Episode 163: myNewsWrap – Microsoft, GitHub and SAP

Welcome to this week's edition of myNewsWrap, news from the world of Microsoft, GitHub, SAP ... and the world in between. The focus of my newsletter is the application development and all things around that can improve our lives as developers.

First edition in 2024, so catching up with some news that happened in the last weeks during the winter break.

Let's dive into the news and explore what came up this week that can help us to build better solutions for our customers.

Microsoft Universe

First we take a look at the Microsoft universe and what crossed my path there.

Serverless - Functions, SWA and Azure Container Apps

Apps need to run somewhere and a very convenient way to run them is serverless. What came up this week in this space?

Azure Container Apps

• Java on Azure Container Apps - Build and deploy polyglot apps in two simple steps by Sean Li
• Azure Container Apps Jobs in a secure Landing Zone by Aarthi Murugan

Dapr

Having containers is nice but everything (well ... nearly everything 😉) gets better with Dapr as an outstanding tool for app development in the container-based area. Here we go what might be worth a look:

• Updated Playlist of Dapr Sessions - a lot of highlights from 2023
• The Bifurcation of Application Networking by Bilgin Ibryam

Developer Platform

This section collects all news touching the topic of a developer platform. Fuzzy term but here you find news on topics that make the life of developers easier beyond pure development be it Infrastructure as Code, GitHub and more like the Azure Developer CLI.

Infrastructure as Code

• Terraform - Using GitHub Copilot Chat with Terraform by Marcel Lupo
• Terraform - Keep dependencies up to date with Dependabot (Azure DevOps version) by Marcel Lupo

GitHub

GitHub comes with a blast of new features and enhancements every week. Here are my top 5 news from GitHub that you should check out:

• Our move to generated SDKs by Nick Floyd
• GitHub Copilot Chat now generally available for organizations and individuals by Shuyin Zhao
• How we organize and get things done with SERVICEOWNERS by Max Beizer
• GitHub Availability Report: November 2023 by Jakub Oleksy
• Default setup now includes scheduled scans and supports all languages covered by CodeQL by Walker Chabbott

Want to see all news around GitHub? I recommend to have a look at GitHub's blog site as well as at its change log to get the complete overview.

Azure Developer CLI

Close to my heart as essence of how to make the developer life easier is the Azure Developer CLI. What's up in this area?

• Azure Developer CLI release 1.5.1 - contains impoprtant bug fixes, especially for .NET Aspire

The best of the "rest"

No matter how the structure of this newsletter is crafted, there is always something that does not perfectly fit. This section is dedicated to topics that I think are worth reading but did not fit into the structure from above:

• Mastering GitHub Copilot for AI Paired Programming
• promptbase - an evolving collection of resources, best practices, and example scripts for eliciting the best performance from foundation models
• Fermyon - A Look Back at 2023, and a Look Forward to 2024 by Matt Butcher

🐱‍👤 SAP and Microsoft - Combining both worlds

Combining Microsoft with SAP can lead to incredible new applications. Let's enter the twilight zone (no worries the ninja cat is with us) between SAP and Microsoft and see what's up here:

• SAP on Azure Video Podcast #172 - The one with Breaking silos (Robert Boban, Goran Condric, Holger Bruchelt)
• SAP on Azure Video Podcast #173 - The one wrapping up 2023 (Jürgen Thomas)
• Power Platform + SAP: Updates via SAP OData services by Holger Bruchelt

And of course a channel that you should subscribe to if you are working with SAP and Microsoft is the SAP on Azure hosted by Holger Bruchelt and friends.

Further news from the SAP world

Let's check out what else happened in the SAP universe that you should check out:

• The future of SAP tech events - and the great SAP innovation debate by Jon Reed, Josh Greenbaum and Geoff Scott
• Coffee Corner Radio Episode 65 - State of SAP with Holger Müller by Martin Fischer and Holger Mueller
• Introducing SAP Application Extension Methodology version 2.2 by Marco Matha
• SAP BTP, Kyma Runtime: Leveraging KEDA module capabilities for efficient and cost-effective scaling by Gaurav Abbi
• Switched On Quick Flip: Copilot Plus SAP Plus Everything by James Wood and Paul Modderman

Learning

One important (and imho best part) of the job of a developer is the continuous learning. Here are some interesting learning resources that go beyond vendor-specific technology:

• Telekom Cloud-Explorer Inspiration Day – Cloud-Native & Sustainability by Nico Meisenzahl
• Don't Overdose on Domain-Driven Design | Eberhard Wolff (EN) by Eberhard Wolff
• Können wir Entwickler:innen-Produktivität messen? by Eberhard Wolff
• New Edition in 2024 of 90 Days of DevOps
• DevOps ist eine Grundeinstellung – und so funktioniert sie by Mark Lubkowitz
• Didin't know this one, but I think this is really useful: Choose an open source license

Golo's Corner

One great resource for becoming a better developer and reflecting about our profession is the high-quality content of the native web GmbH by Golo Roden. This week the following topics were on the list:

• todo:cast zu Gast: Das war 2023, das wird 2024! // deutsch
• Danke für 2023! // deutsch

Make sure to subscribe to Golo's YouTube channels:

• German channel
• English channel

And Golo's personal channel with a new series - not IT, but about an important topic that is not too much talk about in the IT world:

• Danke für Eure Unterstützung! // deutsch

Events

And last but not least heads up for these upcoming events:

• Early Bird Sale started: Kubernetes Community Days Munich

And with this enjoy your weekend and have a successful next week!