With a comprehensive set of solutions pre-vetted and ready to deploy, the Microsoft commercial marketplace makes it easier for organizations to discover, try, purchase, and manage cloud and AI solutions so they can spend smarter and move faster. Learn what new capabilities are available in the marketplace to help buy vendor solutions with confidence and drive AI innovation.

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀: * Anthony Joseph * Will Kearl * Jatin Suri * Diego Tamburini

𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: This is one of many sessions from the Microsoft Ignite 2024 event. View even more sessions on-demand and learn about Microsoft Ignite at https://ignite.microsoft.com

BRK125 | English (US) | AI

MSIgnite

Building a RAG app for a non-English audience? Fortunately, language models and embedding models is that they understand a wide range of languages. Unfortunately, they have a bias towards English, so you need to choose your approach carefully when deploying them in other languages. In this session, we'll dive into tokenization, optimal data chunking strategies, and other best practices for internationalization.

Presented by Anthony Shaw, Python Cloud Advocate and Renee Noble, Regional Cloud advocate.

** Part of RAGHack, a free global hackathon to develop RAG applications. Join at https://aka.ms/raghack **

**📌 Check out the RAGHack 2024 series here! **

Pre-requisites: - Read the official rules and join the hack at https://aka.ms/raghack. No Purchase Necessary. Must be 18+ to enter. Contest ends 9/16/24.

• Want more hands-on RAG training? Visit the Reactor series home page to see all the RAGHack 2024 sessions!

When: Thursday 15th August 2024 Time: arrive for 5:45pm with talks starting from 6pm start prompt.

Location: BJSS, 90 Victoria St, Redcliffe, BS1 6DP

Complimentary drinks & pizza provided by our hosts BJSS

August's #MSFABRICBRISTOL will feature Mark Endicott and Anthony Couzens

Session 1 - Advanced Partitioning - the XMLA Endpoint - Mark Endicott Incremental Refresh is nothing new in Power BI, and if you’ve got a large data model it can really help look after your Power BI environment. But what if your requirements for data refreshing are a bit more bespoke? What if you need to customise things a little bit? In this talk we’ll look at ways we can leverage the use of the XMLA Endpoint to implement Advanced Partitioning.

About Mark Mark has just over 8 years of experience in the world of data, choosing to hone his skillset in Data Visualisation, Modelling and all things Power BI, but he can also write a mean SQL query and can talk strategy & culture too. Mark’s experience was built up working in the Recruitment and Facilities Management industries, before moving into Consultancy just over 2 years ago, where he focuses on teaching best practice across both Modelling and Visualisation disciplines and delivering user centric, self-service Power BI deployments at an Enterprise and SME level.

Session 2 - Practical Composite Models - Anthony Couzens Gen2 composite models have existed for several years, but are you familiar with the many benefits of them or the knack required to easily move between models as your PowerBI estate develops? Working with his clients, Ant has been using a mixture of model methods which have inevitably pivoted and changed with the businesses own changing needs. This session will demonstrate the power and versatility of composite models and how to transition quickly between a standard import configuration to an inheritance of the same semantic model but over DirectQuery via AS (Analysis Services). Along the way Ant will demonstrate various tooling and techniques he finds highly increases his velocity in development, allowing him to do more in less time. We will touch on aspects around DAX, performance tuning, object migration and external tools including the ALM toolkit and Tabular Editor which have become staples of his working practice.

About Anthony Anthony has been a technology leader for over 10 years, starting out in digital productivity which quickly branched out into data and analytics. With his primary focus being on business optimisation to make for efficient and well run organisations, learning how to interpret systems data was a basic inevitability. After five years behind the wheel of PowerBI in earnest, Anthony went freelance to enable him to bring his services to organisations who couldn't get the meaning out of their own data, and the wider M365 ecosystem. Outside his work Ant is the proud husband and father of two pre-teen boys and a lover of adventures of any kind whether that's mountain biking, wildcamping, snowsport or even just the big thrills at waterparks and theme parks with the family. From a young age he has always been curious about how things work and loves nothing more than building a shed or stripping a bike. So naturally problem solving with data was always going to be an attraction!

Speedily adopting new technologies can give your business a competitive advantage, but with so much happening in the world of generative AI, it's difficult to know what to adopt. In this episode, Richie chats to two venture capitalists to get their view on the global AI landscape, where we are in the AI hype cycle, and how to adopt AI tech. Beyond this, we explore Rocketship.vc's use of data and algorithms to make investment decisions in early-stage startups. If our previous episode’s deep dive into 2024’s data & AI trends with VC Tom Tunguz got you excited about how investors are looking at the market at the moment, then this episode is sure to do the same. This time, we have twice the insight, thanks to our two guests. Madhu Shalini Iyer is a Managing Partner at Rocketship.vc, a Silicon Valley based fund investing globally. She was the Chief Data Officer of Gojek and helped grow the business into a $10 billion unicorn. In addition to being a board member, she started the Singapore office and played an active role in the strategy, new business development, and ‘data as a competitive advantage’. Prior to Gojek, Madhu was part of the founding team of Intuit’s Quickbooks Lending Platform. As the data science leader at Intuit, Madhu helped grow the platform to $300 million and holds 2 patents in the areas of user data augmented algorithms for financial inclusion. Madhu was also the Chief Data Officer for Ethoslending. There she built the underwriting platform and was responsible for all b2c revenue, resulting in $65 million gross market value per month. Madhu was further responsible for building and running the marketing team. Prior, Madhu was a partner at a $150m private equity fund, Stem Financial, in Hong Kong. She started her career as a senior data scientist with a leading think tank in Menlo Park, CA. Sailesh Ramakrishnan is also a Managing Partner at Rocketship.vc. Prior to Rocketship.vc, Sailesh was CTO and co-founder of LocBox (acquired by Square), a startup focussed on marketing for local businesses. Sailesh worked with Anand and Venky at their previous startup Kosmix, and continued on to Walmart as a Director of Engineering at @WalmartLabs. Before jumping into the startup world, Sailesh worked as a Computer Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. Sailesh earned his Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras, his Masters degree in Construction Management from Virginia Tech and another Master degree in Intelligent Systems from University of Pittsburgh. He was a Ph.D. candidate in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Michigan. In the episode, Richie, Madhu and Sailesh explore the generative AI revolution, categorizing generative AI tools, the impact of genAI across industries, investment philosophy and data-driven decision-making, the challenges and opportunities when investing in AI, future trends and predictions, regulatory and ethical considerations of AI, and much more.  Links Mentioned in the Show: Rocketship.vc[Course] Implementing AI Solutions in BusinessRelated Episode: Inside Algorithmic Trading with Anthony Markham, Vice President, Quantitative Developer at Deutsche BankSign up to RADAR: AI Edition New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using thea href="https://www.datacamp.com/mobile" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Global Azure 2024 is here! Communities around the world are organizing localized hybrid events and live streams for everyone around the world to join and learn about Azure from the best-in-class community leaders.

Agenda for London

10:15 AM – Azure AI and Terraform - Exploring our Options by Jake Walsh & Nicholas Chang A look into the options for using Azure Terraform to work with Azure AI Services and Models. Covering an overview of Azure Terraform, Deployment Options, and the types of Azure AI Resources we can manage.

10:45 AM – Unlocking the Potential of Azure Blob Storage: A Guide to the lesser-known Features by John Kilmister In this talk, we will delve into the world of Azure Blob Storage and discover some of its lesser-known features and capabilities. We will explore the ways in which these features can enhance your use of Azure storage solutions. Whether you are a seasoned Azure user or new to the platform, this talk will provide valuable insights and actionable strategies for optimizing your use of Azure Blob Storage.

11:30 AM – Azure Verified Modules by Marcel Lupo In this session we take a closer look at (AVM) Azure Verified Modules. With AVM the aim is to provide a trusted platform for organisations to find and deploy solutions that can be easily integrate with their Azure-based services and infrastructure. They can span a wide range of solutions, using popular infrastructure as code (IaC) tools such as Bicep and Terraform.

12:00 PM – Unlocking the Power of Azure OpenAI: A Comprehensive Exploration and Demonstration by Alpa Buddhabhatti During this concise yet comprehensive session, we'll immerse ourselves in the realm of Azure OpenAI. We will delve into the fundamental principles, capabilities, and practical use cases of this cutting-edge AI technology. Whether you're new to Azure OpenAI or seeking a quick refresher, this session will serve as your gateway to unlock its full potential. In this demonstration, we will focus on the following technologies: 1. Azure OpenAI 2. Azure Data Factory 3. Microsoft Fabric 4. Azure SQL/ LakeHouse 5. Visual studio Code You'll gain valuable insights to effectively grasp and employ Azure OpenAI, paving the way for further exploration and integration into your projects.

12:30 PM – Microsoft Azure Service Bus (MaaS) Integration Simplified by Dias Manjaly The purpose of this foundation session is to demonstrate the usage of Azure Service Bus (MaaS). This session walkthrough the story of a bad customer experience and how it was resolved using Azure Service Bus. It has a short demo based on the story as well. It also covers cool features in Azure Service Bus, High Level Solution Design diagrams, How messages are sent and received using Azure Service Bus and an Azure Function, How to use Azure Service Bus Explorer, Service Bus Quotas and Dynamics 365 CRM Integration with Azure Service Bus, Comparison with other Azure messaging services. No prior knowledge is required to attend this foundation session. Audience will get a clear understanding of Azure Service Bus and it is a very useful skill to have as it a common use case.

1:15 PM – Code, Serverless Containers, and Cloud: Azure Container Apps for Developers by Jonah Andersson Do you want to build and develop serverless containers on a cloud platform such as Microsoft Azure? In this session, you will learn about the important technical concepts you need to know about building and developing Azure containers. The session explores serverlesss containers such Azure Container Apps and its key useful features for cloud development of microservices. Regardless of whether you are new, you will learn how to get started developing with and building your code with ACA and leverage the power of Azure with it.

1:45 PM – .NET on tiny IOT Meadow Boards by Clifford Agius Description It's a fact that DotNET has been around for 20 years and was once just the preserve of Windows, but has in recent years moved to Mobile using Mono and Xamarin, but still big powerful systems and processors. However, thanks to the work of WildernessLabs there is now the Meadow F7 board, a small form factor IOT board based around the Adafruit Feather. This means you can now write your Dot NET C#/F# code and truly run anywhere. The idea of this talk is to show that your existing DotNET skills can be used on IOT platforms without the scary Arduino version of C, you really do now have the skills to write code that will run anywhere. I am just a DotNET dev like you, I don’t work for WildernessLabs and this is not going to be a sales talk about the Meadow system, I backed the Kickstarter and I just enjoy playing with IOT. I want to show you that it’s scary and you too have the skills to diving in and get that LED blinking after that you can automate the home. We'll discuss: - The process of setting up the Meadow board and getting that first Hello World Blinky light going. - Brief explanation of the board and tooling - Demo a more complex system where the board is battery powered measuring sensor values and reporting this to an Azure function for processing.

2:15 PM – Would YOU Survive the Titanic?", with ML and .NET by Simon Painter Have you ever wondered whether YOU would survive the sinking of RMS Titanic or not? In this talk, we'll be using Visual Studio, C# and ML.NET to find out. Machine Learning is a hot topic these days. Business around the world are keen to utilise it; but doesn't it mean learning python?? In fact - no! These days it's not only possible to do ML in Visual Studio, but it's actually easy to produce high quality results with very little effort. Be warned though, there are ice bergs ahead...

3:00 PM – Umbraco Cloud's Journey with Kubernetes, Terraform & Azure DevOps by Dan Lister Dive into the inner workings of Umbraco Cloud's Platform transformation in this talk. See our hands-on approach to deploying and managing cloud infrastructure using Terraform. See how we use of rapid release cycles with Azure DevOps, minimising deployment times while maintaining quality and security. Explore our journey leveraging Azure Kubernetes Services for global scalability and high availability. Witness the integration of Azure API Management in streamlining interactions between our services, enforcing policies, and ensuring a secure, unified API gateway. Gain firsthand insights into how Umbraco Cloud's Platform Team innovatively wields these tools, offering practical knowledge for your own cloud environments.

3:30 PM – Azure Storage Has Never Been So Cool! by Anthony Mashford This session is about the Azure NetApp Files service. The Azure NetApp Files service delivers high-performance, low-latency file storage on-demand. We will cover the features of the service, such as snapshots, backups, replication and the new addition of the cool-access tiering feature. This new tiering feature is a great option to help drive down costs for Azure file storage whilst maintaining the great functional capabilities of Azure NetApp Files. The session will also include a live demonstration of the service and its features and Infrastructure-as-Code deployments.

Today I’m joined by Anthony Deighton, General Manager of Data Products at Tamr. Throughout our conversation, Anthony unpacks his definition of a data product and we discuss whether or not he feels that Tamr itself is actually a data product. Anthony shares his views on why it’s so critical to focus on solving for customer needs and not simply the newest and shiniest technology. We also discuss the challenges that come with building a product that’s designed to facilitate the creation of better internal data products, as well as where we are in this new wave of data product management, and the evolution of the role.

Highlights/ Skip to:

I introduce Anthony, General Manager of Data Products at Tamr, and the topics we’ll be discussing today (00:37) Anthony shares his observations on how BI analytics are an inch deep and a mile wide due to the data that’s being input (02:31) Tamr’s focus on data products and how that reflects in Anthony’s recent job change from Chief Product Officer to General Manager of Data Products (04:35) Anthony’s definition of a data product (07:42) Anthony and I explore whether he feels that decision support is necessary for a data product (13:48) Whether or not Anthony feels that Tamr qualifies as a data product (17:08) Anthony speaks to the importance of focusing on outcomes and benefits as opposed to endlessly knitting together features and products (19:42) The challenges Anthony sees with metrics like Propensity to Churn (21:56) How Anthony thinks about design in a product like Tamr (30:43) Anthony shares how data science at Tamr is a tool in his toolkit and not viewed as a “fourth” leg of the product triad/stool (36:01) Anthony’s views on where we are in the evolution of the DPM role (41:25) What Anthony would do differently if he could start over at Tamr knowing what he knows now (43:43)

Links Tamr: https://www.tamr.com/ Innovating: https://www.amazon.com/Innovating-short-guide-making-things/dp/B0C8R79PVB The Mom Test: https://www.amazon.com/The-Mom-Test-Rob-Fitzpatrick-audiobook/dp/B07RJZKZ7F LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonydeighton/

You know the rudiments of the SQL query language, yet you feel you aren't taking full advantage of SQL's expressive power. You'd like to learn how to do more work with SQL inside the database before pushing data across the network to your applications. You'd like to take your SQL skills to the next level. Let's face it, SQL is a deceptively simple language to learn, and many database developers never go far beyond the simple statement: SELECT columns FROM table WHERE conditions. But there is so much more you can do with the language. In the SQL Cookbook, experienced SQL developer Anthony Molinaro shares his favorite SQL techniques and features. You'll learn about: Window functions, arguably the most significant enhancement to SQL in the past decade. If you're not using these, you're missing out Powerful, database-specific features such as SQL Server's PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators, Oracle's MODEL clause, and PostgreSQL's very useful GENERATE_SERIES function Pivoting rows into columns, reverse-pivoting columns into rows, using pivoting to facilitate inter-row calculations, and double-pivoting a result set Bucketization, and why you should never use that term in Brooklyn. How to create histograms, summarize data into buckets, perform aggregations over a moving range of values, generate running-totals and subtotals, and other advanced, data warehousing techniques The technique of walking a string, which allows you to use SQL to parse through the characters, words, or delimited elements of a string Written in O'Reilly's popular Problem/Solution/Discussion style, the SQL Cookbook is sure to please. Anthony's credo is: "When it comes down to it, we all go to work, we all have bills to pay, and we all want to go home at a reasonable time and enjoy what's still available of our days." The SQL Cookbook moves quickly from problem to solution, saving you time each step of the way.