Prashant Nayak, a Cloud Solutions Architect at Microsoft, gives us a quick background on AVS and enlightens us with the latest updates in migration and licensing to support customers wanted to move to Azure.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode499.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ut-iUJZXtI4

Resources:

• Microsoft and Broadcom to support license portability for VMware Cloud Foundation on Azure VMware Solution | Microsoft Azure Blog
• Introducing the VMware Rapid Migration Plan | Microsoft Azure Blog
• Tutorial - Network planning checklist - Azure VMware Solution | Microsoft Learn
• Introduction to the Azure VMware Solution adoption scenario - Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Learn
• Enterprise-scale network topology and connectivity for Azure VMware Solution - Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Learn
• Run VMware resources on Azure VMware Solution - Training | Microsoft Learn
• Azure VMware Solution Documentation Hub - Azure VMware Solution | Microsoft Learn
• Azure VMware Solution Videos - YouTube (Videos)

Other updates:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-observability-blog/advanced-network-observability-for-your-azure-kubernetes-service/ba-p/4176736

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/v2/Databricks-Jobs-Serverless-Compute

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/v2/interactive-serverless-compute-AU

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/v2/DLT-Serverless-Compute 

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/v2/Cross-Subscription-Load-Balancer

We get an update on the fascinating topic of Quantum Computing on Azure from Cloud Solutions Architect and Quantum enthusiast Delbert Murphy. He gives us the latest status on Quantum, Quantum Elements and the Q# programming language and provides guidance on the type of use-cases that can take advantage of these services.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode498.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/2bZD2Ns91O8

Resources:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/microsoft-has-demonstrated-the-underlying-physics-required-to-create-a-new-kind-of-qubit/ 

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2024/04/03/how-microsoft-and-quantinuum-achieved-reliable-quantum-computing/ 

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2024/05/30/in-collaboration-with-microsoft-photonic-demonstrates-quantum-entanglement-at-telecom-wavelengths/

https://www.qir-alliance.org/

https://github.com/microsoft/qsharp/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quantum/hybrid-computing-overview

https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/experience/quantum-katas

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/qsharp/design-fault-tolerant-quantum-computing-applications-with-the-open-source-resource-estimator/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/quantum-innovator-series/

https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum-elements/product-overview

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2024/06/18/introducing-two-powerful-new-capabilities-in-azure-quantum-elements-generative-chemistry-and-accelerated-dft/

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2024/01/09/unlocking-a-new-era-for-scientific-discovery-with-ai-how-microsofts-ai-screened-over-32-million-candidates-to-find-a-better-battery/

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2024/02/29/microsoft-and-1910-genetics-partner-to-turbocharge-rd-productivity-for-the-pharmaceutical-industry/

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/06/18/empowering-every-scientist-with-ai-augmented-scientific-discovery/

https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum-elements/azure-quantum-elements 

https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/experience/quantum-cryptography

Other Updates:

Generally Available: az command invoke in AKS

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/access-private-cluster?tabs=azure-cli

Public Preview: Cluster operation status for AKS

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/manage-abort-operations?tabs=azure-cli

Public Preview: Geo-Replication for Azure Service Bus Premium

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-messaging/service-bus-geo-replication

Public Preview: Force detach zone redundant data disks during zone outage

 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-updates/week-of-june-20-2024-azure-updates/ba-p/4173016

How hollow core fiber is accelerating AI

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/how-hollow-core-fiber-is-accelerating-ai/

Rishabh Tewari, a Software Engineer on the Azure team, gives us insights into Project Sirius. This is an upgrade to the Azure software that lights up Accelerated Connections for any resource that uses a network interface. Using a specialized SDN, customers and ISVs can achieve very high number of connections per second throughput across all of their Azure and non-Azure resources.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode497.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZVgBBrRlZGQ

Resources:

https://www.usenix.org/system/files/nsdi23-bansal.pdf

Other updates:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/general-availability-audit-logging-in-azure-api-management-developer-portal/ 

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

Cale, Evan and Sujit have an insightful discussion with Niko Pamboukas and Siri Velauthapillai about the new Azure Boost feature that is being deployed into the Azure substrate for VMs. They explain the specialized FPGAs and ARM SoCs that provide extreme IOPs for storage and networking and almost no downtime for system upgrades.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode496.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/4FPQCAmYrzw

Resources:

Learn more about Azure Boost at https://aka.ms/AzureBoost

Learn about accelerated networking with Boost at https://aka.ms/MANA

Learn about accelerated storage with Boost at https://aka.ms/NVMe

Other updates:

Public preview: Azure Load Balancer now supports Admin State | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-azure-bastion-premium/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/kubernetesmetadataandlogsfilteringpublicpreview/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-azure-load-balancer-health-event-logs/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/generally-available-azure-chaos-studio-supports-a-new-pause-process-fault-for-windows-virtual-machines/

Hearing how our ISVs are using Azure in innovative ways is always eye-opening. So, we are fortunate to have Saquib Rashid, a Technical Strategist in the Azure partner organization, give us insights into how Backbase used APIM and the Azure Service Operator to integrate with their customers and backend systems.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode495.mp3

 YouTube: https://youtu.be/qFwOoSNpDME

Resources:

• Backbase Grand Central
• Microsoft Customer Story-Backbase seeks to usher in a new era of engagement banking with its Grand Central platform and Azure API Management
• APIM links: Azure API Management - v2 tiers | Microsoft Learn
• ASO links:
• Azure/azure-service-operator: Azure Service Operator allows you to create Azure resources using kubectl (github.com)
• Azure Service Operator v2

Other updates:

Public Preview - Azure Compute Fleet | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/copilot/#Usecases

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-database-for-postgresql/gen-ai-simplified-the-azure-ai-extension-now-generally-available/ba-p/4146139

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-sql-blog/microsoft-copilot-in-azure-extends-capabilities-to-azure-sql/ba-p/4075408

We are fortunate to have Vlad Joanovic to give us the valuable insights into ARM. He shares the importance of ARM in Azure, provides details on performance and reliability investments and gives us tips on how to make effective use of it to deploy and manage your workloads in Azure.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode494.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/kaeXdi2khTc

Resources:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-tools-blog/azure-cli-and-powershell-tools-build-2024-announcement/ba-p/4148584

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/resource-graph/changes/view-resource-changes

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-governance-and-management/what-s-new-across-azure-governance-services-microsoft-build-2024/ba-p/4150428

Other updates:

Public preview: Azure Log Analytics enhances resilience with workspace replication across regions | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Update on Inter-Availability Zone Data Transfer Pricing | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

General availability: ExpressRoute Seamless Gateway Migration | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

App Service Environment version 1 and version 2 will be retired on 31 August 2024 | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-azure-application-gateway-v2-basic-sku/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/cloud-services-classic-retirement-announcement-may2024/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/gpt4-turbo-vision/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-sensitive-data-protection-for-azure-front-door-web-application-firewall/

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

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/