Azure Friday

Scott learns how to secure Azure SQL Database with Jack Richins. We cover getting started and best practices for a more secure database. Areas covered in this video: Azure security and compliance Understanding Azure role (hardware, network, OS, and SQL Server) Understanding Network SSL/TLS, IP Restrictions, and Least Privilege Useful topics and links: Microsoft Azure Trust Center - Compliance

Jack Richins teaches Scott how to easily encrypt his SQL Server databases on Virtual Machine Azure instances. It's easier than you'd think! Areas covered in this video: Understanding encryption and SQL Server Understanding the Data Protection API, master keys, and certificates Using SQL commands to create the master key and certificates, and encrypt the database Useful topics and links: SQL Server...

Scott and Becky Ochs dig into what settings you need to enforce to make sure your Azure instances are collecting the correct Security and Audit logs. We'll learn about logging for Cloud Services, VMs and configuration for both. Areas covered in this video: Azure Diagnostics Agent Auditing in Azure Windows Event Forwarding (WEF) Useful topics and links: How to Monitor Cloud Services Collect Azure O...

Scott talks with Saurabh Pant about the new Azure Managed Redis Cache. In this more advanced session we learn about failover and monitoring. How to Use Azure Redis Cache Azure Redis Cache

All this talk about REST and RESTful Web Services can be overwhelming. There's also terms like "HATEOAS," which sounds scary but actually means "Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State." Scott talks to Mat Velloso about all these topics and get s a nice primer on REST as it relates to hosting Web Services in the Azure Cloud.

Scott talks with Saurabh Pant about the new Azure Managed Redis Cache. We'll cover a basic introduction to Redis and Redis on Windows. What kinds of things is Redis good for? How do you talk to Redis from the command line, and what does Azure's hosting of Redis bring to the table? How to Use Azure Redis Cache Azure Redis Cache

Scott talks with Saurabh Pant about the new Azure Managed Redis Cache. In this episode Scott learns about generalized application patterns for Redis. What kinds of problems does Redis solve well? How should queries and caches be structured? How to Use Azure Redis Cache Azure Redis Cache

Scott talks to Ryan CrawCour about the new managed Azure Document Database called "Azure DocumentDB." We've made our database, but now let's query it from C# code! We'll explore the client SDK, how indexing work, and what workloads Azure DocumentDB excels at. Azure DocumentDB DocumentDB Documentation, Tutorials, and Guides An Introduction to Azure DocumentDB

Scott talks to Ryan CrawCour about the new managed Azure Document Database called "Azure DocumentDB." What problem does it solve? How does it scale? What sizes are available? Azure DocumentDB DocumentDB Documentation, Tutorials, and Guides An Introduction to Azure DocumentDB

Scott talks to Josh Twist and gets an overview of the new Azure API Management Service. If you've got a Web Service, why would you want API Management? What does it add to public facing web services? Areas covered in this video: Understanding a few reasons to create and distribute an API Learning about how to discover, use, and manage an API Understanding the API proxy is used to help collect usef...

In API Management 101, Scott got an overview from Josh Twist of the new Azure API Management Service. Now, Josh explains how to customize the public facing APIs. He also presents the types of control you have over the API. Azure API Management API Management Pricing Details Getting Started, Tutorials, and Guides

Scott digs into the advanced details of Azure API Management with Josh Twist. What kinds of transformations can be applied to your public-facing API? What policies can be set? When establishing billing for your API, what kinds of granular statistics and charts can be created? When you're creating a Developer Portal specific to your API, how custom can it be? Azure API Management API Management Pri...

Dan Rosanova talks about Azure Service Bus. He explains Topics, Queues and Relays. Then, Dan builds a simple app in Python that talks to Azure Service Bus. Areas covered in this video: Creating a new namespace. Creating and running a new Python application in Visual Studio. Viewing the output message in Azure. Useful topics and links: Azure Service Bus

Suwat Bodin educates Scott about Azure Websites Site Extensions. Together they create a simple Site Extension and upload it to http://www.siteextensions.net/. Areas covered in this video: Using Kudu and Site Control Manager Exploring the Process Explorer and Debug Console Looking at the Site Extension Gallery Viewing the File Counter extension Creating a site extension Making the site extension av...

What are Web Hosting Plans in Azure, and what kinds of advanced functionality do they hold? Scott talks with Yochay and learns how to manipulate hosting plans to best benefit.

Scott learns from Sunitha Muthukrishna the best practices to keep in mind when creating Azure Websites. How should my site architecture change when I move to the cloud? Areas covered in this video: Understanding that outages can happen and you can mitigate risks Key principles to following when designing for the Cloud Considering the end-user experience when something fails Architecture Best Pract...

Azure Websites recently added support for multiple deployment "slots" like Dev, Test, and Staging. Daria Grigoriu shows Scott how this works and we look at scenarios where slots can be useful. Areas covered in this video: Understanding deployment slots and reasons to use them Understanding the support for deployment, configuration, and validation Reviewing an example of using deployment...

Traffic Manager comes to Azure Websites and Eduardo Laureano is here to tell Scott about how this feature makes Azure WebSites way more powerful. We create and load-balance sites globally! Areas covered in this video: Understanding load-balancing for Websites Supporting existing methods Understanding load-balancing between regions Walking through the traffic manager and endpoints Testing out the e...

Azure Websites gets even more useful with automatic and easy backup/restore, now baked into the platform. Eduardo Laureano schools Scott on this new feature. Areas covered in this video: Understanding what a backup can include Understanding how to setup an automated backup rather than a manual backup Viewing the backup contents Creating a new site and restoring the backup to the new site Useful to...

The march of Pranav continues, this time deep into the Azure WebJobs SDK. You can affect how your Web Jobs run and take full control when you write to the Azure WebJobs SDK. Pranav shows Scott powerful jobs written in C#. Areas covered in this video: Understanding the **ReadFromQueue() function and how it works. Understanding how to do advanced binding. Reviewing an example of plugging in a custom...

Pranav Rastogi continues to dive into Azure WebJobs, this time showing how notifications can be hooked into a WebJob. Maybe I can get texted when a job runs! Areas covered in this video: Understanding what happens when a triggered job completes. Using Zapier.com to make a phone call when a WebJob completes. Understanding how to gracefully shutdown a WebJob. Useful topics and links: Using the WebJo...

What other languages can be used to make an Azure WebJob? Can I deploy from the command line? Pranav Rastogi gets advanced and we deploy from DOS (not really). Areas covered in this video: Understanding cross platform command-line support to manage WebJobs Viewing WebJobs for a site using the command-line Viewing the JSON output that the API returns from the command-line Uploading a new WebJob fro...

Scott talks to Pranav Rastogi in this continuation of the WebJobs series. Here we learn how to scale our web jobs out to multiple instances. Areas covered in this video: How to scale out a deployed web job Review the ReadFromQueue web job Write messages into the queue using a producer Scale the related web site using the dashboard Customize web job behavior Useful topics and links: Use WebJobs to...

Did you know that Azure WebJobs has a management dashboard? Pranav clues us into this powerful tool in your WebJobs arsenal. Areas covered in this video: WebJobs dashboard (preview) Different type of WebJobs that you can create Uploading, accessing, and running WebJobs Viewing WebJob details Understanding a specific WebJob Replaying and testing a WebJob Kudu – Process explorer Useful topics and li...

Scott talks to Lori Woehler who explains Privacy and privacy concerns as it relates to Microsoft Azure. Is my data private? How private? Areas covered in this video: Understanding data privacy in Azure Choosing where data will be stored Understanding issues surrounding the control of data Understanding Azure's support of data privacy Useful topics and links: Microsoft Azure Trust Center