Chapter 4: Planning Your Virtual Network Topology

Networks are a complex topic, so Microsoft has invested heavily in automation to make networks easier (and provide useful defaults).

There’s a look at the virtual network (vNet) components. A vNet is an isolation and communications boundary. VMs in the same vNet can communicate by default but still need firewall rules. There’s a useful table of the various types of network communication (e.g. internet, vNet, vNet peering).

Next, there’s a walkthrough on deploying (i.e. creating) a vNet to link two VMs. This is shown both using the Azure Portal and Azure PowerShell. This is followed by details on how to configure vNets, and then how to connect two vNets via vNet peering.

With networks, firewalls are an important tool to allow authorised users access to resources, and deploying an Azure firewall is discussed.

I never feel totally confident with networking (I’ve created vNet etc using the defaults, but just as I wouldn’t want a network guy to create a database, I wouldn’t want me to be responsible for networking – always try to get expert advice if possible).

Like many (all?) Azure books with a networking element, I feel authors make too many assumptions about the reader, assuming far too much networking knowledge.  

Chapter 5: Deploying and Configuring Azure Virtual Machines

A typical starting point into the Azure world is using a VM, which can be useful when you want full control over a Windows or Linux server.

The chapter opens with a look at the importance of planning your VM deployment (i.e. required software, resources, OS, etc). Often the fastest way to deploy is via an image found on Azure Marketplace.

There’s a useful discussion about the various VM components (e.g. compute, storage, network), before looking at the system specifications and prices. Architectural considerations are important too, including High Availability (HA), availability set, availability zones, and scalability. Luckily, if you need to alter the VM specification, rapid scalability is one of the advantages of Azure VMs.

Next, potential cost savings are outlined, including the use of reservations that can give a discount of up to 72% over a 3-year reservation period. Spot instances can offer substantial savings on systems that are use sporadically. 

There’s a very helpful walkthrough on deploying Azure VMs from Azure Marketplace. This is followed with details on configuration, connection, and usage. Details are provided on how to stop, start, and resize your VM, this is important since it impacts costs.

This was a very useful chapter, with helpful walkthroughs on how to deploy your VMs, together with associated operations details.

Chapter 6: Shipping Docker Containers in Azure

Containers offer a faster and easier way to build software. While VMs abstract the hardware, docker containers also provide abstraction, allowing the packaging of an app and all its dependencies into a module for fast deployment (containers are often relatively small).

Containers work with Windows or Linux, and links are provided to the docker documentation. There’s a useful walkthrough on using docker containers, allowing you to quickly test your app against 3 different versions of a database. 

The chapter highlights the many advantages of using containers in the software lifecycle.

Chapter 7: Deploying and Configuring Azure App Service Apps

This chapter looks at how to create and configure App Service web apps. Although this often involves a degree of programming, this is outside the scope of this book, so instead, code is provided with minimal explanation – allowing you to follow along with the chapter’s exercises.

Azure App Service is an HTTP based web app host service. Various types of web app are discussed, including API apps and mobile apps. Different software frameworks can be used (e.g. .net, ruby). The 2 common approaches, Logic apps (workflow triggered by an event, no code) and Function apps (run code at a given time) are discussed.

There’s a helpful walkthrough on deploying your first web app, with examples using Azure Marketplace and another using Visual Studio project templates. This is followed with details on how to configure your web app (e.g. for autoscaling).

The chapter ends with a look at monitoring your web app, including a helpful overview of Application Insights (a performance management tool).

This was a helpful chapter on how to get your apps up and running. I do wonder how much programming knowledge the reader will have, and if they’ll be able to understand the reasoning.

Chapter 8: Running Serverless Apps in Azure

The term serverless is a misnomer (like the term cloud computing). You obviously need a server somewhere to run your code, with serverless there is a degree of abstraction where you don’t need to manage the underlying server.

The chapter discusses what serverless means, and gives walkthroughs on how to create, configure, run, and test both Logic and Function serverless apps.

Chapter 9: Managing Databases in Microsoft Azure

Most businesses use databases to persist their data. Here, both relational and nonrelational databases are examined.

There’s a quick look at the use of IaaS (more control) and PaaS (more automation) and the impact this has on databases. There’s a helpful table that compares the salient features of relational and nonrelational databases – however, it is exactly wrong, because the column headings need to be swapped. 

There’s a useful table of the various Azure SQL products, however, it says SQL Managed Instance gives large scale parallel processing – this is wrong, it’s more appropriate for Azure SQL Database which offers a hyperscale option or Azure Synapse Analytics. A walkthrough is provided on creating an Azure SQL Database.

Next, there’s a look at Azure Cosmos DB, this has a flexible schema where the data is eventually consistent. Cosmos DB is essentially a wrapper for various types of nonrelational databases (e.g. mongo dB, Cassandra, gremlin etc). A walkthrough is provided on creating a Cosmos database together with an app that interacts with it.

Whilst this chapter provides an overview of Azure database offerings, I feel it could have been much clearer (e.g. showing the distinction between Azure SQL DB and Azure SQL Managed Instance). Additionally, very little is said about Azure SQL Managed Instance. 

Some of the obvious errors highlighted should have been captured by the book’s technical reviewer. I’m a database specialist, so I’m more likely to pick up database related errors. 

Chapter 10: Using Data Analytics and Machine Learning in Azure

Both Data Analytics and Machine Learning (ML) use large amounts of data, I guess that’s one of the reasons for grouping them together in this chapter.

The chapter opens with a look at what Data Analytics involves, concentrating on Big Data solutions from Microsoft, covering: Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure HDInsight, and Azure Databricks. 

Next, the chapter moves on to the Internet of Things (IoT). Here, many small devices in the field send data regularly to a hub (e.g. energy readings). There’s a useful walkthrough on how to configure a IoT hub. 

The chapter ends with a look at Azure ML and Cognitive Services. It starts with coverage of various definitions (e.g. AI, ML, Deep Learning). There’s a helpful walkthrough of Azure ML Studio, very useful if you plan to spend time in Azure ML. Azure Cognitive Services encapsulate the many ML algorithms (e.g. vision, speech, decision). There’s a useful outline on building AI-capable conversational agents (Azure Bot Service) – no walkthrough is provided.

This chapter was largely descriptive, instead of the many step-by-step walkthroughs of other chapters.

This is an area currently undergoing a lot of movement, with the announcement of Microsoft Fabric in May 2023.