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

Cynthia, Cale and Evan have a stirring discussion on the use-cases for Serverless computing and Azure Functions. They dive into scenarios when it is a good idea to use them and when it is not.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode256.mp3

Other updates:

We're excited to announce enhancements to network security group (NSG) flow logs for Azure Network Watcher. These enhancements are available in version 2 of the logs. They include per-flow throughput statistics, so you can understand flow session state and the associated number of bytes and packets transferred.
 
Introducing Azure DevOps Server 2019 RC1
 
 
Simplifying security for serverless and web apps with Azure Functions and App Service
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/simplifying-security-for-serverless-and-web-apps-with-azure-functions-and-app-service/
 
Improving Azure Virtual Machine resiliency with predictive ML and live migration
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/improving-azure-virtual-machine-resiliency-with-predictive-ml-and-live-migration/
 
Three reasons why Windows Server and SQL Server customers continue to choose Azure
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/three-reasons-why-windows-server-and-sql-server-customers-continue-to-choose-azure/
 
Considering Azure Functions for a serverless data streaming scenario
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/considering-azure-functions-for-a-serverless-data-streaming-scenario/

All the co-hosts are in the house for a change, having a fascinating discussion with Péter Bozsó, an Azure AppDev Consultant from Microsoft, Hungary. He gives us all the info on how to start writing Chatbots in Azure including tips and tricks, what not do to etc.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode255.mp3

The official MS Bot Framework website: https://dev.botframework.com/
All the open source bot-related MS repositories: https://github.com/Microsoft/botbuilder
Community maintained repos related to the bot framework (stuff is actually getting merged from these into the official repos!): https://github.com/BotBuilderCommunity
Cognitive Services: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/
The official bot framework blog: https://blog.botframework.com/ It’s a must have, a lot of best practices and tips and tricks are posted here.
 
And my personal blog, which is not full of content (yet!), but I am usually posting about Microsoft bots as well since that’s what I am working with every day: https://peterbozso.github.io/

Other updates:

Azure SQL Data Warehouse now enables enhanced insights into analytical workloads by integrating directly with Microsoft Azure Monitor diagnostic logs. With this new capability, developers can analyze workload behavior over an extended time period and make informed decisions on query optimization or capacity management.
 
Azure Monitor diagnostic logs support customizable retention periods by saving the logs to a storage account for auditing purposes, the capability to stream logs to event hubs for near real-time telemetry insights, and the ability to analyze logs by using Azure Log Analytics with log queries. Diagnostic logs consist of telemetry views of your data warehouse equivalent to the most commonly used performance troubleshooting DMVs for SQL Data Warehouse.
 
For this initial release, we have enabled views for the following:
 · sys.dm_pdw_exec_requests
 · sys.dm_pdw_request_steps
 · sys.dm_pdw_dms_workers
 · sys.dm_pdw_waits
 · sys.dm_pdw_sql_requests
 
  
AKS now in public preview in China

Announcing the general availability of Azure Event Hubs for Apache Kafka®

you don’t need to run Zookeeper, manage, or configure your clusters.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/topics/announcements/>

Deploy, develop, and troubleshoot faster with Azure Blockchain Workbench 1.5.0
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deploy-develop-and-troubleshoot-faster-with-azure-blockchain-workbench-1-5-0/

Get started in minutes: Build your own enterprise grade virtual assistant
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/get-started-in-minutes-build-your-own-enterprise-grade-virtual-assistant/

Getting started with Azure Cognitive Services in containers
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/getting-started-with-azure-cognitive-services-in-containers/

Holiday season is DDoS season
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/holiday-season-is-ddos-season/

Sprint 143 Update of Azure DevOps
https://review.docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/release-notes/2018/sprint-143-update?branch=releases%2FM143%2Freleasenotes#new-work-item-text-editor

With container support, customers can use Azure’s intelligent Cognitive Services capabilities, wherever the data resides. This means customers can perform facial recognition, OCR, or text analytics operations without sending their content to the cloud.

Custom Vision Service support for logo detection

Cale Teeter, who was in Prague for DevCon 4, gives us a first-hand update on the latest that Microsoft is bringing to the Blockchain space in Azure.

Microsoft @ DevCon4
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/devcon4/

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode254.mp3

Other updates:

Automating SAP deployments in Microsoft Azure using Terraform and Ansible
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/automating-sap-deployments-in-microsoft-azure-using-terraform-and-ansible/

Announcing the general availability of Azure Event Hubs for Apache Kafka®
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-general-availability-of-azure-event-hubs-for-apache-kafka/

Azure SQL Data Warehouse introduces new productivity and security capabilities
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-sql-data-warehouse-taking-scalability-security-and-manageability-to-new-heights/

James Baker, a Principal PM in the Azure team, talks to us about the latest offering in the Big Data space - Azure Data Lake Service - Gen 2. He gives us the low-down on what's new and why this is such a big deal for existing and new customers.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode253.mp3

Other updates:

Use Azure Container Instances in a more secure way. With Virtual Network support, Azure Container Instances now supports deploying containers to new or existing Azure Virtual Networks. Azure Container Instances containers can have secure communication with other resources, such as Azure Kubernetes Service clusters, residing in the same virtual network. 

Azure App Service now supports Virtual Network integration capability is general availability. The upgraded integration capability will enable apps to access resources across ExpressRoute or other connectivity technologies. It also enables apps to access resources secured with service endpoints in a similar manner as with SQL, Storage, and CosmosDB. This capability will only work with Windows Web Apps and in a limited number of regions. 

PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell is now available and adds performance improvements and features to PowerShell:
1. The PowerShell startup experience is now on par with Bash.
2. PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell offers a consistent tooling experience, since Cloud Shell runs on a Linux Container that uses PowerShell Core.
3. PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell is portable and equipped with tools such as Azure PowerShell, git, and common text editors. At the same time, user settings can persist across sessions for increased productivity. 
Four new Azure virtual machine remoting cmdlets enable interactive connectivity to an individual or many machines for automated tasks that use PowerShell remoting.