Azure.Source – Volume 50

Now in preview

Jenkins Azure ACR Build plugin now in public preview – Azure Container Registry (ACR) Build is a suite of features within ACR. It provides cloud-based container image building for Linux, Windows, and ARM, and can automate OS and framework patching for your Docker containers. Now you can use Azure ACR Plugin in Jenkins to build your Docker image in Azure Container Registry based on git commits or from a local directory. One of the best things about ACR build is you only pay for the compute you use to build your images.

Also in preview

• Update Management: Pre/post tasks, dynamic groups, and update inclusion

The Azure Podcast

Now generally available

Immutable storage for Azure Storage Blobs now generally available – Many industries are required to retain business-related communications in a Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) or immutable state that ensures they are non-erasable and non-modifiable for a specific retention interval. Immutable storage for Azure Storage Blobs addresses this requirement and is available in all Azure public regions. Through configurable policies, users can keep Azure Blob storage data in an immutable state where Blobs can be created and read, but not modified or deleted.

Also generally available

• Event Hubs for Node.js
• Azure Availability Zones in West US 2 and North Europe
• Python 2 runbook support in Azure Automation
• Serial console for Azure VMs
• Azure API Management update September 14

The IoT Show

News and updates

Remote Monitoring Solution allows for root cause analysis with Azure Time Series Insights – Azure Time Series Insights is now integrated into the Azure IoT Remote Monitoring solution accelerator. With Time Series Insights, you can gain deeper insights into your time-series sensor data by spotting trends, anomalies, and correlations across real-time and historical data in all your locations. All messages data from your IoT devices will be stored in Time Series Insights, but your alarms, rules, and configuration settings will remain in Azure Cosmos DB.

HDInsight tools for Visual Studio Code: simplifying cluster and Spark job configuration management – HDInsight Tools for Visual Studio Code now uses Visual Studio Code’s built-in user settings and workspace settings to manage HDInsight clusters in Azure regions worldwide and Spark job submissions. With this feature, you can manage your linked clusters and set your preferred Azure environment with Visual Studio Code user settings. You can also set your default cluster and manage your job submission configurations via Visual Studio Code workspace settings.

The Azure DevOps Podcast

Technical content and training

Getting AI/ML and DevOps working better together – The difficult part about integrating AI or ML into an application is getting the model deployed into a production environment and keeping it operational and supportable. AI/ML projects need to incorporate some of the operational and deployment practices that make DevOps effective and DevOps projects need to accommodate the AI/ML development process to automate the deployment and release process for AI/ML models. See this post for suggestions for bridging the gap between DevOps and AI/ML projects that are based on lessons learned from several Microsoft projects including the Mobile Bank Fraud Solution.

Deep dive into Azure Repos – Azure Repos (a service in Azure DevOps) has unlimited free private repositories with collaborative code reviews, advanced file management, code search, and branch policies to ensure high quality code. Learn how Azure Repos is great for small projects as well as large organizations that need native AAD support and advanced policies.

Deep dive into Azure Test Plans – Azure Test Plans (a service in Azure DevOps) provides a browser-based test management solution for exploratory, planned manual, and user acceptance testing. Azure Test Plans also provides a browser extension for exploratory testing and gathering feedback from stakeholders.

Deep dive into Azure Artifacts – Azure Test Artifacts (a service in Azure DevOps) manages the dependencies used in your codebase and provides easy tools to ensure the immutability and performance of those components. For teams that use or produces binary packages, Azure Artifacts provides a secure, highly performant store and easy feed.

Programmatically onboard and manage your subscriptions in Azure Security Center – To streamline the security aspects of the DevOps lifecycle, ASC has recently released its official PowerShell module. This enables organizations to programmatically automate onboarding and management of their Azure resources in Azure Security Center and adding the necessary security controls. This blog post focuses on how to use this PowerShell module to onboard Azure Security Center. You can now use the official PowerShell cmdlets with automation scripts to programmatically iterate on multiple subscriptions/resources, reducing the overhead caused by manually performing these actions, as well as reduce the potential risk of human error resulting from manual actions.

See also

• Credit Card Fraud Detection with Azure Data Science Virtual Machine
• Eleven Tips to Scale Node.js

Azure Friday

Events

Microsoft Ignite 2018 – If you’re not able to join us next week for this premiere event, be sure to watch online to watch the live stream from Orlando.

Come check out Azure Stack at Ignite 2018 – If you’re attending Microsoft Ignite in Orlando next week, the Azure Stack team has put together a list of sessions along with a pre-day event to ensure that you will enhance your skills on Microsoft’s hybrid cloud solution and get the most out of this year’s conference. The agenda is tailored for developers who use Azure Stack to develop innovative hybrid solutions using services on Azure Stack and Azure, as well as operators who are responsible for the operations, security, and resiliency of Azure Stack itself.

See also

• Azure Functions feeding your Serverless appetite at Microsoft Ignite 2018
• Check out App Service sessions at Microsoft Ignite 2018

Azure tips & tricks

Customers and partners

Simplify modern data warehousing with Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Fivetran – Fivetran has certified their zero maintenance, zero configuration, data pipelines product for Azure SQL Data Warehouse. Fivetran is a simple to use system that enables customers to load data from applications, files stores, databases, and more into Azure SQL Data Warehouse. In addition, the Azure SQL Data Warehouse is present in Fivetran’s Cloud Data Warehouse Benchmark, which helps compare cloud providers TPCDS 1TB TPCDS performance.

Tuesdays with Corey

Industries

Improve patient engagement and efficiency with AI powered chatbots – Patients are more likely to give a higher rating for patient engagement if they have some way to communicate to an organization with as little friction as possible. Improving the patient engagement experience can also improve patient outcomes — the hope is to do it affordably. AI-powered health agents, also known as “chatbots,” can engage patients 24/7, using different languages, and at very low cost. Read this post to get an overview of powerful cloud-based tools you can use to rapidly create and deploy your AI-powered health agents in Microsoft Azure.

A Cloud Guru’s Azure This Week