This blog post series highlights the key announcements and major updates related to Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Azure Stack, as officially released by Microsoft in the past two weeks.
Azure
General
ItalyNorth – New Service Available: Azure Web PubSub
Azure Web PubSub is now available in the ItalyNorth Azure region. This service allows developers to easily build real-time messaging applications with support for WebSockets and other protocols, enabling low-latency communication between servers and clients. With this release, businesses in Italy can leverage Azure Web PubSub to enhance their user engagement and interactivity in real-time applications like live dashboards, chat rooms, and gaming leaderboards.
ItalyNorth – New Service Available: Azure SignalR
Azure SignalR has been introduced in the ItalyNorth Azure region. This service simplifies the process of adding real-time web functionality to applications, such as live chat and notifications, by handling the complexities of managing WebSocket connections at scale. With this addition, developers in Italy can now build highly responsive, real-time web applications without worrying about infrastructure management, directly benefiting from the cloud’s scalability.
ItalyNorth – New Service Available: Apache Kafka® & Apache Flink® on Confluent Cloud™ – An Azure Native ISV Service
Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink® are now available on Confluent Cloud™ in the ItalyNorth Azure region as an Azure-native ISV service. This offering enables customers to build real-time data pipelines and event-driven applications with Kafka, while leveraging Flink for real-time data processing and analytics. By hosting this service in the ItalyNorth region, businesses can reduce latency and improve the performance of their data integration and streaming solutions.
Networking
DNAT on Azure Firewall Private IP address (preview)
Destination Network Address Translation (DNAT) on Azure Firewall Private IP address is now in Public Preview. This feature is ideal for enterprises dealing with overlapping IP networks, especially when integrating new partners or during mergers. It facilitates seamless communication by enabling connections between private resources over non-routable IP addresses. Additionally, DNAT proves beneficial for hybrid environments, as it helps bridge on-premises datacenters to Azure, improving connectivity and operational continuity for enterprises in complex networking scenarios.
Advanced Container Networking Services for AKS (preview)
The Public Preview of Advanced Container Networking Services introduces enhanced security and observability for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Key features include FQDN filtering, which allows network policies to be defined based on domain names rather than IP addresses. This simplifies policy management while ensuring precise control over domain-specific access, reducing security risks. Additionally, a High Availability (HA) DNS proxy ensures uninterrupted DNS resolution, improving the reliability and availability of containerized applications. These features are designed to enhance security, minimize administrative overhead, and ensure consistent policy enforcement.
Storage
Force Detach Zone Redundant Data Disks During Zone Outage
Azure has introduced the ability to force detach zone-redundant storage (ZRS) data disks during a zone outage, now generally available. This feature allows users to detach ZRS data disks from a virtual machine or virtual machine scale set affected by a zone failure and reattach them to another VM, reducing the recovery time objective (RTO). This capability improves the resilience of Azure managed disks, ensuring businesses can quickly recover and continue operations. It is important to note that this feature is not available for ZRS OS disks, but it supports both Premium SSDs and Standard SSDs.
Azure Data Box 80 TB in Azure China
Azure Data Box 80 TB SKU is now generally available in Azure China. Azure Data Box is an offline data transfer solution, designed to transfer large amounts of data to and from Azure Storage securely and efficiently. The service allows users to import or export petabytes of data using a dedicated Azure Data Box device. With the general availability in China, customers can now benefit from quick, inexpensive, and reliable data migration between Azure China regions, enhancing data handling capabilities in compliance with regional standards.
Azure NetApp Files Reserved Capacity
Azure NetApp Files Reserved Capacity is now available, providing significant savings for predictable workloads. Customers can commit to one-year or three-year reserved capacity terms and save up to 34% on Azure NetApp Files usage. Reserved capacity is offered in increments of 100TiB or 1PiB, covering Standard, Premium, and Ultra service levels. This option is beneficial for customers with stable, long-term workloads who wish to optimize costs while improving financial predictability. The reserved capacity is applied to existing capacity pools, and any additional usage will continue to be billed at the standard pay-as-you-go rate.
Access-Based Enumeration and Non-Browsable Shares for Azure NetApp Files
Access-Based Enumeration (ABE) and Non-Browsable Shares for Azure NetApp Files are now generally available. ABE ensures that users only see files and folders in directory listings that they have permission to access, providing an additional layer of security in shared environments. This capability hides inaccessible items from users, protecting sensitive data. Additionally, Azure NetApp Files now supports non-browsable shares, preventing specific volumes from appearing in the Windows File Explorer, further enhancing security for sensitive content. Both features enhance data protection and access control, making Azure NetApp Files a more secure and flexible storage solution for enterprises.
Live Resize for Azure Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks (preview)
The Public Preview of Live Resize for Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks is now available. This new feature allows users to dynamically increase the storage capacity of their disks without disrupting their running applications. It is designed to reduce costs by enabling users to start with smaller disks and scale up as needed, ensuring no downtime during the resizing process. This feature is particularly useful for businesses that require flexible storage solutions without compromising on operational efficiency.
Conclusion
Over the past two weeks, Microsoft has introduced a slew of updates and announcements pertaining to Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Azure Stack. These developments underscore the tech giant’s unwavering commitment to enhancing its cloud offerings and adapting to the ever-evolving needs of businesses and developers. Users of Azure can anticipate improved functionalities, streamlined services, and enriched features as a result of these changes. Stay tuned for more insights as I continue to monitor and report on Azure’s progression in the cloud sphere.
