by Contributed | Apr 8, 2021 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
This post is co-authored by Abe Omorogbe, Program Manager, Azure Machine Learning.
The Azure Machine Learning (Azure ML) team is excited to announce the release of an enhanced developer experience for ‘compute instance’ and ‘notebooks’ users, through a VS Code integration in the Azure ML Studio! It is now easier than ever to work directly on your Azure ML compute instances from within Visual Studio Code, , and with full access to a remote terminal, your favorite VS Code extensions, Git source control UI, and a debugger.
Bringing VS Code to Azure Machine Learning
The Azure Machine Learning and VS Code teams have been working in collaboration over the past couple of months to better understand user workflows for authoring, editing, and managing code files. The demand for VS Code became clear after speaking to a wide variety of users tasked with managing larger projects and operationalizing their models. Users were eager to continue working on their Azure ML compute resources and retain the development context initially defined through the Studio UI.
The first step to enabling a better editing experience for users was to evaluate what was currently used in VS Code. Users were familiar with extensions such as Remote-SSH and , the former used to connect to their remote compute and the latter to author notebook files. The advantage of using Jupyter, JupyterLab, or Azure ML notebooks was that they could be used for all compute instance types without requiring any additional configuration or networking changes.
To enable users to work against their compute instances without requiring SSH or additional networking changes, the Azure ML and VS Code teams built a Notebook-specific compute instance connect experience. The Azure ML extension was responsible for facilitating the connection between VS Code – Jupyter and the compute instance, taking care of authenticating on the user’s behalf. After a month or so of releasing this capability, it was clear that users were excited about connectivity without SSH and being able to work from directly within VS Code. However, working in the editor implied expectations around being able to use other VS code features such as the remote terminal, debugger, and language server. Users expressed their frustration with being limited to working in a single Notebook file, being unable to view files on the remote server, and not being able to use their preferred extensions.
VS Code Integration: Features
Learning from prior releases and talking to users led the Azure ML and VS code teams, to build a complete VS Code experience for compute instances without using SSH. Getting started with this experience is trivial – entry points have been integrated within the Azure ML Studio in both the Compute Instance and Notebooks tabs.
Studio UI Compute Entry Point
Studio UI Notebooks Entry Point
Through this VS Code integration customers will now have access to the following features and benefits:
- Full integration with Azure ML file share and notebooks: All file operations in VS Code are fully synced with the Azure ML Studio. For example, if a user drags and drops files from their local machine into VS Code connected to Azure ML, all files will be synced and appear in the Azure ML Studio.
- Git UI Experiences: Fully manage Git repos in Azure ML with the rich VS Code source control UI.
- Notebook Editor: Seamlessly click out from the Azure ML notebooks and continue to work on notebooks in the new native VS code editor.
- Debugging: Use the native debugging in VS Code to debug any training script before submitting it to an Azure ML cluster for batch training.
- VS Code Terminal: Work in the VS Code terminal that is fully connected to the compute instance.
- VS Code Extension Support: All VS Code extensions are fully supported in VS Code connected to the compute instance.
- Enterprise Support: Work with VS Code securely in private endpoints without additional, complicated SSH and networking configuration. AAD credentials and RBAC are used to establish a secure connection to VNET/private link enabled Azure ML workspaces.
VS Code Integration: How it Works
Clicking out to VS Code will launch a desktop VS Code session which initiates a secondary remote connection to the target compute. Within the remote connection window, the Azure ML extension creates a WebSocket connection between your local VS Code client and the remote compute instance.
The connected window now provides you with:
- Access to the mounted file share, with consistent syncing between what is seen in Jupyter* and the Azure ML Notebooks experience.
- Access to the machine’s local SSD in case you would like to clone and manage repos outside of the shared file share.
- The ability to manage repositories through the source control UI.
- The ability to create, interact and debug running applications.
- A remote terminal for executing commands directly against the remote compute.
Below is a high-level overview of the remote connection
Remote Connection Architecture Diagram (High-Level)
This new connect capability and direct integration in the Azure ML Studio creates a better-together experience between Azure ML and VS Code! When working on your machine learning projects you can get started with a notebook in the Azure ML Studio for early data prep and exploratory work, when you’re ready to start fleshing out the rest of your project, work on multiple file types, and use more advanced editing capabilities and VS Code extension, you can seamlessly transition over to working in VS Code. The retained context and file share usage enables you to move bi-directionally (from notebooks to VS Code and vice-versa) without requiring additional work.
Getting Started
You can initiate the connection to VS Code directly from the Studio UI through either the Compute Instance or Notebook pages. Alternatively, there are routes starting directly within VS Code if you would prefer. Given you have the Azure Machine Learning extension installed, you can find the compute instance in the tree view and right-click on it to connect. You can also invoke the command “Azure ML: Connect to compute instance” and follow the prompts to initiate the connection.
Azure ML extension command
Azure ML extension tree view context menu option
For more details on how you can get started with this experience, please take a look at our public documentation.
Both the Azure ML and VS Code extension teams are always looking for feedback on our current experiences and what we should work on next. If there is anything you would like us to prioritize, please feel free to suggest so via our GitHub repo; if you would like to provide more general feedback, please fill out our survey.
by Contributed | Apr 8, 2021 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
This blog post is a follow-on to a three-part series exploring the many ways that Microsoft Power Platform empowers people with no coding experience to upskill and quickly learn how to create apps to solve business problems or local community issues. The cloud advocate featured in this post, April Dunnam, is a developer and app creator who uses social media, including YouTube, Twitter, and blogs, along with virtual conference sessions, to show devs and other makers how using Microsoft Power Platform can empower them in new ways. To hear the other cloud advocates talk about their experience with Microsoft Power Platform, tune in to this Digital Lifestyle podcast.
If you follow Microsoft Power Platform on Twitter or other social media, you’ll know that April Dunnam is a familiar and popular presence. You might have seen her YouTube channel where she introduces Microsoft Power Platform—and the certification process—to thousands of new users. Before joining Microsoft, Dunnam was a Power Apps and Power Automate Most Valuable Professional (MVP) who shared development tips and tricks at many events and on her community blog. She’s part of an elite group of makers who love to share their knowledge and to inspire others. You might be wondering about the path that brought her to Microsoft Power Platform. We recently met with Dunnam for a conversation and got all the interesting details.
Before Microsoft, Dunnam had a successful career in IT, running her own consulting business for eight years. Back in her college days, she started in the Microsoft SharePoint space and quickly found an affinity for development. During a college internship, she was introduced to C# and .NET development on top of SharePoint, as she helped the organization’s IT team with an internet rollout.
Over time, she did some on-premises work as a SharePoint developer and then transitioned (along with the rest of the world) to SharePoint cloud development. Back in the day, as a SharePoint dev, she did a lot of business process workflow work using full-stack code or InfoPath and SharePoint Designer. When Microsoft Power Platform came along, it was a natural transition for her. She was an early adopter of Power Apps. She points out, “I started looking at it and figuring out ways I could use it instead of InfoPath and SharePoint Designer for things I was building for my clients. It was a smooth transition to the Power Platform.”
Sharing the excitement of Microsoft Power Platform
Dunnam saw the potential of Microsoft Power Platform because it was so customizable and so much was already in the product. As she explains, “I loved not having to worry about coding in authentication to the various services I might need to connect to, like SQL databases. That was already baked in, and I could tell that using it would save me a lot of development time over using custom code. That’s what really got me excited about it.”
To spread the word and help make it easier for others to build applications, Dunnam started a “Template Tuesdays” series on her YouTube channel. In addition to those available in Power Apps, she created her own templates and explained how to use them. She remembers a timesheet template that she created, which saved a lot of time. She made it available to download for free. She notes, “It really took off.” Her generous attitude toward other makers, that template, and those downloads all caught the eye of Dona Sarkar, lead for the Microsoft Power Platform Advocacy team. The two stayed in touch.
Harnessing the power of certification
In addition to showing developers and makers the ins and outs of Microsoft Power Platform, Dunnam is passionate about bringing the message of certification to them. She’s a believer in the power of certification to help discover your career path. “I have all the Microsoft Power Platform certifications,” she enthuses. She wants to help users decide which certifications are right for them. “I put a video together to explain the key differences between the certifications because I definitely see the value.” She started accumulating certifications early in her career. “I really believe that they help you on your career path by validating your skills. They are something that organizations look for. They definitely see merit in them.”
Dunnam remembers how challenging it was to graduate from college during the economic collapse of 2008–2009. It was hard to find a development job right away, so she took a data entry role at a telecom company. She kept up her development work on the side and started studying for her first SharePoint certification. She attributes her success at moving into a role as a SharePoint developer to proving her skills and to the Microsoft Certification that validated them. “Certification,” she explains, gave her “personal validation and proved that I actually knew what I was talking about. ”
So, when Dunnam started to add Microsoft Power Platform development skills to her portfolio, she continued to study for additional certifications. She first took Exam PL-900: Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals. “It seemed like a good starting point because it’s about the basics.” She knows that certification can be a great career boost for developers like her who become Power Apps power users. To learn more about Microsoft Power Platform certifications, check out the Discover your career path: Microsoft Power Platform certifications section later in this post.
An award-winning Power Apps solution
Dunnam joined Microsoft in 2019 as a Partner Technical Architect in the One Commercial Partner (OCP) organization. She helped partners in the Microsoft ecosystem build Microsoft Power Platform practices. Along the way, she also developed a Power Apps application for her team so they could have a virtual internal conference, with an experience that would be like Ignite, where people could go in, browse virtual sessions, and register. The app that she created for the internal conference won a Technology Solutions Award within her team.
Many paths to Microsoft Power Platform
In her work, Dunnam has noticed that there are many paths to Microsoft Power Platform. She thinks the smoothest path is to come from a Dynamics 365 background, but she has seen a lot of people in the community come from a SharePoint background, as she did. She observes, “With SharePoint, it’s easy to set up your data, and a lot of people are used to this. People who use SharePoint are used to working with collaborative suites of products. It’s a great introductory data source when you’re building Power Apps. For people like me, who used InfoPath to customize forms, it seemed like a natural migration to just use Power Apps and to switch to Power Automate if you’re already using tools like SharePoint Designer to create workflows.”
Dunnam also sees a path to Microsoft Power Platform for people who don’t have a Dynamics or SharePoint background. “Most people use Microsoft Excel. You’d like it better if you had an interface to get data into Excel and have an actual application you can pull up on your phone easily. That’s a natural integration, and it’s pretty simple. Using Power Apps this way is like taking a hybrid of Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel because the interface to build the app is very similar to PowerPoint, and endless people are familiar with PowerPoint and Excel. If you use these products, you’re already halfway to knowing how to use Power Apps.”
Working with the Microsoft Power Platform Advocacy team
As a developer and maker, Dunnam was excited to join Dona Sarkar’s Microsoft Power Platform Advocacy team. Sarkar had noticed and shared Dunnam’s social content. Dunnam reports, “When the position on Dona’s team opened, I thought it would be a really great fit for the things I’m passionate about. I wanted to scale out and help developers and makers be successful with Microsoft Power Platform.” On the team, Dunnam deploys social media to reach makers and code developers and to dive into Power Apps and Power Automate—whether it’s helping those who are just getting started or sharing tips and tricks about integrations and customizations with pro devs.
Dunnam blogs regularly about Microsoft Power Platform, SharePoint, and other technologies. A recent post, Power Automate Desktop for Windows 10 Intro, explores Microsoft Power Automate Desktop, which is now free for Windows 10 users. She also keeps a busy conference schedule, having recently presented at Microsoft Power Platform week at a virtual SharePoint conference in Europe. You can check out her conference schedule on her blog.
On Dunnam’s popular YouTube channel, she continues to post educational videos on Microsoft Power Platform. In the past few months, her content has had more than 500,000 views. A particularly popular video is her Microsoft Power Platform Certification Guide. You can join more than 6,000 April Dunnam followers on Twitter to read her #PowerAddict comments. She’s also planning a Microsoft Learn TV Channel 9 show for developers, The Powerful Dev Show, with another member of the Cloud Advocate team, Greg Hurlman, whom we recently featured in Create inventive solutions with Microsoft Power Platform. They plan to highlight stories about using Microsoft Power Platform in code first innovations.
Discover your career path: Microsoft Power Platform certifications
Depending on your skill set and where you are on your career path, Dunnam recommends that you check out the certifications for Microsoft Power Platform developers. A Microsoft Certification signals that you have the skills that organizations are looking for when they hire and advance employees. And, as Dunnam’s career path shows, certification—when paired with your drive and abilities—can help open career doors for you.
As mentioned earlier in this post, Dunnam started with Exam PL-900 to validate her overall understanding to earn the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals certification.
If you’re a maker and an app creator without a formal background in development, see whether your skills map to the requirements for passing Exam PL-100 for the Microsoft Power Platform App Maker Associate certification. Dunnam found this certification extremely useful.
Those who have a passion for designing, developing, securing, and extending Microsoft Power Platform solutions should consider the new Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Developer Associate certification (pass Exam PL-400). To learn more, read our blog post, New certification: Microsoft Power Platform Developer Associate.
And if you’re a functional consultant, data analyst, developer, or solution architect looking to showcase your consulting and configuration skills, explore the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate certification (pass Exam PL-200).
Seasoned pros who have a lot of experience with Microsoft Power Platform should consider the
Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Solution Architect Expert certification (complete a prerequisite and pass Exam PL-600). It’s a great way to signal that you’re ready to take the next steps in your career.
Helping developers build their careers
Dunnam is always enthusiastic about giving practical technical guidance to Microsoft Power Platform developers and makers. And she’s equally enthusiastic about helping people nurture and grow their careers through certification. She and the other experts on the Cloud Advocates team are eager to help you along the way. Watch for Dunnam’s latest content on her YouTube channel, her current thoughts on Twitter, and her most recent tips, advice, instruction, and encouragement for Microsoft Power Platform users at upcoming virtual conferences. As Dunnam says, “I’m really passionate about helping people get certified and celebrate their certification wins.”
by Contributed | Apr 8, 2021 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
We are thrilled to announce a number of enhancements that are now generally available on Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android. From an updated calendar view to a new touch console experience, users now have more visibility of meetings and easier access to them on these devices.
A New Calendar on the Home Screen
In this release we are bringing a more robust calendar experience to the front of the room so you can see and join not only the current meeting but also future meetings as well. Also, all the familiar controls you need have moved alongside the calendar for a sleek, modern look.
Introducing A New Touch Console Experience
Formerly, the touch console experience mimicked a physical remote, where users had to use directional keys to navigate the UI. With this new experience on the touch console, users can directly interact with the console UI, similar to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows. Check with your manufacturer to see if your device supports this new, updated touch console experience.
The touch console includes calendar functionality where you can view your current and upcoming meetings. In addition, it also features the most important meeting and calling functionality.
Once you join a meeting, you will be able to take advantage of call functionality, toggle between gallery views, see hands that are raised, and use inclusive features such as pinning and turning on live captions.
Touch console is an optional peripheral and Teams Rooms on Android will continue functioning without the console. However, once touch console is paired, front-of-room controls will be hidden, and device operation will be available from the touch console.
More Enhancements When Using Microsoft Teams Rooms in Personal Mode
If you are logged into a Teams Rooms on Android with a personal account, we have added convenient features that help you manage your meetings better.
You can blur your background or change it entirely. The background will persist across meetings to make things easier. This option is available through the … menu.
Recordings can be an important way to keep those who couldn’t make it to the meeting in the loop. We are introducing an ability to start and stop recordings directly from your Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android. As in all other Teams applications, you can find the “Start recording” button in the … menu.
For now, starting and stopping recording is only supported for personal accounts. Shared account (aka resource account) support is coming soon.
Whiteboard is a great collaboration tool. Previously, users could use Microsoft whiteboard as part of a Teams meetings, but they could not initiate a whiteboarding session. We are introducing the ability to start a whiteboarding session directly from your device. You can find “Share whiteboard” button in the … menu.
For now, sharing the whiteboard is only supported for personal accounts. Shared account (aka resource account) support is coming soon.
Still getting started on Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android? Check our Get Started guide here:
Get started with Teams Rooms on Android – Office Support
by Contributed | Apr 8, 2021 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Welcome back to Reconnect, the biweekly series that catches up with former MVPs and their current activities.
This week we are thrilled to be joined by none other than two-time titleholder Volodymyr Bezmalyi!
Based in Ukraine, Volodymyr describes himself as a “security evangelist” since he trains people and larger companies about cybersecurity, with a special focus on remote and mobile security.
Security is Volodymyr’s pet subject, with the expert named an MVP in Windows Security from 2006 to 2016, and a Windows Insider MVP from 2016 to 2020.
Now, Volodymyr says Reconnect offers an important way to stay in touch with his Microsoft family and hone his tech knowledge.
Volodymyr is a regular writer with multiple articles and publications to his name, including his own book series titled “Safety Tales.” In fact, Volodymyr was named “Outstanding Blogger of the Year” in 2015 and 2016 by Security Lab.
For more, visit his blog and Twitter.
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