Episode 161: myNewsWrap – SAP and Microsoft
Tags: azure, github, sap, serverless
Published: 2023-12-02 10:25:21


# Episode 161: 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)

* [Build AI chat applications with Azure Static Web Apps | Azure Static Web Apps Community Standup](https://www.youtube.com/live/r6E24LRzOko?si=79-lofvcW4hOQRn0)
* [Azure Functions bindings for OpenAI's GPT engine](https://github.com/cgillum/azure-functions-openai-extension) enhanced with "custom skills" functionality by Chris Gillum
* [AWS re:Invent 2023 - Refactoring to serverless (SVS305)](https://youtu.be/bIu8XZZROw4?si=81K5ItJnoeaUC-6T)

#### Azure Container Apps

* Do not miss the community call next week: [Azure Container Apps Community Standup - Ignite 2023 announcements!](https://www.youtube.com/live/T7SBOnTX830?si=AD_Am47XzRTNuCve) by

### 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 - Nov 29th (#95)](https://youtu.be/FVQ12-BM7aA?si=WOEMlRNqMyGsE2O2)

### 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

* [Terraform stacks, explained](https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/terraform-stacks-explained) by Sarah Hernandez, Yushuo Huang

#### 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:

* [From the pages of our Insider newsletter: How to use GitHub Copilot](https://github.blog/2023-11-30-from-the-pages-of-our-insider-newsletter-how-to-use-github-copilot/) by Sara Verdi
* [Securing our home labs: Home Assistant code review](https://github.blog/2023-11-30-securing-our-home-labs-home-assistant-code-review/) by Alvaro Munoz
* [Codespaces Billing Report Improvements](https://github.blog/changelog/2023-11-30-codespaces-billing-report-improvements/)
* [GitHub Issues & Projects – November 30th update](https://github.blog/changelog/2023-11-30-github-issues-projects-november-30th-update/)
* [GitHub Copilot – November 30th Update](https://github.blog/changelog/2023-11-30-github-copilot-november-30th-update/)

> 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 - 2023/11/30](https://youtu.be/DtZnb-uD84I?si=nmjDpCX71HJ7mKL3)
* [How Azure is ensuring the future of GPUs is confidential](https://azure.microsoft.com/blog/how-azure-is-ensuring-the-future-of-gpus-is-confidential/?wt.mc_id=AZ-MVP-5004195)

And of course another chpater in the OpenAI story ... round and round and round it goes nad where it stops, nobody knows: [Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board](https://openai.com/blog/sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-openai-has-a-new-initial-board)

## 🐱‍👤 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 #170 - The one with DMOVE2S4H (Mathias Klein)](https://youtu.be/XKysspuCXPE?si=dZ_dGx9HI8dlaVw7)

> 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.

### Further news from the SAP world

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

* [Terraform for SAP BTP - above and beyond](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/terraform-sap-btp-above-beyond-christian-lechner-gdf7f%3FtrackingId=9jLnsQsoSTyl77WSlCl0Yw%253D%253D/?trackingId=9jLnsQsoSTyl77WSlCl0Yw%3D%3D) by

## 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:

* [Cloud Native Weekly - Ep 22 - Let’s talk Platform Engineering!](https://www.youtube.com/live/DWNLUKYuQYs?si=R7URkNBaNZFeSa75) hosted by Wesly Haakman and Richard Hooper
* [GREEN SOFTWARE FOUNDATION - BOOK OF NEWS 2023](https://greensoftware.foundation/articles/green-software-foundation-book-of-news-2023)
* [The Power of Prompting](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/the-power-of-prompting/) by Eric Horvitz

### 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:

* [OpenAI + Microsoft: Alles inszeniert und manipuliert? // deutsch](https://youtu.be/tOegaUmPe4c?si=5Q--rXUlS59tD1oJ) - although already mentioned last week, worth watching again after the latest events around OpenAI

Make sure to subscribe to Golo's YouTube channels:

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

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:

* [Haters gonna hate … (worauf es wirklich ankommt) // deutsch](https://youtu.be/SLqal7QYpyk?si=FRZ2DG2eowPrmXda)

### Events

And last but not least heads up for these upcoming events - do not miss the Festive Tech Calendar 2023!

* [Festive Tech Calendar 2023 Launch Event](https://www.youtube.com/live/atqtQLsZU9c?si=FeDM4zutVLTKk8ZN)
* [Festive Tech Calendar 2023 - Agenda](https://festivetechcalendar.com/)

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