Azure IoT News – October 2021 by Think About IoT

Azure IoT News - October 2021

Azure IoT News is here for one more month! Let’s take a look at the news of October 2021 together.

Week 1-3/10

There wasn’t any update for the first week of this month.

Week 4-10/10

🔸 Azure Sphere version 21.10 is expected on the 20th of October 2021.

Before then, Azure Sphere OS version 21.10 is available for evaluation in the Retail Eval feed. This period provides 2 weeks for backwards compatibility testing.

During this time, you have to verify that your applications and devices operate properly with this release before it is deployed broadly via the Retail feed.

The evaluation release of version 21.10 includes an OS update only. When 21.10 is generally available later in October, an updated SDK will be included.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/general-availability-azure-sphere-version-2110-expected-on-oct-20-2021/

Related to IoT Azure news:

🔸 Azure Maps Geolocation Service is now generally available.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-maps-geolocation-service-is-now-generally-available/

🔸 Two new regions are now available for customers in Azure Stream Analytics

These new regions are: 

  • China East 2
  • China North 2

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-stream-analytics-2-new-regions-are-now-generally-available/

🔸 Azure Functions Python 3.9 support is now generally available.

Using Python 3.9, users are able to advantage of new features.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-functions-python-39-support-is-now-generally-available/

🔸 Azure Service Management API for Messaging Services will be retired on the 1st of November 2021.

Azure Resource Manager (ARM), the next-generation cloud infrastructure stack, is fully replacing the “classic” Azure Service Management (ASM) model.

As a result, classic deployment model REST APIs for Service Bus, Relay, and Event Hubs are officially being retired.

This retirement affects the management API. Runtime operations such as sending or receiving messages are not affected.

You have to review the migration guide and transition to ARM.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/asm-api-messaging-services-retirement/

🔸 Dynamic concurrency in Azure Functions is now in public preview.

This feature allows you to:

  • automatically determine optimal per trigger concurrency settings for workloads,
  • improve the performance of applications by optimizing the throughput for each instance,
  • make real-time adjustments to concurrency settings as load patterns change over time.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/public-preview-dynamic-concurrency-in-azure-functions/

Week 11-17/10

🔸 This week we have new and updated features for Azure IoT Central.

Now users can:

  • visualize the direction telemetry is trending using the IoT Central dashboard last-known-value (LKV) tile
  • see the delta between the current and the previous value
  • see a telemetry trend at a glance
  • create, save, rename, and delete queries so that analysing data is simpler and faster
  • automatically update the device template associated with a device by sending new model ID at device registration time
  • bring your own SAS key support
  • easily configure your IoT Central applications with existing SAS keys
  • connect your existing devices without any change

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-iot-central-new-and-updated-features-september-2021/

Related to IoT Azure news:

🔸 We also have some public preview capabilities for Azure Machine Learning.

You can now securely deploy a computed instance or compute cluster with No Public IP address while simplifying network administration.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-machine-learning-public-preview-announcements-oct-2021/

🔸 Moreover, there are some Azure Machine Learning generally available capabilities.

These are:

  • Managed identities enable enterprise users to configure Azure Machine Learning workspaces in a trustworthy manner.
  • Dataset uploads reduce the overhead.
  • The parallel Run Step will help to save time in scenarios where you want to train a personalized model for enhanced accuracy.
  • Creating environments and editing configuration files directly from the Studio UI.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-machine-learning-ga-announcements-oct-2021/

🔸 The last news about Azure Machine Learning for this week is that Azure Machine Learning is now available in West US 3.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-machine-learning-now-generally-available-in-west-us-3/

🔸 Finally, Azure Maps iOS SDK is now in public preview!

This preview has key updates that are aligned with the core feature set in the Azure Maps SDK family.

Some improvements include:

  • consistent developer experience
  • alignment with Android SDK
  • support Data-driven style expressions and Vector tile
  • additional rendering layers

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-maps-ios-sdk-is-now-in-public-preview/

Week 18-24/10

🔸 Azure Percept DK September (2109) software update is now available.

The two update methods, the OTA package, and the USB cable update image are available in public preview.

Please be sure to check the update strategy guidance before choosing between the two update methods.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/apdk2109update/

🎃🎃🎃 Week 25-31/10 🎃🎃🎃

🔸 We have reached the last week of October.  👻👻👻

There is news about Azure Sphere. Azure Sphere version 21.10 is now generally available!

The Azure Sphere 21.10 feature release includes: 

  • Updated Azure Sphere OS
  • Updated Azure Sphere SDK for Windows and for Linux
  • Updated Azure Sphere extensions for Visual Studio and for Visual Studio Code
  • Updated samples and tutorials
  • Support for connecting to a network through a proxy server
  • Security fixes and performance enhancements in wolf SSL version 4.8.1
  • Improvements in connecting to Azure IoT Hub with the Device Provisioning Service (DPS)
  • The ability to rename a tenant
  • Support for specifying the output format from Wi-Fi commands in the CLI
  • Guidance for using the MT3620 in scenarios, where Wi-Fi is not required

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/general-availability-azure-sphere-version-2110/

🔸 Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 RTM for OEMs is now available!

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise is the latest operating system offering for embedded and IoT devices.

Every new release bringing:

  • enterprise-class power
  • security
  • manageability
  • new features and capabilities

New Features and Capabilities:

  • Microsoft Edge Browser Support
  • Customizable Windows IoT Update UX
  • Soft Real-Time
  • Unified Write Filter (UWF) Updates
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux
  • GPU Compute Support
  • Adding WPA3 H2E standards support for enhanced Wi-Fi security

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/general-availability-windows-10-iot-enterprise-ltsc-2021-rtm-for-oems/

Related to IoT Azure news:

🔸 Azure Functions extensions for Blobs, Queues, Event Hubs, Service Bus, and Event Grid are now in general availability.

A set of Azure Functions triggers and bindings based on the latest Azure SDKs is now generally available.

Azure Functions extensions cover:

  • Azure Blob
  • Azure Queue
  • Azure Event Hubs
  • Azure Service Bus
  • Azure Event Grid

.NET applications can now also be written with the latest types from the Azure SDKs.

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/general-availability-azure-functions-extensions-for-blobs-queues-event-hubs-service-bus-and-event-grid/

🔸 Logic Apps Standard Plan updates are now in public preview.

Have been announced several preview capability updates to the Logic Apps Standard plan to help enterprise integration between mission-critical systems on the cloud, on-premises, and in a hybrid way with runtime available on Azure, Azure Arc, and locally. 

Read more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/logic-apps-standard-plan-updates-2/

That’s all folks! 👋

Take care of yourself! 🙂

If you have any questions, please reach out!

P.S. This article will be updated every single week for this month, so don’t forget to check it again when October will come to the end. 🎃🎃🎃

You can also be informed about Azure IoT News for September 2021 here: https://www.thinkaboutiot.com/index.php/2021/09/04/azure-iot-news-september-2021-by-think-about-iot/.