This week in Azure - February 22, 2016

Mike Gresley announced that the Annotations detail blade is available in Application Insights which help you get more info when correlating releases to your telemetry
Tom Shinder announced that the Azure Disk Encryption White Paper has been updated to version 1.2.1

Corey Sanders more open options in Microsoft Azure which include:
We announced that Azure Hybrid Use Benefit reached general availability which means that Windows Server users who have Software Assurance can run Windows VMs in Azure at a lower price
We announced that the SQL Server Stretch Database functionality is in public preview
We announced App Service SSL connection price changes which most notably include free Server Name Indication (SNI) SSL connections for Basic, Standard and Premium tiers
We announced that the Swagger install package for Azure Mobile .NET Server is available on NuGet

Pallavi Joshi announced that Azure Backup in now Available in Azure China
Ninar Nuemah has announced multiple updates to the SQL Server AlwaysOn Cluster Template which include internal listeners and optimized performance
Alex Simons announced that Azure AD Connect 1.1 has reached General Availability with faster sync times, automatic updates and more

We announced a public preview of HDInsight Tools for IntelliJ which will be very interesting for HDInsight Spark developers

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Updating the Azure VM Encryption Certs from Cloud Solution Architect
Microsoft Azure App Service: new course from CloudAcademy
Azure Container Service, Powerd by the DCOS from Mesosphere
Azure Virtual Networks with ARM and PowerShell from Cloud Solution Architect
Using Active Directory Security Groups to Grant Permissions to Azure Resources from Kloud
Azure Opens Up With Expanded Linux Support from EnterpriseTech
Microsoft Azure Automation: Concepts and Practical Usage — New course from CloudAcademy
Monitoring and Alerting in Azure from Cloud Solution Architect
Using the Azure Resource Manager REST API from Cloud Solution Architect

311 Solutions (Professional Services from Egypt) switched from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to Microsoft Azure.
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International plc , part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (Financial Group from the United Kingdom) has moved their HPC calculations to the Azure cloud.
FCamara (E-commerce from Brazil) has chosen the Microsoft Azure cloud because it supports all the open source.
Otsuka Corporation (System Integration Business from Japan) has chosen the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement to complement the company’s previous licensing programs.
Absolut (Leading brand of Premium vodka from Sweden) has decided to use Azure, because it allows us to use servers around the world to deploy a site into a specific country or region.
Carnegie Mellon University (Education from the USA) has implemented the PI System from Microsoft Global ISV partner OSIsoft based on Power BI for Office 365 and the Azure platform.

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Tomek & Mirek

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