The top 10 articles from 2018

We may be a month into 2019, but there's still one more thing we need to do - check out the top ten articles from last year! A massive thank you to our guest writers and contributors for providing these articles, and we hope to work with writers new and old in 2019 to create even more great reading content for everyone at TechNet UK.

Without further ado, here's the top ten!

 

10. Simplified Lambda Architecture with Cosmos DB and Databricks

Theo van Kraay, Data and AI Solution Architect at Microsoft, returns with a short blog on simplified Lambda Architecture with Cosmos DB, ChangeFeed, and Spark on Databricks. This is an addendum to a prior article, on the topic of implementing a lambda architecture with Azure Cosmos DB.

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9. Data always tells a story

The difference between business intelligence and advanced analytics often attracts conflicting interpretations from users, vendors, and industry commentators. Gavin Payne explores these differences, and why business intelligence and advanced analytics are increasingly different.

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8. Purchase a VM with Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances (RIs)

As of November 2017, you’re no longer limited to an operational expenditure model in Azure. By using Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances (known as RIs) you can change your cloud payment model to a capital expenditure model.

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7. Build a bot in under 3 minutes… in Azure!

Chat bots are an increasingly popular way for businesses to disclose information in a more conversational way, but where do you even start? Theo van Kraay takes a look at how you can get your own bot up and running in a matter of minutes.

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6. Bing Maps – Distance Matrix API

Jamie Maguire introduces the Bing Distance Matrix API, looking at example code and seeing how it can be applied to real-world applications.

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5. Classifying the UK’s roofs from aerial imagery using deep learning with CNTK

Dome, Dormer or Dutch Gable? Deep neural network! How can we automatically identify the roof-shape of millions of buildings across the UK? In this blog post, we describe how we worked with Ordnance Survey, Britain’s mapping agency, to classify roof types from their geospatial data.

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4. Run your Python script on demand with Azure Container Instances and Azure Logic Apps

Basim Majeed, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, shows how you can host a Python script in Azure Container Instances, and how to then integrate the container in a workflow using Azure Logic Apps.

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3. What are Azure Availability Zones and why should you use them

We take a look at the upcoming Azure Availability Zones, with tips on migration, security and scalability for your Azure projects.

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2. Deploying externally generated Python/R Models as Web Services using Azure Machine Learning Studio

Theo van Kraay takes us through how to deploy an externally trained and serialised sklearn Python machine learning model, or a pre-saved model generated in R, as a web service using Azure Machine Learning Studio.

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1. How to Automate Processing your Azure Analysis Services Models

Stephen Armory, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, provides a detailed, step-by-step look at how you can process your Azure Analysis Services Models.

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