Episode 166: myNewsWrap – SAP and Microsoft
Tags: azure, github, sap, serverless
Published: 2024-01-27 08:44:21


# Episode 166: 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.

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 Functions and Static Web Apps (SWA)

* [Azure Functions using Python: 2023 in Review](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-compute-blog/azure-functions-using-python-2023-in-review/ba-p/4007999)
* [Azure Static Web Apps Community Standup - Building a Next.js site with Wordpress on App Service](https://www.youtube.com/live/IAVMd5U-arY?si=VgyYYOo_VIjIKRCp)
* AWS-specific, but worth a look: [Six Costly Findings in AWS Serverless Computing](https://dev.to/miguelacallesmba/seven-costly-findings-in-aws-serverless-computing-46h7)

### Dapr

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

* [Dapr Community Call - Jan 24th (#97)](https://youtu.be/lf1zbVQiEZk?si=ksk0_WA5j2u7JSEE)
* [Dapr Deployment Models](https://www.diagrid.io/blog/dapr-deployment-models) 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](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev).  

#### Infrastructure as Code

* [OpenTofu v1.6.1](https://github.com/opentofu/opentofu/releases/tag/v1.6.1)
* [Comparing Open TOFU And Terraform](https://nedinthecloud.com/2024/01/22/comparing-opentofu-and-terraform/) by Ned Bellavance
* [Terraform Taint Is Bad Actually - Use Replace Instead](https://youtu.be/v_T1fuYGjV0?si=cUqiWyfWPSxPwggs) by Ned Bellavance

#### 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:

* [GITHUB CERTIFICATION PRACTICE EXAM](https://ghcertified.com/practice_tests/)
* [How GitHub’s Developer Experience team improved innerloop development](https://github.blog/2024-01-24-how-githubs-developer-experience-team-improved-innerloop-development/) by Belal Taher
* [Yes, good DevEx increases productivity. Here is the data.](https://github.blog/2024-01-23-good-devex-increases-productivity/) by Eirini Kalliamvakou
* [How to get in the flow while coding (and why it’s important)](https://github.blog/2024-01-22-how-to-get-in-the-flow-while-coding-and-why-its-important/) by Gwen Davis
* [A guide to open source for the social sector](https://github.blog/2024-01-23-a-guide-to-open-source-for-the-social-sector/) by Cynthia Lo

> Want to see all news around GitHub? I recommend to have a look at GitHub's [blog site](https://github.blog/) as well as at its [change log](https://github.blog/changelog/) to get the complete overview.

### 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:

* [Radius Community Call - 2024/01/25](https://youtu.be/JDYmY1IRVOs?si=oIweJGQGI_Om2OJZ)
* [Radius Dashboard](https://github.com/radius-project/dashboard) - That went public during the last Radius community call - try it out
* [Quantifying the impact of developer experience](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/quantifying-the-impact-of-developer-experience/) by Nicole Forsgren
* [Azure Confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 GPUs for secure retrieval-augmented generation](https://youtu.be/Bxg_gfABPC0?si=fkLnc9gCtVmcPuJr) by Mark Russinovich

## 🐱‍👤 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 #176 - The one with Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and SAP OData Connector (Michael Mergell)](https://youtu.be/V-pdMg-cwCY?si=D7TSNI2GhWX9jrmG)

> And of course a channel that you should subscribe to if you are working with SAP and Microsoft is the [SAP on Azure](https://www.youtube.com/@SAPonAzure) hosted by [Holger Bruchelt](https://www.linkedin.com/in/holger-bruchelt/) and friends.

## 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:

* [ChatGPT als Werkzeug für Software-Archiktektur mit Ralf D. Müller](https://www.youtube.com/live/WFZppdVGqAw?si=CgbRssbaFY2u79Gq) by Ralf D. Müller and Eberhard Wolff

### 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](https://thenativeweb.io/) by [Golo Roden](https://twitter.com/goloroden). This week the following topics were on the list:

* [HTMX: Die perfekte UI-Technologie?! // deutsch](https://youtu.be/TL5TtpZ33xU?si=l_q4HvMSl9O8slKt)
* [Einführung in Domain-Driven Design (von Vlad Khononov) // deutsch](https://youtu.be/y5q5jY3vyRQ?si=ZSbmVcYwkk9sahFh)

Make sure to subscribe to Golo's YouTube channels:

* [German channel](https://www.youtube.com/@thenativeweb)
* [English channel](https://www.youtube.com/@thenativeweb-en)

### Events

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

* [Dapr Day 2024 - VIRTUAL](https://community.cncf.io/events/details/cncf-virtual-project-events-2024-hosted-by-cncf-presents-dapr-day-2024-virtual/) - Schedule is out

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