The team talks to Azure PMs Isabelle Morris and Tanu Balla about the Bastion service which allows for secure access to VMs. We discuss the use-cases for this service, and they provide insights into using it effectively.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode406.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ssr7z1imDkk

Resources: Azure Bastion | Microsoft Docs

Other Updates:

Automated key rotation in Azure Key Vault is now in public preview | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Public preview: Azure Kubernetes Service configuration management with GitOps | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Azure Storage: Attribute-based Access Control (ABAC) conditions with principal attributes now in public preview | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

The team catches up with Nadim Abdo who fills them in on all the work Azure AD has been doing to increase their resiliency and improve the customer experience.

Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode405.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/waIVg9WuPmM

Resources:

Building resilience into identity and access management with Azure Active Directory

Other Updates:

Public preview: Run Command – Execute PowerShell or shell scripts on Virtual Machines and Scale Sets

General availability: New Azure Maps features: Historical Weather, Air Quality, and Tropical Storms

Immutable storage with versioning for Blob Storage is now generally available

Public preview availability of Virtual Machine restore points

Azure Storage: Secure access to storage account from a virtual network/subnet in any region now in public preview

The team learns about CBL Mariner, a Microsoft-maintained Linux distribution that runs underneath a number of Azure services.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode404.mp3

YouTube:  https://youtu.be/Q_F5xQo5u6w

GitHub repo - https://github.com/Microsoft/CBL-Mariner

Other updates:

Public preview: New SAP HANA telemetry in AMS

Azure Load Testing now available in public preview

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-load-testing-now-available-in-public-preview/

Cynthia and Sujit talk to Gopinath C H about the synergies between GitHub and Azure for Enterprise and OSS developers.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode403.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/AOQtfVuxN6Y

Resources:

Other updates:

Generate automated configuration files used with Terraform to automate provisioning and configuration on your Flexible Server for Azure Database for MySQL.

General availability: Azure API Management updates- October 2021

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-api-management-updates-october-2021/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-bindings-azure-sql

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/run-command

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/files-nfs-protocol

Cale, Sujit and Cynthia speak with Senior Program Manager John Engel-Kemnetz about Azure Chaos Studio, a new service announced during Ignite to help customers emulate chaos situations that applications might run into. John also gives us some insight into some approaches to take on testing both the application and the live site responses from the support teams. 

Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode402.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/SxHe-XfM3Hg

Resources:

Getting Started - https://aka.ms/chaosstudiogetstarted

Docs - https://aka.ms/AzureChaosStudio

Blog Announcement - https://aka.ms/chaosstudioblog

Updates:

5 reasons to attend the Azure IaaS Day digital event

Discover what’s new to Microsoft database services—recap from Microsoft Ignite

Azure high-performance computing at Supercomputing 2021

Azure App Service support for .Net 6 now generally available

Preview: Pay-as-you-go plan for Power Apps

Application Insights auto-instrumentation for .NET6 App Services

Kendall, Evan and Sujit each discuss their favorite Azure announcements from Ignite 2021.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode401.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/6UjsEtzclJo

Correction The new Dapr feature with AKS is actually considered an extension and there is new documentation around the add-on vs. extension model: Cluster extensions for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (preview) 

Resources:

https://news.microsoft.com/ignite-november-2021-book-of-news/

DaprCon: DaprCon - YouTube

On this special milestone of the Azure Podcast, we have none other than Girish Bablani, the CVP of Azure Core, to give us insights into the Core platform and provide some perspectives on the past and future of Azure.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode400.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/VMkHHMgUoKI

We talk to our very own Cale Teeter about the current state of Blockchain technology and how it is changing the way we deploy these networks in Azure and build applications.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode399.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/_biNB9p5_Fw

Resources:

Migration announcement to QBS -> https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/action-required-migrate-your-azure-blockchain-service-data-by-10-september-2021/

QBS Preview -> https://consensys.net/quorum/qbs/

Quickstart for Developers -> https://consensys.net/quorum/developers/

NFT sidechain -> https://docs.palm.io/

Azure SQL Ledger -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/ledger-overview

Confidential Consortium Framework -> https://microsoft.github.io/CCF/main/overview/concepts.html

Other updates:

SpaceCows – using AI, space technology and cloud to protect the Top End – Microsoft Australia News Centre

Computer Vision Read API for Optical Character Recognition (OCR), part of Cognitive Services, announces its public preview with new languages including Russian, Bulgarian, other Cyrillic and more Latin languages. This release also highlight handwritten OCR support for many languages, along with enhancements for digital PDFs and Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) text in identity documents.

Join us on Azure IaaS Day: Learn to increase agility and resiliency of your infrastructure

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/join-us-on-azure-iaas-day-learn-to-increase-agility-and-resiliency-of-your-infrastructure/

5 reasons to join the Modernize Apps and Data with Azure and Power Apps free virtual event

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/5-reasons-to-join-the-modernize-apps-and-data-with-azure-and-power-apps-free-virtual-event/

The Enclave Device Blueprint for confidential computing at the edge

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/the-enclave-device-blueprint-for-confidential-computing-at-the-edge/

Public preview: Azure Spring Cloud RBAC config server and registry access and Nginx logs and metrics | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

General availability: Azure Spring Cloud application health monitoring and end-to-end TLS/SSL | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Public preview: Visual Studio Code for the Web | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Evan and Sujit catch up on the flurry of Azure updates from the past week.

Media file: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode398.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/J0Vq3IGlTFY

Updates:

Azure Automation Hybrid Worker Extension for Azure and Arc-enabled servers now in public preview

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/automation-user-hybrid-extension-support/>

SpaceCows – using AI, space technology and cloud to protect the Top End – Microsoft Australia News Centre

AKS Related

Public preview: HTTPS proxy configuration support | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Public preview: AKS support for WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) workloads | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Enable Cloud Controller Manager (Preview) - Azure Kubernetes Service | Microsoft Docs

Public preview: IPv6 for Kubenet | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

General availability: Azure Monitor container insights for Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

Microsoft says it mitigated the largest DDoS attack ever recorded (msn.com)

Networking

Utilize the Service Tag Discovery API to retrieve a list of Service Tags and corresponding IP ranges to easily configure on-premises firewalls and Azure resources.

Public preview: Customize Azure Static Web Apps authentication with a serverless function

Published date: October 13, 2021

You can now define a serverless function that is invoked whenever a user successfully logs in to your static web app. This function can assign custom roles to the logged in user. You can use these roles to configure route-based authorization rules; and other serverless functions in your app can also access these roles. 

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/public-preview-customize-azure-static-web-apps-authentication-with-a-serverless-function/>

• Generally available: IP-based website protection for Azure Static Web Apps | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

SQL

• Leverage user-assigned managed identity for transparent data encryption (TDE) with customer managed keys, and more for SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/azure-sql-public-preview-updates-for-october-2021/

Private Link is now available in preview for Hyperscale (Citus) on Azure Database for PostgreSQL, a managed service running the open-source Postgres database on Azure.

New centralized management experience for Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server in public preview

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/new-centralized-management-experience-for-azure-hybrid-benefit-for-sql-server-in-public-preview/>

General availability: Azure Monitor application insights in Azure Spring Cloud | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

The team spends time with Bill DeForeest to learn about Capacity Reservation and how that fits into the broader picture of Reserved Instances, Capacity management, and how to best manage allocating your overall VM fleet.

Media File: https://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode397.mp3

YouTube: https://youtu.be/SNmUF1DXYJY

Resources:

Documentation: https://aka.ms/on-demand-capacity-reservations-docs

Introductory video with demo: https://aka.ms/on-demand-capacity-reservations-Preview-Video

Updates:

General availability: Enable hierarchical namespace for existing Azure Storage accounts

Upgrade Azure Blob Storage with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 capabilities

Upgrading Azure Blob Storage with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 capabilities

Ebook: Fusion development approach to building apps using Power Apps

New Azure VMware Solution updates and global expansion drives customer success

The wait (list) is over: Azure NetApp Files is enterprise-ready in your Azure portal

Microsoft named a Leader in 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for data integration tools

Azure NetApp Files Datastores for Azure VMware Solution is coming soon