Get started with data transformation services in Azure – Global Azure 2021

Azure Global 2021 event in mid-April 2021

Hello friends,
I am back again, this time with another follow-up announcement of a second Global Azure 2021 session in Azure Data focus area, for ALL of you!

I am truly excited to present the following session on April 17th, live from my broadcasting studio in East Cost:)

This session will be a deep dive into different data movement scenarios using first-class tooling in Azure data echo-system and Azure Data Factory (ADF). We will learn about handy new features and data connectors, while copying and transforming datasets from a Data Lake and SQL Relational Database storages. Thus, tune in to learn about latest developments in Microsoft Azure data transformation services.

In my second session, I will share following journey with you:

Abstract of the upcoming session provided below πŸ˜‰

We will learn about what is ETL and ELT stands for in data world, and how Azure Data Factory (ADF) service could help you. Along the way, we will look into inner-workings and fundamentals of a cloud-based ETL and data integration service that allows you to create data-driven workflows for orchestrating data movement and transforming data at scale.

Finally, we will conclude the session with ADF demo and Q&A

TheCloudMarathoner πŸ™‚

Please let me know, what topics are you interested in?

Transfrom your Azure ARM into Bicep during the Global Azure 2021

Global Azure 2021 event in mid-April.

Hello eveyone,
I am very happy to share exciting news with all of you.

Few days ago, i have receieved an email confirming acceptance of my both Azure sessions for the Global Azure 2021 event. I am truely trilled to present on April 16th and 17th following two sesions for eveyone live:

I am looking forward for your participiation, and tune in to learn about latest developments in Microsoft Azure.

In my first session i will share the following new session with you.

Abstract of the presentation as is:

Infrastructure as a Code (IaC) is important strategy to manage your digital estate in any cloud environment. Simplifying management of your infrastructure while re-using code is even better. In Microsoft Azure, we have ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates that could declaratively define your cloud project infrastructure.

However, it is not easy to author ARM JSON templates and maintain them when your project grows and requires changes. In this demo heavy session, we will introduce the Azure Bicep language and demonstrate how it simplifies authoring ARM templates for your Azure infrastructure. We will author a manageable, readable, and modularized Azure infrastructure code, while using familiar tools.

TheCloudMarathoner πŸ™‚

Please let me know, what topics are you interested in?

GitOps = IaC + MRs + CI/CD

The biggest benefit in using Git and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) is that you can now use continuous integration and deployment. With tools like GitHub actions, you can automatically deploy and/or update infrastructure code and automatically apply it to your cloud environment. Resources that have been added to the infrastructure code are created automatically and made ready for use.

The resources that were changed are updated in your cloud environment and resources that are removed from the infrastructure code are automatically spun down and deleted. This allows you to write code, commit it to your Git repository, and take full advantage of all the benefits of the DevOps process.

GitOps

GitOps uses a Git repository as the single source of truth for infrastructure definitions. Simply put, a Git repository is a “.git” folder in a project that tracks all changes made to files in a project. Infrastructure as code (IaC) is the practice of keeping all infrastructure configuration tracked and saved as code files. The actual desired state may or may not be stored as code, depending your approach and organizational policies.

MRs

GitOps uses merge requests as the change process for all infrastructure updates. The merge request (MR) is where teams can collaborate via reviews and comments. The MR could also have a formal approval for changes to take place. A merge commits to your “main” branch is a potential changelog for a later audit and/or troubleshooting when needed.

CI/CD

GitOps automates infrastructure updates using a Git workflow with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). When new code is merged, the CI/CD pipeline enacts the change in the environment. Any configuration drift, such as manual changes or errors, is overwritten by GitOps automation so the environment converges on the desired state defined in the Git.
GitHub actions uses CI/CD pipelines to manage and implement GitOps automation.

GitOps isn’t a black box anymore. It just takes IaC tools you already know and wraps them in a DevOps-style workflow. This approach provides a better revision tracking, fewer costly errors, and quick, automated infrastructure deployments that can be repeated for on any environment.

By adopting GitOps in your organization, you could improve the developer experience because often-dreaded releases become fully automated. This will allow developers to focus on their code. Teams eliminate or minimize manual steps and make deployments repeatable and reliable.

You could also improve security and standardization by utilizing GitOps.
By practicing GitOps, developers have no need to manually access cloud resources and additional security checks can be put in place at the code level in CI/CD pipelines.

I hope you like the GitOps approach and please let me know, what are you working on. Or how you could relate your work to GitOps?

What is a good service to perform data transformation in Azure?πŸ€”

Hello friends and data marathoners!


I am excited to annonce my next Cloud Lunch and Learn tech meetup session with you.

During the previous session, you have learned about how to up-skill existing data and SQL skills with the new Data engineering mindset πŸ‘ŒπŸ‘

Updated: Check out the recorded event session on YouTube: https://youtu.be/h3AaL9AhuXI

I am glad to invite you all – to learn how to get started with Data Transformation services inΒ Microsoft Azure β„’Β 


Thanks you πŸ™ Cloud Lunch and Learn for organizing this session.

Event detail: 24 March @ 18:00 UTC
Open registration πŸ‘‰ https://lnkd.in/dNb5vUr#SharingIsCaring❀️

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ ᴍᴇ 🎯 α΄€Ι΄α΄… κœ±α΄›α΄€Κ€α΄› Κα΄α΄œΚ€ α΄„ΚŸα΄α΄œα΄… ☁ α΄Šα΄α΄œΚ€Ι΄α΄‡Κ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘
#microsoftazure#CloudLunchLearn#azuredata#upskilling#cloud#dataengineering#datatransformation#gettingstarted#continuouslearning

Why “Start small and Expand” approach is good for your company business?

As cloud☁️ journey matures, each company 🏨 knows that service
requirements and needs will be changing. As cloud providers add new features and products, the new market opportunities and possibilities will rise.

There are several reasons why you would want to pursue the cloud landing zones. Using the start small and expand landing zone, you could get started with cloud adoption at a low-risk pace, and build up the security, governance, and regulatory policies over time.

As a benefit, with “start small and expand” you can use Azure Resource Manager templates and Azure Policy to create a CI/CD pipelines for subscriptions with Azure Blueprints.

As an ongoing improvement effort, you could expand and improve the landing zone with the Cloud Adoption Framework enterprise-scale design guidelines from Microsoft Azure β„’

Get started by learning “What is an Azure landing zone?” πŸ‘‰ https://lnkd.in/eD7xtWV #SharingIsCaring❀️

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ 🎯 theΒ #cloudmarathonerΒ β›…πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸƒβ€β™€οΈ on LinkedIn α΄€Ι΄α΄… 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘

How to up-skill with Azure Data services and get certified?

I am excited to annonce πŸ“’– that my two webinar submissions have been accepted and scheduled by Cloud Lunch and Learn.

Please. join me to learn more about how to up-skill existing data and SQL skills with the new Data engineering mindset πŸ‘ŒπŸ‘

Thanks you πŸ™ @CloudLunchLearn for hosting this event!

Event detail: 17 March @ 18:00 UTC
Open registration πŸ‘‰ https://www.meetup.com/AzureDublin/events/276559449/ Β 
#SharingIsCaring❀️

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ ᴍᴇ 🎯 α΄€Ι΄α΄… κœ±α΄›α΄€Κ€α΄› Κα΄α΄œΚ€ α΄„ΚŸα΄α΄œα΄… ☁ α΄Šα΄α΄œΚ€Ι΄α΄‡Κ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘

What is an Azure administrative unit and its benefits? πŸ€”

The Administrative Units (AU) are Azure AD resources which can contain only users and groups.

AUs could manage permissions πŸ›‘οΈπŸ” in a role to any segment of your organization. For example, you could use AUs to delegate the User Administrator role to regional support specialists, so they can manage users only in the region that they support.

The AUs are especially helpful when an organization whose IT department is scattered across globe and wants to categorize and define relevant geographical boundaries.

Currently, supported scenarious from Azure AD portal are:

  • Create administrative units
  • Add users and groups members of administrative units
  • Assign IT staff to administrative unit-scoped administrator roles.

In addition, assigned users can easily manage their AU users from mystaffΒ MicrosoftΒ website πŸ‘‰ https://mystaff.microsoft.com/

Check out the following Microsoft docs post for more details and use asesπŸ‘‰Β https://lnkd.in/dXMMncJ #SharingIsCaring❀️

Now, if you end up loving this story and want to lean about managing your sers with “My Staff” – then check out this handy post on Micrsoft docs page:

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ ᴍᴇ 🎯 α΄€Ι΄α΄… become the #cloudmarathoner β›…πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸƒβ€β™€οΈ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘

Exam Guide Tips AND prep resources: 2-in-1 sweet combo

My little intro – well, skip this as it might be boring πŸ™

Let’s start with a little bit of background to my somewhat unorthodox journey into Azure Developer cert way back in 2018.

Three years ago, I got a beta exam invite for Azure Core Developer (AZ-200) certification. At the time, there were no readily availiable study materials to learn from and prepare. My focus was on the exam objectives document, with a special highlight on Azure services that I did not have a chance to work with.

Long story short, at the end of the exam I did not know if it was a PASS βœ… or not ❌, as it was a beta exam. However, good and somewhat unexpected “pass news” with a cert email came back in 2 months. I was over the moon 🌜 and delighted to be one of the few candidates to succeed. Later, this exam was retired, as most cert nowadays…

Back to the current time, Feb 2021

Today, I was feeling excited & pumped to go after Azure Developer cert (AZ-204) πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸš΄β€β™‚οΈπŸŠβ€β™‚οΈπŸ’ͺ – and yes, I posted earlier that I will share the result – either pass or fail.

Well, the good news is – I did not have to wait 2 months to learn the result πŸ˜ƒ It was a pass – and not an easy one though, as there were 60% more materials and more detail oriented questions on different inner workings of Azure services.

Let’s give a round of applause πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘ to Microsoft Learn modules and Learning path tracks – as they are getting better and better – and help me to cover this material in a somewhat fun way….

How was my actual exam experience?

The overall experience was exciting 😲 and scary 😱 at the same time. Mainly, because of the two case studies appearing at different sections of the exam. Well, at the end of the exam I shared this non pleasant experience by providing feedback ✍. I think every exam participant should be willing to share their experience, as it will be a good set of metrics for exam creators to assess and modify the exam experience to make it better overall.

Speaking about the exam, I got approximately 50 questions❔; where two case studies contained approx. 5-7 questions each. My surprise was to discover πŸ‘€, one case study right in the beginning, and another one right at the end of the exam. It threw my timing a little bit off.

So, be prepared to save enough time for exam case studies (yes, there might be more than one, and I had three in the Microsoft exams last year), no matter what, as they consume a considerable chunk of your time and could cause your brain to start steaming ♨ – due to time constraints.

If you are a Cloud Solutions Architect (aka, CSA) you may find certain questions too technical in nature, like knowing the exact sequence of operations to place each task correctly. Well, if you never played with that specific feature then don’t panic. Just focus on the question and use your #quizskills. As an example: I had several educated guesses ⁉ – on what might be the right order of operations without knowing 100%.

In the real world, you could easily find your way with a quick search on your favorite engine… but an exam is an exam… and you are not penalized for wrong answers.

Good news is: a certain number of questions are high level, and your current CSA experience will be very handy; like assessing/suggesting the workload for the most effective Azure service or solution based on customer requirements.

Exam duration is180 minutes⏰ or 220 min including the feedback time. Generally speaking, this should be enough with a small caveat: You have to plan your time carefully and watch for the exact # of potential questions and remaining case studies of the exam. That said, there were several questions with true/false options, many drag-and-drop scenarios, and multi-select choices that seemed easy and tricky at the same time.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

Where should I start my Azure Developer journey?

The official exam page AZ-204 is a really good place to start. Followed by the suggested learning track and modules in the bottom of the page.

The exam page AZ-204 gets even better with a final section on “Exam resources“. I consider this section a REAL “gem” πŸ’ŽπŸ’ŽπŸ’Ž

Dear friends, stay tuned – as your information on how to earn a #free exam voucher is included in this post. Look into Microsoft’s “Cloud Skills Challenge” program below.

Any other tips or resources for study?

Labs and practice material suggestions

  • Reference to the AZ-204 lab exercises GitHub repo
  • Quick start references on Microsoft Docs

FREE exam voucher through Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenge (Expired – Not a Valid anymore)

For a limited time, Microsoft Learn provides a free, interactive way of learning by combining short step-by-step tutorials, browser-based interactive coding and scripting environments, and task-based achievements to help you advance your technical skills while earning achievements.

What are you waiting for? Register today via this link πŸ‘

That is it folk, I tried to share and illustrate my exam experiences in this post. I hope you will find it helpful and apply to your “Azure developer” certification journey.

Please, feel free to share your experience or thoughts, as i am planning to keep this post up to date with your contributions going forward. #keeplearning

Stay safe and be the 4th with you … #nevergiveup #keeppushing

What is “Cloud native”, how you could define it?


So what is “Cloud Native”? πŸ€”πŸ‘€/

My approach is to hit on Re-FRESH β™» before thinking about Cloud Native; as it is an evolving space that at minimum includes following components:


βœ”οΈ Modern Design
βœ”οΈ Microservices
βœ”οΈ Containers
βœ”οΈ Backbone Services
βœ”οΈ Automation

By the way, check out the official CNCF definition (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) definition for clarity.

Cloud-native technologies empower organizations to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. Containers, service meshes, microservices, immutable infrastructure, and declarative APIs exemplify this approach.

These techniques enable loosely coupled systems that are resilient, manageable, and observable. Combined with robust automation, they allow engineers to make high-impact changes frequently and predictably with minimal toil.

CNCF

More on this topic πŸ‘‰ https://lnkd.in/eUkgs9P#SharingIsCaring❀️

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ ᴍᴇ 🎯 α΄€Ι΄α΄… κœ±α΄›α΄€Κ€α΄› Κα΄α΄œΚ€ α΄„ΚŸα΄α΄œα΄… ☁ α΄Šα΄α΄œΚ€Ι΄α΄‡Κ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘

What is Microsoft Cloud App Security and what it does?

Well, it is a Cloud☁️ Access Security Broker (CASB) πŸ›‘οΈ πŸ” that supports various deployment πŸš€ modes; like log collection, API connectors, and reverse proxy.


You can get a rich visibility, control over data travel, and sophisticated analytics to identify and combat cyberthreats across all yourΒ Microsoft Azure β„’Β and third-party cloud services.

Cloud App Security integrates visibility with your cloud by providing:
βœ”οΈ Cloud Discovery
βœ”οΈ Sanctioning and unsanctioning an app
βœ”οΈ App connectors
βœ”οΈ Conditional Access App Control protection
βœ”οΈ Policy Control
βœ”οΈ Types of apps to migrate

Check out how to get started withΒ MicrosoftΒ Cloud App Security πŸ‘‰Β https://lnkd.in/eZg2Pby#SharingIsCaring❀️

Fᴏʟʟᴏᴑ ᴍᴇ 🎯 α΄€Ι΄α΄… become α΄€Β #cloudmarathonerΒ β›…πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸƒβ€β™€οΈ – 𝐋𝐄𝐓’𝐒 π‚πŽπππ„π‚π“ πŸ‘