// Azure DevOps

Software architecture is not just the domain of dedicated architects — the tools, practices, and communication patterns it relies on apply to every engineer on every team. In this episode, Chris is joined by John Kilminster, a software architect and Azure MVP, who walks through the essential toolbox he has built up over years in the role. Covering C4 diagrams, Architecture Decision Records, Tech Radars, Docs as Code, and Spotify's Backstage developer portal, this episode delivers practical guidance for any team looking to improve how they document, communicate, and align on technical decisions.

Your monthly digest covering a packed May 2022 — headlined by Microsoft Build! In this episode, Chris walks through Azure Container Apps going generally available (and why it's one to watch), the limited access preview of Azure OpenAI Service with GPT-3 and Codex models, Azure DNS Private Resolver for hybrid name resolution, Open Service Mesh extension for Azure Arc GA, NGINX natively integrated on Azure, AKS host process containers in preview, Azure Communication Services Email GA, hierarchical partition keys in Cosmos DB, and much more. Plus GitHub and Azure DevOps highlights from a very busy month for the developer ecosystem.

Your monthly digest of what shipped across Azure, GitHub, and Azure DevOps in April 2022. Notable Azure updates include Container Apps managed identity preview, Static Web Apps private endpoints going GA, Managed Grafana integrations, Microsoft Purview (renamed from Azure Purview), and Cosmos DB autoscale improvements. On GitHub: secret scanning revocation, Codespaces monorepo support, accessibility colour-blind themes, and required deployments for branch protection. Plus Azure DevOps opt-in auditing, Bicep validation in PRs, and a personal update on the Go-based microservices event platform Chris has been building on Azure Container Apps.

Overwhelmed at keeping up to date with Azure? Or how about keeping a pulse on the Latest GitHub news, Azure DevOps and more? In this episode, Chris provides a summary of updates on the latest Azure DevOps News, GitHub updates and new announcements in Azure. And if that wasn't enough, he also gives a roundup of the latest on Cloud With Chris - including episodes, blog posts, open source projects and community work! Let Chris do the hard work keeping you on top of everything! Grab some snacks. Grab a drink. Come along and tune in for a relaxed and informative learning session!

A live monthly roundup covering everything notable in Azure, GitHub, and Azure DevOps through February 2022. Key highlights include GitHub Actions support for OpenID Connect (OIDC) deployments to Azure Static Web Apps, GitHub Projects beta improvements (flexible iterations, insights filtering), and updates to GitHub Codespaces and the GitHub CLI. On the Azure side: Azure Monitor gains OpenTelemetry integration and improved observability tooling, Azure Payments HSM enters public preview, and Azure Arc cloud-to-edge observability is explored. Chris also shares Cloud With Chris updates including a new Hugo-powered presentations site hosted on Azure Static Web Apps, a feature flags episode, and community highlights from the UK Azure Community Day.

APIs are the glue that connect rich user experiences to our data and services. Good governance using tools such as API Management are vital. Join us as we explore how to work with the deployment options for APIs in Azure API Management and how these can be integrated in CI/CD pipelines. This first episode is particularly suitable for Architects and Developers interested in applying Infrastructure as Code skills to APIs.

Your monthly digest of everything happening across Azure, GitHub, and Azure DevOps — so you don't have to keep up with it all yourself! In this January 2022 roundup, Chris returns to the channel after a break with an honest discussion about mental health and burnout, recaps Cloud With Chris highlights from 2021, and covers a packed set of updates: AKS improvements (containerd GA, FIPS node pools, Kubernetes version aliasing), Static Web Apps Enterprise Grade Edge GA, Azure Cognitive Search semantic updates, Azure Monitor 1-minute frequency log alerts, GitHub Advanced Security, GitHub Projects, Dependabot, and much more. Plus an outlook for what's changing on the channel in 2022.

A little while ago, I wrote a blog post on Using the GitHub self-hosted runner and Azure Virtual Machines to login with a System Assigned Managed Identity, which seems to get a good amount of views week on week. Reflecting on some questions that have popped up this week (and regularly received over my time in the DevOps space), I thought that it makes sense to write a post on how to use Azure DevOps self-hosted agents to deploy to private resources. So, that's what we'll be covering in this post!

Chris Reddington is joined by Thomas Thornton — DevOps specialist at Kainos — for a practical deep dive into real-world DevOps. They cover CI/CD pipeline design, Git branching strategies (including trunk-based development), pull request workflows, Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, Kubernetes, and GitOps. Thomas draws on experience managing 83 Azure subscriptions and 120+ GitOps-driven applications in production.

This post is similar to another I recently wrote on using Branch Protection Rules in GitHub. Instead of focusing on GitHub, we'll be looking at how you can use Branch Policies in Azure DevOps (specifically, Azure Repos). If you're using Azure Repos, but not using Branch Policies - I'd encourage you to start using them! I hope this post helps you learn how!