Evan and Russell host David Stamen and Vaclav Jirovsky from Pure Storage, diving into how they've integrated their Pure Storage solution as an Azure native service.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode520.mp3

YouTube:  https://youtu.be/rok60ox6oDc

Resources:

• Azure Marketplace – Pure Storage Cloud Contact Me : A fully managed, Azure-native block storage-as-a-service offering from Pure Storage designed to simplify and optimize VMware migrations to Azure.
• YouTube Playlist – Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution : A video series showcasing technical overviews, deployment guides, and use cases for Pure Storage Cloud integrated with Azure VMware Solution.
• Pure Storage Blog – Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution : A deep dive into the architecture, benefits, and deployment of the Azure-native Pure Storage Cloud service for VMware workloads.
• Microsoft Tech Community – Public Preview Announcement : Announcement of the public preview of Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware, highlighting its native integration, scalability, and enterprise-grade storage capabilities.
• Microsoft Tech Community – Azure Storage Blog : Overview of Pure Storage Cloud’s public preview, emphasizing its VMware vVols support, native Azure experience, and simplified storage management.
• Microsoft Learn – Configuration Guide : Step-by-step guidance on configuring Azure Native Pure Storage Cloud for Azure VMware Solution, including deployment and integration details.

Other updates:

• General Availability: Instance Mix for Virtual Machine Scale Sets : Azure now supports deploying up to five VM sizes in a single scale set using Flexible Orchestration Mode, improving capacity, cost-efficiency, and deployment simplicity.
• Azure SQL Trigger for Azure Functions : This documentation explains how to use Azure SQL triggers in Functions to respond to database changes using change tracking and managed identities for secure integration.
• O3 and O4 Mini Unlock Enterprise Agent Workflows : Microsoft introduces O3 and O4 Mini models to enhance enterprise agent workflows with advanced reasoning via Azure AI Foundry and GitHub integration.
• Public Preview - Azure Logic Apps now available as Agent tool in Azure AI Foundry
• Generally Available: Azure Storage Actions – Serverless storage data management

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

Willie Ahlers, Principal Architect, joins Cale, Cynthia and Russell to discuss the challenges and processes to get value from AI projects and make them successful in a live environment.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode505.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/1GsuH-YylP0

• MAIVA - Microsoft AI Value Accelerator Playbook
• Data Science Toolkit - a collection of proven ML and AI implementation accelerators

Other updates:

• Public Preview: Expanded GenAI Gateway capabilities in Azure API Management
• Azure AI Model Inference API
• Public Preview: Low-Code RAG ingestion with built-in document parsing and chunking in Logic Apps Standard
• Public Preview – Templates Support in Azure Logic Apps Standard
• Public Preview – Out of box monitoring dashboards for Logic Apps Standard
• Generally Available: Java on Azure Container Apps
• Generally Available: Azure Application Gateway v2 Basic SKU
• Introducing o1: OpenAI’s new reasoning model series for developers and enterprises on Azure
• Advanced Container Networking Services: Enhancing security and observability in AKS

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

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

Today the team chat to Keith Howling, a Principal Technical Specialist at Microsoft, on the topic of Platform Engineering with Radius, an open source app deployment engine.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode479.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/JWCaXfTf77A

Resources:

Radius:

• RadApp
• Introducing Radius: A new open-source application platform for cloud-native apps

Other news:

• General availability: Rate limit rules for Application Gateway web application firewall
• Export cost using focus
• Azure support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will end by 31 October 2024
• Experiment templates now available in Azure Chaos Studio
• General availability: Start and stop load testing faults in Azure Chaos Studio
• General availability: Azure Functions supports .NET 8 in the isolated worker model
• App Service end-to-end encryption for Linux multi-tenant (preview)
• Azure Monitor Logs archive provides up to 12 years of retention

Balaji Sankaran, General Manager of Azure HDInsight, joins us to share the latest announcement from HDInsight - an updated, managed HDInsight service that runs on AKS, giving a better experience for hosting opensource analytics workloads in the cloud.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode476.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/RiQzpkZeT9c

Resources:

HD Insight on AKS:

• Manage your big data needs with HDInsight on AKS
• Enterprise scale open-source analytics on containers (Video)
• Get started with HDInsights on AKS
• Get in touch - Ask HDInsight

Other news:

• Announcing Microsoft Playwright Testing: Scalable end-to-end testing for modern web apps
• The Microsoft Azure Incubations Team launches Radius, a new open application platform for the cloud

This week Cale talks to Radhika Bollineni, Engineering Manager for Wordpress on App Service, about how to easily create WordPress sites in your Azure subscription to publish your content, using just a few clicks in the Marketplace.

Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode468.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/rO8xicLKKow

Documentation: https://github.com/Azure/wordpress-linux-appservice

Marketplace offering: https://ms.portal.azure.com/#create/WordPress.WordPress

Other links and resources referred to in this episode:

• Microsoft Dev Box is now generally available
• Announcing Azure Managed Lustre for your HPC and AI workloads
• Microsoft Cost Management updates—June 2023
• Supercharge your skills with Microsoft CLX tracks for Azure
• Explore the benefits of Azure OpenAI Service with Microsoft Learn

After talking to Ryan Berry a little while back about OneStream's journey to Azure, the team catches back up with him to hear about how their architecture will evolve in the future to be more Cloud Native. In addition, they discuss the challenges of rearchitecting a pre-existing product when you cannot afford the have dual stacks running at the same time.

Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode467.mp3

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D4x7jDjs-8

Resources

Corporate Performance Management Software | OneStream Software

Links to updates mentioned at the top of the show

• Azure AD is becoming Microsoft Entra ID
• Public preview: Ingest events from Azure Event Hubs to Azure Monitor Logs
• General availability: Azure Data Explorer adds support for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and CosmosDB SQL external tables
• Azure cross-region Load Balancer is now generally available
• Public preview: Azure Virtual Network encryption

Cale and Russell talk to the Microsoft Program Manager for DevBox and Azure Deployment Environments, Sagar Chandra Reddy Lankala, about how Azure Deployment Environments can enable rapid deployment of on-demand dev/test environments while providing governance, security and cost management - plus some more updates from Microsoft Build 2023!

Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode464.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/IsgQVMIkhRc

Sagar's links:

• GA blog - https://aka.ms/ade-ga-blog
• Sign up for Terraform support - https://aka.ms/ade-terraform-signup
• LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagarchandrareddy

Other updates mentioned in this episode:

• Public preview: Introducing NGads V620-series VMs optimized for cloud gaming | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
• Generally available: Azure Data Explorer Kusto Emulator on Linux | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
• Explore the latest features for Datadog—An Azure Native ISV Service
• Microsoft Cost Management updates—May 2023
• Microsoft has made Azure Linux generally available. Repeat, Azure Linux
• Azure OpenAI Service - Documentation, quickstarts, API reference - Azure Cognitive Services | Microsoft Learn
• Azure Deployment Environments | Microsoft Azure
• About Azure App Spaces | Microsoft Learn
• Introducing Azure API Center for Centralized API Discovery and Governance (microsoft.com)
• GitHub Advanced Security for Azure Devops