Azure AD B2C Access Tokens, Azure SQL hybrid, IOT Camp in Sydney and General Availability of Geographic Routing capability in Azure Traffic Manager all news items this week in the Need to Know podcast – Episode 146 – also on http://podcasts.needtoknow.cloud.

Azure AD B2C Access Tokens now in public preview

You now have greater control over your web API’s when you secure them using Azure AD B2C. Microsoft have announced the public preview for using access tokens with web API’s. With this in-demand feature it makes it possible to create web API’s that can be accessed by different client applications. You can grant permissions to your API on an app-to-app basis and be able to develop apps with tighter security.

More Info.

Azure SQL hybrid data movement

Hybrid cloud is becoming more and more the norm as people realise that they can’t simply host everything in the cloud, there needs to be a mix of both on-prem and Cloud services. For that, one of the most challenging and biggest aspects of moving people to the cloud is working with SQL databases. Microsoft have written a blog post on all the different options you have in moving SQL databases across any hybrid scenario. On-prem SQL Server, Azure SQL VMs (IaaS) and Azure SQL Databases (PaaS).

For example:

• Migrate data from on-premises SQL Server to Azure
• Backup and restore data
• Migrate cold data from on-premises SQL Server to Azure

Some of the tools covered in this blog are:

• Export and import .bacpac files
• SQL Server backup and restore, including managed backup and file snapshot backup
• Always On availability groups
• Azure SQL Data Sync

More Info.

IOT Camp

Presented by Dave Glover from Microsoft. Happening Tuesday 19th April 2016 at Cliftons Sydney.

Did you know that Windows 10 now runs on single board computers to supercharge the Internet of Things? In this new IoT camp you will get hands on time with scenarios that showcase the power of Windows 10 IoT Core with Raspberry Pi 2 and a number of sensors to build comprehensive and compact apps. When you leave you will have a good end-to-end understanding of a typical IoT solution involving Windows 10 IoT Core and Microsoft Azure.

Here’s what to Expect:

• What is the Internet of Things
• Introduction to Microsoft Azure IoT Services
• Learning about IoT Devices & Clients
• Plenty of Hands On

More Info.

General Availability of Geographic Routing capability in Azure Traffic Manager

With Geographic Routing capability in Azure Traffic Manager, you can now direct user traffic to specific endpoints based on the geographic location from where the requests originate. Previously Traffic Manager used performance mode for sending users to the closest endpoint. However this was slightly different, performance mode was based on the DNS server in which the user was using, which ever location the DNS server was hosted in is which endpoint the user was directed to.

Use cases for Geographic Routing  include:

• Customising and localising content for specific regions, enabling better user experience and engagement. As an example, an e-commerce site can localise the site content and merchandise items to users in a specific region.
• Knowing where the users are coming from makes it easier to implement mandates related to data sovereignty.