May 20, 2014 at 10:38Massive update of the Azure platform: all TechEd NA 2014 announcements
As part of this digest of news on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform , the main announcements for developers, IT professionals and all professionals interested in cloud technologies and the Azure platform are collected. Previous digest releases can always be found at the following link .
The largest Microsoft TechEd NA 2014 conference is taking place these days , during which many announcements were made, including on the technologies of the Microsoft Azure platform.
This digest contains all the announcements and other news voiced at the conference over the past month:
Consider these new products in more detail.
One of the high-profile announcements of TechEd NA 2014 was the Azure RemoteApp service, released in a public preliminary testing , which allows you to place existing Windows client applications in the Azure cloud and access them from any computers, tablets, laptops or phones through an RDP client (supplied by Microsoft for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android). Azure RemoteApp offers the ability to efficiently scale the computing power required by remote users by dynamically allocating or reducing capacity on demand or automatically.
The service provides a high level of security for remote work with applications. At the same time, the applications themselves are not stored and are not written to user devices, but are offered for centralized remote access.
Azure RemoteApp supports hybrid scenarios and can be integrated with your existing application hosting infrastructure.
For the period of public testing of the service, Azure RemoteApp is available free of charge for 20 users. Pay attention to the conditions of use of the service during testing.
You can request access to the preliminary version of RemoteApp at the following link . Details about the service, answers to frequently asked questions can be foundon the portal , documentation and examples are available here . Visit the official website to access client applications. Check out the Azure RemoteApp Deep Dive talk .
Another high-profile announcement of TechEd NA 2014 was the launch of preliminary testing of the API Management service . This service offers developers of their own APIs the opportunity to get a complete environment for managing, monitoring and administering their APIs located anywhere, in the cloud, or on any hosting, including their own infrastructure. API Management is essentially an intermediate proxy service that not only protects access to your own API based on rich sets of security features, but also allows you to monitor API usage statistics, use rich analytics tools, configure quotas, and various subscriptions for access to the API, Scale under load and centrally cache the results of user requests.
One of the most interesting features of API Management is provided to each developer who has published their API, a special portal that is built on the basis of Orchard CMS with the possibility of deep customization for their own design. This portal is used to provide access to the API for external clients of the service with a description of all the features of the API, including code samples in different programming languages that are automatically generated on the portal. You can read the article about customization and use of this developer portal at the following link . Another great feature is the interactive console, which will allow developers to test the API directly on the portal by setting request parameters and managing HTTP request headers.
Useful links:
You can use the new Azure API Management service today .
Another great announcement of TechEd NA 2014 was the launch of a Redis- based distributed caching service (REmote DIctionary Server), available on demand in the cloud, for testing . Redis is a popular opensource technology designed to build distributed key-value data storage systems in memory. Azure Redis Cache
Serviceallows you to get a ready-made redis-storage with the required size for data caching tasks at the first request. For developers, two levels of service are offered: simple (basic) and standard (standard). The service level is simply offered as a single redis storage node. This level of service is ideal for non-critical tasks during development and testing. The standard tier supports host replication for added reliability. An Azure Redis Cache service instance can be created in the new Azure portal . After creating a service instance, the portal offers a set of functions for monitoring work and access to the service settings. Redis storage can be accessed from a variety of
programming languages. Keys for access can be obtained on the portal.
Information on prices for the service can be obtained on the official website : Useful links:
You can try the Azure Redis Cache service today .
The Azure Virtual Machine Infrastructure Platform has received several interesting updates.
New high-performance VMs A8 and A9 with InfiniBand
Microsoft Azure users now have access to virtual machines of sizes A8 (8 cores, 56GB RAM) and A9 (16 cores, 112 GB RAM) oriented for use in highly loaded solutions. Previously, such machines were available in Azure only in the form of cloud services. These types of virtual machines are provided with a high-performance network based on InfiniBand. To create these types of virtual machines, you must use command line commands. Creation through the portal is not yet available.
Details can be found in this article .
Built-in support for the anti-virus function The
infrastructure of Microsoft Azure virtual machines has an agent function that can be automatically installed on the machine to perform various functions, for example, centralized management. An example of an agent is an agent integrating a VM with a Puppet server.
In the platform update, new agents for virtual machines were added - security extensions, antivirus modules that can be automatically added to the VM when it is created and deployed. Today, Microsoft Azure offers a choice of three agents: Microsoft Antimalware, Symantec Endpoint Protection, TrendMicro's Deep Security Agent.
Another agent was added to the list of agents - Custom Script, which allows you to execute an arbitrary PowerShell script on the machine immediately after creating the virtual machine, which allows you to automate various functions of deploying environments in VM.
Support
for capturing VM images Earlier this year, at the Build conference, a function was introduced to capture virtual machine images containing both the VM image itself and all virtual disks attached to it. The presented function was available for use only through command line scripts.
In the latest platform update, the function of removing full VM images was added to the portal for easier access to it. The new function allows you to take images of both stopped and running VMs and without the need for a reboot. Captured images are immediately available for redeployment.
Java 8 in the VM image gallery
After entering into a strategic partnership with Oracle, many Oracle server products were added to the virtual machine image gallery, including a ready-to-use image with a deployed environment for running JDK applications. Some time ago, an image with JDK8 officially supported by Oracle was added to the list of images.
Along with the new virtual machine infrastructure features in Azure, interesting new features for virtual networks and networking have been added.
Release of ExpressRoute
service. Azure ExpressRoute service offers users the opportunity to connect their own infrastructure directly to Microsoft Azure data centers, bypassing the Internet as an intermediate link. This feature allows you to guarantee the availability and quality of network connectivity, expanding your infrastructure in a natural way.
Previously, ExpressRoute was in preliminary testing; it is constantly developing and expanding the network of partners who are involved in the provision of services. With the new update, the service was put into commercial operation and became available through an even larger number of partners: AT&T, Equinix, Verizon, BT, Level3, TelecityGroup, SingTel and Zadara.
Currently, Azure ExpressRoute is available only through these partners, but this list is constantly updated. You can find the terms of use of the service on the official page .
Multiple VPN Support
A very popular function of connecting multiple VPNs in a virtual network was introduced into commercial operation. This feature allows you to connect your virtual network inside Azure to several networks within the local infrastructure. Details on the description page of virtual networks. VNET-VNET-type communications Another feature that has been added to the Azure network infrastructure is the ability to combine multiple virtual networks with each other. Networks can be located in the same region or in different regions of Azure. Details on the description page of virtual networks. IP Reservation New Feature
Reserving public IP addresses for your applications allows you to reserve and use up to 5 IP addresses for free for your applications within a single subscription. An additional number of IP addresses can be purchased for a fee. Reserved IPs can be assigned to selected VMs or cloud services.
Today, users can reserve IP through command line scripts:
In the future, IP reservations will be added to the portal for ease of use.
With the announcement of this function, it now becomes possible to assign specific IP addresses to virtual machines and access them directly. This simplifies a number of scenarios for deploying infrastructure in the cloud, for example, FTP servers. You can learn more about the possibilities at the following link .
Internal load balancing The
new internal load balancing feature allows Azure customers to balance traffic within the network with private IP addresses. Internal load balancing can be useful for multi-tier systems in which some of the links, for example, the database level, are hidden inside the infrastructure, but nevertheless need load balancing.
The internal load balancing feature is available for the standard level of virtual machines at no additional cost. This feature is currently in pre-testing and is only available for newly created virtual machines.
The release features Traffic Manager External Endpoints
Service Traffic Manager allows to route traffic between Azure datacenters, depending on different conditions and for different purposes - load balancing or failover.
The update added a new feature of Traffice Manager to route traffic not only for internal Azure resources, but also for external user resources. Azure customers can now centrally route traffic between Azure endpoints, their own servers, or even other cloud providers.
A new feature is available in previews and today can only be configured through command line scripts.
Several important announcements were made for the Microsoft Azure repository at the TechEd conference.
Release of the media import / export
service The Azure Import / Export service offers the cloud platform users the ability to send and receive massive amounts of data (files) on media (HDD) to the Azure infrastructure to speed up the loading or unloading of data from the cloud.
This service was previously available as a preview, and Azure Import / Export was commercialized at TechEd. With this announcement, the service received a number of new opportunities: the list of regions that support import / export of data was expanded, the service became available in the USA, Europe and Asia, it became possible to use both DHL and FedEx for delivery simply by specifying the supplier's account number .
Questions about the operation of the service can be sent to the public address waimportexport@microsoft.com .
New service for shared SMB storage
The most important announcement regarding data storage in the Azure cloud was the announcement of a new service Azure SMB File Sharing. This service allows you to access Azure Storage data as a network resource using the SMB protocol, which allows you to use the usual access to data from virtual machines through network interaction.
Windows or Linux virtual machines can read and write files in the new service using the SMB protocol, and at the same time, a REST interface for building applications that may need access to saved files is also offered for accessing files.
The Azure SMB File Sharing service is built on the same infrastructure as Azure Storage Blobs, Tables and Queues, which means high reliability, availability and redundancy of data storage. The service itself is managed by the Azure infrastructure, which allows customers to get a ready-made SMB file storage infrastructure without creating and configuring virtual machines.
Additional information about the service is available at the following link .
Thanks to the new integration features introduced, it became possible to link cloud resources such as websites and mobile services with databases hosted on their own infrastructure within the company's local network. Now, developers have an easy opportunity to build cloud web and mobile applications, services and a mobile backend with data that will be constantly hosted on their servers. To provide a hybrid scenario of linking mobile services and websites with local infrastructure, a new free level of BizTalk Services service was introduced. Thanks to this innovation, the new hybrid scenario does not require additional payment.
An important positive feature of this scenario is that developers do not need to open or configure VPN channels for communication between the enterprise and the cloud backend. Instead, BizTalk Services offers the ability to provide hybrid scenarios without additional network setup or reducing its security.
Hybrid connections support all the frameworks and programming languages that are supported by websites (today it is .NET, Java, PHP, Python, Node.js) and a backend of mobile services (.NET and Node.js).
You can learn more about the new features at the following links:
You can try new features for integrating mobile services and websites today.
To administer and manage new features in Microsoft Azure, new features and script sets have been introduced.
More than 40 new Azure PowerShell cmdlets
A new version of Azure PowerShell command-line administration tools has been made available to Azure administrators and developers , in which 49 new cmdlets have been added to solve various tasks, including:
Like all other tools in Azure, these command sets are distributed open source. Details of the new features and a complete list of new commands can be found on GiHub .
Azure Active Directory Deletion Feature
A small, but enjoyable and highly anticipated innovation. Azure users can now delete previously created Azure Active Directory directories using the administration portal interface.
Now you can do this with a simple command after selecting a specific directory from the list.
New Cloud App Discovery feature in Azure Active Directory
At the end of April, the official Active Directory team blog introduced the new Azure Active Directory cloud implementation module. The new functionality is calledCloud App Discovery and it is designed to automatically detect cloud services used within the enterprise. Administrators and certain employees can analyze the situation inside their company, quickly creating a complete picture of which of the SaaS services are used internally by its employees. In the future, each of these services can be integrated with Azure Active Directory for centralized management of access rights and security. You can try the new service right now: http://appdiscovery.azure.com/ .
Over the past month, there have been some news on the Azure Media Services media platform .
Free e-book about building media solutions based on Azure services The
next free e-book from the Patterns & Practices group on the topic of the Azure platform has been released. The book Building an On-Demand Video Service with Microsoft Azure Media Services contains a complete guide to building cloud media services for delivering content to users on demand on any platform and device.
The book is presented in the following chapters:
You can download an e-book or read it online at the following link on MSDN .
Support for playing HLS data on Android
The Azure Media Services team has announced the announcement of the ability to deliver HLS (Http Live Streaming, version 3) media content to Android devices and has published a quick guide. You can find the description at the following link .
In an Azure official blog entry called Big Compute for Microsoft Azure , Microsoft announced the acquisition of GreenButton .
GreenButton is a popular cloud service that offers the ability to migrate applications that require huge computing resources to the cloud environment. The following popular tools at one time became such applications and services : Blender, Brazil, Geneious, LuxRender, Yafaray, Deep Exploration, GreenButton inCus, RenderMan On Demand, Numerix.
The new acquisition will join the rich family of cloud services of the Microsoft Azure platform and will soon provide Azure cloud users with access to their capabilities on demand.
Below you will find links to resources that will help you use the Microsoft cloud platform:
And if you are already developing on Windows Azure or want to find developers of your service, visit the appprofessionals.ru service .
We will be happy to answer your questions at azurerus@microsoft.com . And look forward to seeing you in the Windows Azure Community on Facebook . Here you will find experts (do not forget to ask them questions), photos and a lot of news.
- New services!
- Remote App - launch client applications in the cloud with access on any RDP client;
- API Management - centralized management, control, access to your API located anywhere
- Cache based on Redis - a distributed cache for your services based on the popular opensource tool;
- Virtual machines . New high-performance VM A8 and A9 with InfiniBand. Built-in anti-virus function support. Support for capturing VM images. Java 8 in the VM Image Gallery
- Network features . Release of the ExpressRoute service. Support for multiple VPNs. Communication type VNET-VNET. IP Reservation. Internal load balancing. Release of the Traffic Manager External Endpoints function;
- Repository . Release service for import / export of storage media. New service for shared SMB storage;
- Integration . New features for integrating websites and mobile services with data and applications within the enterprise;
- Administration . Over 40 new Azure PowerShell cmdlets. Azure Active Directory delete feature. New Cloud App Discovery feature in Azure Active Directory
- Services Media . Free e-book about building media solutions based on Azure services. Support for playing HLS data on Android;
- Microsoft acquires GreenButton cloud service.
Consider these new products in more detail.
New RemoteApp Service
One of the high-profile announcements of TechEd NA 2014 was the Azure RemoteApp service, released in a public preliminary testing , which allows you to place existing Windows client applications in the Azure cloud and access them from any computers, tablets, laptops or phones through an RDP client (supplied by Microsoft for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android). Azure RemoteApp offers the ability to efficiently scale the computing power required by remote users by dynamically allocating or reducing capacity on demand or automatically.
The service provides a high level of security for remote work with applications. At the same time, the applications themselves are not stored and are not written to user devices, but are offered for centralized remote access.
Azure RemoteApp supports hybrid scenarios and can be integrated with your existing application hosting infrastructure.
For the period of public testing of the service, Azure RemoteApp is available free of charge for 20 users. Pay attention to the conditions of use of the service during testing.
You can request access to the preliminary version of RemoteApp at the following link . Details about the service, answers to frequently asked questions can be foundon the portal , documentation and examples are available here . Visit the official website to access client applications. Check out the Azure RemoteApp Deep Dive talk .
New API Management Service
Another high-profile announcement of TechEd NA 2014 was the launch of preliminary testing of the API Management service . This service offers developers of their own APIs the opportunity to get a complete environment for managing, monitoring and administering their APIs located anywhere, in the cloud, or on any hosting, including their own infrastructure. API Management is essentially an intermediate proxy service that not only protects access to your own API based on rich sets of security features, but also allows you to monitor API usage statistics, use rich analytics tools, configure quotas, and various subscriptions for access to the API, Scale under load and centrally cache the results of user requests.
One of the most interesting features of API Management is provided to each developer who has published their API, a special portal that is built on the basis of Orchard CMS with the possibility of deep customization for their own design. This portal is used to provide access to the API for external clients of the service with a description of all the features of the API, including code samples in different programming languages that are automatically generated on the portal. You can read the article about customization and use of this developer portal at the following link . Another great feature is the interactive console, which will allow developers to test the API directly on the portal by setting request parameters and managing HTTP request headers.
Useful links:
- Easily create an API façade for the existing backend services
- Quickly add new capabilities to the APIs, such as response caching and cross domain access
- Package and publish APIs to developers and partners, internal and external
- Reliably protect published APIs from misuse and abuse
- Azure API Management developer center
You can use the new Azure API Management service today .
New Redis Cache Service
Another great announcement of TechEd NA 2014 was the launch of a Redis- based distributed caching service (REmote DIctionary Server), available on demand in the cloud, for testing . Redis is a popular opensource technology designed to build distributed key-value data storage systems in memory. Azure Redis Cache
Serviceallows you to get a ready-made redis-storage with the required size for data caching tasks at the first request. For developers, two levels of service are offered: simple (basic) and standard (standard). The service level is simply offered as a single redis storage node. This level of service is ideal for non-critical tasks during development and testing. The standard tier supports host replication for added reliability. An Azure Redis Cache service instance can be created in the new Azure portal . After creating a service instance, the portal offers a set of functions for monitoring work and access to the service settings. Redis storage can be accessed from a variety of
programming languages. Keys for access can be obtained on the portal.
Information on prices for the service can be obtained on the official website : Useful links:
You can try the Azure Redis Cache service today .
New virtual machine features
The Azure Virtual Machine Infrastructure Platform has received several interesting updates.
New high-performance VMs A8 and A9 with InfiniBand
Microsoft Azure users now have access to virtual machines of sizes A8 (8 cores, 56GB RAM) and A9 (16 cores, 112 GB RAM) oriented for use in highly loaded solutions. Previously, such machines were available in Azure only in the form of cloud services. These types of virtual machines are provided with a high-performance network based on InfiniBand. To create these types of virtual machines, you must use command line commands. Creation through the portal is not yet available.
PS C: \> New-AzureQuickVM -windows –ServiceName mya8vm -name mya8vm -imagename $ image -instancesize A8 –AdminUserName $ admin –password $ pwd -location "West US"
Details can be found in this article .
Built-in support for the anti-virus function The
infrastructure of Microsoft Azure virtual machines has an agent function that can be automatically installed on the machine to perform various functions, for example, centralized management. An example of an agent is an agent integrating a VM with a Puppet server.
In the platform update, new agents for virtual machines were added - security extensions, antivirus modules that can be automatically added to the VM when it is created and deployed. Today, Microsoft Azure offers a choice of three agents: Microsoft Antimalware, Symantec Endpoint Protection, TrendMicro's Deep Security Agent.
Another agent was added to the list of agents - Custom Script, which allows you to execute an arbitrary PowerShell script on the machine immediately after creating the virtual machine, which allows you to automate various functions of deploying environments in VM.
Support
for capturing VM images Earlier this year, at the Build conference, a function was introduced to capture virtual machine images containing both the VM image itself and all virtual disks attached to it. The presented function was available for use only through command line scripts.
In the latest platform update, the function of removing full VM images was added to the portal for easier access to it. The new function allows you to take images of both stopped and running VMs and without the need for a reboot. Captured images are immediately available for redeployment.
Java 8 in the VM image gallery
After entering into a strategic partnership with Oracle, many Oracle server products were added to the virtual machine image gallery, including a ready-to-use image with a deployed environment for running JDK applications. Some time ago, an image with JDK8 officially supported by Oracle was added to the list of images.
New network features
Along with the new virtual machine infrastructure features in Azure, interesting new features for virtual networks and networking have been added.
Release of ExpressRoute
service. Azure ExpressRoute service offers users the opportunity to connect their own infrastructure directly to Microsoft Azure data centers, bypassing the Internet as an intermediate link. This feature allows you to guarantee the availability and quality of network connectivity, expanding your infrastructure in a natural way.
Previously, ExpressRoute was in preliminary testing; it is constantly developing and expanding the network of partners who are involved in the provision of services. With the new update, the service was put into commercial operation and became available through an even larger number of partners: AT&T, Equinix, Verizon, BT, Level3, TelecityGroup, SingTel and Zadara.
Currently, Azure ExpressRoute is available only through these partners, but this list is constantly updated. You can find the terms of use of the service on the official page .
Multiple VPN Support
A very popular function of connecting multiple VPNs in a virtual network was introduced into commercial operation. This feature allows you to connect your virtual network inside Azure to several networks within the local infrastructure. Details on the description page of virtual networks. VNET-VNET-type communications Another feature that has been added to the Azure network infrastructure is the ability to combine multiple virtual networks with each other. Networks can be located in the same region or in different regions of Azure. Details on the description page of virtual networks. IP Reservation New Feature
Reserving public IP addresses for your applications allows you to reserve and use up to 5 IP addresses for free for your applications within a single subscription. An additional number of IP addresses can be purchased for a fee. Reserved IPs can be assigned to selected VMs or cloud services.
Today, users can reserve IP through command line scripts:
# Reservation IP
New-AzureReservedIP -ReservedIPName EastUSVIP -Label "Reserved VIP in EastUS" -Location "East US"
# Use IP when placing
New-AzureVM -ServiceName "MyApp" -VMs $ web1 -Location "East US" -VNetName VNetUSEast - ReservedIPName EastUSVIP
In the future, IP reservations will be added to the portal for ease of use.
With the announcement of this function, it now becomes possible to assign specific IP addresses to virtual machines and access them directly. This simplifies a number of scenarios for deploying infrastructure in the cloud, for example, FTP servers. You can learn more about the possibilities at the following link .
Internal load balancing The
new internal load balancing feature allows Azure customers to balance traffic within the network with private IP addresses. Internal load balancing can be useful for multi-tier systems in which some of the links, for example, the database level, are hidden inside the infrastructure, but nevertheless need load balancing.
The internal load balancing feature is available for the standard level of virtual machines at no additional cost. This feature is currently in pre-testing and is only available for newly created virtual machines.
The release features Traffic Manager External Endpoints
Service Traffic Manager allows to route traffic between Azure datacenters, depending on different conditions and for different purposes - load balancing or failover.
The update added a new feature of Traffice Manager to route traffic not only for internal Azure resources, but also for external user resources. Azure customers can now centrally route traffic between Azure endpoints, their own servers, or even other cloud providers.
A new feature is available in previews and today can only be configured through command line scripts.
New Cloud Storage Features
Several important announcements were made for the Microsoft Azure repository at the TechEd conference.
Release of the media import / export
service The Azure Import / Export service offers the cloud platform users the ability to send and receive massive amounts of data (files) on media (HDD) to the Azure infrastructure to speed up the loading or unloading of data from the cloud.
This service was previously available as a preview, and Azure Import / Export was commercialized at TechEd. With this announcement, the service received a number of new opportunities: the list of regions that support import / export of data was expanded, the service became available in the USA, Europe and Asia, it became possible to use both DHL and FedEx for delivery simply by specifying the supplier's account number .
Questions about the operation of the service can be sent to the public address waimportexport@microsoft.com .
New service for shared SMB storage
The most important announcement regarding data storage in the Azure cloud was the announcement of a new service Azure SMB File Sharing. This service allows you to access Azure Storage data as a network resource using the SMB protocol, which allows you to use the usual access to data from virtual machines through network interaction.
Windows or Linux virtual machines can read and write files in the new service using the SMB protocol, and at the same time, a REST interface for building applications that may need access to saved files is also offered for accessing files.
The Azure SMB File Sharing service is built on the same infrastructure as Azure Storage Blobs, Tables and Queues, which means high reliability, availability and redundancy of data storage. The service itself is managed by the Azure infrastructure, which allows customers to get a ready-made SMB file storage infrastructure without creating and configuring virtual machines.
Additional information about the service is available at the following link .
New integration features
Thanks to the new integration features introduced, it became possible to link cloud resources such as websites and mobile services with databases hosted on their own infrastructure within the company's local network. Now, developers have an easy opportunity to build cloud web and mobile applications, services and a mobile backend with data that will be constantly hosted on their servers. To provide a hybrid scenario of linking mobile services and websites with local infrastructure, a new free level of BizTalk Services service was introduced. Thanks to this innovation, the new hybrid scenario does not require additional payment.
An important positive feature of this scenario is that developers do not need to open or configure VPN channels for communication between the enterprise and the cloud backend. Instead, BizTalk Services offers the ability to provide hybrid scenarios without additional network setup or reducing its security.
Hybrid connections support all the frameworks and programming languages that are supported by websites (today it is .NET, Java, PHP, Python, Node.js) and a backend of mobile services (.NET and Node.js).
You can learn more about the new features at the following links:
- Description: Hybrid Connections
- Instruction: Connect an Azure Website with an On-Premises Resource
- Tutorial: Connect an Azure Website to an On-Premises SQL Server using Hybrid Connections
- Tutorial: Connect an Azure Mobile Services .NET Backend to an On-Premises Resource using Hybrid Connections
- Article - Connect to an on-premises SQL Server from an Azure mobile service using Hybrid Connections
- Video - Connect to an on-premises SQL Server from Azure Mobile Services using Hybrid Connections
You can try new features for integrating mobile services and websites today.
New Administration Features
To administer and manage new features in Microsoft Azure, new features and script sets have been introduced.
More than 40 new Azure PowerShell cmdlets
A new version of Azure PowerShell command-line administration tools has been made available to Azure administrators and developers , in which 49 new cmdlets have been added to solve various tasks, including:
- Computing and Network Management
- Public IP Support
- Reserved IP Support
- Support Internal load balancer
- Improved management of virtual disks and VM images
- Improving virtual network management (Set-AzureVnetGatewayKey)
- Azure Automation Service Management Cmdlets
- Traffic Manager Service Management Cmdlets
- VM Security Anti-Malware Cloud Service Cmdlets
Like all other tools in Azure, these command sets are distributed open source. Details of the new features and a complete list of new commands can be found on GiHub .
Azure Active Directory Deletion Feature
A small, but enjoyable and highly anticipated innovation. Azure users can now delete previously created Azure Active Directory directories using the administration portal interface.
Now you can do this with a simple command after selecting a specific directory from the list.
New Cloud App Discovery feature in Azure Active Directory
At the end of April, the official Active Directory team blog introduced the new Azure Active Directory cloud implementation module. The new functionality is calledCloud App Discovery and it is designed to automatically detect cloud services used within the enterprise. Administrators and certain employees can analyze the situation inside their company, quickly creating a complete picture of which of the SaaS services are used internally by its employees. In the future, each of these services can be integrated with Azure Active Directory for centralized management of access rights and security. You can try the new service right now: http://appdiscovery.azure.com/ .
Media Services News
Over the past month, there have been some news on the Azure Media Services media platform .
Free e-book about building media solutions based on Azure services The
next free e-book from the Patterns & Practices group on the topic of the Azure platform has been released. The book Building an On-Demand Video Service with Microsoft Azure Media Services contains a complete guide to building cloud media services for delivering content to users on demand on any platform and device.
The book is presented in the following chapters:
- Introduction to Microsoft Azure Media Services
- The Azure Media Services Video-on-Demand Scenario
- Uploading Video into Microsoft Azure Media Services
- Encoding and Processing Video in Microsoft Azure Media Services
- Delivering and Consuming Video from Microsoft Azure Media Services
You can download an e-book or read it online at the following link on MSDN .
Support for playing HLS data on Android
The Azure Media Services team has announced the announcement of the ability to deliver HLS (Http Live Streaming, version 3) media content to Android devices and has published a quick guide. You can find the description at the following link .
GreenButton Cloud Service
In an Azure official blog entry called Big Compute for Microsoft Azure , Microsoft announced the acquisition of GreenButton .
GreenButton is a popular cloud service that offers the ability to migrate applications that require huge computing resources to the cloud environment. The following popular tools at one time became such applications and services : Blender, Brazil, Geneious, LuxRender, Yafaray, Deep Exploration, GreenButton inCus, RenderMan On Demand, Numerix.
The new acquisition will join the rich family of cloud services of the Microsoft Azure platform and will soon provide Azure cloud users with access to their capabilities on demand.
useful links
Below you will find links to resources that will help you use the Microsoft cloud platform:
- Free 30-day trial of Windows Azure;
- Free access to Windows Azure resources for startups , partners , teachers, MSDN subscribers ;
- Windows Azure Development Center (azurehub.ru) - scripts, guides, examples, recommendations on choosing services and development on Windows Azure;
- Latest news Azure the Windows - Twitter.com/windowsazure_ru .
And if you are already developing on Windows Azure or want to find developers of your service, visit the appprofessionals.ru service .
We will be happy to answer your questions at azurerus@microsoft.com . And look forward to seeing you in the Windows Azure Community on Facebook . Here you will find experts (do not forget to ask them questions), photos and a lot of news.