Get ready to explore the different methods of automating technical and business challenges with Azure in James Rudley’s new course; Automation With Microsoft Azure. In this course you will learn a range of azure features including: Azure Automation Functions Logic Apps ARM Templates Update Management Azure PowerShell Ready to master Azure? You can buy this [...]

Confident in your understanding of the Microsoft cybersecurity stack? Taking and passing the Microsoft Azure Security Technologies (AZ-500) exam can help you validate your skills—and, in turn, give your IT career a boost. In this course, instructor Pete Zerger lays out what you need to know to tackle the fourth domain of the AZ-500 exam: Securing Data and Applications. Pete takes a deep dive into the concepts covered in the second half of domain four, including how to configure encryption for data at rest, configure security features to protect web apps, and manage access to Key Vault. When coupled with Azure Security Technologies: Policy and Data Infrastructure—which covers the first half of the Securing Data and Applications domain—this course can help ensure that you walk into the test center feeling prepared to tackle this key portion of the exam.

Microsoft recently experienced a significant interruption of their Azure cloud service. Since a decent amount of data was available for this incident, I decided to do a partial root cause analysis. All of my source data came from Microsoft's official Azure blog post on 2014-Nov-24. I did this primarily to create a sample analysis that […]

Microsoft hopes to improve its software through AI research while OpenAI can take full advantage of the Azure cloud.

Burke Holland works for Microsoft on the Azure team in developer relations. He starts the show talking about how he got started in serverless. He’s careful to note that just because things are marketed as serverless doesn’t always make them so. In order for something to be serverless, it must be sufficiently abstracted in terms of technology, only require payment for what is used, and infinitely scalable. He talks about the statelessness of serverless, and the panel discusses what it means to be stateless. Burke reminds listeners that serverless is not for long-lived operations, but there are features in serverless providers that can help you get around this. Burke talks about how writing serverless code differs from standard or previous coding approaches and practices. He advises that serverless functions are best kept small, and talks about how to fit them in with other kinds of APIs. 

The panelists talk about the multi-cloud and why people would want to be on multiple cloud servers. Burke talks about what Microsoft has done with Serverless Frameworks to accomplish multi-cloud compatibility. The JavaScript experts discuss the advantages and disadvantages of picking JavaScript over other languages, and Burke talks about why he prefers TypeScript and the Easy-Off feature. They talk about speed on a serverless platform, especially concerning the cold start time, which Azure is relentlessly trying to lower. He does talk about some things that can be done to decrease load time and about premium functions. The panel discusses how to debug serverless functions and tools that are available, such as the Azure Functions extension. 

They talk about ways to set up more secure functions to keep things from racking up charges. Burke talks about some things Microsoft does internally to control cloud costs, such as sending monthly reports with reminders to delete and using tools like Azure Reaper to delete short-lived projects. Azure can also put spending caps on subscriptions, but when you hit that cap you can’t serve any more requests. Burke concludes by saying that most of the time, going serverless is a lower-cost way to improve productivity, and because it’s event-driven, it allows you to tie into things that you’re already doing in the cloud. Serverless almost always justifies itself from an ease of use point of view and a cost point of view. 

Panelists

• Aimee Knight

• Steve Edwards

• Dan Shapir

• AJ O’Neal

• Charles Max Wood

Guest

• Burke Holland

Sponsors

• G2i

• Split

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> "The MaxCoders Guide to Finding Your Dream Developer Job" by Charles Max Wood is now available on Amazon. Get Your Copy Today!

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Links

• Microsoft Azure

• Swagger

• GraphQL

• Kong

• Serverless Frameworks

• TypeScript

• Serverless Doesn’t Have to Be an Infuriating Black Box

• Azure Functions

• CosmoDB

• Is Serverless Really as Cheap as Everyone Claims?

• Azure Reaper

Picks

Steve Edwards:

• Louis L'Amour books, especially The Lonesome Gods

• Ultra Sabers Azure Reaper

Burke Holland:

• Follow Burke on Github

Dan Shapir:

• Taking a vacation

AJ O’Neal:

• Hello World by Hannah Fry

• Ikea Kallax

Charles Max Wood:

• The MaxCoders Guide to Finding Your Dream Developer Job

• Buy Me a Coffee

• Devchat is looking for show hosts and sponsors!