoft/ProcDump-for-Linux

Procmon for Linux - https://github.com/microsoft/ProcMon-for-Linux

Sysmon for Linux - https://github.com/microsoft/SysmonForLinux

For help with Linux tools, please file issues/discussions on GitHub.

Social media

Bluesky: @sysinternals

Evan, Kendal and Sujit dive into the details of Azure Container Apps sharing thier own experiences designing, supporting and using the service. They share tips and tricks for utilizing the correct ACA options for your workloads. 

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode513.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/nuxBz8O05LU

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

Other updates:

Next generation Azure Databox - Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Azure HDInsight deprecates TLS1.1 - Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

MySQL Virtual Canary program - Scheduled Maintenance - Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server | Microsoft Learn

SQL MI Modernization Assistant - Modernization Advisor (Preview) - SQL Server on Azure VMs | Microsoft Learn

Private DNS Zones Internet fallback - Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Modern Data Movement library - Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

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

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-data-studio/whats-happening-azure-data-studio

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/logs/log-analytics-simple-mode

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/clean-rooms/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-center/synchronize-aws-gateway-apis?tabs=portal

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-apps/sessions-tutorial-nodejs

Senthuran Sivananthan comes on the show to talk about the Well-Architected Framework (WAF) and Well Architected Resiliency Review (WARA).

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode512.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/xTxG7X9RoWQ

Resources:

• Azure Pricing Calculator
• Azure Architecture Review
• Web Application Firewall

Other Updates:

• Retirement of Azure Automation's Powershell runbooks using AzureRM modules
• TLS1.0/1.1 retirement for Azure Automation
• Customer Managed Unplanned Failover for ADLS and Storage+SFTP

Cale and Sujit discuss their current projects in Azure as 2024 comes to a close. They also cover a ton of AKS updates.

Semantic Kernel makes it easier for developers to build Azure Open AI applications that can also include SLMs like Phi-4. 

Azure has many options to use File Shares and Volumes, and we walk through the process of figuring out which one is right for your needs.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode511.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/dLfCJ6btKng

Resources:

Semantic Kernel - https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel

• Journey with SK on OpenAI and AzureOpenAI
• Ollama (running SLM local) - https://github.com/ollama/ollama
• Ollamazure (running SLM that looks like Azure OpenAI) - https://github.com/sinedied/ollamazure
• PhiSilica - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ai/apis/phi-silica

File Shares: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-introduction 

Other updates:

Lots of AKS updates!

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/concepts-network-isolated

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/azure-kubernetes/availability-performance/container-image-pull-performance

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/imds-restriction

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/use-windows-gpu

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/?id=471295

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/tutorial-restore-aks-backups-across-regions

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/app-routing-nginx-configuration?tabs=azurecli#control-the-default-nginx-ingress-controller-configuration-preview

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/automated-deployments

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/aks-extension-ghcopilot-plugins

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/containers/container-insights-logs-schema#kubernetes-metadata-and-logs-filtering

The team meets with Stephane Erbrech to talk about Azure Kubernetes Fleet and learns why it is necessary and also why it isn't the same thing as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode510.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/h9rJNihhZPM

Resources:

The OSS bits powering Fleet Manager dataplane: https://github.com/Azure/fleet

The service doc: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/kubernetes-fleet/

Other updates:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cynthiakreng_nbafoundation-nbaallstar-nbafpitch-activity-7269908869684830209-MJlS

In this episode of the Azure Podcast, co-hosts, Sujit D'Mello, Evan Basalik, Russell Young, Cynthia Kreng, and Cale Teeter welcome special guest Thiago Almeida from the Azure Functions team. They dive into the details of the new Azure Functions Flex Consumption Plan, discussing its features, benefits, and how it fits into the broader landscape of Azure's compute options. Thiago shares insights on the programming model, pricing, and the improvements in cold start times, as well as the integration with networking features. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in serverless computing and Azure Functions.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode509.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/WMdzxYy_tQ4

Resources:

Ignite news from Functions https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/appsonazureblog/azure-functions-ignite-2024-update/4298757

Flex Consumption GA announcement https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/appsonazureblog/azure-functions-flex-consumption-is-now-generally-available/4298778

Azure Functions cold start improvements https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/appsonazureblog/our-latest-work-to-improve-azure-functions-cold-starts/4164500