Ctrl+Alt+Azure
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Copyright (©) 2025 Tobias Zimmergen & Jussi Roine
Description
This is the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast. We talk about all things Microsoft, including Microsoft Azure, and share our experiences and thoughts on the way. Your hosts are Tobias Zimmergren and Jussi Roine.
308 Episodes
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In this week's episode, we share ideas, experiences and lessons learned running AI workloads at home. On a laptop, in a custom-built AI rig, and everything in between!(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(03:37) - Show content starts.Show links- HuggingFace- Ollama & Open WebUI- LMStudio- Azure AI Foundry LocalFeedback - Give us feedback!
This week, we dive deep into security-focused updates from Microsoft. As we've done with more generic tech updates, this time we'll focus on the interesting security updates from Microsoft.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(04:29) - Show content starts.Show links- RETIREMENT: Migration from Azure China CDN to Azure Front Door- PREVIEW: Custom block response codes and body for Application Gateway WAF- PREVIEW: Azure Bastion now supports connectivity to private AKS clusters via tunneling- PREVIEW: Workspace-level Private Link for Microsoft Fabric workspaces- GA: AKS Security Dashboard- WAF: CAPTCHA, and JS challengeFeedback - Give us feedback!
Today, we take a look at Azure Storage Discovery. It's a new preview feature that gives you insights and actionable items across all your Storage Accounts. We discuss our experience using it and how to properly test its capabilities.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(03:25) - Show content starts.Show links- Azure Storage Demo Populator tool (GitHub) - Azure Storage Discovery- PricingFeedback- Give us feedback!
Today, we'll take a look at something that is of the essence for anyone working with identities and the shift to the cloud. What is Group SOA, and why should you care? We reflect on the dependencies of Active Directory, the five stages of transformation, and what this capability will help you achieve. (00:00) - Intro and catching up.(05:20) - Show content starts.Show links- Group SOAProvide feedback- Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding the scope beyond just Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and similar Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring?(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(04:15) - Show content starts.Show links- Create Tenant Level Service Health Alerts (preview) - Azure Monitor | Microsoft Learn- AKS Updates- What is Azure App Testing?- Azure 128 & 192 vCPU sizes- Azure Cloud HSM- GA: Network Security Perimeter- Two-way forest trusts for Entra DSFeedback - Give us feedback!
Back in 2020 we did our first episode on Microsoft Sentinel. We feel it's time to revisit Sentinel after five years, and take a look at where it stands today. What's relevant, what's new, and what's happening with Sentinel?(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(04:29) - Show content starts.Show links- Microsoft Sentinel Quickstart- Sentinel Data Lake- Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, we break down Model Context Protocol, or MCP. What is it, why should you care, and how does it change your solutions? We discuss the concept, the architecture, and share our experiences working with MCP solutions.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(03:02) - Show content starts.Show links- MCP home: modelcontextprotocol.io- Use MCP: Connect to Remote MCP Servers- Build a server: Build an MCP Server- Build a client: Build an MCP Client- modelcontextprotocol/csharp-sdk: The official C# SDK for Model Context Protocol servers and clients.- MCP Dev Days session- Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, we'll take a look at n8n—the agentic workflow engine/tool/product/service. How does it compare to Power Platform, Azure Functions, Azure AI Foundry, Copilot Studio, and other similar offerings from Microsoft? Self-hosting vs. cloud-hosted? We also share lessons learned and other insights. (00:00) - Intro and catching up.(03:44) - Show content starts.Show links- n8n.io- n8n GitHub Repo- n8n workflowsFeedback - Give us feedback!
This is episode 300! Massive thank you and gratitude to everyone for tuning in over the years. We reflect a bit on the past 6 years of the show, and then we dive deep into security-focused updates from Microsoft. (00:00) - Intro and catching up.(03:02) - Show content starts.Show links- What's new in Microsoft Defender for Cloud features | Microsoft Learn- Containers support matrix in Defender for Cloud | Microsoft Learn- Alerts for AI services - Microsoft Defender for Cloud | Microsoft Learn- Manage workspaces in Microsoft Security Copilot | Microsoft Learn- Manage security compute unit usage in Security Copilot | Microsoft Learn- Azure DNS security policy | Microsoft LearnFeedback - Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, it's time to share insights and lessons learned from self-hosting stuff at home! We'll talk about the why and the what, and also some stuff that didn't work at all. You'll also hear about how to best service workloads from home, and what sort of equipment is needed.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(04:04) - Show content starts.Show links- Cloudflare Tunnel- Jussi's ipecho service- Give us feedback!
Today, we'll talk about AVNM, or Azure Virtual Network Manager, with insights from Microsoft's Jack Tracey. What is it, and why do you need it? We talk about mesh networks, routing, IP address management, AVNM with Azure Landing Zones, and more!(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(05:08) - Show content starts.Show links- What is AVNM?- Frequently asked questions about Azure Virtual Network Manager | Microsoft Learn- Azure Virtual Network Manager in Azure landing zones - Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Learn- Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, we'll talk about vibe coding - the practice of writing code that prioritizes aesthetics, creativity, and personal expression. What's our experience on this? What tooling are we using? What does this mean for productivity?(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(04:14) - Show content starts.Show links- Mistral Small 3.2Feedback - Give us feedback!
Today, we'll talk about Azure Landing Zones, with insights from Microsoft's Jack Tracey. What are landing zones, to be more exact? We touch topics on application and platform landing zones, networking, architectures, infrastructure as code, and many others.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(02:30) - Show content starts.Show links- Azure Landing Zones | Cloud Adoption Framework- Azure Landing Zone Accelerator- Azure Landing Zone Brownfield- Development environments- Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, we look at MCRA - the Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architecture. Updates were released in April 2025; we'll go through the updates and explain why MCRA matters.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(05:29) - Show content starts.Show links- Updated MCRAFeedback - Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding the scope beyond just Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and similar Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring?(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(05:20) - Show content starts.Show links- Design, troubleshoot, and secure networks using Microsoft Copilot in Azure | Microsoft Learn- GA: Private subnet- Public preview: VM network troubleshooter- Exchange Online Tenant Outbound Email Limits- Virtual Network TAPFeedback - Give us feedback!
The future of generative AI might very well be agentic workloads. Fresh from Build 2025, we take a look at Agent IDs in Entra ID. What are they, and why would even need to know how they work? What's the difference from Enterprise Applications? We consider compliance, reporting, licensing and other aspects on Agent IDs. (00:00) - Intro and catching up.(04:08) - Show content starts.Show links- Agent IDs announcement from Build 2025- Give us feedback!
Today, we're taking an initial look at Azure Service Groups. We're already familiar with Resource Groups and have discussed Management Groups and governance in general in previous episodes over the years. Service Groups provide a new approach to governing and managing your resources operationally. We'll share our thoughts on governance, this new capability, and how it can be utilized.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(03:45) - Show content starts.Show links- Service Groups- Give us feedback!
* NOTE: It seems like Microsoft Teams recording messed up big time. This episode has an audio distortion issue around the 16-minute to 20-minute mark. Apologies! *This week, we'll have our initial reflections and thoughts from major Microsoft Build 2025 announcements. What caught our eye? It's AI all the way, but we find other aspects as well. Tobi shares some surprising news, and we also talk about future episodes now that we'll have a bit more time to dive deep into the new announcements.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(02:42) - Show content starts.Show links- Build 2025 Book of News- Give us feedback!
This week, we'll tackle the basics of Azure AI Foundry. First, we'll talk about what it is and who it aims for. We will also walk you through the options and capabilities, like reviewing models, fine-tuning, and managing your data and indexes. We'll also consider the different aspects of building your apps before wrapping up with considerations on possible apps you could build.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(03:15) - Show content starts.Show links- Plan and manage costs for Azure AI Foundry- GitHub - Azure-Samples/rag-data-openai-python-promptflow: A copilot sample that uses python to ground the copilot responses in company data.- GitHub - openai/openai-dotnet: The official .NET library for the OpenAI API- Give us feedback!
In this week's episode, we ponder what to expect from Microsoft Build 2025. Is it worth traveling to Seattle for the event, that takes place May 19-22? We reflect on the possible announcements, the breakout session topics, as well as the keynotes.(00:00) - Intro and catching up.(04:56) - Show content starts.Show links- Microsoft Build 2025- DEM554: Building Agents with Security Copilot- BRK231: Building Secure AI Agents with Microsoft Entra ID- BRK222: Windows AI Developer Workstations: Optimized for AI- Give us feedback!
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Thanks for the language lessions in the end. I love the format - it fits my travel time to the office perfectly. Keep up the great work.... Cheers, Heino