Archivi categoria: Microsoft Azure

Azure IaaS and Azure Local: announcements and updates (February 2025 – Weeks: 05 and 06)

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

Azure VMware Solution Now Available on Two Availability Zones in ItalyNorth

Azure VMware Solution (AVS) in the ItalyNorth cloud region now supports deployment across two availability zones, enhancing resiliency and disaster recovery capabilities.

With this update, AVS hosts can be provisioned across two availability zones, enabling organizations to implement robust Disaster Recovery (DR) scenarios through VMotion, ensuring seamless workload mobility between zones. This advancement strengthens business continuity for critical infrastructures, making ItalyNorth a viable and secure option for hosting VMware workloads in Azure.

Azure AI Speech Service Now Available in ItalyNorth

Azure AI Speech Service is now accessible in the ItalyNorth region. This expansion allows businesses and developers in Italy to leverage the capabilities of Azure AI Speech Service closer to their operations, enhancing performance and reducing latency for speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and other speech-enabled applications. By being available in the ItalyNorth region, Azure AI Speech Service provides improved compliance with local data residency requirements, offering organizations greater control and assurance when handling sensitive data. This development underscores Azure’s commitment to meeting regional needs while delivering world-class AI capabilities.

Defender for Storage v2 Now Available in ItalyNorth

Defender for Storage v2, featuring Antimalware Scanning and Data Threat Detection, is now available in the ItalyNorth region. Part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, this Azure-native security layer provides advanced threat detection and protection for storage accounts, enhancing the security of your data and workloads. Defender for Storage v2 helps prevent malicious file uploads, sensitive data exfiltration, and data corruption by analyzing telemetry from Azure Blob Storage, Azure Files, and Azure Data Lake Storage services. Powered by Microsoft Threat Intelligence, Microsoft Defender Antivirus, and Sensitive Data Discovery, it offers robust security capabilities, enabling organizations to detect and mitigate potential threats effectively. This service ensures both the integrity and security of your storage environments in ItalyNorth.

Compute

Changes to Instance Size Flexibility Ratios for Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances for M-series

Microsoft has updated the instance size flexibility ratios for Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances for M-series. This update, effective December 6, 2024, aims to optimize the reservation discounts within instance size flexibility groups and their corresponding SKUs. As Azure continues to expand its range of SKUs for M-series Virtual Machines, this adjustment ensures customers can maximize the value of their reservations while maintaining flexibility in their deployments. These changes reflect Azure’s commitment to providing cost-efficient and adaptable solutions for memory-intensive workloads.

Enhanced Support for Generation 2 VMs in Azure DevTest Labs (Preview)

Azure DevTest Labs now supports enhanced capabilities for Generation 2 Virtual Machines (VMs), allowing users to choose between Generation 1 and Generation 2 versions of the same marketplace image. Generation 2 VMs offer key advantages over their Generation 1 counterparts, including:

  • Increased memory support for workloads that require higher RAM capacity.
  • Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) for enhanced security and confidential computing.
  • Virtualized Persistent Memory (vPMEM) to improve storage performance for applications that benefit from persistent memory.

With this enhancement, Azure DevTest Labs continues to expand its flexibility and efficiency for developers and testers working with virtualized environments.

Reduce Costs with Hibernation in Azure DevTest Labs (Preview)

Azure DevTest Labs now offers hibernation for virtual machines (VMs), a feature designed to help organizations optimize cloud costs. With this public preview, customers can pause VMs while preserving their state, allowing them to resume work seamlessly without losing progress.

Key benefits of the hibernation feature include:

  • Cost Savings: Hibernated VMs do not incur compute costs, similar to a stopped (deallocated) state.
  • Resource Optimization: Users only pay for storage (OS disk, data disks) and networking resources (such as IP addresses) attached to the VM.
  • Seamless Resumption: VMs can quickly return to their previous state, improving workflow efficiency.

This feature provides a cost-effective way to manage virtualized environments while maintaining productivity.

Networking

New Origin Types for Azure Front Door Premium Private Link-Enabled Origins (Preview)

Azure Front Door Premium now supports additional Private Link-enabled origin types, including Application Gateway, API Management, and Container Apps. This enhancement allows organizations to securely deliver content through public Front Door endpoints while keeping their origins isolated from the public internet.

By leveraging Private Link-enabled origins, customers can enhance security, reduce exposure to external threats, and maintain a seamless and reliable content delivery experience. This update expands the flexibility of Azure Front Door Premium, providing more options for securely integrating backend services with Front Door’s global edge network.

Storage

Next-Generation Azure Data Box Devices (Preview)

Azure has announced the public preview of Azure Data Box 120 and Azure Data Box 525, the next-generation NVMe-based Data Box devices designed to accelerate offline data transfers to Azure. These new devices offer several enhancements, including:

  • Fast Copy: NVMe drives provide high-speed transfers, improved reliability, and support for faster network connections.
  • Ease of Use: The compact design includes a larger capacity option of up to 525 TB for simplified handling.
  • Resilience: Ruggedized devices are built to withstand harsh transport conditions.
  • Enhanced Security: Advanced physical, hardware, and software security features ensure data protection.
  • Broader Availability: The devices are now available in the US, Canada, EU, UK, and US Gov Azure regions, with plans to expand further.

These improvements make Azure Data Box an efficient and secure solution for large-scale data migration to Azure.

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.

Azure Management services: what’s new in January 2025

This month, Microsoft has introduced a series of significant updates related to Azure management services. Through this series of monthly articles, we aim to provide an overview of the most relevant updates. Our goal is to keep you constantly informed about these developments, offering essential information to further explore these topics.

The following diagram shows the different areas related to management, which are covered in this series of articles:

Figure 1 – Overview of Management Services in Azure

Monitor

Azure Monitor

Integration of Performance Diagnostics in Azure Monitor for VM Troubleshooting (Preview)

Microsoft has introduced a new integration between Azure Monitor and Performance Diagnostics, enhancing virtual machine (VM) performance troubleshooting capabilities. This feature is now available in the VM Overview Monitoring panel and the VM Insights section of Azure Monitor, providing a unified experience that combines monitoring and diagnostics in a single environment. Thanks to this integration, users can identify and resolve VM performance issues more efficiently within the Azure Monitor workflow, accessing detailed diagnostic data, recommendations, and continuous or on-demand insights. The continuous mode allows for timely identification of high resource utilization, providing useful indications for proactive performance management and reducing the risk of downtime. This evolution of Azure Monitor represents a step forward in ensuring the highest level of operational efficiency for cloud-based VMs, simplifying the diagnosis and optimization process.

Monitoring Azure Container Storage Metadata with Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus (Preview)

Azure Container Storage offers a native experience for containers and is optimized for integration with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). With its launch in Public Preview, customers using Azure Container Storage in AKS clusters can now collect storage pool and disk metrics via Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus. These metrics can be viewed and queried directly in Azure Managed Grafana. Once Azure Container Storage is enabled on an AKS cluster with managed Prometheus active, metrics will be automatically collected and integrated with other system metrics. This update enhances monitoring and simplifies storage resource management in AKS clusters.

Configure

Azure Automation

Revision of Service and Subscription Limits for Azure Automation

Starting January 15, 2025, Azure Automation will introduce a revision of service and subscription limits to ensure fair cloud resource distribution among all customers. This update aims to improve service reliability and performance while optimizing resource utilization. Given that organizations’ needs vary and evolve over time, customers will be able to configure their limits based on actual usage.

The resources affected by this revision include:

  • The maximum number of automation accounts per subscription in a single region.
  • The maximum number of concurrently running jobs per automation account.

Customers can check their current usage, review limits, and request quota changes by creating a support request under Service and Subscription Limits (Quotas) -> Azure Automation.

Retirement of Azure Automation Jobs on Agent-Based Hybrid Worker from April 1, 2025

Starting April 1, 2025, all Azure Automation jobs executed on Agent-Based Hybrid Worker (Windows and Linux) will be discontinued. This approach was officially retired on August 31, 2024, and no longer receives security updates, posing a potential security risk. Microsoft strongly recommends migrating to Extension-Based User Hybrid Runbook Worker (Windows and Linux) to continue running hybrid jobs.

The main advantages of the new solution include:

  • Enhanced security through access control with system-assigned managed identities, eliminating the need for manually managed certificates.
  • Improved operational productivity with automatic updates and large-scale VM management.
  • Simplified installation, removing the need to install the Log Analytics agent.

Retirement of PowerShell Runbooks Using AzureRM Modules from February 1, 2025

As of February 1, 2025, Azure Automation will stop executing all runbooks using AzureRM modules. The PowerShell AzureRM module was retired on February 29, 2024, in favor of the Az PowerShell module, which offers greater security, stability, and advanced features.

To avoid disruptions, it is necessary to update all runbooks using AzureRM to the Az PowerShell module and remove AzureRM modules from automation accounts. This transition will ensure continuous support and access to the latest PowerShell features in the Azure Automation environment.

Blocking of Resources Interacting with Azure Automation Using TLS 1.0/1.1 Protocols from March 1, 2025

Starting March 1, 2025, resources interacting with Azure Automation via TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 protocols will no longer be supported. These protocols, used for establishing encryption channels, no longer meet modern security standards.

All interactions, including Webhooks, Hybrid Runbook Workers (Agent-Based and Extension-Based), and Automation DSC, using TLS 1.0 or 1.1 will be blocked. Scheduled or running jobs on Hybrid Workers using these protocols will not be completed.

To ensure continuity, it is recommended to update resources to use TLS 1.2 or higher. Microsoft has provided guidance for disabling obsolete TLS protocols and enabling TLS 1.2 or higher on Windows and Linux machines.

Secure

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

New features, bug fixes, and deprecated features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud

The development of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is constantly evolving, with continuous improvements being introduced. To stay updated on the latest developments, Microsoft updates this page, which provides information on new features, bug fixes, and deprecated features. Specifically, this month’s main news includes:

  • Update to Container Registry Scanning Policies (Preview): Microsoft has updated image scanning policies for container registries, modifying the re-evaluation period for cloud and external registries, including Azure, AWS, GCP, Docker, and JFrog. Previously, Defender for Cloud scanned images for 90 days after their publication in the registry; with this change, the scanning period will now be limited to the last 30 days. This change only affects the preview recommendation for scanning images in registries and does not impact General Availability (GA) recommendations related to vulnerability assessment (VA) in container registries.
  • New Permissions for the GCP Connector to Support AI Platforms: Microsoft has expanded the GCP connector’s permissions to enhance support for artificial intelligence platforms, particularly Vertex AI. With this update, Defender for Cloud can now monitor and protect AI workloads on Google Cloud more effectively. The new permissions introduced include privileges for managing batch prediction jobs, custom jobs, datasets, endpoints, models, pipeline jobs, and tuning jobs, as well as specific permissions for Discovery Engine and Google Notebooks. This update ensures broader protection for AI services hosted on GCP.
  • Improvements to GC-Based Linux Baselines Recommendation: The GC-powered Linux Baselines feature has been enhanced to provide greater accuracy and coverage in analyzing Linux operating systems. Starting in February, Defender for Cloud will introduce a series of updates, including new rule names for existing checks and additional security controls. These improvements will ensure more precise and up-to-date assessments, allowing organizations to strengthen the security of their Linux environments. Users wishing to exclude this recommendation can do so by exempting their resources or removing the GC extension.

Azure Evaluation

For those who wish to explore and personally evaluate the services offered by Azure, a unique opportunity is available: by accessing this page, you can test various features and services for free. This will allow you to better understand how Azure can adapt and improve your IT operations, while ensuring security and innovation.

Azure IaaS and Azure Local: announcements and updates (January 2025 – Weeks: 03 and 04)

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

Troubleshoot Disk Performance with Copilot in Azure (preview)

The Disk Performance Troubleshooting Capability for Azure Copilot is now available in Public Preview. This feature allows users to optimize disk performance seamlessly through Azure Copilot. By leveraging a comprehensive range of disk metrics, Azure provides detailed insights into the performance of Virtual Machines (VMs) and disks, enabling users to identify and address performance bottlenecks. Azure Copilot enhances this process by analyzing these metrics and offering guided recommendations to improve VM and disk performance, ensuring a superior application experience.

Azure Confidential Ledger Achieves ISO 27001 Certification

Azure Confidential Ledger has achieved ISO 27001 certification, a globally recognized standard for information security management systems (ISMS). This certification highlights the implementation of a comprehensive framework designed to manage and safeguard customer data effectively. By meeting ISO 27001 compliance requirements, Azure Confidential Ledger demonstrates its commitment to exceeding industry standards. This achievement assures customers that they can rely on Azure Confidential Ledger to securely manage their most sensitive and critical workloads, reinforcing trust in its robust security capabilities.

Networking

WebSocket Support in Application Gateway for Containers

Azure has introduced WebSocket support in Application Gateway for Containers, enabling interactive and real-time applications such as chat platforms, live dashboards, and gaming services to achieve better performance and reduced latency. This enhancement provides several benefits:

  • Bidirectional Communication: Facilitates two-way data exchange between clients and servers.
  • Reduced Latency: Enhances application performance through faster data transmission using full-duplex communication over a single TCP connection.
  • Improved User Experience: Delivers more engaging and responsive applications for end-users.

This addition significantly boosts the capabilities of Application Gateway for Containers, making it ideal for applications requiring real-time interactivity.

Storage

Customer Managed Unplanned Failover for Azure Data Lake Storage and SSH File Transfer Protocol

Customer managed unplanned failover for Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) and storage accounts with SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) enabled is now generally available. This feature empowers users to failover their geo-redundant (GRS) or geo-zone-redundant (GZRS) storage accounts to a secondary region when primary storage service endpoints become inaccessible. During a failover, the secondary region becomes the new primary, redirecting all storage service endpoints and restoring write access to the account.

Previously, unplanned failover support was limited to Blobs, Tables, Files, and Queue data. Now, this capability extends to include Azure Data Lake Storage and SFTP-enabled accounts. After resolving the primary region’s outage, users can reconfigure geo-redundancy and fail back to the original primary region, ensuring greater resilience for mission-critical storage solutions.

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.

Azure IaaS and Azure Local: announcements and updates (January 2025 – Weeks: 01 and 02)

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

Msv3 and Mdsv3 Series Now Available on ItalyNorth

The Msv3 and Mdsv3 High Memory (HM) Virtual Machine (VM) series are now available in the ItalyNorth region. These VMs represent the next generation of memory-optimized sizes, offering significant advancements in performance, cost efficiency, and resilience compared to their predecessors, the Mv2-series VMs. The Mv3 HM series supports configurations with memory ranging from 6TB to an impressive 16TB. These VMs deliver up to 8,000 MBps throughput to remote storage and provide up to 25% improvements in networking performance over earlier generations, making them an excellent choice for memory-intensive workloads.

ND H100 v5 GPU-Powered VM Now Available on ItalyNorth

Azure has introduced the ND H100 v5 series virtual machines (VMs) in the ItalyNorth region, expanding its portfolio of GPU-powered instances. This flagship series is engineered for demanding deep learning training and generative AI workloads, as well as high-performance computing (HPC) applications. The ND H100 v5 series starts with a single VM containing eight NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and can scale to deployments involving thousands of GPUs. Each VM offers 3.2 Tbps of interconnect bandwidth and a dedicated 400 Gb/s NVIDIA Quantum-2 CX7 InfiniBand connection for each GPU, ensuring optimized performance. These VMs feature NVLINK 4.0 for intra-VM communication and are powered by 96 physical fourth Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor cores. Designed to integrate seamlessly with AI and ML frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and RAPIDS, as well as HPC tools leveraging NVIDIA’s NCCL communication libraries, the ND H100 v5 series provides unparalleled scalability and performance for AI-driven innovations.

Storage

Azure NetApp Files Enhances Minimum Volume Size to 50 GiB

Azure NetApp Files now supports a minimum volume size of 50 GiB, reducing the previous limit of 100 GiB. This improvement caters to workloads requiring smaller volumes, such as Kubernetes, allowing customers to optimize storage volumes more effectively. By right-sizing volumes in the range of 50 GiB to 100 GiB, organizations can achieve cost savings and maximize capacity pool utilization. The feature is accessible across all Azure NetApp Files-enabled regions, further broadening its usability for diverse storage needs.

Azure Files Introduces Provisioned v2 Billing Model for HDD (Standard)

The provisioned v2 billing model for Azure Files HDD (standard) is now generally available, offering customers greater control and predictability in managing their storage costs. This model allows independent provisioning of storage, IOPS, and throughput, ensuring alignment with specific performance requirements. With enhanced scalability and performance, customers can configure file shares up to 256 TiB, with 50,000 IOPS and 5 GiB/sec of throughput. Additionally, provisioned v2 enables per-share monitoring for better resource management. Currently, this feature is available in select Azure regions, making it a versatile option for businesses with varying storage needs.

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.

Azure Management services: what’s new in December 2024

This month, Microsoft introduced a series of significant updates to Azure management services. Through this monthly series of articles, the aim is to provide an overview of the most relevant updates, keeping you informed of these developments and equipping you with essential insights to explore these topics further.

The diagram below shows the various management areas covered in this series:

Figure 1 – Overview of Management Services in Azure

Configure

Azure Automation

Service and Subscription Limits for Azure Automation (Private Preview)

Starting January 7, 2025, Azure Automation will introduce a revision of service and subscription limits. This change aims to ensure fair distribution of cloud resources among all customers, optimizing usage and improving the overall service experience. Interested users can consult the current service and subscription limits for Azure Automation on the official site to prepare for these changes and plan any necessary adjustments to their cloud resources.

Govern

Azure Cost Management

Microsoft Cost Management: 2024 Highlights

2024 has been a year full of innovations for Microsoft Cost Management, with significant improvements aimed at optimizing cloud expenses and enhancing FinOps capabilities. Here are the main updates introduced:

  • Cost Visibility A new tabbed interface for cost analysis in the Azure portal simplifies switching between views, creating reports, and analyzing expenses. Additionally, loading times have been improved, ensuring a smoother experience.
  • Data Export New datasets related to reservations, price lists, and combined cost formats have been added. The Parquet format with file compression reduces storage and network costs. Integration with Microsoft Fabric (preview) enables advanced analytics and reporting.
  • Copilot Enhancements AI has been further integrated with Cost Analysis to provide detailed cost insights. New features include estimating Azure OpenAI costs in simulation scenarios.
  • Azure OpenAI Costs New visualizations allow monitoring deployments based on tokens and PTUs, along with reservations.
  • Cost Allocation Billing tags with inheritance have been launched for more efficient cost management. Tagging functionalities have also been introduced for billing sections and payment profiles.
  • AKS Cost Views Kubernetes namespace cost tracking is now available, enabling application-specific cost allocation.
  • Cost Optimization One-month and one-year reservations for Azure OpenAI are now available, offering significant savings. New RBAC roles have been introduced to manage Azure savings plans.
  • Cloud Sustainability In preview, Azure’s carbon optimization tool helps monitor emissions data and propose eco-friendly and cost-effective actions.

Thanks to these updates, Microsoft Cost Management has enhanced FinOps efficiency, improved cost visibility, and supported sustainability initiatives, positioning itself as a key tool for cloud expense management in 2025.

Secure

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Sensitivity Scanning Now Available for Azure File Shares

The “Sensitivity Scanning” feature in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, designed for security posture management (CSPM), now includes Azure file shares, available in General Availability. Previously, enabling the Defender CSPM plan on a subscription allowed automatic scanning of blob containers within storage accounts to identify sensitive data. This extension now includes file shares, improving risk analysis and protection for sensitive storage accounts.

Defender for Cloud CLI Integration with CI/CD Tools (Preview)

The CLI integration feature for Microsoft Defender for Cloud with CI/CD tools is now available in public preview. This integration allows CLI usage in CI/CD pipelines to scan and identify security vulnerabilities in containerized source code. Scans help development teams detect and resolve vulnerabilities during pipeline execution without disrupting workflows. Results are uploaded to Defender for Cloud, enabling security teams to correlate data with containers in container registries.

Use Cases:

  • Pipeline Scanning: Securely monitor all pipelines using the CLI.
  • Early Vulnerability Detection: Results are displayed in the pipeline and sent to Defender for Cloud.
  • Continuous Security: Improved visibility and quick response capabilities during development cycles without compromising productivity.

Defender for Cloud Configuration Experience

Microsoft Defender for Cloud introduces a new configuration experience that simplifies the initial setup for connecting cloud environments, including cloud infrastructure, code repositories, and external container registries. This feature allows for advanced security plan protection, quick actions to improve coverage at scale, and notifications about connectivity issues or new security features.

Updated Cloud Environment Scan Interval Options

The scan interval options for cloud connectors associated with AWS, GCP, Jfrog, and DockerHub have been updated. Scanning intervals can now be set to 4, 6, 12, or 24 hours when adding or modifying a cloud connector. By default, new connectors continue to use a 12-hour scan interval.

Defender for Endpoint Client Update for File Integrity Monitoring

To continue leveraging the File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) functionality in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, the Defender for Endpoint (MDE) client must meet specific minimum versions.

Protect

Azure Backup

Vaulted Backup for AKS

Azure Backup introduces support for vaulted backups for AKS, now generally available. This new feature enables cross-regional disaster recovery, long-term data retention, and immutability for backups, improving resilience and simplifying compliance for cloud-native applications. Customers can protect AKS clusters during regional disaster recovery events, store backup data for up to 10 years to meet regulatory requirements, and secure data in an offsite location to safeguard against ransomware threats.

Azure Evaluation

For those who wish to explore and personally evaluate the services offered by Azure, a unique opportunity is available: by accessing this page, you can test various features and services for free. This will allow you to better understand how Azure can adapt and improve your IT operations, while ensuring security and innovation.

Azure IaaS and Azure Local: announcements and updates (December 2024 – Weeks: 51 and 52)

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

Italy North – Azure AI Vision

Azure AI Vision is now available in the Italy North region. This expansion allows businesses and developers in the region to leverage Azure’s advanced computer vision capabilities, including image and video analysis. By utilizing the local datacenter, users can benefit from reduced latency and meet regional compliance requirements. Azure AI Vision empowers organizations to build intelligent applications with enhanced performance and accessibility tailored to their geographical needs.

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.

Azure IaaS and Azure Local: announcements and updates (December 2024 – Weeks: 49 and 50)

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.

Azure IaaS and Azure Local: announcements and updates (November 2024 – Weeks: 47 and 48)

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

Azure Managed Grafana Now Available in ItalyNorth

Azure Managed Grafana is now available in the ItalyNorth region, bringing the powerful visualization and analytics capabilities of Grafana closer to businesses in this area. This service enables users to monitor and analyze their Azure and hybrid environments seamlessly through an integrated, fully managed Grafana experience. With this expansion, organizations can leverage a locally hosted solution, ensuring lower latency and adherence to regional compliance requirements.

Compute

New Da/Ea/Fav6 Series AMD-Based Virtual Machines

Microsoft has announced the general availability of the Da/Ea/Fav6 series AMD-based virtual machines (VMs). These VMs include the Dasv6 and Dalsv6 general-purpose series, the Easv6 memory-optimized series, and the compute-optimized Falsv6, Fasv6, and Famsv6 series. They deliver significant performance and price-performance improvements over previous AMD-based VM generations, making them ideal for workloads like data analytics, web and application servers, databases, and caches.

Key advancements in these VMs include the integration of NVMe interfaces for local and remote disks, leading to:

  • 80% better remote storage performance,
  • 400% faster local storage speeds,
  • 20% networking bandwidth improvement,
  • 45% higher NVMe SSD capacity per vCPU for local-disk configurations.

These enhancements ensure superior performance and scalability for a wide range of enterprise needs.

Networking

Copilot in Azure: Embedded Experience for Azure Firewall Integration in Security Copilot

The integration of Azure Firewall with Security Copilot has been enhanced, offering a streamlined embedded experience for detailed threat analysis directly in the Azure portal. This feature enables analysts to investigate malicious traffic intercepted by the IDPS (Intrusion Detection and Prevention System) feature of Azure Firewall using natural language queries.

Key capabilities now accessible via the Azure portal include:

  • Retrieving the top IDPS signature hits for an Azure Firewall.
  • Enriching the threat profile of an IDPS signature beyond log information.
  • Searching for specific IDPS signatures across tenants, subscriptions, or resource groups.
  • Generating recommendations to secure environments using Azure Firewall’s IDPS feature.

These advancements simplify threat analysis and provide actionable insights to bolster security postures.

Azure Bastion Premium

Azure Bastion Premium is a new SKU designed to meet the needs of customers managing highly sensitive virtual machine workloads. This premium offering enhances security by ensuring private connectivity and enabling monitoring for potential anomalies in virtual machine sessions.

Key features introduced with Azure Bastion Premium include:

  • Session Recording: Record all virtual machine sessions connected via Bastion, allowing for graphical session playback for auditing and compliance.
  • Private Endpoint Connectivity: Securely connect to Bastion via a private endpoint to further isolate network traffic.

These features provide an elevated level of security and monitoring for critical workloads, ensuring compliance and operational integrity. For more details, refer to the guides on configuring session recording and private endpoint connectivity.

Azure Virtual Network Now Supports Configuration of Private IP Address Blocks on Network Interfaces (preview)

Azure Virtual Network has introduced support for configuring private IP address blocks on network interfaces, increasing the number of usable private IP addresses by up to 16 times. Network interfaces now support the configuration of one primary and multiple secondary IP configurations, with each secondary configuration capable of assigning a /28 CIDR block of private IPv4 addresses. This provides 16 usable IP addresses per configuration. This enhancement is particularly beneficial for scenarios such as deploying a large number of Kubernetes (K8s) containers in a virtual network, enabling seamless routing between virtual machines (VMs) and K8s containers. To learn more about configuring private IP address blocks on network interfaces, refer to the documentation: Assign private IP address prefixes to virtual machines.

Fallback to Internet on Private DNS Zones (preview)

The fallback to internet on Private DNS Zones is a new feature in preview that unlocks the adoption of fully managed solutions for network isolation and simplifies scenarios involving Private Link and Private DNS. This feature enables public recursion to occur when an authoritative NXDOMAIN response is received from Private DNS Zones, removing the need for IaaS-based DNS servers.

With this capability, customers can now implement a fully managed native solution for Private Link and Private DNS adoption. The feature can be enabled at the virtual network link level via the API, CLI, or PowerShell, with portal support expected within two weeks. Users can activate the fallback option by selecting Enable fallback to internet in the virtual network link configuration.

DNS Security Policy (preview)

The DNS security policy is now in public preview, introducing enhanced visibility and control over DNS traffic at the virtual network (VNet) level. This feature allows logs to be sent to a storage account, log analytics workspace, or event hubs, and offers DNS filtering capabilities to allow, alert, or block name resolutions based on domain lists. The general availability version will incorporate threat intelligence feeds to block known malicious domains.

Key features of the DNS security policy include:

  • DNS Traffic Rules: Rules to allow, block, or alert based on priority and domain lists.
  • Virtual Network Links: A single policy can be linked to multiple VNets within the same region.
  • DNS Domain Lists: Location-based lists of domains for targeted filtering.

The feature is accessible through API, CLI, and PowerShell, with portal availability expected within two weeks.

Azure DNS Now Supports DNSSEC (preview)

Azure DNS has introduced support for DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) in public preview, significantly enhancing the security of domain name systems in the Azure public cloud. This feature ensures the integrity and authenticity of DNS data by verifying DNS responses against signatures, protecting against attacks such as cache poisoning and man-in-the-middle.

Key Benefits of DNSSEC:

  • Enhanced Security: Prevents DNS response manipulation, ensuring users are directed to legitimate destinations.
  • Data Integrity: Verifies that DNS data has not been altered in transit by signing responses.
  • Trust and Authenticity: Establishes a chain of trust from the root DNS servers to your domain.

DNSSEC is now available via API, CLI, and PowerShell, with portal support expected in the coming weeks. For further details, refer to the Azure DNSSEC documentation.

Network Security Perimeter (preview)

The Network Security Perimeter feature, now in preview, provides a robust solution to restrict access to resources within a defined perimeter while permitting public traffic through explicitly configured inbound and outbound access rules. This capability enhances security and simplifies the management of PaaS resources.

With Network Security Perimeter, administrators can:

  • Create secure boundaries around PaaS resources.
  • Prevent data exfiltration by associating PaaS resources with the perimeter.
  • Define and manage access rules for traffic outside the secure perimeter.
  • Consolidate access rule management for all PaaS resources within a single interface.
  • Enable diagnostic settings to generate access logs for auditing and compliance.
  • Allow private endpoint traffic without requiring additional access rules.

This feature streamlines the administration of secure environments while maintaining flexibility for specific access needs.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Running on Application Gateway for Containers (preview)

Azure’s Application Gateway for Containers now supports Web Application Firewall (WAF) in private preview, offering centralized security for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) environments. WAF’s Default Ruleset protects against a wide range of attacks and exploits, including:

  • Cross-site scripting (XSS),
  • SQL injection,
  • PHP and Java injection,
  • Local and remote file inclusion,
  • Remote command execution,
  • Protocol attacks, and
  • Session fixation vulnerabilities.

Additionally, the WAF includes bot manager rulesets to safeguard against malicious bot activities. This comprehensive protection empowers AKS users to defend their applications and services against evolving threats while leveraging the scalability of containerized architectures.

Storage

Azure NetApp Files Cool Access Feature Support with Large Volumes

Azure NetApp Files now supports the cool access feature for large volumes, marking its general availability. This capability enables the tiering of infrequently accessed data on large volumes (ranging from 50 TiB to 1 PiB, and up to 2 PiB on request) to a lower-cost storage tier while maintaining seamless integration with standard, premium, and ultra storage service levels.

The cool access feature allows organizations in industries like Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, and Healthcare to optimize costs by transitioning inactive data to more affordable storage tiers. This integration is especially valuable for large-scale workloads requiring compliance or ongoing business processes, offering significant cost savings and operational efficiency. This feature is available in Azure NetApp Files regions that support large volumes.

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.

Azure Management services: what’s new in November 2024

This month, thanks in part to the Microsoft Ignite event, significant updates have been announced for Azure Management Services. Through this series of monthly articles, we aim to provide an overview of the most relevant news, keeping you informed about these developments and offering essential information to explore these topics further.

The following diagram shows the different areas related to management, which are covered in this series of articles:

Figure 1 – Overview of Management Services in Azure

Govern

Azure Cost Management

Updates for Microsoft Cost Management

Microsoft continually strives to improve Microsoft Cost Management, a solution designed to provide greater visibility into cloud spending, identify and prevent incorrect spending patterns, and optimize costs. This article highlights some of the latest enhancements and updates to this solution, including:

Exports to Microsoft Fabric (preview): With a new connection to Microsoft Fabric, users can export cost and pricing datasets directly into OneLake. This feature simplifies data integration into the Fabric system, eliminating the need for manual transfers from storage accounts.

Azure OpenAI Cost View: Managing Azure OpenAI Service costs is now easier with a new integrated view in Cost Analysis. This feature allows users to:

  • View execution costs for OpenAI models over specific periods.
    • Include costs of reserved purchases within the selected subscription.
    • Access the new view quickly under “Smart Views” in Cost Analysis.

Cost Simulations with Copilot: Azure Copilot now includes cost estimates for OpenAI deployments based on tokens. For example, users can simulate scenarios like a 15% increase to predict cost impacts, helping with better budget management.

Copilot-Cost Analysis Integration: The Copilot experience for Cost Management is enhanced with Cost Analysis integration in generated responses. Using the “View in Cost Analysis” button, users can:

  • Access a custom view based on their request.
  • Analyze costs with specific parameters.
  • Share the view with their team and set up email alerts.

Secure

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

AI Security Posture Management for Multicloud Environments

Microsoft Defender for Cloud expands its capabilities to manage the security of generative AI models. New features include:

  • Extended Support for Amazon Bedrock: Enables deep discovery of AWS AI technologies, including new recommendations and attack paths to enhance security.
  • AI Grounding Data Insights: Provides detailed analysis of datasets used for AI models, identifying associated risks and offering tools for vulnerability prioritization.

These capabilities ensure robust security for AI models, improving data governance and reducing associated risks.

Enhanced Container Security Features (preview)

In addition to existing container capabilities, significant new features include:

  • Detection and Response to Suspicious Activity: Defender for Cloud allows custom queries to detect anomalous behavior, improving runtime vulnerability management.
  • Rapid Containment: Enables limiting communication between pods or isolating networks to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.
  • AI Support for SOC: AI provides guided remediation, assisting security teams with step-by-step instructions to resolve incidents efficiently, even with limited expertise.

These features represent a further step toward comprehensive container protection.

API Security Enhancements with Microsoft Defender for Cloud (preview)

Microsoft Defender for Cloud introduces advanced features to enhance API security, addressing the growing importance of these interfaces in modern application models. New capabilities include:

  • Native Integration with CSPM: Provides complete API visibility through Azure API Management, mapping both front-end and back-end elements for holistic risk management.
  • API Data Classification: Now includes query strings and URL path parameters, supporting in-depth analysis and triage of data in transit.
  • Security Recommendations: Highlights exploitable attack paths, providing specific context for data exposure scenarios.

These features help organizations mitigate API risks and strengthen application security posture.

New features, bug fixes, and deprecated features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud

The development of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is constantly evolving, with continuous improvements being introduced. To stay updated on the latest developments, you can refer to this page, which provides information about new features, bug fixes, and deprecated functionalities.

Protect

Azure Backup

Regional Disaster Recovery with Azure Backup for AKS

Azure announces the availability of Vaulted Backup support for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), an important innovation that ensures protection, compliance, and resilience for cloud-native applications against regional disasters.

Key benefits for Azure customers:

  • Cross-Regional Recovery: The Cross-Region Restore functionality enables critical failover, ensuring business continuity and compliance with disaster recovery regulations.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Support for long-term retention (LTR) of data for up to 10 years, adhering to major global compliance frameworks.
  • Enhanced Security and Resilience: With immutable vaults and role-based access control, backup data is protected from ransomware and unauthorized access.

With the GA support for AKS Vaulted Backup, Azure Backup simplifies compliance, improves resilience, and strengthens the security of cloud-native environments.

Default Security with Soft Delete in Azure Backup (Preview)

Azure Backup introduces soft delete functionality, a default-enabled security measure that allows deleted backup data to be recovered for a period of 14 days. By enabling soft delete at the vault level, Azure provides default protection for all customers, preventing accidental or intentional data loss.

Immutable WORM Storage for Backups in Recovery Services Vaults (Preview)

Azure Backup introduces immutable WORM (Write Once, Read Many) storage for backups in Recovery Services Vaults. Once immutability is enabled and activated, Recovery Points cannot be deleted or have their retention periods reduced before expiration.

Key features:

  • Meets compliance requirements with immutable storage.
  • Applicable to both existing and new vaults with locked immutability.
  • Currently available in preview in limited regions.

This feature ensures advanced protection for backup data, reducing the risk of tampering and meeting regulatory compliance needs.

Migrate

Azure Migrate

New Capabilities of Azure Migrate for Hybrid Cloud Migration and Management

Azure Migrate introduces advanced tools to support the planning and management of migrations to Azure and hybrid environments. Customers can now create a detailed business case to compare the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of on-premises workloads versus Azure, as well as view annual financial analyses during the transition process.

Key updates:

  • Azure Arc Value Assessment: Customers can compare the current TCO of on-premises environments with the estimated TCO using Azure Arc, evaluating savings and benefits such as Extended Security Updates (ESUs) and SQL Pay-As-You-Go on Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server.
  • Hybrid Cloud Management: Visualize the benefits of security and management tools like Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Monitor, and Azure Update Manager applied to on-premises environments via Azure Arc.
  • Customized Planning: For those not migrating everything or planning a phased migration, it’s possible to compare combined on-premises and Azure costs to optimize strategy.

These tools offer greater flexibility and transparency, enabling customers to download reports and involve stakeholders in the decision-making process.

New Releases and Features of Azure Migrate

To stay updated on the latest developments, visit this page, which provides information on new releases and features. This month, notable highlights include:

  • Cost Assessments for AVS: Support for the AV64 SKU and the external storage option with Azure NetApp Files.
  • Enterprise Linux Machine Migration: Capability to transfer RHEL and SLES machines from VMware and Hyper-V environments to Azure, leveraging the Azure Hybrid Benefit.

Azure Evaluation

For those who wish to explore and personally evaluate the services offered by Azure, a unique opportunity is available: by accessing this page, you can test various features and services for free. This will allow you to better understand how Azure can adapt and improve your IT operations, while ensuring security and innovation.

Unveiling the future: key insights from Microsoft Ignite 2024 on Azure IaaS and Azure Local

In this article, I delve into the latest technological advancements and strategic updates unveiled at the recent Microsoft Ignite 2024 event. With a specific focus on Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Azure Local, I aim to provide a comprehensive and insightful overview of the innovative solutions and initiatives introduced by Microsoft. As a cornerstone event in the tech world, Microsoft Ignite continues to shape the industry by presenting groundbreaking features, enhancements, and visionary developments. Join me as I explore these transformative updates in detail, offering my personal insights on their potential to redefine the future of cloud infrastructure and services. This article examines the implications of these transformative updates, analyzing their impact on the evolution of cloud infrastructure and services, and their significance for businesses navigating the digital future.

Azure

Silicon Updates for Azure Infrastructure

Microsoft Azure is advancing its infrastructure with end-to-end silicon innovations to meet the growing demands of cloud and AI workloads. Azure Integrated Hardware Security Module (HSM) ensures robust security across datacenter hardware, while Azure Boost Data Processing Units (DPUs) provide efficiency in networking, storage, and acceleration for scale-out workloads. Additionally, Azure’s innovative liquid cooling technology is tailored for large-scale AI systems, ensuring efficiency and sustainability within its datacenters. By integrating CPUs, AI accelerators, and DPUs, alongside cutting-edge hardware security and cooling technologies, Azure continues to optimize every layer of its infrastructure for the AI-driven era.

Azure HBv5 Virtual Machines Built for High Performance and Cost Efficiency (preview)

Azure HBv5 virtual machines are designed to redefine high-performance computing (HPC) in the cloud by delivering exceptional performance and cost efficiency. Powered by AMD EPYC™ 9V64H processors and the latest NVIDIA InfiniBand networking technologies, these VMs promise up to 8x the performance of leading bare metal and cloud alternatives, and up to 35x the speed of legacy on-premises systems. HBv5 VMs are optimized for demanding workloads such as computational fluid dynamics, weather modeling, and aerospace simulation. With enhanced data movement capabilities, high-bandwidth memory, and a co-designed platform to overcome bottlenecks, HBv5 will empower researchers and businesses to accelerate insights and reduce costs, with availability in preview by 2025.

Azure ND GB200 V6 VMs Powered by NVIDIA Blackwell Platform (preview)

Microsoft Azure has announced the preview of its Azure ND GB200 V6 virtual machines, powered by NVIDIA Blackwell GB200 Superchips. These VMs represent a breakthrough in AI computing, offering unparalleled performance and scalability for AI model training and inference. Co-developed and co-optimized with NVIDIA and other AI innovators, the Azure ND GB200 V6 series sets a new standard for AI supercomputing in the cloud. The integration of NVIDIA GB200 Superchips ensures accelerated capabilities for the most advanced AI workloads, enabling faster, more efficient AI innovation.

Microsoft Continues Transition to Reliable Logical Qubits

Microsoft is pioneering advancements at the intersection of AI and quantum computing by transitioning toward reliable logical qubits. In collaboration with Atom Computing, Microsoft is developing the world’s largest neutral atom commercial system with entangled logical qubits, offering breakthrough 2-qubit gate fidelity. These advancements will enable deeper, more complex quantum computations, surpassing classical computing capabilities. The co-designed commercial quantum machine, expected to launch by the end of 2025, will support faster AI training and accelerate scientific discovery, marking a significant leap in quantum innovation.

Azure Local

Azure Expands Adaptive Cloud, Introducing the Azure Local Infrastructure Solution

Microsoft Azure continues to innovate with its adaptive cloud approach, supporting global infrastructure across cloud and edge environments. This expansion offers unified management, enhanced security, simplified application deployment, and a consistent data foundation across hybrid, multicloud, and edge ecosystems. As part of this evolution, Azure Local—a cloud-controlled hybrid infrastructure platform powered by Azure Arc—is now generally available. Azure Arc acts as a bridge, extending Azure platform services like Azure Local across hybrid, multicloud, and edge locations.

What is Azure Local?

Azure Local enables customers to extend Azure services to distributed locations, empowering them to run mission-critical workloads, cloud-native applications, and AI solutions with unparalleled flexibility and scalability. Through partnerships with OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo, Azure Local integrates secure, pre-validated hardware with cloud-based services. Supporting a variety of infrastructure setups, from compact industrial PCs to enterprise-grade servers, Azure Local also addresses disconnected scenarios, meeting rigorous regulatory and compliance requirements.

Azure Local’s Role in Azure’s Global Infrastructure

This new platform underscores Azure’s commitment to providing customers with unmatched options tailored to their unique needs. Whether leveraging Azure’s global presence in over 60 regions or third-party infrastructure enabled by Azure Arc, customers benefit from centralized management, advanced security features, and AI-driven insights. These capabilities accelerate app development and scaling while offering a unified experience across centralized and distributed environments.

Key Features and Benefits

Azure Local integrates and expands upon the Azure Stack product family, offering broader capabilities and a more streamlined experience. Existing Azure Stack HCI customers will automatically transition to Azure Local, which includes features like:

  • Customizable cloud-based operations and security
  • Support for cloud-native and traditional applications
  • Azure Virtual Desktop integration

New customers can explore validated partner solutions on the Azure Local webpage to get started today.

Azure Local vs. Azure Arc

  • Azure Local: Designed for customers seeking new or refreshed infrastructure at distributed locations, with Azure Arc capabilities seamlessly built-in.
  • Azure Arc: A bridge to extend Azure services to existing infrastructure or other cloud environments.

Azure Local’s Relationship with Azure Stack HCI

Azure Local now encompasses Azure Stack HCI, maintaining all its features and adding significant new functionality:

  • Support for lower-spec hardware (preview)
  • Disconnected operations (preview)
  • Enhanced services and flexibility

Existing customers need only continue applying updates to transition smoothly to Azure Local.

Transition for Azure Stack Hub and Azure Stack Edge

Microsoft recommends Azure Local for most distributed infrastructure scenarios. Once preview features such as lower-spec hardware and disconnected operations become generally available, Azure Local will offer equivalent capabilities to previous Azure Stack solutions. Until then, Azure Stack Hub and Azure Stack Edge remain available as standalone products.

Windows Server Integration

Azure Local also brings added value to Windows Server customers. Those with Software Assurance or active subscriptions can access Azure management tools like:

  • Azure Update Manager
  • Azure Policy Guest Configuration
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Change Tracking and Inventory

This integration incurs no additional cost, further enhancing Azure’s value proposition.

Getting Started

Azure Local is now available for production use (version 2411). New customers can browse the solutions catalog for their preferred vendor’s hardware and read the deployment guide to initiate their journey. Additional low-spec, cost-effective options are expected to launch soon.

Stay Informed with Microsoft Ignite: The Book of News

For more information, you can refer to “The Book of News,” the guide to Microsoft’s announcements for Microsoft Ignite. This resource is designed to streamline your access to the latest updates and provide essential insights into the topics that matter most to you.

Conclusion

The innovations unveiled at Microsoft Ignite 2024 mark a transformative leap in cloud infrastructure and hybrid solutions. From groundbreaking advancements in Azure IaaS with next-generation silicon, high-performance virtual machines, and pioneering AI capabilities to the introduction of Azure Local as a unified platform for distributed environments, Microsoft continues to redefine the standards of scalability, flexibility, and security.

These updates emphasize Azure’s commitment to empowering businesses with the tools needed to navigate the evolving digital landscape. Whether through enhanced performance for demanding workloads, seamless hybrid integration, or cutting-edge developments in quantum computing, Microsoft’s vision aligns with the growing demand for adaptive and resilient cloud solutions.

Azure Local’s seamless integration of Azure Stack HCI and the broader Azure ecosystem offers a compelling solution for organizations seeking a consistent and secure approach to managing workloads across centralized, hybrid, and edge environments. By bridging cloud-native and traditional applications, Azure Local simplifies infrastructure management while addressing complex compliance and operational needs.

As we look ahead, the innovations discussed at Microsoft Ignite 2024 set the stage for a future where cloud technologies continue to drive business transformation. By staying informed and embracing these advancements, organizations can unlock new levels of agility, innovation, and growth in an increasingly connected world.