V034 - Sailing the Sea of Thieves while talking Cloud
A community gaming session where Chris, Simon, James, and John play Sea of Thieves while discussing cloud technology updates and career journeys.
Azure Blog Highlights
- Azure Government Top Secret GA — New classification level for U.S. national security missions.
- Innovating securely with Azure — Microsoft’s positioning as the only cloud platform built by a security vendor, covering Azure Sentinel, Microsoft 365 Defender, and Azure Defender.
- ASP.NET app migration with Azure Migrate — Enhanced tooling for discovering and migrating IIS-based and ASP.NET apps to Azure App Service.
- Forrester Wave leader for streaming analytics — Recognition for Azure Stream Analytics and the broader analytics story.
- Genomics on the ISS — Azure Functions, Blob Storage, and Power BI supporting genomics testing on the International Space Station with HP Spaceborne Computer 2.
Azure Updates
An extensive set of updates including Azure Database for PostgreSQL Hyperscale Citus reaching GA across multiple features, CSI storage driver support on AKS, Static Web Apps private endpoints preview, private DNS for private AKS clusters, Azure Cosmos DB continuous backup GA, and numerous VM series retirements scheduled through 2022-2024.
Azure DevOps Blog
- Fun Bytes episode on deploying ARM templates with Shannon.
- DevOps Server 2020.1.1 RTW release.
- Community contributions covering pipeline templates, Checkov as an IaC scanner, Data Ops for Power BI, and continuous database deployment with GitHub Actions.
GitHub Updates
- 2FA enforcement — Password-based authentication for git operations retired as of August 13, requiring personal access tokens, SSH keys, or similar.
- Git 2.33 — Geometric repacking, merge-ort strategy, and contributions from 74 contributors.
- GitHub Discussions GA — Out of beta, with potential for website comment integration.
Cloud with Chris Recap
Blog posts on Azure Security Center, API Management managed identities, and the Azure Well-Architected Framework. Episodes with Developer Steve on code vulnerability scanning with Snyk, Karl Cook on the Cloud with Chris integration platform, and Asanka on decentralized cell-based reference architectures. Upcoming content on accessibility in public speaking and getting into DevRel with Martin Woodward.
Community Discussion
The crew shares insights on Azure certification journeys — covering AZ-900, AZ-204, AZ-303, and AZ-304 exams — with tips on using Pluralsight, Whizlabs, Measure Up, and Microsoft Learn. They discuss career transitions from on-premises infrastructure to cloud and DevOps roles, building content creator communities on Discord, and the open-source Cloud Katana serverless security assessment tool from Microsoft.
Related Content
V023 - Weekly Technology Vlog #23
Chris rounds up the week's Azure, Azure DevOps, and GitHub news — including the rebrand of Windows Virtual Desktop to Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure FHIR healthcare API updates, SAP on Azure, and a preview of the Azure Arc hybrid and multi-cloud digital event. On the GitHub side, supply chain security takes the spotlight with package registry credential scanning, Dependabot enhancements, and GitHub's Blacktocat fifth anniversary celebrating Black voices in tech. Cloud with Chris recaps include Carl Cook on GitHub Actions, Azure Arc for apps (Event Grid), Sarah Lean on hybrid cloud and DevRel life, and Will Esprit demonstrating the Geode pattern hands-on.
CGN5 - Cloud Gaming Notes Episode 5 - Building a game remotely
The COVID-19 pandemic forced game studios worldwide to rethink how developers, artists, designers, and audio engineers collaborate remotely on titles with massive file sizes and unforgiving release schedules. In this episode of Cloud Gaming Notes, Chris is joined by Lee Williams to explore how the gaming industry adapted using cloud services — from cloud-hosted design environments and Azure infrastructure to source control workflows with GitHub and Azure DevOps, video collaboration tooling, and the emerging paradigm of building entire games in the cloud. They also touch on how live game streaming is creating an entirely new entertainment industry built on the same cloud foundations.
V030 - Sailing the Sea of Thieves while talking Cloud
Chris and Simon play Sea of Thieves while covering Azure Firewall Premium features, 5G and cloud computing for IoT edge scenarios, GitHub Actions for static site deployments, and open source project best practices from a recent Cloud With Chris episode with JJ Asghar.