>> We recently released two new pieces of content
on Microsoft Learn for Azure Arc and
Azure SQL database in IoT scenarios.
Learn more and this episode of Data Exposed.
[MUSIC]
>> Hi, I'm Anna Hoffman,
and welcome to this episode of Data Exposed.
Today, we're going to be talking about
some new Microsoft Learn content,
and I've brought on some SQL veterans to talk with us about that.
Today, I have Buck Woody and Bob Ward,
both great colleagues from my team working on
enabling you on various technologies
related to Azure SQL and SQL Server.
Now, we've been on this journey for a while.
Buck, can you tell us how it all started with
Azure SQL Workshops or SQL Workshops in general.
>> We created this site.
It's on GitHub actually,
it's called SQL Workshops, just aka.ms/sqlworkshops.
It's a GitHub site. We came up with this idea
of really bringing some learning rigor to the process.
We built these things to where they're complete courses,
and we traveled around the world together,
remember that, and taught these courses all over the place.
But they're also designed to be
taken all by yourself if you want to,
and so we've got lots of incredible content in here.
We've recorded things,
Bob's jumped in,
we've had other people do these courses as well.
It's really been successful and it's been a great modality
and I really enjoyed teaching it in-person,
but then we weren't in-person anymore.
We came up with a different way of teaching,
something that's a little more streamlined
and has some real advantages.
Why don't you talk to us a little bit about
that Microsoft Learn environment?
>> Definitely. Thanks, Buck.
SQL Workshop has been a great resource for us
and it's still a great resource for us
and a great tool for the community
if you want to do open source presenting like we like to do,
we share all our resources there,
but then we started investing in a space called Microsoft Learn.
Apart from this scale that it gets,
one of the biggest things that
we feel like Microsoft Learn brought to the table
was this idea of having a free Azure sandbox.
That's a great thing that you can ask so you can to get hands-on,
no issues, no hoops to jump through,
you could just get hands-on for free
and then everything gets teared down when you're done
so you don't have to worry about the bill
if you leave things on or forget to clean up properly.
But we wanted to spend today and talk a little bit
about some of those learning paths
and modules that we have.
This first one that you see on this screen
is related to a learning path called build serverless,
full stack applications in Azure.
This is really meant for new developers or
new people to Azure SQL so they can get hands on.
You actually go through this solution
of trying to figure out how to catch a bus,
so making automated solutions,
basically notify you when a bus is close by
and then send an email or something like that.
This is a great way to get hands-on
and see how GitHub actions
and a bunch of other services like Azure Functions,
Azure Static Web Apps, Azure Logic Apps,
all work really nicely with Azure SQL Database.
This is a great one I hope you'll check out.
But really the original learning path we did was with Bob.
Bob, can you tell folks a little bit about that one?
>> Thanks. If you think about our journey, let's see.
A little over a year ago,
we were working on Azure SQL Workshops from SQL Workshops
that's all about comparing SQL Server to Azure SQL.
As we're going through in building that,
you mentioned the idea of using Learn as a forum
and a medium to teach the same type of content,
and I was like, "Yeah, I've heard have Learn,
but I'm not really sure what to do there.
I don't know why would that be a right benefit."
You put up this free sandbox, I thought,
think about I built one called SQL 19 Workshops.
Well, guess what?
Developer edition is free to download your laptop.
You can just do the whole thing with no charge,
but how do you do that in Azure?
We literally mapped what was an Azure SQL Workshops
over to this learning path called Azure SQL Fundamentals.
In there are exercises that you do also in the workshops in GitHub
can be done with that free Azure sandbox.
Then it was crazy what happened.
It really took off last year
to the point that people contacted us
and said, "Hey, I went through your learning path.
I did the exercises and I passed Microsoft certifications,
I think it's DEP300, just by doing this.
I didn't even study for it, I just did the workshop.
I did the fundamentals through Learn,
I did the exercises and I passed and certification."
Boy, that was just a great moment.
Then even led to crazier things.
We were doing Learn live broadcast with the Learn team at Ignite
and various other things, Azure SQL bootcamp.
It was really a great experience,
and using Learn as that platform really helped launch it.
>> Definitely. That was definitely where we started
and it's been a huge hit
and it's still something that we get a lot of feedback today on.
Now, since the launch of these two other learning paths,
I know you-all have been working on some other stuff,
so what else have you been working on?
>> Yeah, we have.
Bob reached out to me and said,
"This Learn platform is really incredibly useful.
We've got this learning path we would like to do
for our new deployment offering we're going to be providing
called Azure Arc-enabled data services.
It's based off Kubernetes and all cool technologies like that.
We could build things in our GitHub,
but what do you think about putting this on Learn?"
I said, "That sounds like a fantastic idea. Let's give it a go."
We started working on this a little while back
and we began to bring these things in
to explain to people what's going on with
this Azure Arc-enabled data services, hybrid computing.
What is it? Well, if you look at the modules that we have,
we give you a quick introduction
and then we explain what hybrid computing is.
It doesn't matter who or what provides it,
just what is hybrid computing.
We demystify that a bit,
then we show you how to do hybrid computing
using Azure Arc-enabled data services.
Bob does things thorough.
Bob's the mechanic,
and so I said, "How do you want to do this, Bob?"
He's like, "We got to build a diagram."
Bob, why don't you show them,
because you spend a lot of time getting this really well done.
Yeah, that's it.
>> Hey, you've got to know how things work.
It seems complex with all the pieces put together.
You have Azure, you have Kubernetes,
you have Data Controllers,
you have tools, and it can feel that way.
But we put together a diagram that describes
the architecture of Azure-enabled data services
and a step-by-step process
of how those pieces put together to do deployment.
It really puts together the picture of Kubernetes as the foundation
and then our pods and containers to support Data Controller,
Managed Instance, Postgres,
then you can even connect your Kubernetes with Azure Arc agents,
tie that into Azure and use tooling and interfaces
to really deploy an application and make it all work.
This is really an anchor for the module
to understand the foundation of where it all comes from.
Then past that, we start talking specifically about
Managed Instance and Postgres and those things.
Another cool thing actually, Anna and Buck,
that's pretty interesting here if you back up a little bit,
Anna mentioned that learning path concept,
we just build one module.
Turns out there's a learning path on Azure Arc already.
So you hide in to the overall Azure Arc learning path.
This is just another story as part of that.
>> Absolutely, just makes the whole story come together.
As Bob pointed out,
there's not only SQL Server in here,
but there's also PostgresSQL,
which is quite popular in open source,
that will deploy into Azure Arc-enabled data services.
Keep in mind, a lot of products say they're hybrid,
but they're not really,
they just connect to a Cloud service somewhere.
As Bob pointed out,
this is management and monitoring and control both directions,
and so this is really the real deal here.
Well, we're really proud of this one and we're just announcing it.
We definitely want you to go in there.
If you sign up, if you log in,
you actually get badges and credit,
and you can track your progress.
It's one of the things we love about this platform.
Bob and I have been busy and then Bob and Anna were busy.
Anna, I think you got even more work to do in this platform.
Didn't you do another set of learning paths?
>> Yes. We actually recently just launched a new module,
just one module.
This module is deploying IoT solutions with Azure SQL Database.
It's very new.
We would love any feedback that any folks might have.
But this module I built with a member of our team called Silvano.
Silvano has been working with a lot of our IoT customers
and he's developed a template.
What we were able to do with this solution and this module
is give you a way to deploy this template
and see how Azure SQL Database
can really scale for your IoT workloads.
But then even more so after you've seen how it works
and you've seen how the simulation works,
you now are equipped with this template
to use with any of your IoT scenarios.
You now have the recipe for IoT solutions.
But I think all in all,
together, we've been doing a lot of work in the space
of Azure and SQL and Azure Arc and all these different things.
It's been really great to get them on Microsoft Learn,
and we hope you'll all go check out
all these different resources and give us feedback
and use them for learning
or for deploying stuff and getting started.
On that note, as we close out, Bob, Buck,
do you have any tips for folks
that are just getting started with say something like Azure Arc?
>> You mentioned that this is a bigger endeavor
than just the things that you and I and Bob did before
on SQL Workshops.
We've included the Microsoft Learn team
and that's given us an incredible platform
and they help us with the editing of these things and so on.
But we are also working with the engineering teams.
The engineering teams put together something called a jump-start.
You're actually able, after you do the learning plan,
to pop over to the jump-start
and there's a step-by-step graphical process
to install and use Azure Arc-enabled data services
right there from the website.
It's an incredible resource and it really shows
one Microsoft coming to make sure
that you've got everything you need to learn and get started.
>> Awesome. Thanks, Buck,
and thanks both of you for being on the show.
I think it's really exciting
to see all the things that we're working on,
see all the innovation,
and see how we're making it easy for you hopefully to get started.
To our viewers, thanks so much for watching this episode.
We're going to put a bunch of references in the description
so you can learn more and get hands-on for free
and start working with these things like Azure SQL for IoT
and Azure Arc-enabled Managed Instance.
If you like this video,
go ahead and give it a like, comment,
and let us know which modules
you're working through on Microsoft Learn.
We hope to see you next time on Data Exposed.
[MUSIC]