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Improving Azure SQL Database Performance Using In-Memory Technologies
In late 2016, Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure SQL Database In-Memory technologies. In-Memory processing is only available in Azure Premium database tiers and provides performance improvements for On-line Analytical Processing (OLTP), Clustered Columnstore Indexes and Non-clustered Columnstore Indexes for Hybrid Transactional and Analytical Processing (HTAP) scenarios.
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Testimonial on Using F# by Microsoft's Project Springfield Team
Project Springfield is a fuzz testing service for finding security critical bugs in software. William Blum, principal software engineering manager on the Springfield team at Microsoft Research, explains how adopting F# helped the team build the cloud service.
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Microsoft Launches Cloud Bot-as-a-Service Platform
This past November, Microsoft launched, what it is calling, the Industry’s First Cloud Bot-as-a-Service platform. The Azure Bot Service is powered by the Microsoft Bot Framework and has a serverless compute back-end built on Azure Functions. Using the Bot service allows developers to build conversational applications that plug into many popular chat applications.
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Azure Functions Reach General Availability
Microsoft recently announced an addition to its Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering called Azure Functions. Initially launched as a preview service in March 2016, Azure Functions provide developers with an event-driven serverless compute platform that allow organizations to pay for only what they consume.
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Building Conversational and Text Interfaces Using Amazon Lex
At the recent AWS re:Invent conference, Amazon introduced a preview of their deep learning technology called Amazon Lex which can be used to build conversational interfaces using voice and text. Amazon Lex is powered on the same deep learning technology as Alexa, which is used in the portable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled Amazon Echo speaker.
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Developer Panel Discusses Microservices, Containers and Serverless at Microsoft Connect
A developer panel was held at Microsoft Connect() following the multiple annoucements of new features and releases. Microservices and containers are in the center of the discussion, along with Azure, serverless architecture and developer tooling.
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Microsoft Flow Reaches General Availability
Microsoft recently announced the General Availability of Microsoft Flow, a cloud-based automation platform that provides workflow and connectivity capabilities across many popular online and on-premises services. Since the preview, in April 2016, 117,000 people from 61,000 organizations have used the service to automate their business processes.
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Microsoft PowerApps Reaches General Availability
After a six-month preview of PowerApps, Microsoft has reached General Availability (GA) with the cross-platform business application productivity service. PowerApps is now available for production usage in six regions, in 42 languages, with a 99.9% SLA.
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Azure Relay Freed from WCF Shackles, Goes Cross-Platform
Developers attracted to the Azure Service Bus Relay for its ability to expose web services on internal networks to Internet-facing consumers have had, until recently, only one way to build such services: WCF. Using a just-released public preview called Azure Relay Hybrid Connections, developers may now use any Web socket friendly platform to connect local services to this cloud-based broker.
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Microsoft Announces Azure DNS General Availability
On September 26th, Microsoft announced the Azure DNS service has reached General Availability (GA) in all public Azure regions. Azure DNS allows customers to host their DNS domain in Azure, so they can manage their DNS records using the same credentials, billing and support contract as their other Azure services.
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Oracle Cloud: the Future beyond the Headlines
Oracle OpenWorld focused attention on the new Oracle Cloud Platform offerings - particularly in the IaaS space. Gartner selected AWS and Azure as leaders in IaaS, while Oracle didn't place in the latest Magic Quadrant. InfoQ spoke with AWS and Azure experts about the future of Oracle Cloud.
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Azure Functions Support Added to Azure IoT Gateway SDK
Earlier this month, Microsoft added support for their serverless event driven platform, Azure Functions, within the Azure IoT Gateway SDK. This addition provides a cloud-based extensibility point for developers building IoT solutions on top of Azure.
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Amazon Kinesis Analytics is Like SaaS for Big Data Analysis
Real-time analysis of event streams has a new focus in Big Data platforms, both on-premise and in the cloud. AWS have released Amazon Kinesis Analytics, a rival to Azure StreamAnalytics. Both platforms use a simple SQL language for complex querying, and move Big Data analysis into a SaaS-like space.
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Amazon Introduces API Gateway Usage Plans
Amazon recently updated their API Gateway service to include Usage Plans. A common pattern for companies that expose their APIs, include monetizing them through a 3rd party developer ecosystem. Usage Plans allow an organization to manage 3rd party developer consumption patterns and billing at an API key level.
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Azure Logic Apps Reaches General Availability
On July 27th, Microsoft announced their Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) offering, Logic Apps has reached General Availability (GA). The GA release includes additional management support, telemetry events, alerts, and consumption-based pricing. InfoQ reached out Jim Harrer, principal group program manager at Microsoft to gain further insight into this Logic Apps release.