Tech Tips, Tricks & Trivia

From the excellent Microsoft whitepaper on Azure Integration Services[PDF] - Azure Integration Services is an integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solution for the modern hybrid world. Designed for mission critical enterprise integration, Azure Integration Services include: * API Management for publishing and managing application APIs * Logic Apps for graphically creating workflows * Service Bus for enterprise messaging * Event Grid for event-based communication Just like Event Hubs, Azure IoT Hub is built for massive data ingestion. It’s specifically geared  toward handling the enormous volume of data messages from devices on the Internet of Things, like smart thermostats and sensors in cars.  Images from the  Azure Developer Guide Also see:  Free Azure related eBooks, Whitepapers from Microsoft

This Week I Learned - * In a GigaOm study comparing throughput performance between SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines and SQL Server on AWS EC2. Azure emerged as the clear leader across both Windows and Linux for mission-critical workloads, up to 3.4 times faster and up to 87 percent less expensive than AWS EC2.  A key reason why Azure price-performance is superior to AWS is Azure BlobCache, which provides free reads . Given that most online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads today come with a ten-to-one read-to-write ratio, this provides customers with significant savings. * AzureCharts.com provides a visual digest of vital info related to Azure Services. It can answer these questions faster than if you had to look it up in the Azure documentation  - >> Is a particular VM instance type available in all regions? >> Is a service Generally Available or in Preview mode? In how many regions is it available? >> What are all the Azure servi...

In The Gene: An Intimate History , the oncologist-author Siddhartha Mukherjee amazed me with his passionately compelling and masterful storytelling of genes and genetics just like he did with his earlier award-winning book  The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Mixing science and history in an engaging way, the book offers a new multidimensional  perspective to appreciate otherwise dry academic topics.  It provides simple answers through explanations that are relatable and accessible even to non-scientists. It tells the inspiring stories of legendary scientists (like Mendel) who failed to achieve conventional milestones of success but marched on nevertheless. It was a discovery to me that Gregor Johann Mendel who is considered "the father of modern genetics" achieved that recognition posthumously - three decades after he passed away! He is now on the top of my list of science heroes! Paraphrased notes and excerpts: It is a testament to the ...

With the introduction of Azure Front Door, the official documentation has new guidance [ compare with old ] on load balancing options and a decision tree - Options   Azure Front Door Traffic Manager  Application Gateway  Azure Load Balancer    Description Offers Layer 7 capabilities for your application like SSL offload, path-based routing, fast failover, caching, etc. to improve performance and high-availability of your applications. DNS-based load-balancing service that operates only at the domain level. For that reason, it can't fail over as quickly as Front Door, because of common challenges around DNS caching and systems not honoring DNS TTLs.  Provides application delivery controller (ADC) as a service, offering various Layer 7 load-balancing capabilities. Zone-redundant, high-performance, low-latency Layer 4 load-balancing service (inbound and outbound) for all UDP and TCP protocols.  Global/regional  Global ...

Summary of a HBR Ascend article Dos and Don'ts: How to Disagree With Someone More Powerful Than You : Do : >> Explain that you have a different opinion and ask if you can voice it. >> Restate the original point of view or decision so it’s clear you understand it. >> Speak slowly — talking in an even tone calms you and the other person down. Don’t : >> Assume that disagreeing is going to damage your relationship or career — the consequences are often less dramatic than we think. >> State your opinions as facts; simply express your point of view and be open to dialogue. >> Use judgment words, such as “hasty,” “foolish,” or “wrong,” that might upset or incite your counterpart.

This Week I Learned - *  Network security groups are associated to subnets or network interfaces in the Resource Manager deployment model . Unless you have a specific reason to, Microsoft recommends that you associate a network security group to a subnet, or a network interface, but not both. Since rules in a network security group associated to a subnet can conflict with rules in a network security group associated to a network interface, you can have unexpected communication problems that require troubleshooting. *  Certain services also impose restrictions on the subnet they are deployed in , limiting the application of policies, routes or combining VMs and service resources within the same subnet. Check with each service on the specific restrictions as they may change over time. Examples of such services are Azure NetApp Files, Dedicated HSM, Azure Container Instances, App Service. *  Service endpoints allow service resources to be secured to the virtual netwo...

Based on an analysis of questions and answers posted on the StackOverflow forum, Felipe Hoffa has the following findings : * You’ll get your JavaScript questions answered in ~35 minutes, while Rust, Android, and iOS questions will take more than an hour to show up. * New Stack Overflow users get faster replies than veteran users. Veteran users ask questions that take longer to reply, but more of their questions are replied. * Most people ask ‘how’ questions. If first word is ‘Can’, it can take longer to answer than ‘why’s. * Questions posted during the week get faster answers, but with a lower probability of answer. The probability of getting an answer is highest if: * you ask on weekends * question length is short * first word is Why * Title ends with a question mark

Forrester evaluated the emerging market for computer vision platforms and identified the 11 most significant providers in the category — Leaders : Google, Microsoft, Clarifai, and AWS Strong Performers : IBM, Deepomatic, Hive, Chooch AI, and Neurala Contenders : SAS and EdgeVerve Clarifai offers military-grade computer vision that nearly all other vendors can't match. Deepomatic is the best fit for developing a custom physical-world  Computer Vision (CV) solution. Chooch AI is the best fit if you want a cloud model that recognizes as much as possible with low latency. It can recognize roughly 160,000 types of objects and concepts in images and video at high speed. Neurala is the best fit for CV on edge devices with highly limited processing power — making them uniquely well suited for smart devices, robotics, drones, and industrial machinery use cases. Google Cloud CV solutions offer automated medical imagery analysis for radiologist assistance Google isn't o...

This Week I Learned - *  Azure Spot Virtual Machines provide access to unused Azure compute capacity at deep discounts. Spot pricing is available on single Virtual Machines in addition to Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS). Spot Virtual Machines offer the same characteristics as a pay-as-you-go Virtual Machines, with differences in pricing and evictions. Spot Virtual Machines can be evicted anytime if Azure needs capacity. The workloads that are ideally suited to run on Spot Virtual Machines include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following: •    Batch jobs. •    Workloads that can sustain and/or recover from interruptions. •    Development and test. •    Stateless applications that can use Spot Virtual Machines to scale out, opportunistically saving cost. •    Short-lived jobs which can easily be run again if the Virtual Machine is evicted. *  To remove unused CSS, automated unused CSS cleaning, visual r...

Summary of a HBR article " 7 Tricky Work Situations, and How to Respond to Them " Situation #1: Someone takes credit for your idea - “Thanks for spotlighting my point.” Situation #2: You’re asked to stay late when you’re about to leave the office for a personal obligation- “Excuse me, I have another commitment.” Situation #3: In a pivotal situation, a trusted colleague snaps at you - “This isn’t about what you do for me. It is about what you did to me.” Situation #4: You have to say “no.”  - “This is a good launching point.” Situation #5: You have to give negative or awkward feedback to someone you’re close with. - “I’m here to be for you what someone once was for me.” Situation #6: You need to push back on a decision you believe is wrong - “This is my preference.” Situation #7: You need to escalate a serious issue - “Your response gives me cause to take this further.”

This Week I Learned - *  SQL Database elastic pools are a simple, cost-effective solution for managing and scaling multiple databases that have varying and unpredictable usage demands. The databases in an elastic pool are on a single Azure SQL Database server and share a set number of resources at a set price. Elastic pools in Azure SQL Database enable SaaS developers to optimize the price performance for a group of databases within a prescribed budget while delivering performance elasticity for each database. * In the General Purpose tier, you are charged for Premium blob storage that you provision. In the Business Critical tier, you are charged for local SSD storage that you provision for your database or elastic pool. In the hyperscale tier, you are charged for storage for your database based on actual usage. *  In the serverless compute tier of Azure SQL Database , compute resources scale dynamically up or down based on the workload’s requirements and...