Cloud Services (Web and Worker Roles) announcements

• Link
  New article published: Table Storage vs. SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure)
  SethM-MS Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:56 PM

  You might find this new MSDN article interesing: it compares two types of structured storage supported by Windows Azure: Windows Azure Table Storage and Windows Azure SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure). The goal of this article is to provide a comparison of the respective technologies so that you can understand the similarities and differences between them. This analysis can help you make a more informed decision about which technology best meets your specific requirements.

  Check it out and please do rate the topic: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj553018.

• Link
  Follow @wapforums on Twitter to stay connected with the Windows Azure Platform MSDN forums
  Jialin Xin Friday, February 18, 2011 7:20 PM

  As posted on the Windows Azure Team Blog:

  The Windows Azure Platform MSDN forums provide free online community support for Windows Azure and SQL Azure developers from Microsoft insiders, MVP's, and like-minded developers. The forums are a great means to get quick answers and support on all things Windows Azure without having to log a support ticket. The Windows Azure Platform forums average more than 360 new posts a month and 99% of the posted questions receive a response within one day.

  To make it easier to stay on top of what's happening on the forums, you can now follow @wapforums on Twitter to keep track of new forum questions and discussions as they're posted. When you're logged into Twitter, you'll be able to see questions as they're asked, get community tips as they're posted and identify discussions that you may want to participate in.

  And be sure to watch for posts from #MSTechTalk for tips and discussions from Microsoft engineering teams and #WAPSupport for posts related to top support questions.

• Link
  Forums for Windows Azure AppFabric CTP & SQL Azure Labs Support
  Brian Aurich Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:51 PM

  The SQL Azure and Windows Azure AppFabric teams have forums setup specifically for support & feedback of their products in CTP and Labs.  These forums should be reserved for conversations only while the product/feature/version is not a production release.  Along with community members providing answers, these forums are supported by the product groups.
  
  You can find these forums with the descriptions of what they cover under the Windows Azure Platform - CTPs, Betas & Labs forum category.
  
  Currently, the Windows Azure Betas & CTPs (XS instances, VM Roles & Windows Azure Connect) are supported under the primary Windows Azure Platform forums .
  
  Thank you,

  Brian Aurich - Windows Azure Community PM

• Link
  Windows Azure Platform FAQs
  Brian Aurich Wednesday, December 01, 2010 9:43 PM

  Frequently Asked Questions for the Windows Azure Platform are available here:

  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/faq/default.aspx

• Link
  Windows Azure Platform Training Course and Training Kit - Septemeber 2011 refresh released
  Brian Aurich Wednesday, December 01, 2010 7:46 PM

  The Windows Azure Platform Training Course includes a comprehensive set of hands-on labs and videos that are designed to help you quickly learn how to use Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and the Windows Azure AppFabric.

  The Windows Azure Platform Training Course is available here and includes a link to the latest offline training kit.

  Wade Wegner provides information about the September update in his blog here.

Azure Storage announcements

• Link
  Archived Windows Azure Storage Forum Content
  Brad Calder Saturday, March 26, 2011 6:48 PM

  When the forums moved into specialized areas, the original forum content for Windows Azure was left archived at this link:

   

  http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/windowsazure/

   

   

• Link
  Windows Azure Storage Team Blog
  Brad Calder Saturday, March 26, 2011 6:58 AM

  Please see the Windows Azure Storage Team Blog for more information on Windows Azure Storage

   

  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/

   

Azure SQL Database announcements

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  New service update available for SQL Data Sync!
  Shirley Wang [SQL] Thursday, May 28, 2015 2:58 PM

  While it has been 3+ years since we last announced an update to SQL Data Sync service, we have been continuously deploying updates to the backend service to address top customer issues.  We are listening to your feedback, and today we are happy to announce the latest update which includes both service changes and a new SQL Data Sync agent install.  This update includes two main enhancements:

  1. Support for synchronizing tables that have column collations:
  • If the selected sync schema tables do not already exist in your hub or member databases, upon deploying the sync group, SQL Data Sync will automatically create corresponding tables and columns in the empty database with the same collation settings as the select sync schema.
  • If the tables to-be-synced are already created in both hub and member databases, SQL Data Sync requires the primary key columns have the same collation between hub/member databases to successfully deploy the sync group.  There is no collation restriction on the non-primary key columns.
  2. Improvements to performance and resilience:
  • We enhanced batch transfer of serialized changes from source to destination, so you should see faster sync throughput.
  • We improved transient error handling logic when reading from the source or writing to the destination.

  The new version of SQL Data Sync agent in the download center.  Please follow the step-by-step instructions here to install a new Data Sync agent.  If you have an existing agent, you can refer to this MSDN article for detailed upgrade procedures.  A previous version of Data Sync agent will continue to work until it expires on 8/18/2015.

• Link
  Understand Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure VM
  Vinod Ramakrishna Friday, October 03, 2014 6:35 PM

  Microsoft Azure provides you two options when hosting your SQL Server-based data: Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machine. This new article explains how each option fits into the big picture in Microsoft’s Data Platform, and then discusses the common business motivations that might affect your choice. Please take a look at it!

  http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/data-management-azure-sql-database-and-sql-server-iaas/

  ---

  Selcin Turkarslan

Service Bus announcements

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  Service Bus 1.1 is now GA !
  zivraf Tuesday, June 25, 2013 5:13 PM

  start here : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn282144.aspx
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  Service Bus explorer supports Service Bus 1.0 for Windows Server
  zivraf Wednesday, December 26, 2012 10:44 PM

  Check the latest update to Service Bus explorer at: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazure/Service-Bus-Explorer-f2abca5a

  Beside many new features which were recently added to Service Bus and now available in the tool, the tool now supports both cloud and on-premise versions for Service Bus !

Azure Active Directory announcements

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  NEW MSDN Documentation Live Now
  Jialin Xin Monday, April 08, 2013 6:59 PM

  Identity Friends:

  As part of our launch today, we have updated all our documentation to help you better use our platform. We took your feedback during the Preview period and have released all new samples, walk-throughs, and API documentation. We have also consolidated all of our documentation in one area, MSDN. We are no longer spread across WindowsAzure.com and MSDN for different topics.

  We will be releasing more samples as the weeks progress.

  Check out the documentation here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/services/active-directory/

  As always, let us know what issues you find in the forums and feedback mechanism in the documentation.

  Thanks!

  Brandon.

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication announcements

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  Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication is Now Generally Available
  Steve Justice [MSFT] Monday, September 30, 2013 6:32 PM

  Identity and access management is an anchor for security and top of mind for enterprise IT departments. It is key to extending anytime, anywhere access to employees, partners, and customers. Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication is now available to deliver increased access security and convenience for IT and end users.

  In addition to entering a username and password during sign in, users also authenticate with the Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication app on their mobile device or via an automated phone call or text message. In order for an attacker to gain access to the user’s account, they would need to know the user’s login credentials and be in possession of the user’s phone.  This increases security while using mobile devices and methods that are familiar to users.

  For more information, see the article: Announcing General Availability of Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication  

Azure Media Services announcements

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  Announcing: New Auto-Scaling Standard Streaming Endpoint and Enhanced Azure CDN Integration
  John Deutscher Wednesday, January 11, 2017 8:16 PM

  The Media Services team is very excited to announce some long awaited customer features, including both our new Standard Streaming Endpoints and Enhanced Azure CDN Integration.

  Our new Standard Streaming Endpoints offer auto-scaling and the flexibility to deliver your content to virtually every device through dynamic packaging into HLS, MPEG-DASH, and Smooth Streaming as well as dynamic encryption for Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine, Apple Fairplay, and AES128 without needing to worry about Streaming Units.  They also scale from very small to very large audiences with thousands of concurrent viewers through Azure CDN integration.  The new Streaming endpoints only cost a very low monthly fee, with no additional costs when they scale up based on demand.

  Moving forward, all new Media Services accounts will be created with Standard Streaming Endpoint by default. Addition to this all new media services accounts come with 15 days of free Standard Streaming Endpoint. This is great for developers who need to test out our MPEG-DASH and HLS advanced features without committing to spending for the month.  Existing Media Services accounts with classic Streaming Endpoint will not be automatically migrated to Standard Streaming Endpoint, but will have the option to migrate manually. Standard Streaming Endpoints is our recommended option for virtually all streaming scenarios and audience sizes.

   

  In addition to Standard Streaming Endpoints, we are also pleased to announce enhanced Azure CDN integration. With a single click you can integrate all the available Azure CDN providers (Akamai and Verizon) to your Streaming Endpoint including their Standard and Premium products and you can manage and configure all the related features through the Azure CDN portal. When Azure CDN is enabled for a Streaming Endpoint using Azure Media Services, data transfer charges between the Streaming Endpoint and CDN do not apply. Data transferred is instead charged at the CDN edge using CDN pricing.

   

  You can start trying out new Standard Streaming Endpoint and CDN integration or migrate your existing endpoints to Standard Streaming Endpoint using Azure Portal (Please note that AMS is not accessible via Azure Classic portal and have a new home).

  If you prefer writing code, you need to use REST 2.15 and upgrade to .NET SDK 3.8.0.5.

   

  For more information please check our blog post and Streaming endpoints overview.

   

• Link
  Release of WAMS Asset Replicator
  Mingfei Monday, June 17, 2013 8:27 PM

  We have released to codeplex an open source tool that can be used for mirroring assets between two WAMS accounts.  One of the primary use cases for the tool is to implement streaming redundancy across two geo-diverse data centers.

  Here is the project link:  https://replicator.codeplex.com/

  And this is a helpful blog:
  Mariano Converti - http://blogs.southworks.net/mconverti

  
  

• Link
  Just Released - Windows Azure Media Services .NET SDK with storage 2.0 update on NuGet and via Github as Open Source
  Mingfei Wednesday, June 12, 2013 3:08 AM

  We just released Windows Azure Media Services .NET SDK via Nuget:  https://nuget.org/packages/windowsazure.mediaservices/ 

  There are two versions listed there: 

  • .NET SDK 2.2.0.1:
  • Storage 2.0 upgrade: we make our SDK compatible with storage SDK 2.0 now
  • Notification APIs: adding encoding notification APIs enables you to monitor your encoding progress
  • .NET SDK 2.1.0.0:
  • It depends on storage 1.7 with notification APIs for encoding

  We also made our .NET SDK open source on Github: https://github.com/WindowsAzure/azure-sdk-for-media-services.

  We will be taking contributions and if you found any issues, please report to issue tab and we will triage regularly: https://github.com/WindowsAzure/azure-sdk-for-media-services/issues?state=open.

  
  

• Link
  Service Management APIs
  Milan Gada (MSFT) Monday, April 01, 2013 9:35 PM

  WAMS Service Management APIs are now live on MSDN at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn167014.aspx

  Feedback welcome

• Link
  On-Demand Streaming usage metrics now available
  Anton Kucer - MSFT Friday, March 08, 2013 9:22 PM

  You can now monitor your usage of On-Demand Streaming for your media services accounts via the following three metrics that are now available via the Azure Media Services dashboard. 

  Streaming Data Out - Indicates how many Bytes of egress data has been used for On-Demand Streaming.

  Streaming HTTP Errors - Indicates how many HTTP Errors have occured. This includes server errors (e.g. HTTP 500 caused by blob store or a media services component) as well as typical client errors (e.g. HTTP 404 or 403). In a future update we will provide additional granularity so that you can track these errors individually.

  Streaming Requests - Indicates how many requests for data have been made for on-demand streaming.

  If there are other metrics that you would like to see available for on-demand streaming, add the request to our uservoice board - https://azuremediaservices.uservoice.com/

• Link
  Requesting a higher number of reserved units in a Media Services account
  Anton Kucer - MSFT Monday, March 04, 2013 9:53 PM

  By default every Media Services account can scale up to a max of 5 Encoding and 5 On-Demand Streaming Reserved Units. You can request a higher limit via a support ticket if your business needs are not met with 5. Note that billing will still be based on the actual number of Reserved Units you have provisioned in your account. In other words, if your max is 50 Encoding Reserved Units in your account but you scale it down to 10 you will only billed for 10.

  To open a support ticket please following the instruction below

  1) Log in to your Azure account at http://manage.windowsazure.com

  2) Go to http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/contact/

  3) Click on "Get Support"

  4) Select your subscription

  5) Under support type select "Technical"

  6) Click on "Create Ticket"

  7) Select "Windows Azure Media Services" in the product list presented on the next page

  8) Select "Media Processing" as "Problem type" and then select "Reservation Units" under category

  9) Click Continue

  10) Follow instructions on next page and then enter details about how many Reserved Units you need and which kind (i.e. Encoding or On-Demand Streaming).

  11) Click submit and you are done with opening your ticket

  
  
  
• Link
  Submit Feature ideas to our User Voice
  John Deutscher Wednesday, February 06, 2013 5:52 PM

  We have a User Voice site that we have been using for IIS Media Services on-premises for many years that we would like to direct our customers to post new feature requests and vote on features for Azure Media Services as well.  We decided to mix the customer feature list, as many of the same feature requests will impact both our cloud and on-premises solutions for Media Services.

  Please post your feature requests to our User Voice Media Services site here:

  http://azuremediaservices.uservoice.com/

• Link
  Breaking changes for Windows Azure Media Services .NET SDK GA
  Mingfei Wednesday, January 16, 2013 10:16 PM

  Please refer to my blog for breaking changes for WAMS .NET SDK GA.

  http://mingfeiy.com/breaking-changes-for-windows-azure-media-services-ga/

  Please let me know if you couldn't follow it to fix your code.

• Link
  Media Processor changes for Jan 2013
  David Bristol [msft] Monday, January 14, 2013 10:26 PM

  Starting today, January 14, 2013 the following media processors have updated version numbers and GUID identifiers.  The task presets for the Windows Azure Media Encoder remain unchanged from the last update.

  Media Processor	Version	GUID
  Storage Decryption	1.5.3	aec03716-7c5e-4f68-b592-f4850eba9f10
  Windows Azure Media Encoder	2.2.0.0	70bdc2c3-ebf4-42a9-8542-5afc1e55d217
  Windows Azure Media Packager	2.2.0.0	a2f9afe9-7146-4882-a5f7-da4a85e06a93
  Windows Azure Media Encryptor	2.2.0.0	38a620d8-b8dc-4e39-bb2e-7d589587232b

  Additionally the REST API version 1.0 will be deprecated.  This means that if you are using the version 1.0 of the .Net SDK it will begin to fail.  You should update immediately to the most recent version of the SDK by using the NuGet package.  See the NuGet package announcement below.

Azure BizTalk Services announcements

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  [11/11/2013] BizTalk Services update and downtime notification
  Karthik_Bharathy [MSFT] Tuesday, November 12, 2013 2:02 AM

  Windows Azure BizTalk Services environment will be updated this week as part of the BizTalk Services upgrade. Management operations on BizTalk Services (e.g. Scale) and trading partner management from portal may be unavailable for a period of 48 hours starting 9PM PST 11/11/13.

  Configurations and runtime messaging of existing deployments will continue to remain functional without any impact. During this update, customers on Developer Edition may also face downtime for 15-20 minutes this week.

  If you face any issues, please report the same at the BizTalk Services forum

  Links:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn232393.aspx

  http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/biztalk-services/dashboard-monitor-scale-tabs/

• Link
  Known issues and workarounds...
  Shailesh Agre Thursday, June 20, 2013 12:54 PM

  1. Custom domain names for BizTalk Services

  Custom domain names allow you to assign existing domain names like http://www.contoso.com to the BizTalk Services deployment instead of using the default *.biztalk.windows.net URLs. As part of BizTalk Services creation, a private certificate (.pfx) that matches the custom domain name needs to be uploaded. By default, the BizTalk Services create wizard in the Azure portal uses the BizTalk Service URL as the customer domain URL.

  We are glad to report that we upgraded our bits on 9th July 2013, to fix the Custom domain issue and this should be working for everyone. Please let us know via the forum's if this is not the case.

  2. New SB Queues are not working with MABS

  Trying to use Service Bus Queue on the receive side. While deploying getting the error

  Error 1 QueueSource1 deployment failed at 'https://mymabs.biztalk.windows.net/default/passSB/sources/QueueSource1'. Failed to connect to the Service Bus using specified configuration.

  This issue is due to the service using an older version of Microsoft.ServiceBus.dll which does not support Partitioning entities. Partitioning entities is available in 2.2  onwards versions of Microsoft.ServiceBus.dll.

  Check the blog for further details and resolution.

  Enabling BizTalk Services http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2014/08/13/enabling-biztalk-services-to-work-with-service-bus-2-2-sdk.aspx

  3. Can't Add SQL Target for LOB Types

  You may face errors while doing the tutorial that require Relays / Service Bus - where you are supposed to Create LOB Relay and Target for the Operations. Error message states

  Message: 'Error occurred while trying to bring up the relay service. Error Message: 'The remote name could not be resolved: 'mysbname-sb.accesscontrol.windows.net'

  The issue is because any Service Bus namespace created via portal after August 2014, will not have an accompanying ACS namespace and MABS relies on ACS for the authentication. We are working on SAS support within BizTalk Services. Till then, please use PowerShell command to create the Service Bus namespace which allows to create ACS namespace. For more details, have a look at

  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cie/archive/2014/08/29/service-bus-namespace-creation-on-portal-no-longer-has-acs-connection-string.aspx

• Link
  Useful links to get you started on BizTalk Services
  Karthik_Bharathy [MSFT] Monday, June 10, 2013 1:56 PM

  • SDKs, EDI Schemas & Tools: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39087
  • Samples: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazure/
  • Documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh689864.aspx  and http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/biztalk-services/
  • BizTalk Portal: https://portal.biztalk.windows.net/
  • BizTalk Server Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/
• Link
  Windows Azure BizTalk Services sign-up
  Karthik_Bharathy [MSFT] Monday, June 10, 2013 1:54 PM

  The responses for WABS so far has been quite positive.  Within a short amount of time, we have reached the initial capacity that we planned to auto-approve.  While we were clearly not expecting such phenomenal response, it is a good problem for us to have.  We are in the process of manually clearing out the pending queue.  Meanwhile, if you want to speed this up for your subscription, drop an email to wabssignup@microsoft.com with a brief note on what you are intending to do.  We shall try to take that up in priority.

  Also go through the following BizTalk Services blog post in case you are running into any issue creating a WABS instance for yourself after your queued request has been approved.

  For any issues with your usage post in this forum and we will get back to you.

Azure Mobile Apps announcements

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  Log Feature Requests on Uservoice
  Paul Batum Friday, November 02, 2012 5:48 AM

  We are happy to announce that you can now log feature requests for Mobile Services on Uservoice. We would love to hear your feedback about the features we should be looking into:

  http://feedback.windowsazure.com/forums/216254-mobile-services

  Thanks.

  Dinesh

Microsoft Azure Site Recovery announcements

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  General Availability: Recover Generation 2 virtual machines to Azure
  Anoob Backer Monday, June 08, 2015 6:35 AM

  We’re very excited to announce the ability to protect & recover Generation 2 virtual machines to Azure. This feature is now available in all ASR supported regions. 
  

  For more details, check out General availability: Recover Generation 2 virtual machines to Azure.

• Link
  NEW Software Updates | VMware VMs & Physical Servers to Azure
  Ruturaj Dhekane Thursday, May 21, 2015 7:07 PM

  We are rolling out updates for the Configuration Server (Version 8.2.2.0) and Process Server (Version 8.2.2.0). The updates bring better error handling and other quality enhancements. We strongly recommend that you get your Preview / TAP customers to install the latest updates in the following order:

  1. Log onto the configuration server using the Virtual Machines page in the Azure portal and download the latest update from: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533809. Follow the installer instructions to install the update
  2. On the server that you installed the process server, download the latest update from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533810 and install it using the installer instructions
  3. On the server that you have installed the master target server(s), install the latest update (Version 8.2.1.0), if you haven't already
     • For Windows master target server(s), log onto the Windows master target server(s) using the Virtual Machines page in the Azure portal and download the latest update from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533811. Follow the installer instructions to install the update

  • For Linux master target server(s), copy the installer tar file that is available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533812 using a sftp client. Alternatively you can log onto the Linux master target server(s) using the Virtual Machines page in Azure use wget to download the file. Extract the files from the gzipped installer and run the command “sudo ./install” to install the update
• Link
  Migrating to Azure is now a feature of Availability on Demand
  Ruturaj Dhekane Tuesday, May 05, 2015 10:42 AM

  Migration Accelerator functionality of providing pain-free migrations of physical, VMware, AWS and Hyper-V workloads, is now an integral part of Azure Site Recovery, an enabling technology of Availability on Demand.
  Sign up now and start migrating to Azure today!

  Read the blogs:
  Seamless Migrations into Azure with Availability on Demand 
  Migrate Heterogeneous IT Environments to Azure with ASR

  The Migration Accelerator service will not be available after 07/31/2015. We recommend that you start using Azure Site Recovery for your migration scenarios.

Azure Backup announcements

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  Announcing Security Features in Azure Backup to protect data against security threats
  Pallavi Joshi [MSFT] Thursday, November 17, 2016 10:24 AM

  Announcing Security Features in Azure Backup to protect data against security threats:

  https://twitter.com/AzureBackup/status/798946904809750529

  Here are few highlights of the feature:

  • Prevention: New authentication layer added for critical operations so only users with valid Azure credentials can perform them.
  • Alerting: Email notifications sent for any critical operations that impact availability of backup data to help detect attacks as soon as they occur.
  • Recovery: Backup data retained after deletion and minimum recovery points maintained to ensure recovery of data.

  Learn more @ https://aka.ms/azurebackupsecurityfeature

• Link
  Announcing Azure Backup support for encrypted Azure virtual machines
  Pallavi Joshi [MSFT] Wednesday, November 02, 2016 12:03 PM

  Announcing backup and restore of Azure virtual machines encrypted using Azure Disk Encryption twitter.com/AzureBackup/status/793500079923470336

  Salient features:
  

  • Enhanced security
  • Improved restores
  • Portal and PowerShell support
  • Simplified experience

  Learn more @ aka.ms/azurebackupencryptedvms

• Link
  Alerting and monitoring for Azure backups
  giridharreddy Tuesday, August 16, 2016 4:49 PM

  Announcing preview release of alerting and monitoring for Azure backups @ https://twitter.com/AzureBackup/status/765586365509754880
• Link
  Alerting and monitoring for Azure backups
  giridharreddy Tuesday, August 16, 2016 4:49 PM

  Announcing preview release of alerting and monitoring for Azure backups @ https://twitter.com/AzureBackup/status/765586365509754880
• Link
  Premium Storage VM Backup GA
  giridharreddy Thursday, June 16, 2016 10:15 PM

  Premium storage VM backup GA @ https://twitter.com/AzureBackup/status/743559104421986310
• Link
  Blogs on Windows Azure Online Backup
  Gaurav Gupta [MSFT] Friday, September 21, 2012 12:25 AM

  Here are some of the blogs which have been released on Windows Azure Online Backup.

  1. Windows Azure Online Backup Preview for Windows Server 2012 - http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2012/09/07/windows-azure-online-backup.aspx

  2. Integration with System Center 2012 SP1 - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2012/09/07/windows-azure-online-backup-now-supports-system-center-2012-sp1.aspx

  3. Integration with Windows Server 2012 Essentials - http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/09/18/windows-azure-online-backup-and-windows-server-2012-essentials.aspx

Azure Search announcements

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  Welcome to the Azure Search Forum
  Liam Cavanagh - MSFT Thursday, August 21, 2014 5:35 PM

  Welcome to the public preview forum for Azure Search.  This is a great place to ask technical questions about Azure Search a fully-managed search-as-a-service that customers can use to integrate complete search experiences into applications and connect search results to business objectives through fine-tuned, ranking profiles.  We look forward to your questions and feedback!

Azure Marketplace announcements

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  Certificate change may affect Linux clients
  Max Uritsky Wednesday, May 08, 2013 11:16 PM

  We recently updated our certificate infrastructure to reflect all up Windows Azure Certificate Authority change (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2013/03/15/windows-azure-root-certificate-migration.aspx).

  Some Linux clients do not does not accept certificates chained to both the GTE CyberTrust Global Root and the Baltimore CyberTrust Root and you may hit certificate validation errors. Accepting the Root Certificate trust will solve the issue.

  Thanks,

  Marketplace team

• Link
  Bing Image Thumbnail Changes
  Peter Puszkiewicz Thursday, December 13, 2012 6:42 PM

  We are pleased to announce a new development in the display of thumbnail images with the Bing Search API.  As the demand for images in Bing has increased, the need for larger thumbnails to display high quality images has grown.  To meet this need, thumbnail dimensions will now be increased when the original image can support it.

  How does this affect you?  If you currently display images in your application, you will need to utilize existing thumbnail properties to adjust the thumbnail size to your UI specifications.  We recommend that you should not have a dependency on the upper bound of the thumbnail size, as the thumbnail size will vary.

Azure Cache announcements

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  Azure Redis Cache is now Generally Available
  Shakti Prasad Mishra Wednesday, September 24, 2014 7:28 PM

  Azure Redis Cache is now Generally Available, with an availability SLA of 99.9%.

  Azure Redis Cache is a distributed, in-memory, managed cache that helps you build highly scalable and responsive applications, by providing you with fast access to your data. It’s based on the popular open source Redis Cache, and it gives you access to a secured, dedicated Redis cache that’s managed by Microsoft.

  For all new Azure deployment, Azure Redis cache is the recommended  cache.

  For more information browse to the Azure Redis Cache service home page.

Azure DocumentDB announcements

• Link
  DocumentDB GA - Per Collection Performance & Pricing levels
  Han, MSFT Friday, May 08, 2015 6:28 PM

  Hi,

  Here's an overview on how performance levels & pricing work for DocumentDB. 

  DocumentDB offers 3 performance levels (S1, S2, S3) with respective provisioned document storage and reserved throughput.  You can think of S1, S2 & S3 being low, medium & high performance levels.   

  A collection is associated with a performance level and can scale up/down at any time based on your needs.    

  A DocumentDB account can have multiple databases with multiple collections of respective performance levels. 

  Each collection is charged hourly based on the performance level the collection is assigned to.  
  An empty database account, i.e. an account with no collections, is charged ONE S1 collection per hour. 

  Each time you add a new collection to a database you will be charged for at least one hour according to the performance tier of that collection.
  
  If you delete the collection after only a few seconds, you will be charged for 1 hour according to the performance tier of that collection.

  For more information on pricing, please see  http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/documentdb/.  

  For more information on performance levels, please see http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/documentdb-performance-levels/.

  Thanks.

Azure Data Factory announcements

• Link
  Welcome to Azure Data Factory MSDN Forum
  Gaurav Malhotra-MSFT Tuesday, October 28, 2014 12:22 AM

  Azure Data Factory allows you to manage the production of trusted information by offering an easy way to create, orchestrate, and monitor data pipelines over the Hadoop ecosystem using structured, semi-structures and unstructured data sources.

  You can connect to your on-premises SQL Server, Azure database, tables or blobs and create data pipelines that will process the data with Hive and Pig scripting, or custom C# processing. The service offers a holistic monitoring and management experience over these pipelines, including a view of their data production and data lineage down to the source systems.

  The outcome of Data Factory is the transformation of raw data assets into trusted information that can be shared broadly with BI and analytics tools.

  The MSDN forum will be used for general discussions for Getting Started, Development, Management, and Troubleshooting using Azure Data Factory.

Azure Key Vault announcements

• Link
  Azure Key Vault Preview announced
  Amit Bapat [MSFT] Thursday, January 08, 2015 6:18 PM

  Today we're announcing the public preview of Microsoft Azure Key Vault, a cloud-hosted HSM-backed service for managing cryptographic keys and other secrets used in your cloud applications. This forum is intended for general discussion, best practices, tips and tricks and troubleshooting. Remember, this is a public forum. Do not post confidential information here. Reach us via email to discuss your specific project or feature requests.

Azure Log Analytics announcements

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  NOTICE: Upcoming URL change for OpsMgr-attach to Azure Operational Insights
  Daniele Muscetta Saturday, February 07, 2015 5:31 AM

  IMPORTANT for OpInsights users!

  If you are using OpsMgr with Azure Operational Insights behind proxies with specific ACL or rules to only allow traffic to specific destination, please note the following upcoming change that would require an action in your environment.

  In order to align the way that OpsMgr and direct agent send data to the service, and as we are making preparations to have a presence in more Azure regions, we have to make a ONE-TIME change to the URLs that the management packs use to post data to OpInsights: where in the past OpsMgr would be talking to ods.systemcenteradvisor.com , with an upcoming deployment (possibly mid next week, we will update this post closer to the deployment as we have a more specific date) OpsMgr will instead start reporting to <yourworkspaceid>.ods.opinsights.azure.com. We recommend you update your firewall/proxy’s ACLs/rules to allow traffic to the new destination *.ods.opinsights.azure.com or your data would start either queuing up on OpsMgr and/or eventually being dropped if the new destination can’t be reached.

  As the new management packs will be received, the system will start reporting to the new URL, and you can later remove the previous ods.systemcenteradvisor.com entry which won’t be needed any longer.

  We have updated the table with the relevant URLs on our troubleshooting blog post and are updating the MSDN documentation as well.  Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need more information or help.

  Read more on our blog http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2015/02/06/notice-upcoming-url-change-for-opsmgr-reporting-to-opinsights.aspx

• Link
  Welcome to Azure Log Analytics (aka Operational Insights) Forum!
  Jialin Xin Friday, November 07, 2014 7:38 PM

  Log Analytics is an analysis service that enables IT administrators to gain deep insight across on-premises and cloud environments. It enables you to interact with real-time and historical machine data to rapidly develop custom insights, and provides Microsoft and community-developed patterns for analyzing data. Learn more and try it out at http://www.microsoft.com/oms

  This is a forum to ask question and discuss with the community about your experience with Log Analytics!

  Onboarding issues? Read this troubleshooting guide

  • How do I do XYZ? Try our documentation
  • Customers with Premier support can log support cases via Premier
  • Customers with Azure support agreements can log support cases in the Azure portal

  Note we also have another site to report Feedback, Ideas and Bugs https://feedback.azure.com/forums/267889-log-analytics  (before submitting there, check what other users have already suggested and voted on). You can also reach us on twitter @OpInsights

Machine Learning announcements

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  Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure DocumentDB as a data source in Import Data module
  GokhanU Monday, November 28, 2016 6:28 PM

  We have released support for Azure Document DB as a data source in Azure Machine Learning. You can use the existing "Azure DocumentDB" connection option in the Import Data module to read data from Azure DocumentDB for your experiment.
  For more information, please see the DocumentDB section of the Import Data module.
• Link
  Updates to Text Analytics Modules in Azure Machine Learning Studio
  Roope Astala - MSFT Thursday, October 20, 2016 1:39 PM

  New Module: Extract Key Phrases from Text

  You can use this module to extract key talking points from text. As an input, the module takes a dataset that must have a text string column from which the key-phrases are extracted.

  The module takes the language of the text records as input parameter. Supported languages include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. You can also use a language column that specifies the language of each record, as produced by Detect Languages module.  

  The output consists of comma-separated lists of key phrases for each record in input. The key phrases can be used to summarize a corpus of documents, or as features for a machine learning model.

  Updated Module: Preprocess Text

  • You can specify a language through a language column, as produced by Detect Languages module.
  • Following three preprocessing options have been added: Expand verb contractions, Normalize backslashes to slashes, and Split tokens on special characters. Previously, these transformations were done automatically.
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  Azure Machine Learning Workspace and Web Service Pricing Plans now available in the Azure Portal
  Chhavi Bhasin Wednesday, August 24, 2016 10:02 PM

  We are pleased to announce the availability of Azure Machine Learning Workspaces and Web Service Plans for all our Azure Machine Learning users through the Azure Portal. Azure Machine Learning users can now create and manage Standard workspaces through the Azure Portal. In addition, users will also be able to create Web Service Pricing Plans. These plans are used when deploying web services and provide included quantities of operationalized compute at a single, predictable monthly cost.

  Create your Standard Azure Machine Learning workspace now by going to https://portal.azure.com. Log in with the credentials that you use for accessing your Azure Subscription(s). Click on +New | Data + Analytics | Machine Learning Workspace.

• Link
  New Text Analytics Modules in Azure ML Studio
  Roope Astala - MSFT Thursday, August 11, 2016 7:47 PM

  We are pleased to announce significant new capabilities for text analytics in Azure Machine Learning Studio.

  The new features include following modules:

  • Detect Languages
    • Identify language of each record in input file from large number of languages.
  • Preprocess Text
    • Clean and simplify text to make it more easy to featurize.
  • Extract N-Gram Features from Text
    • Create N-gram feature vectors from long text strings, and select only the most important features.
  • Latent Dirichlet Allocation
    • Group text into categories using topic modeling.

  These modules allow you to build models to solve text classification problems, such as support ticket routing or sentiment analysis. You can pre-process text in multiple languages, and then create features from your text data. Operationalization of models is fully supported.

  The modules complement the existing capabilities for Feature Hashing, Vowpal Wabbit based high-dimensional models, and text analytics through R and Python scripting.

  For more details, visit MSDN documentation and Cortana Intelligence Gallery.

• Link
  Web services created using the "New" option
  raymondl_msft Friday, July 22, 2016 7:59 PM

  There is an issue impacting the "New" web service option for deploying web services from Predictive Experiments in Azure ML. We are working on resolving the issue, and a result have disabled the feature until the feature is fully functional. To access web services created the new process, please browse to https://services.azureml.net and sign in to view your web services. Sorry for any inconvenience this issue may cause.

• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure SQL Data Warehouse as a data source and a destination
  GokhanU Thursday, March 24, 2016 2:24 PM

  We have released support for Azure SQL Data Warehouse as a data source and a destination in Azure Machine Learning. You can use the existing "Azure SQL Database" connection options in the Reader and Writer modules to read from and write to Azure SQL Data Warehouse. When using the Writer module, the destination tables must already exist in the SQL Data Warehouse.

  For more information, please see How to Use Azure ML with Azure SQL Data Warehouse 

  Please refer to SQL Data Warehouse Reference to learn more about the product and the Transact-SQL language details.

   

• Link
  Announcing Availablility of Tree Model Visualizations in Azure Machine Learning
  Roope Astala - MSFT Monday, November 23, 2015 9:32 PM

  Visualization of tree models such as Boosted Decision Trees is now available in Azure Machine Learning Studio. To view the trees, train the model, and click Visualize on the output of Train Model module.
• Link
  Announcing the Availability of an Azure Virtual Machine Image with Popular Data Science Tools
  Larry Koch (MSFT) Thursday, November 19, 2015 12:59 PM

  Announcing the Availability of an Azure Virtual Machine Image with Popular Data Science Tools

  Microsoft Data Group is happy to announce the immediate availability of a Windows Server 2012 based custom virtual machine image on the Azure marketplace containing several tools that can be used by data scientists and developers for advanced analytics. Through Azure’s world-wide cloud infrastructure, customers now have on-demand access to a data science development environment they can use to derive insights from their data, build predictive models and intelligent applications.  The virtual machine saves developers’ time from having to discover and install the tools individually.  Hosting the data science machine on Azure gains you high availability and a consistent set of tools used across your data science team.

  The data science VM comes with several popular tools pre-installed like Revolution R Open, Anaconda Python distribution including Jupyter notebook server, Visual Studio Community Edition, Power BI Desktop, SQL Server Express edition and Azure SDK. Once you provision your virtual machine from this image you can get started with data exploration and modeling right away. The data on the virtual machine is stored on the cloud and highly available. You have full administrative access to the virtual machine and can install additional software as needed. There is no separate software fee to use the VM image. You only pay for actual hardware compute usage of the virtual machine depending on the size of the virtual machine you are provisioning this VM on. You  can turn off the machine from Azure portal when it is not in use to avoid being billed. When you restart the virtual machine from the Azure portal you can continue your development with all your data and files intact. Further augment your analytics on your data science virtual machine by leveraging solutions in Microsoft’s Cortana Analytics Suite.

  The data science virtual machine helps you create an analytics environment where you can rapidly build advanced analytics solutions for deployment to the cloud, on-premises or in a hybrid environment.

  You can find the data science virtual machine and the Azure hardware compute pricing  at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/partners/microsoft-ads/standard-data-science-vm/

  More information about the virtual machine can be found at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/machine-learning-data-science-provision-vm/

  If you are new to Azure, you can try the data science virtual machine for free via a 30-day Azure free trial by visitinghttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/

  We encourage you to try the data science virtual machine to jumpstart your analytics project and provide us feedback on how we can better serve your analytics needs.

• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now available in Western Europe
  Dan Manrique Wednesday, September 09, 2015 9:10 PM

  We are happy to announce that we have released Azure ML in our Western Europe datacenter (Amsterdam). Now you can create workspaces in this datacenter. For more information, click here: http://aka.ms/mlwelaunch.

• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now available in Southeast Asia
  Dan Manrique Wednesday, September 09, 2015 9:09 PM

  We are happy to announce that we have released Azure ML in our SouthEast Asia datacenter (Singapore). Now you can create workspaces in this datacenter. For more information, click here: http://aka.ms/mlasialaunch.
• Link
  Azure Machine Learning now supports Azure Active Directory
  Dan Manrique Wednesday, September 09, 2015 9:09 PM

  We are happy to announce that we have released Azure Active Directory (AAD) support in Azure ML. Now you can log in with any arbitrary Azure AD account (work or school account), in addition to, Microsoft accounts (LiveID), and invite other Azure AD users to your workspace. For more information, click here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2015/09/02/logging-on-to-azure-ml-with-your-work-or-school-account.aspx.

• Link
  Free Excel add-in to connect to Azure ML web services
  Ted Way Wednesday, September 02, 2015 6:52 PM

  A free Excel add-in that you can use with web services published from Azure Machine Learning is now available. You can use this add-in for request/response predictions or batch predictions, work in Windows or the browser, share workbooks with your co-workers, and call multiple web services all within a single spreadsheet.  Go to http://aka.ms/amlexcelhelp for help or ask a question here.

  To try it out, open and download sample Excel worksheets that already contain web services:

  http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-1

  http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-2

  You may use the add-in directly in the browser using Excel Online or opening the file in Excel 2013 or later on Windows.  Copy the file to your own OneDrive account if you want to edit it.

  Feature highlights

  • Connect to multiple web services in one Excel workbook
  • Choose from RRS or BES
  • Supports single or no input, and single, multiple, or no outputs

  For sample 1 (text sentiment analysis): http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-1

  1.)    Highlight cells A1 to A12

  2.)    Click the range selector button (the selection Sheet1!$A$1:$A:$12 should automatically be populated)

  3.)    Click OK in the Select Data dialog box

  4.)    Type “B1” in the output1 text box

  5.)    Click the Predict button

  6.)    This web service takes some time to process the text, so please be patient and wait for a minute.  When it’s done, you should see the sentiment predictions and scores in columns B and C.

  For sample 2 (Titanic survivor predictor): http://aka.ms/amlexcel-sample-2

  1.)    Highlight cells A1 to G11

  2.)    Click the range selector button (the selection Sheet1!$A$1:$G:$11 should automatically be populated)

  3.)    Click OK in the Select Data dialog box

  4.)    Type “H1” in the output1 text box

  5.)    Click the Predict button

  6.)    When it’s done, you should see the predictions and scores in columns H and I

  To add your own web service:

  1.)    In the Excel add-in, go to the Web Services section (if you are in the Predict section, click the back arrow to go to the list of web services)

  2.)    Click Add Web Service

  3.)    In Azure ML Studio, click the WEB SERVICES section in the left pane, and then select the web service

  4.)    Copy the API key for the web service

  5.)    Paste the API key into the Excel add-in text box labeled API key

  6.)    On the DASHBOARD tab for the web service, click the REQUEST/RESPONSE link

  7.)    Look for the OData Endpoint Address section. Copy the URL and paste that into the text box labeled URL in the Excel add-in\

  8.)    Click Add

• Link
  Release Announcement: Preview availability of Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Machine Learning Studio
  Dan Manrique Friday, July 24, 2015 4:19 PM

  On July 24th, 2015, Microsoft announced the Preview Availability release of Jupyter Notebooks in Azure Machine Learning Studio. 
   
  Azure Machine Learning Studio is a powerful canvas for the composition of Machine Learning Experiments and subsequent operationalization and consumption.   It provides an easy to use, yet powerful, drag-drop style of creating Experiments.  But sometimes you need a good old “REPL” that allows you to have a tight loop where you enter some script code and get a response.  We are delighted to announce that we’ve now integrated this functionality into ML Studio through Jupyter Notebooks.
   
  Jupyter enables the concept of “executable documents” with support for mixed code, markdown and inline graphics.   It’s  one of the most important innovations in the Data Science and Technical Computing space in recent years.  You now have full access to its power from any OS, from any modern browser directly from inside the Azure Machine Learning Studio. 
   
  In addition to authoring capabilities above, we are also enabling publishing AzureML web services directly from the Jupyter Notebook. We are also extending this capability to the Jupyter Notebooks running locally outside of AzureML Studio. This allows you to publish any function, including those creating ML models, to be published as a web service directly from the Jupyter Notebook running on your machine. The result is an AzureML web service API that can be called to perform functions or predictions from client applications in real time and over the internet.
• Link
  Annoucing the availability of Azure Machine Learning BES SDK
  raymondl_msft Monday, June 29, 2015 5:24 PM

  Announcing the availability of the SDK for AzureML Batch Execution Service (BES)

  The AzureML BES SDK is now available for download and installation as a NuGet package on NuGet.org (http://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Azure.MachineLearning/).

  The SDK wraps the BES sample code with additional functions to simplify the consumption of BES APIs.

  Documentation is available after installing the SDK package in Visual Studio. The BES documentation has also been updated with sample code and guidance on using the SDK.

  We are looking forward to hearing your feedback and comments on the SDK to help improve it.

  Thanks,

  AzureML Team

  
  
• Link
  AzureML Retraining API demo available on Codeplex
  raymondl_msft Tuesday, March 24, 2015 6:18 PM

  We have posted a demo of the Retraining APIs on Codeplex.com. The demo uses the new APIs to programmatically retrain a trained model. Here is the link to the Demo.

  Please take a look and let us know if you have questions or comments.

StorSimple announcements

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  StorSimple 8000 series available only in the Azure portal from October 2017
  Anoob Backer Wednesday, September 27, 2017 6:41 AM

  In July 2017, we announced the general availability of the Microsoft Azure StorSimple 8000 series in the new Azure portal. Beginning October 2017, you need to use the new Azure portal to manage your StorSimple 8000 series devices. The Azure classic portal is no longer supported.

  • Starting October 5, 2017, your classic StorSimple device managers will automatically move to the new Azure portal. This is a phased rollout, and we will update you about the move via email and portal notifications. For more information about the move, see Move your service to Azure portal.
  • The new Azure portal supports devices running Update 3.0 or later. If your device is not up to date, we strongly recommend that you apply Update 5 as soon as possible. For more information, see Install Update 5 on your StorSimple device.
  • The existing Azure Service Management (ASM) PowerShell cmdlets are not supported after the transition to the new portal. Update the scripts to manage your devices through the Azure Resource Manager SDK. For more information, see the script samples that use the Resource Manager SDK.

  If you have any questions, see FAQ: Move to Azure portal. To familiarize yourself with the new Azure portal, please refer to the product documentation.

  Source: https://azure.microsoft.com/updates/storsimple-8000-series-is-available-only-in-the-azure-portal-from-october-2017/ 

• Link
  Announcing StorSimple 8000 series in the new Azure portal!
  Anoob Backer Monday, July 10, 2017 7:11 PM

  StorSimple 8000 series device management is generally available in the Azure portal. This means that you can use the portal and Azure Resource Manager to unlock deep personalization and role-based access control, and have a single portal to manage all your apps.

   

  What does this change mean for you?

  • Using Resource Manager, you can now manage 8000 series devices.
  • You can leverage the Resource Manager SDK for automating the 8000 series device management.
  • The Azure portal supports devices running Update 3.0 or later.

   

  What actions do you need to take?

  • Your existing StorSimple Physical Device Series resources in the classic portal can be transitioned to the new Azure Portal in the coming weeks. The transition from the classic portal to the Azure portal is quick, easy, and non-disruptive.
  • If your device is not up to date, we strongly recommend that you apply Update 4 as soon as possible.

   

  For more information about the Azure portal experience, please visit the Azure Blog. 

• Link
  Expanded subscription offers for StorSimple Virtual Array
  Anoob Backer Monday, February 06, 2017 6:45 AM

  To leverage the StorSimple Virtual Array hybrid cloud offering, we are now expanding this solution to customers who are on MSDN, Pay-as-you-go, and other subscriptions.

  For more details, check out Expanded subscription offers for StorSimple Virtual Array.
  

• Link
  Transitioning your StorSimple Virtual Array to the Azure portal
  Anoob Backer Monday, February 06, 2017 6:42 AM

  Your existing StorSimple Virtual Device Series managers in the Azure Classic portal will be transitioned to the new Azure portal. Please note this migration is seamless and there will be no downtime to your virtual arrays. Upon completion of this migration, you may still see your StorSimple Virtual Device Series resources within the Classic portal, however you will be directed to manage them within the Azure portal.

   

  More information is available at StorSimple Virtual Device Series transitioning to the new Azure portal.

  
  

• Link
  Managing StorSimple virtual arrays in the new Azure portal
  Anoob Backer Wednesday, November 30, 2016 7:34 PM

  We’re happy to announce the management of the StorSimple Virtual Device Series is now available in the new Azure portal. You can use the StorSimple extension in the new portal to create Azure Resource Manager based StorSimple managers to manage your virtual arrays.

  For more information, check out Managing StorSimple virtual arrays in the new Azure portal.

Azure Mobile Engagement announcements

• Link
  Quick Tips for former Capptain customers who are new to Azure
  Micah Adamson Thursday, June 11, 2015 12:00 AM

  Quick Tips for former Capptain customers who are new to Azure:

  1. You can setup a free 30 trial of Azure if you don't have a subscription: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/
  2. However, to avoid losing access to your AzME trial apps when your free Azure trial expires, you can setup a "pay as you go" Azure subscription instead of a free trial: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/offers/ms-azr-0003p/
  3. Then, with a  "pay as you go" account, as long as you have less than 100 monthly active users, your AzME apps are still free to use long term: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/mobile-engagement/
  4. You will be billed for any other Azure services in addition to AzME that you use as the standard rates: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/
  5. You can setup a "spending limit" to ensure that you don’t accidentally spend too much per month: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/spending-limits/
  6. If you want to pay for your Azure subscription by invoice instead of credit card, you can setup "pay by invoice": http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/invoicing/
  7. You can open a Billing or Account related SR for free from any Azure subscription: https://manage.windowsazure.com/?getsupport=true
  8. You can even open a Billing or Account related SR for free without an existing Azure subscription: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=544831&clcid=0x409
  9. You have to purchase technical support plans to be eligible to open a Technical Support SR (even though Billing or Account related SRs are free): http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/
  10. BizSpark members can access AzME with their BizSpark Azure benefits: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/offers/ms-azr-0064p/
• Link
  Azure Mobile Engagement - Links
  Micah Adamson Wednesday, February 18, 2015 10:20 PM

  Overview:

  Announcement: http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2015/02/18/azure-mobile-engagement-now-in-public-preview/

  Main Page: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/mobile-engagement/

  Pricing: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/mobile-engagement/

  Preview Sign Up: https://account.windowsazure.com/PreviewFeatures

  Documentation:

  SDK Documentation: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/services/mobile-engagement/

  API Documentation on
  MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn913744.aspx

  UI Documentation: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/mobile-engagement-user-interface/

  Troubleshooting: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/mobile-engagement-troubleshooting-guide/

  How-Tos: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/mobile-engagement-how-tos/

  Support:

  MSDN Forum: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/azure/en-US/home?forum=azuremobileengagement

  Feature Requests/Feedback: http://feedback.azure.com/forums/285737-mobile-engagement

  Azure Portals:

  Azure Current Portal: https://manage.windowsazure.com/

  Azure Preview Portal: https://portal.azure.com/

  Azure Billing Portal: https://account.windowsazure.com/

Azure Logic Apps announcements

• Link
  SQL Connector issue effecting Logic Apps
  Jeff Hollan [MSFT] Tuesday, March 07, 2017 6:24 PM

  We are aware of an incident effecting any Logic Apps that were using the SQL connector.  Connections will need to be recreated.  Details on mitigating can be found here https://aka.ms/logicapp-sql-mitigation

  We apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused and will keep you updated with details as we progress.

  For questions or issues - please email logicappsemail@microsoft.com

Cognitive Services announcements

• Link
  Microsoft Project Oxford is now Microsoft Cognitive Services
  Ryan Galgon - MSFT Monday, April 04, 2016 7:03 PM

  First off: there are no changes to the API endpoints or keys you are already using from Project Oxford.

  On March 30th at the //build/ conference we announced Microsoft Cognitive Services. Bringing together the services from Project Oxford along with Bing’s v5 Search APIs and additional machine learning based services from across Microsoft, there are now even more capabilities available to developers to easily add intelligent features across Vision, Speech, Language, Knowledge, and Search capabilities.

  Please visit our new site at: www.microsoft.com/cognitive to learn more and start using the new services today. 

  For more details on Cognitive Services and related announcement from //build/ please see this blog post: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/machinelearning/2016/03/30/from-analytical-applications-to-intelligent-solutions/ 

• Link
  FaceAPIs - v1.0 now available. Includes breaking changes from v0
  Ryan Galgon - MSFT Saturday, December 19, 2015 12:03 AM

  Signature Changes:

  The root service endpoint has changed from https://api.projectoxford.ai/face/v0/ to https://api.projectoxford.ai/face/v1.0/

  There are several signature changes for methods such as Face-Detect, Face-Identify, Face-Find Similar, Face-Group, so please see the v1.0 documentation for all the details. 

  Higher Call Limits:

  Quota	New Limit
  Group: Faces to be grouped	Now returns up to 1,000 candidates (previous limit was 100)
  Find Similar: Candidate faces allowed	Now returns up to 1,000 candidates (previous limit was 100)
  Person: Persisted faces per Person Object	Now store up to 248 per Person object (previous limit was 32)

  (Posted: 2015-12-18)

Azure SQL Data Warehouse announcements

• Link
  Azure SQL Data Warehouse general availability expanding to 18 regions worldwide
  Ellis Hiroki [MSFT] Tuesday, September 20, 2016 6:20 PM

  We are excited to announce the general availability of Azure SQL Data Warehouse in four additional regions—North Europe, Japan East, Brazil South, and Australia Southeast. These additional locations bring the product worldwide availability count to 18 regions – more than any other major cloud provider.

  Read More Here!

Azure Security Center announcements

• Link
  Welcome to the Azure Security Center Forum!
  Thomas W Shinder - MSFT Wednesday, December 02, 2015 7:49 PM

  Welcome to the Azure Security Center Forum - we're really happy to see you here. Feel free to ask any question you like about Azure Security Center. We read all the posts and will do our best to answer your questions quickly! Here are some resources to get your started:

  • Check out Sarah Fender’s Azure Security Center post on the Azure Blog
  • Watch Sarah’s presentation at AzureCon 2015,
  • Read the Azure Security Center docs
  • See the Azure Security Center announcement
  • Stay up to date on Azure Security by reading the Azure Security Team Blog

  We're looking forward to working with you - so let's work together to make Azure Security Center the best!

  Thanks! -Tom Shinder, Project Manager, Azure Security Engineering.

Azure Disk Encryption announcements

• Link
  Please install PowerShell Version 1.2.1
  Thomas W Shinder - MSFT Thursday, January 28, 2016 3:57 PM

  Heads up! If you plan on using Azure Disk Encryption, please install the latest version of PowerShell, which at this time is version 1.0.2.

  Thanks!

  Tom Shinder
  Program Manager, Azure Security Engineering

Azure Blockchain announcements

• Link
  Welcome to the Microsoft Blockchain support forum!
  Microsoft Azure Blockchain Team Thursday, May 11, 2017 6:45 PM

  The Microsoft Blockchain team monitors this forum to provide support for our Azure marketplace solutions:

  1. Azure Blockchain Service - Ethereum single-subscription and Hyperledger Fabric solution templates.
  2. Azure Mult-member Blockchain - Ethereum multi-subscription cross-region multi-member solution template.

Azure Log Integration announcements

• Link
  Welcome to the Azure Log Integration Forum!
  Thomas W Shinder - MSFT Tuesday, April 04, 2017 9:09 PM

  Hey everyone!

  Welcome to the Azure Log Integration forum!

  Here you can ask questions about configuration, troubleshooting, capabilities and just about anything else you want to ask!

  We will monitor this forum and provide answers when we have them. We hope that community will be a powerful force to help one another though, as often you come up with solutions before we do! :-)

  Looking forward to working with all of you!

  Thanks!

  Tom