So last week, I really thought we were done with certificates, but no. This week there's
another new Azure cert, but also a ton of updates for Azure Kubernetes Services, or AKS,
and a neat update to Static Functions. I'm Lars Klint, purveyor of fine cloud news and
gourmet computing services. This week also marks 36 years since the first Blockbuster store opened
in Dallas, Texas with an inventory of 8,000 VHS and 2,000 beta tapes. I know. As we know,
the fate of Blockbuster was the cloud and online streaming services. All right. On with the news!
Yes, there is another new Azure exam. This time it falls within the data segment of the Azure
spectrum, with a certification focus on Cosmos DB. The numbering is DP-420, which indicates
a new branch of data certification. So far, we have seen DP-100, 200, 300 and 900 series
of certifications, so 400 might be a branch of more specialized exams, such as for Cosmos DB.
So who is this new exam for then? According to Microsoft, it is for developers that work
with designing and implementing data models and data distribution, loading data into a database
created with Azure Cosmos DB, and optimizing and maintaining the solution. Very specific to
Cosmos DB then. However, it's other focus is on how to design, implement, and monitor solutions
that consider security, availability, resilience, and performance requirements. Actually, instead
of me quoting Microsoft, let's talk to Mike Brown, Principal Project Manager for Cosmos DB, and Gary
Hope, Program Manager for Cosmos DB as well. Cause they probably know a lot more about this than me.
Yeah. We're really excited to have this certification because we know it's going to
have a great impact on customers and users as they go and design and build apps. You don't design for
Cosmos the same way you would say a relational database. There's other things that requires some
specialized knowledge and different techniques to design for a database like Cosmos, because to
grow for really large workloads, with like a relational database, you would just increase
the size of the VM it's working on. It's a scale up database. Cosmos is a scale out database. So
you don't increase the size of the VM or pieces of compute. You just keep adding pieces of compute.
So that means we have to partition or shard our data. This is why we have the exam is to unlock
that promise for that kind of infinite scale, you have to understand how to design and model.
This really give us an opportunity to get into the depth. There's a lot to it.
It's got its own query language. It's a dialect of sequel. We have a whole set of SDKs that
people need to understand and grasp in order to leverage the capability correctly. So it
gives us that ability to get into the detail for that audience much better. Quite a specialized
exam focusing just on the one area of technology, which is Cosmos DB. We cover concepts around some
of that stuff in the fundamentals exams and our learning paths. But this is really focused on that
one piece and it's a specialization exam. So it lives side by side with the other certifications.
It's not a replacement or a drop in for other certifications. The exam is a piece of the assets
that we released. There's also the learning parts. And then the instructor-led content that will
be available to support in-person training as well. Thanks very much for your time Mark, Gary
really appreciate it. The new DP-420 exam will be available in a beta edition sometime in November.
If you’d like to learn more about Azure and Cosmos DB, check out ACG’s free plan. It gives
you access to free courses and quizzes, plus learning paths and original series content.
And you don’t need a credit card to sign up. I’ll include a link in the description below.
Say after me containers, containers, containers. Yeah, there were a ton of Azure Kubernetes Service
updates this week. So ready: HTTPS proxy configuration support to allow internet
connectivity from boot up. AKS support for Kubernetes 1.22 with 53 new enhancements such
as pod security admission feature, API server tracing feature and generic data populaters,
which are all important. I think. Support for WebAssembly Systems Interface workloads, which
uses Krustless? Krustlets, yeah really, to run these WebAssembly modules outside of containers.
The controller manager moving out of the core Kubernetes code base,
which means Microsoft was able to update the cloud controller to respond to customer requests
that are specific to the Azure integration of Kubernetes. AKS support for dual-stack IPv6
overlay networking. These features are all out now in public preview.
To be completely honest though, I don't understand most of what that means. However,
I always watch Kubernetes This Month, a monthly show about Kubernetes. Obviously. It has Nigel
Poulton in it. He's hosting it. Now it gives you all the most important updates about Kubernetes
and is completely free. Check out the link in the description to learn more about that too.
There can't be a week without Azure Function news, right? I thought so too. And this week
a new Static Web Apps authentication with a serverless function was released in preview.
This is a function that is invoked whenever a user successfully logs into your Static Web App. And
you can use this function to assign custom roles to the user that logged in. This feature provides
flexibility in how users are assigned custom roles in your application. And some of the examples that
Microsoft gives are: query a database to determine which custom roles a user should be assigned.
Call the Microsoft Graph API to determine a user's roles based on the Active Directory
group membership. Use claims from the identity provider to determine a user's roles. Now that
is a really cool addition to Static Web Apps, which by the way if you haven't tried it,
is a fantastic service on Azure. Very easy, very cheap, very fast to set up. Anyway, it'll no doubt
allow a lot more flexibility in managing users and roles. Now before I wrap up, I wanted to mention
that the Introduction to Azure Security course is free all this month on the A Cloud Guru platform.
And this course is a great way to get the right start to Azure security. To check it out,
hit the free plan signup link below. As we say on the A Cloud Guru team when one certification
rolls into the next and into the next and into the next and into the next and into the next and...
"Seek and you shall cloud". So see you next week and keep being awesome Cloud Gurus.