This series of blog posts includes the most important announcements and major updates regarding Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and Azure Stack, officialized by Microsoft in the last two weeks.
Azure
Storage
Azure NetApp Files new regions and cross-region replication
Azure NetApp Files is now available in the following additional regions:
- Korea South,
- Sweden Central.
Additionally, Azure NetApp Files cross-region replication has been enabled between following regions:
- Korea Central and Korea South,
- North Central US and East US 2,
- France Central and West Europe.
Networking
ExpressRoute FastPath support for Vnet peering and UDRs
FastPath now supports virtual network peering and user defined routing (UDR). FastPath will send traffic directly to any VM deployed in a spoke virtual network peered to the virtual network where the ExpressRoute virtual network gateway is deployed. Additionally, FastPath will now honor UDRs configured on the GatewaySubnet and send traffic directly to an Azure Firewall or third-party Network Virtual Appliance (NVA).
Azure Firewall Basic (preview)
Azure Firewall Basic is a new SKU for Azure Firewall designed for small and medium-sized businesses.
Comprehensive, cloud-native network firewall security:
- Network and application traffic filtering
- Threat intelligence to alert on malicious traffic
- Built-in high availability
- Seamless integration with other Azure security services
Simple setup and easy-to-use:
- Setup in just a few minutes
- Automate deployment (deploy as code)
- Zero maintenance with automatic updates
- Central management via Azure Firewall Manager
Cost-effective:
- Designed to deliver essential, cost-effective protection of your resources within your virtual network
Policy analytics for Azure Firewall (preview)
Policy analytics for Azure Firewall, now in public preview, provides enhanced visibility into traffic flowing through Azure Firewall, enabling the optimization of your firewall configuration without impacting your application performance.
Azure Basic Load Balancer will be retired
On 30 September 2025, Azure Basic Load Balancer will be retired. You can continue to use your existing Basic Load Balancers until then, but you’ll no longer be able to deploy new ones after 31 March 2025.
To keep your workloads appropriately distributed, you’ll need to upgrade to Standard Load Balancer, which provides significant improvements including:
- High performance, ultra-low latency, and superior resilient load-balancing.
- Security by default: closed to inbound flows unless allowed by a network security group.
- Diagnostics such as multi-dimensional metrics and alerts, resource health, and monitoring.
- SLA of 99.99 percent availability.
Basic SKU public IP addresses will be retired
On 30 September 2025, Basic SKU public IP addresses will be retired in Azure. You can continue to use your existing Basic SKU public IP addresses until then, however, you’ll no longer be able to create new ones after 31 March 2025.
Standard SKU public IP addresses offer significant improvements, including:
- Access to a variety of other Azure products, including Standard Load Balancer, Azure Firewall, and NAT Gateway.
- Security by default—closed to inbound flows unless allowed by a network security group.
- Zone-redundant and zonal front ends for inbound and outbound traffic.
