Azure World Newsletter – Issue 2.9

May 19, 2021

May 19, 2021

Welcome to the ninth edition of the Azure World Newsletter in 2021. We’re already well into May, which is hard to believe. Thanks so much for subscribing.

Have you registered for the Microsoft Build Conference yet? Microsoft Build is coming up May 25-27 and is free to register. It a conference mainly aimed at developers. Check it out, if you are interested. Register here at https://mybuild.microsoft.com/home.

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ONE.

Microsoft is rolling out a new logo for Azure, based on their Fluent Design system.

On the left is the current logo, while the new logo is on the right.

From the Microsoft blog post: “It’s part of Microsoft’s Fluent Design System, carefully crafted to produce icons that look familiar to what customers know and love, while representing the agile future of our business.”

I’ve already noticed the new logo in places such as the Mobile App, and so this is already being implemented. The new logo matches the style of some other new Microsoft logos – curved shapes that form a letter.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-ca/blog/a-fluent-new-look-for-the-azure-icon/

TWO.

Microsoft announced that it’s shutting down its Azure Blockchain Service in September 2021. 

This immediately caused some confusion as some people seem to associate it with cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. 

In fact, the Blockchain Service allowed you to use a shared ledger to record and publish a complete transaction history. It’s true that cryptocurrencies use a blockchain to record their transactions, but this service was offering that power to private corporations to use this technology for business purposes.

Obviously, that did not prove popular enough to keep it going.

If you’re using Azure Blockchain Service, you’ll need to find an alternative to migrate to. And you only have a few months to do that.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/blockchain/service/migration-guide

THREE.

I’m happy to announce a brand new course on the AI-102 Exam: Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Solution.

The official Microsoft exam objectives say, “Candidates for this exam should be proficient in C#, Python, or JavaScript and should be able to use REST-based APIs and SDKs to build computer vision, natural language processing, knowledge mining, and conversational AI solutions on Azure.”

And so I designed this course to be really focused on code. There is an official GitHub repository for the course, and I take the time to go through each code sample as it relates to the exam objectives.

https://bit.ly/3tPGY1i

The focus of this course is Python because that’s the most common language in the world of machine learning and AI. But if you have programming experience with another language, you should be able to understand what is happening, and it’ll be fun to learn Python.

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AZURE PLATFORM UPDATES.

The following platform updates happened in the past two weeks: 

  • Azure Backup: Operational backup for Azure Blobs is now generally available
  • Append blobs for Azure Data Lake Storage  is now generally available
  • Prevent shared key authorization for Azure Storage is now generally available
  • Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) is now in preview
  • Pricing for Azure Ultra Disks has been reduced
  • ZRS for Azure Managed Disks now in preview
  • Azure Static Web Apps is now generally available
  • Azure Blockchain Service is deprecated as of September 2021

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.

I’ll continue to enjoy the improving weather. I’m going for long walks daily. And I’ll continue to create new courses and content to help students learn Azure.

WHERE TO FIND ME.

And that’s it for issue 2.9. Thanks for reading this far.

What is your favorite platform to be on? Perhaps we can connect there.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/getcloudskills/ 

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