This blog post series highlights the key announcements and major updates related to Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Azure Local, as officially released by Microsoft in the past two weeks.
Azure
General
ItalyNorth: New Services Available
The ItalyNorth cloud region has expanded its service offerings with the availability of Azure vNet Data Gateway and Azure AI Computer Vision. Additionally, vNet Data Gateway for Microsoft Fabric is now available in this region, empowering organizations to integrate and manage their data flows efficiently.
Microsoft Azure Now Available from New Cloud Region in New Zealand
Microsoft has announced the general availability of its first cloud region in New Zealand. Equipped with Azure Availability Zones, this new region provides global organizations with access to scalable, highly available, and resilient Microsoft Cloud services. This initiative underscores Microsoft’s commitment to supporting digital transformation and sustainable innovation in the country. The New Zealand region connects to the world’s largest and most trusted cloud infrastructure, offering the highest standards of security, privacy, and regulatory-compliant data storage.
Storage
Storage Account Default Maximum Request Rate Limit Increased to 40,000 Requests Per Second
Microsoft has increased the default maximum request rate for general-purpose v2 and Blob storage accounts to 40,000 requests per second in several regions, doubling the previous limit of 20,000 requests per second. This enhancement ensures that businesses can manage higher workloads with improved efficiency and scalability.
Enhancements on Elastic SAN: Resiliency, Scalability, and AVS Integration
Elastic SAN has received significant enhancements, including improved resiliency, scalability, and integration with Azure VMware Solution (AVS). A newly published availability Service Level Agreement (SLA) offers peace of mind for mission-critical workloads. Additionally, CRC32C checksum verification has been introduced, enabling customers to ensure data integrity. If enabled on the client side, connections without CRC32C verification will be rejected, preventing accidental errors during communication or storage. Elastic SAN is now generally available as a fully managed, VMware-certified SAN integrated with AVS. This solution provides massive scalability, redundancy, and cost efficiency, enabling AVS customers to deploy workloads with varying performance and reliability needs. It also supports use cases like backup, disaster recovery, and capacity-intensive workloads, offering a robust and extensible storage solution at a low total cost of ownership.
Azure Local
Azure Local Clustering Updates
Rack Aware Cluster (Preview)
Azure Local 23H2 introduces Rack Aware Clusters for short-distance setups. These clusters span two racks within a Layer-2 network, offering fault isolation and efficient storage. Supporting up to eight nodes, this scalable solution is ideal for edge locations and is set for general release in 2025.
Long-Distance Disaster Recovery
Azure Site Recovery enables disaster recovery by replicating Azure Local VMs to Azure. Hyper-V Replica supports replication to secondary sites for workloads that cannot utilize the cloud.
Transitioning from Stretched Clusters
Stretched Clusters from version 22H2 are not supported in 23H2 and beyond. However, clusters can remain supported by upgrading the operating system to version 23H2, providing time to transition to new solutions.
Windows Server 2025 Options
Windows Server 2025 introduces hybrid cloud capabilities and replication technologies like Hyper-V Replica and Storage Replica, enabling tailored disaster recovery solutions with enhanced flexibility.
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.
