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
Compute
New Storage Optimized Laosv4, Lasv4, and Lsv4 Azure VM Series
Azure has announced the general availability of the Laosv4, Lasv4, and Lsv4 storage-optimized virtual machine series. The Laosv4 and Lasv4 VMs are powered by 4th Gen AMD EPYC™ (Genoa) processors, while the Lsv4 series uses 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® (Emerald Rapids) CPUs. These VMs offer sizes ranging from 2 to 96 vCPUs, with 8GB of memory and substantial local NVMe disk capacity per vCPU. In particular, the largest VMs offer up to 23TB of local storage. All three VM series come with Azure Boost and Azure Boost SSDs, support NVMe local SSD disk encryption by default, and feature an NVMe remote storage interface with premium storage caching, enhancing remote storage performance. These VMs are ideal for storage-intensive, distributed workloads such as big data analytics, Elasticsearch, distributed file systems, and data warehousing, delivering the high performance and flexibility needed for modern enterprise applications.
Networking
Profile and Route WAF Policies on Azure Front Door (private preview)
Azure has introduced a private preview of profile and route-based Web Application Firewall (WAF) policies for Azure Front Door. Previously, WAF policies could only be associated with a Front Door instance via frontends or custom domains. With this update, WAF policies can now also be applied at the Front Door profile level and at the individual route level within a domain. This new flexibility allows administrators to define a global policy at the profile level to cover all associated domains, while also enabling more granular security through route-specific policies. For instance, more sensitive routes—such as login or payment pages—can have stricter rules applied. The policy hierarchy ensures that more specific policies override broader ones: route-level policies take precedence over domain-level policies, which in turn override profile-level policies. This enhancement empowers organizations to implement targeted protection strategies within a unified WAF framework.
Azure Virtual Network Manager in Azure China
Azure Virtual Network Manager is now generally available in Azure China, bringing centralized control over connectivity, security rules, and routing configurations across subscriptions at scale. This service simplifies network topology management using hub-and-spoke or mesh configurations, helping administrators ensure consistent connectivity and policy enforcement throughout complex environments. The security admin rules feature allows organizations to define security policies that take precedence over traditional Network Security Group (NSG) rules, helping to avoid misconfigurations and maintain compliance across environments. Additionally, flow logs offer visibility and diagnostics for traffic governed by these rules. Routing configurations can also be standardized and applied automatically to multiple subnets or virtual networks, supporting scenarios like routing spoke traffic through Azure Firewall or enabling cross-hub connections, further simplifying enterprise network architecture.
Storage
Archive Access Tier Now Available in Italy North
The Archive access tier for Azure Blob Storage is now generally available in the Italy North region. This development enables customers to store infrequently accessed data in a highly cost-effective manner while ensuring data residency and compliance with Italian regulations. Ideal for long-term data retention, backup, and compliance scenarios, the Archive tier supports comprehensive data lifecycle management. Users can manage data in the Archive tier through the Azure portal, CLI, PowerShell, or REST API. With this release, the Italy North region now supports the full spectrum of Azure Blob Storage tiers—Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive—aligning it with other fully featured Azure regions.
Azure Storage Mover support for SMB source to Azure Blob target
Azure Storage Mover has expanded its capabilities to support the migration of SMB shares directly to Azure Blob containers. This fully managed migration service enables seamless and secure transfer of on-premises files and folders to Azure Storage, minimizing downtime during migration processes. With integration features like just-in-time permission setting and Azure Key Vault support, organizations can perform secure migrations end-to-end. This enhancement complements the existing support for migrations from NFS shares to Azure Blob and from SMB sources to Azure File shares.
NFS Azure Files volume mount support in Azure Container Apps (preview)
Azure Container Apps now support mounting Network File System (NFS) Azure Files volumes to containerized applications. This enhancement allows developers to leverage a scalable and high-performance file system that can be shared across multiple containers within an application. The use of NFS Azure Files volumes also ensures data persistence across container restarts, making it ideal for stateful workloads or data-intensive jobs running in container environments.
Encrypt Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks with Cross-Tenant Customer Managed Keys (preview)
Microsoft has introduced a public preview for encrypting Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks using Cross-Tenant Customer Managed Keys (CMK) in select regions. This feature enables encryption of managed disks using a CMK that resides in an Azure Key Vault located in a different Microsoft Entra tenant from the disk itself. This advancement is particularly beneficial for service providers building Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions on Azure, as it allows their customers to manage their own encryption keys independently. Customers can now host and control their CMKs in their own tenant, granting them full sovereignty over their data and encryption practices.
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 Local. 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.
