News For Dev-ops

Amazon Redshift now enables cluster relocation by default for RA3 provisioned clusters when creating new clusters or restoring from snapshots. This feature allows you to move a cluster to another Availability Zone (AZ) when resource constraints disrupt cluster operations, maintaining the same endpoint so applications continue without modifications. Amazon Redshift already provides resiliency by automatically detecting and recovering from drive and node failures. Cluster relocation adds another layer of availability protection against AZ-level issues that might prevent optimal cluster operations. While this setting is now enabled by default for new or restored clusters, existing RA3 provisioned clusters maintain their current configuration unless manually changed. You can manage cluster relocation settings through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or API. This feature is available at no additional cost for RA3 provisioned clusters across all AWS Regions where RA3 instance types a...

The Future of Semantic Kernel: A Commitment to Innovation and Collaboration The AI world is moving fast, and we're excited to share what's next for Semantic Kernel. If you're new to the project, Semantic Kernel is Microsoft's open-source library for AI orchestration. It's become a go-to tool for C#, Python, and Java developers who want to create intelligent, flexible, and scalable applications. Semantic Kernel has come a long way, growing not just in popularity but also in capability. Today, it offers robust frameworks for Agentic AI and Process Automation, enabling teams to design dynamic, goal-oriented agents and workflows that handle complex challenges. These advancements have positioned Semantic Kernel as a leading framework for building the next generation of AI-powered solutions. We are very proud of how far Semantic Kernel has come, and we also know that interoperability and rapid innovation are crucial as the AI ecosystem changes. To support our strategic g...

Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS) Real-Time Streaming now supports participant replication, allowing you to copy a participant from one IVS stage to another. With this capability, participants can appear in multiple stages simultaneously, facilitating cross-stage interactions. One common use case in social live streaming applications is competitive modes, where two streamers are temporarily matched so they can interact with each other in real time. With participant replication, you can copy a participant to another stage and allow viewers of each video to see both streamers. Amazon IVS is a managed live streaming solution that is designed to make low-latency or real-time video available to viewers around the world. Video ingest and delivery are available over a managed network of infrastructure optimized for live video. Visit the AWS region table for a full list of AWS Regions where the Amazon IVS console and APIs for control and creation of video streams are availabl...

Today, AWS announces two enhancements to CloudTrail Lake: Event enrichment, which makes it easier to categorize, search, and analyze your AWS activity; and expanded event size, which improves visibility into API actions for more comprehensive security analysis. CloudTrail Lake is a managed data lake that enables you to aggregate, immutably store, and analyze your activity logs at scale. With event enrichment, you can enrich your CloudTrail management and data events with additional information relevant to your business context. You can append resource tags and select AWS global condition keys to your events, making it easy to categorize, search, and analyze your AWS activity. Using resource tags in your events, you can easily create application-specific activity reports, or view AWS API activity based on the properties of the IAM principal. For example, you can see all delete actions taken by principals with a specific Principal Tag. Event enrichment integrates with CloudTrail Lake...

Azure AI Foundry MCP Server May 2025 Update: Adding Models, Knowledge & Evaluation At Microsoft Build 2025 , Satya Nadella highlighted the transformative potential of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in democratizing AI development. Today, we're excited to add more capabilities to our MCP Server for Azure AI Foundry - a powerful integration that brings this vision to life for developers working with Azure AI services. The Developer Challenge We're Solving Before MCP Server: Developers struggled with complex API integrations, inconsistent interfaces across Azure AI services, and time-consuming model exploration. Building AI applications required deep knowledge of multiple SDKs, authentication methods, and service-specific protocols. With MCP Server: One unified protocol connects your favorite AI assistants directly to Azure AI Foundry's full capabilities. Now you can explore models, manage knowledge bases, and run evaluations using natural language - just like having...

Back in the earlier part of the year (February maybe?), I put this tutorial together for our early adopters in the SQL Server 2025 program. It’s a guide for setting up SQL Server 2025 in a Hyper-V VM (I used Windows Server) with Ollama and ngnix as an https proxy. It's a variation of my workshops for Ignite 2024 and a SQL in Fabric one from February 2025. This tutorial helps you get started using the new AI features of SQL Server 2025 on Windows/Windows Server. Prerequisites SQL Server 2025 Public Preview A database created with the adventureworks2025.bak backup file SSMS or VS Code with the MSSQL Extension Windows environment or Hyper-V Windows VM (Windows or Windows Server ) Set up your environment The following section guides you through setting up the environment and installing the necessary software and utilities. Install Ollama There are two ways to install Ollama. Via Winget and PowerShell 1. Open up a PowerShell terminal 2. Enter the following command: winget i...

The Windows Imaging Component (WIC) has a function for creating an IWICBitmap from a GDI HBITMAP . But how do you go the other way? One way is to lock the bitmap bits and then use SetDIBits to place them into a DIB section. We saw this trick when we were debugging code that converts a Direct2D bitmap to a GDI HBITMAP . The downside of this is that it may result in a double-copy if the IWICBitmapSource has to generate the pixels on the fly (due to being the end of a chain of transforms). Instead, we can ask CopyPixels to generate the pixels directly into our DIB section. HRESULT ConvertWICBitmapSourceToHBITMAP( IWICBitmapSource* source, HBITMAP* bitmap) { *bitmap = nullptr; // Convert to 32bpp if necessary. wil::com_ptr<IWICBitmapSource> source32bpp; RETURN_IF_FAILED( WICConvertBitmapSource(GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppBGR, source, source32bpp.put())); // Create a 32bpp DIB section of matching size UINT width, height; RET...

Introduction DocumentDB Local provides a lightweight, containerized environment that lets you develop and test applications locally using a MongoDB-compatible interface . It’s ideal for prototyping or running integration tests without needing a cloud setup. When paired with the DocumentDB Extension for Visual Studio Code , it creates a focused and consistent local development environment. DocumentDB Local is part of the broader open-source DocumentDB project , a document-oriented database engine built on PostgreSQL. You can explore the project and follow its updates here: https://github.com/microsoft/documentdb 🎓 End-to-End DocumentDB Local Walkthrough This guide walks you through setting up DocumentDB Local with Docker and connecting to it using the DocumentDB for VS Code Extension . 1. Prerequisites: Set Up Docker Before you begin, check if Docker is already installed: docker --version ✅ If the command returns a version number, you're ready to continue with the next step...

This is Part 2 of our series on integrating Microsoft.Extensions.AI with Semantic Kernel. In  Part 1 , we explored the relationship between these technologies and how they complement each other. Now, let's dive into practical examples showing how to use Microsoft.Extensions.AI abstractions with Semantic Kernel in non-agent scenarios. Getting Started with Microsoft.Extensions.AI and Semantic Kernel Before we dive into examples, let's understand what we'll be working with. Microsoft.Extensions.AI provides foundational abstractions like  IChatClient  and  IEmbeddingGenerator<string, Embedding<float>> , while Semantic Kernel builds upon these to provide higher-level functionality like plugins, prompt templates, and workflow automation. In this post, we'll focus on practical scenarios where you can leverage both technologies together for common AI tasks. 1. Basic Chat Completion with IChatClient Let's start with the most fundamental scenario: chat comple...

Azure AI Foundry MCP Server May 2025 Update: Adding Models, Knowledge & Evaluation At Microsoft Build 2025 , Satya Nadella highlighted the transformative potential of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in democratizing AI development. Today, we're excited to add more capabilities to our MCP Server for Azure AI Foundry - a powerful integration that brings this vision to life for developers working with Azure AI services. The Developer Challenge We're Solving Before MCP Server: Developers struggled with complex API integrations, inconsistent interfaces across Azure AI services, and time-consuming model exploration. Building AI applications required deep knowledge of multiple SDKs, authentication methods, and service-specific protocols. With MCP Server: One unified protocol connects your favorite AI assistants directly to Azure AI Foundry's full capabilities. Now you can explore models, manage knowledge bases, and run evaluations using natural language - just like having...