Microsoft Azure Skills and Learning Guide

Azure Functions

Azure Functions is a serverless computing service that enables developers to build applications quickly, without managing infrastructure. With Azure Functions, developers can take advantage of the scalability and cost-effectiveness of cloud computing and create workloads that are triggered by events from virtually any source. This means that businesses can move away from traditional server deployments and be more agile, cost-effective, and secure.

With Azure Functions, developers can experience a wide range of benefits that serverless computing offers. First, the development process is simplified because applications no longer need to be manually configured on physical servers and managed over time. Secondly, complex tasks can be broken down into smaller components that are triggered by events such as a file being uploaded, a message being sent, or an API call being made. This allows developers to focus on building the individual components of their applications instead of worrying about managing the underlying infrastructure.

Azure Functions offers powerful debugging capabilities that make it easy to identify and fix errors during development. The functions in an application can be tested with live data before they are deployed so that any problems can be addressed quickly and easily. Developers can debug their functions in real-time to understand exactly what is happening under the hood of an application.

Azure Functions makes it easy to deploy serverless applications thanks to its integrated deployment options. By simply connecting an account to a source control provider such as GitHub, developers can set up a continuous deployment pipeline that will automatically deploy new versions of their applications whenever changes are made. This eliminates the need for manual processes and makes it easy to quickly ship updates to production.

The technical basis of Azure Functions is based on powerful technologies such as Kubernetes, containers, microservices, and serverless computing. These technologies allow developers to create applications quickly and deliver them reliably with minimal effort. Azure Functions also provides integrations with a wide variety of services such as databases, storage systems, messaging services, and more. This allows developers to build applications that leverage the power of Azure without having to manage the underlying infrastructure.

Azure Functions provides a powerful and cost-effective solution for serverless computing. With its integrated features and development tools, developers can build applications quickly and deploy them reliably. The scalability and flexibility of cloud computing make it an ideal platform for businesses that want to benefit from the cost savings and agility of serverless computing.

Deploying Azure Serverless

Deploying Azure Serverless is a great way to create cloud-based applications that are scalable, reliable, and cost-efficient. It enables developers to quickly bring applications to market by leveraging serverless architectures such as Functions, Logic Apps, and Event Grid.

Integrating with other Azure Products is key for building powerful solutions with minimal effort. For example, it is possible to easily integrate Azure Serverless with products such as Azure Storage, Database, and Queues. This allows for improved scalability and fast development of applications.

Logging with App Insights can help identify issues in production and provide high-level visibility into the operations of an application. It provides insights into performance metrics and application logs, allowing for quick resolution of problems.

Security is also an important consideration in any system and Azure Serverless comes with built-in security measures such as API Keys. This allows developers to create secure access points and control who has access to their applications.

Deploying Azure Serverless provides a simple way to develop cloud-native applications without having to worry about managing servers. It has the flexibility and scalability needed for modern businesses, while also providing added security through built-in features. With all these advantages, Azure Serverless is a great choice for cloud application development.

Architecting Serverless Solutions From Scratch

Architecting serverless solutions from scratch involve creating a new cloud-based, fully managed solution using functions as a service (FaaS) platforms such as Azure Functions. This approach offers organizations the ability to rapidly develop and deploy applications while minimizing operational costs associated with managing servers. When architecting greenfield serverless applications, developers should consider utilizing the full capabilities of cloud-native technologies such as Azure Functions to leverage the scalability, flexibility, and cost benefits offered by serverless computing.

Organizations may also need to consider how best to integrate their existing legacy applications with a new serverless architecture. This requires careful consideration of the distributed nature of serverless architectures and how they must work in tandem with existing systems. It is important to consider the various integration points and strategies available when architecting a serverless solution, such as leveraging event-driven architectures, API gateways, and data pipelines. By doing so, organizations can fully leverage their existing legacy applications while taking advantage of the benefits offered by serverless computing.

By understanding the benefits, challenges, and strategies available for architecting serverless solutions from scratch, organizations can create innovative cloud-native applications which offer cost savings, scalability, and flexibility. Through careful consideration of existing systems and how they may need to integrate with a new serverless architecture, organizations can ensure their solutions can meet current and future business needs.

Microsoft Azure Serverless Architecture

Microsoft Azure Serverless Architecture is a cloud computing platform that enables businesses to deploy applications and services with reduced operational costs, simplified maintenance, and scalability. It eliminates the need for managing servers or provisioning resources as they are abstracted away from the underlying infrastructure. With serverless architecture, developers can focus on writing code while Azure handles resource management, scaling, and availability. This allows businesses to rapidly develop applications with fewer resources while also reducing the total cost of ownership. Additionally, serverless architecture can be used to quickly spin up web-based APIs or custom backends, making it ideal for modern cloud-native applications. With Azure Serverless Architecture in place, businesses are able to take advantage of the agility and scalability of the cloud to quickly respond to changing customer needs.

In summary, Microsoft Azure Serverless Architecture provides businesses with a cost-effective, reliable platform for deploying applications and services at scale. It reduces operational costs while making it easier to maintain and scale applications quickly. With serverless architecture in place, businesses can focus on their core competencies while Azure handles the heavy-lifting of resource and availability management. This makes serverless architecture an essential component for businesses today that want to take advantage of the cloud's agility and scalability.

Microsoft Azure microservices

Microsoft Azure microservices are a form of cloud computing which enables applications to be developed and managed independently. This helps developers build more flexible, resilient and scalable applications in a cost-effective manner. Microsoft Azure microservices allow developers to break complex applications down into smaller, modular services that can be deployed, maintained and scaled independently from each other. As a result, applications can be developed faster with less risk and more agility. Additionally, Microsoft Azure microservices enable organizations to take advantage of the cloud’s scalability and cost-effectiveness while still retaining control over their own code.

By combining the power of the cloud with the reliability of on-premise services, Microsoft Azure microservices offer a unique approach to application development and management. Microsoft Azure microservices also offer additional benefits such as increased security, scalability and manageability. With the ability to deploy and manage services independently, organizations can easily adjust their applications to meet changing demand or trends in usage without having to re-write large chunks of code. This saves time, money and resources, allowing organizations to focus on innovation and growth.

Microsoft Azure serverless scaling patterns

Microsoft Azure serverless scaling patterns are strategies used to optimize the performance of applications and services by taking advantage of serverless computing. Serverless computing allows businesses to run code without having to manage or provision servers, making it easier and faster to scale applications as needed. By utilizing Microsoft Azure serverless scaling patterns, businesses can save time and resources while still getting the performance they need.

Examples of Microsoft Azure serverless scaling patterns include autoscaling, function as a service (FaaS), and pay-per-execute models. Autoscaling allows businesses to automatically adjust the computing resources necessary to run their applications and services based on usage data. Function as a Service enables important processes to be broken down into smaller, more manageable functions that can be managed and scaled independently. The pay-per-execute model removes the need to manage servers altogether and instead charges businesses only for the work they use. Utilizing these serverless scaling patterns helps businesses quickly scale their applications in order to keep up with customer demand and maximize efficiency.

Microsoft Azure durable functions

Microsoft Azure Durable Functions is a serverless compute technology designed to simplify the development of complex, resilient workflows on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. It enables you to create long-running, stateful functions that can be triggered by web requests or events in Azure services such as Storage Queues and Event Hubs. With Durable Functions, developers can easily coordinate and manage the sequences of activities that make up their workflows. This can help them build robust applications that are easy to maintain, while minimizing time-to-market and operational costs. Durable Functions also allows developers to create processes such as fan-in/fan-out patterns and human interaction flows, which were previously difficult to achieve in the cloud. Ultimately, Durable Functions makes it easier to build and maintain reliable workflows that span multiple services on Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft Azure security features

Microsoft Azure offers a wide range of security features to help protect your data and applications. These features include identity management, access control, vulnerability scanning, encryption at rest and in transit, application whitelisting, and more. With these tools, you can ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive information and that all communication between systems is encrypted. Microsoft Azure also includes a comprehensive set of compliance standards, so you can be sure that your data is safe and secure. Additionally, Azure offers logging and monitoring services to detect any suspicious activity or attempts to breach the system. With these security measures in place, you can rest assured that your data is protected and secure.

Microsoft Azure observability

Microsoft Azure observability is a comprehensive set of services that help developers and IT professionals diagnose, monitor, and analyze the performance of applications and infrastructure in real-time. It includes metrics, logs, traces, application insights, and more to provide full visibility into the health and performance of your cloud environment. With this suite of tools at your disposal, you can be sure that your applications are running optimally and that any potential issues are identified quickly and addressed appropriately. Additionally, Azure Observability provides granular insights into usage patterns, resource utilization, and other insights to help you make informed decisions about how to best allocate resources for maximum performance. Ultimately, by leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure observability, you can ensure that your applications are running at their peak efficiency and remain reliable for years to come.

Microsoft Azure chaos engineering

Microsoft Azure Chaos Engineering is a cloud-based approach to engineering resilience and reliability. It helps teams understand the behavior of their applications in real-world conditions, by deliberately introducing faults and failures into system environments. This allows them to test how their software will respond when faced with unexpected situations or errors. By understanding the impact of these faults and failures, teams can develop more robust, resilient software. This helps ensure that applications remain available and perform as expected in production environments. Microsoft Azure Chaos Engineering also helps teams identify potential issues before they reach the end user, reducing downtime, data loss, and frustration caused by application failure. It is an essential part of any DevOps strategy, helping organizations create stable, reliable systems and ensuring a great customer experience. With Azure Chaos Engineering, teams have the tools they need to gain confidence in their applications, helping them deliver secure and reliable software faster.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database Architecture

Microsoft Azure SQL database is a fully-managed cloud database service built for developers, data scientists, and enterprise IT professionals. It offers high levels of security, scalability, and availability so you can focus on developing solutions without worrying about managing servers or infrastructure. Its architecture is based on the industry-standard Structured Query Language (SQL). It supports both relational and non-relational data, as well as large datasets. It also provides an array of tools for maintaining your databases and ensuring their availability. By leveraging the latest technologies, Azure SQL database helps organizations increase agility and reduce costs while improving performance and security. With this powerful platform, businesses can quickly create modern applications that scale on demand, meet stringent compliance standards, and make data-driven decisions. It is an ideal choice for organizations of all sizes that are looking to maximize their potential in the cloud.

Migrating a SQL Server Database to an Azure SQL Database

Migrating a SQL Server database to an Azure SQL Database is the process of migrating an on-premises version of Microsoft SQL Server, or other relational databases like Oracle, IBM DB2, and MySQL, to an Azure cloud environment. This process can be achieved through several methods depending on the type of data being migrated. The most popular method is to use the Azure Database Migration Service (DMS), which automates much of the migration process. It can also be done manually through various tools such as the SQL Server Management Studio or Data Migration Assistant.

The benefit of migrating a database to an Azure cloud environment is that it provides enhanced scalability, security, and performance, as well as improved cost savings. Applications and services can be hosted in the cloud, making them more accessible and easier to maintain. With Azure SQL Database, businesses have access to a fully managed database platform that is secure, reliable, and cost-effective. By leveraging these features businesses can ensure their data is securely stored and easily accessed from anywhere in the world.

Backing up an Azure SQL Database

Backing up an Azure SQL Database is a process of creating copies of your data that can be used to restore the database in case of failure or data corruption. It is one of the most important steps when it comes to protecting your database from unexpected disasters or malicious attacks, as it allows you to quickly and easily recover any lost or damaged information.

Backing up an Azure SQL Database involves creating a full backup of your database, as well as transaction log backups and differential backups. These backups can be used to restore the database in case of data corruption or other issues. The frequency at which you should back up your data depends on how often it changes and how important it is - however, it is always advisable to have regular backups in place. With Azure SQL Database, you can perform manual or automated backups to better ensure the safety of your data. By regularly backing up your databases, you can protect yourself from potential data loss and reduce the risk of cyber attacks that could compromise sensitive information. It also ensures that any changes made to the database over time can be recovered in case of failure. Backing up your Azure SQL Database regularly is an essential step towards safeguarding your data and keeping it secure.

Restoring an Azure SQL Database

Restoring an Azure SQL Database is a way of bringing back data to undo any changes that have been made that you would like to reverse. This could include restoring from a backup, copying from another server, or rolling back the database to a point-in-time recovery state. Restoring an Azure SQL Database helps ensure your data is secure and protected from any unexpected changes or malicious activity. It also provides a way to recover from accidental data loss and corruption. Restoring an Azure SQL Database is simple, efficient, and cost-effective, making it the perfect solution for protecting your data. Restoring allows you to stay up-to-date with security updates and ensures that your data is always available. With a few simple steps, you can have your data restored and you can get back to work quickly. Restoring an Azure SQL Database helps ensure that your business remains secure, reliable, and functional.

Securing an Azure SQL Database

Securing an Azure SQL Database requires the implementation of various practices and strategies. Access control is one of the most important steps in securing any database, and Azure SQL offers a range of options for controlling access to resources and data within a database. This includes using Active Directory authentication for login processes, as well as assigning roles that are designed to provide users with access to only the resources and data that they need.

Proactive security is another key factor in ensuring your Azure SQL Database is secure. This includes monitoring suspicious activities, scanning for vulnerabilities, and staying up-to-date with the latest software and security patches. Best practices include regularly running backups and ensuring all firewalls are configured correctly.

Scaling out Azure SQL Database is one way to give your database the resources it needs to perform optimally while also providing additional security. This involves both vertical and horizontal scaling. Vertical scaling provides more computing power by adding or removing cores, while horizontal scaling enables you to replicate databases across multiple nodes. This helps protect your data by reducing the risk of any single point of failure, as well as providing faster access to resources.

By following these strategies and best practices, you can ensure that your Azure SQL Database is secure and optimized for peak performance. This will enable you to handle more complex workloads and protect your data from unauthorized access.

Azure SQL Elastic Pools

Azure SQL elastic pools provide an efficient and economical way to manage a large number of databases. With elastic pools, your applications will benefit from the dynamic scalability, predictable performance, and high availability that Azure provides. The elastic pool feature allows you to share resources across multiple databases, which helps ensure that no single database consumes too many resources at any given time. This allows you to manage the performance of all databases in the pool from a single resource point, and scale them up or down as needed. It also provides an efficient way to ensure that all databases in the pool stay within their service level agreement (SLA) limits for CPU, memory, I/O throughput, and database transaction rates. In addition to these benefits, elastic pools also offer built-in monitoring and diagnostics tools that allow you to track your usage and performance across all databases in the pool. With Azure SQL elastic pools, you can easily manage a large number of databases while maintaining predictable performance and stability.

Azure SQL High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Azure SQL Database provides high availability and disaster recovery functionalities to protect Azure databases from unexpected outages, planned maintenance, and other disasters. These functions ensure that your data remains available and can be quickly recovered in the event of an outage or disaster.

The High Availability feature within Azure SQL Database offers a 99.99% SLA of uptime. It ensures that your data remains up and running during outages or planned maintenance windows by using two replicas of the same database. Automatic failover is triggered in case one replica becomes unavailable, meaning that your data remains accessible without interruption. Azure SQL Database also keeps an additional read-only copy of your data as a safeguard in case of outages.

Azure SQL Database's Disaster Recovery feature helps to protect your data from disasters like natural calamities or geopolitical events. Through active geo-replication, it creates copies of your original database at two separate regions, allowing for automatic failover when an outage occurs. This ensures that a secondary database becomes available if the primary database is affected by a disaster.

Azure SQL Database provides robust high availability and disaster recovery services that protect your data from outages and disasters. With its SLA of 99.99% uptime and automated failover capabilities, you can be sure that your data remains accessible and safe. With these features, Azure SQL Database offers the reliability and security that businesses need to keep their operations running smoothly.

Monitoring and Tuning Azure SQL Database

Monitoring and tuning Azure SQL Database is a critical aspect of database performance management. By monitoring and tuning the database, administrators can identify potential issues before they become major problems, allowing for proactive problem-solving. Tuning also helps to ensure maximum performance and scalability by adjusting settings to meet the specific requirements of an application or workload.

When properly implemented, monitoring and tuning Azure SQL Database can help to reduce downtime, optimize resources, and improve overall user experience. By using a combination of monitoring tools, such as the Azure SQL Query Store or the PerfMon Counters, administrators can track query performance, detect bottlenecks in queries, identify potential areas of improvement, and take the necessary steps to keep the database running optimally. Tuning Azure SQL Database requires regular reviewing and tweaking configuration settings to ensure optimal performance of the workload. By analyzing query execution plans, administrators can identify queries that are underperforming and take corrective action by changing indexing strategies or adjusting certain parameters. Using automated scripts to perform regular maintenance tasks such as creating database backups, repairing corrupted databases, and rebuilding indexes can help keep Azure SQL Database running smoothly. With regular monitoring, tuning, and maintenance, administrators can ensure the best possible performance of their Azure SQL Database.

Monitoring and tuning Azure SQL Database is an essential part of database performance management. By utilizing a combination of tools and techniques such as query optimization, configuration tuning, and automated maintenance scripts, administrators can ensure their Azure SQL Database runs optimally. Regular monitoring and tuning of the database can help to reduce downtime, optimize resources, and improve overall user experience.

Visual Studio Team Services Fundamentals

Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) Fundamentals is a set of services designed to help teams collaborate and create apps more efficiently. It provides version control, application lifecycle management, integrated project planning tools, and work item tracking capabilities. With VSTS Fundamentals, teams can easily manage their projects from start to finish, with increased visibility and control. Thanks to the integrated version control system, team members can work together on code in real-time, while having access to previous versions of their project. Additionally, VSTS Fundamentals provides powerful insights into app usage and performance thanks to its built-in analytics capabilities. With these features combined, teams have all they need to make the most of their time and create quality apps faster. VSTS Fundamentals is an ideal solution for teams looking to streamline their workflows and increase productivity.

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals are essential elements of the cloud computing experience. Cloud computing is a revolutionary technology that offers organizations access to shared resources, including software and hardware, through a network over the Internet.

Azure Web Apps provide businesses with an easy way to create web applications in the cloud service platform, giving them the ability to use a combination of the latest web technologies such as .NET, Node.js, and Python. Azure Web Apps enables companies to build powerful applications that can scale quickly without coding complex back-end infrastructure or worrying about cloud billing.

Azure Data and Storage offers reliable data storage and access with its structured query language (SQL). Companies can use this cloud-based database to quickly and easily manage their data. Azure Data also provides an integrated development experience, allowing developers to create applications with minimal effort.

Azure Web App Key Concepts are the backbone of the web application structure. It includes features such as authentication and authorization, scalability and performance optimization, deployment management, and more. This framework helps organizations get the most out of their cloud investments by making sure applications are up and running smoothly.

Understanding these Microsoft Azure Fundamentals is essential for businesses looking to take advantage of cloud computing and reap the benefits it has to offer. With these core components, companies can confidently explore the possibilities that this technology offers them. They will be able to unlock the cloud's potential and create powerful applications that will help them remain competitive in a rapidly changing business environment.

Agile with Visual Studio Team Services

Agile with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is an end-to-end development solution that enables teams to use the Agile software development process. With VSTS, enterprises can break down complex projects into small, manageable pieces called backlogs and sprints. Teams can collaborate more efficiently on these tasks by using Kanban boards, which offer visual cues to help guide the flow of work through individual stages. It also provides a powerful set of tools for tracking and monitoring progress, enabling teams to identify potential issues and make quick adjustments if needed. With its comprehensive set of features, VSTS helps organizations stay agile and deliver high-quality results quickly. By embracing Agile in VSTS, teams can quickly adapt to changing business needs and quickly deliver value to their customers. With the power of Agile, organizations can be agile, responsive, and efficient while working towards long-term goals and objectives.

Continuous Integration with Visual Studio Team Services Fundamentals

Continuous Integration (CI) with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) provides a fast and easy way for developers to create, test, and deploy their applications. CI enables teams to quickly detect issues in the application code before they become more costly problems, ensuring high-quality software.

To get started with Continuous Integration in VSTS, the first step is to create a CI build definition. This involves specifying the source code repository and the steps that need to be taken to compile, test, and deploy the application. The CI build definition can be customized for any specific needs of the project – such as integrating with other applications or services, using custom scripts, or running automated tests.

Once the CI build definition is set up, VSTS will automatically run the build whenever changes are made to the source code repository and alert the team if any problems are detected. This provides developers with real-time feedback on the status of their applications and helps them quickly identify issues that need to be addressed.

With Continuous Integration, teams can ensure that their applications are always of the highest quality and quickly respond to any potential issues. VSTS makes it easy to set up Continuous Integration and quickly reap the benefits of automated builds.

Continuous Deployment with Visual Studio Team Services Fundamentals?

Continuous Deployment with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is a DevOps practice that enables you to quickly and reliably deploy your applications and updates to production. It allows developers to automatically push code changes into the system for testing, rapid release cycles, and automated rollbacks in case of failure. The goal of Continuous Deployment is to reduce the time and effort spent on manual tasks associated with releasing software.

VSTS provides a platform for managing Continuous Deployment workflows. The Release Definition feature allows you to define multiple environments in which code changes are deployed, such as development, testing, and production servers. This can be extended further by allowing developers to customize their own environment settings and build pipelines.

The Release Definition feature also enables developers to set up automated testing, such as unit tests, integration tests, stress tests, user acceptance tests, and other types of quality assurance checks. This helps ensure that any code changes deployed into production are stable and reliable before they go live.

Continuous Deployment with Visual Studio Team Services is an essential tool for any organization that wants to reduce its time to market and ensure quality releases. With its flexible features and customizable options, VSTS provides a comprehensive platform for managing DevOps processes in the most efficient way possible.

Continuous Monitoring with Visual Studio Team Services Fundamentals

Continuous Monitoring with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is an important tool for performance testing and troubleshooting Azure Web Apps. It provides a comprehensive set of features and functions to help ensure that your web applications are optimally configured, monitored, and maintained. VSTS allows you to identify any potential issues before they become actual problems in production.

Continuous Monitoring with VSTS allows you to create tests that are run periodically against your web applications, allowing you to continually monitor the performance of your application and identify any potential problems before they affect users. You can also set up automatic alerting when key performance metrics fall below acceptable levels. This helps ensure that any issues are addressed quickly and effectively.

VSTS also provides powerful tools for troubleshooting Azure Web Apps. It allows you to identify the root cause of an issue, pinpoint the exact locations in your code that are causing problems, and deploy fixes quickly to ensure that users have a smooth experience with your applications. VSTS offers detailed reports and analytics to help you track performance over time.

Continuous Monitoring with Visual Studio Team Services is an invaluable tool for ensuring the optimal performance of your web applications and troubleshooting any issues that may arise. It provides a comprehensive set of features to ensure that your web applications are monitored regularly, maintained properly, and running optimally.