Difference between workload managed identity, Pod Managed Identity and AKS Managed Identity

Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS) offers several options for managing identities within Kubernetes clusters, including AKS Managed Identity, Pod Managed Identity, and Workload Managed Identity. Here’s a comparison of these three options: Key Features AKS Managed Identity Pod Managed Identity Workload Managed Identity Overview A built-in feature of AKS that allows you to assign an Azure AD […]

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Structured Output from LLMs: Instructor Library and Production Patterns (Part 2 of 2)

Introduction: Getting LLMs to return structured data instead of free-form text is essential for building reliable applications. Whether you need JSON for API responses, typed objects for downstream processing, or specific formats for data extraction, structured output techniques ensure consistency and parseability. This guide covers the major approaches: JSON mode, function calling, the Instructor library, […]

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LLM Deployment Strategies: From Model Optimization to Production Scaling

Introduction: Deploying LLMs to production is fundamentally different from deploying traditional ML models. The models are massive, inference is computationally expensive, and latency requirements are stringent. This guide covers the strategies that make LLM deployment practical: model optimization techniques like quantization and pruning, inference serving with batching and caching, containerization with GPU support, auto-scaling based […]

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Azure Databricks: A Solutions Architect’s Guide to Unified Data Analytics and AI

The convergence of data engineering, data science, and machine learning has created unprecedented demand for unified analytics platforms that can handle diverse workloads without the complexity of managing multiple disconnected systems. Azure Databricks represents a compelling answer to this challenge—a collaborative Apache Spark-based analytics platform optimized for the Microsoft Azure cloud. Having architected data platforms […]

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LLM Fine-Tuning Techniques: From LoRA to Full Parameter Training

Introduction: Fine-tuning transforms general-purpose LLMs into specialized models that excel at your specific tasks. While prompting can get you far, fine-tuning unlocks capabilities that prompting alone cannot achieve: consistent output formats, domain-specific knowledge, reduced latency from shorter prompts, and behavior that would require extensive few-shot examples. This guide covers the practical aspects of LLM fine-tuning: […]

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Private Kubernetes cluster in AKS with Azure Private Link

Today, we’ll take a look at a new feature in AKS called Azure Private Link, which allows you to connect to AKS securely and privately over the Microsoft Azure backbone network. In the past, connecting to AKS from an on-premises network or other virtual network required using a public IP address, which posed potential security […]

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