We should start off by acknowledging that we’re in a very turbulent time. I know several people who have been laid off, either temporarily or permanently, and I sincerely hope that everyone is able to find some solid ground once this worldwide crisis is over. Governments are mobilizing financial resources as well, to try to soften the blow.
For the rest who have adapted to either work from home, or work very carefully in an office, let’s look at the last two weeks Azure news.
ONE.
Microsoft officially announced that all conferences between now and July 2021 will be digital-only. This includes Ignite, Build, MVP Summit and any others.
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-confirms-all-digital-events-through-july-2021
This means you and I will not get a chance to meet this year, except by chance.
I’ve also heard that Ignite 2020 (now all digital) will be offered free, which will allow many more to participate in the talks in real-time. Microsoft has always released the audio/video of the talks after the event for free.
TWO.
The AZ-104 exam went into beta starting last week, and Microsoft offered only 300 discount codes to take it. All discount codes were taken within the first few hours as you’d expect.
You can still take the AZ-104 beta exam, for full price, until May 31.
The existing exam, AZ-103, will retire at the end of August. If you do the math on this, this means that the beta scores could take a couple of months to be calculated after you take the beta exam.
I do not recommend taking the beta exam unless you’re the type of person who loves taking betas. The results are the same (Azure Administrator Associate certification) but beta exams take longer to get the results.
I began the process of updating my existing AZ-103 course for the new content, and so expect that in the coming weeks.
THREE.
Azure seems to still be struggling with the surge in demand since the COVID-19 crisis began. Azure implemented severe restrictions on free accounts, and I am hearing regular reports from students that they are unable to create a VM.
The most common recommendation to avoid this issue is to choose an unpopular region (like West US) which is more likely to have excess capacity.
Or you’ll just have to wait for another time of day to create your free VM.
I’ll keep you updated if I hear anything new about restrictions on Azure Free accounts (most used by learners) being lifted or eased.
The updated blog post is here:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/update-2-on-microsoft-cloud-services-continuity/
“We have placed limits on free offers to prioritize capacity for existing customers. We also have limits on certain resources for new subscriptions. These are ‘soft’ quota limits, and customers can raise support requests to increase these limits.”
AZURE PLATFORM UPDATES.
Updates to Azure continue to rock on in March and April.
- Workflow automation now generally available (GA) in the Security Center
- Server-side encryption with customer-managed keys for Azure Managed Disks now GA
- Incremental snapshots for Azure Managed Disks
- IPv6 is now generally available worldwide
- Azure Spot VMs now generally available
- Workflow automation now generally available (GA) in the Security Center
- Server-side encryption with customer-managed keys for Azure Managed Disks now GA
- Incremental snapshots for Azure Managed Disks
- IPv6 is now generally available worldwide
- Azure Spot VMs now generally available
Be sure and check out the Azure Updates page if any of these affect you.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/
COMING UP FOR ME.
Well no travel, that’s for sure.
I finished a new TOGAF course, and that’s with the video editor getting polished. DP-200 is almost done – just 6 or 7 more videos to go. And as I said above, AZ-104 is getting updates this week too. Lots going on.
WHERE TO FIND ME.
Thanks for sticking it out this far! This is the end of issue 1.7! Hopefully, you found it valuable, at least a little bit!
What is your favorite platform to be on? Perhaps we can connect there.
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See you in two weeks!