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
Microsoft named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for AI Application Development Platforms
Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Application Development Platforms, and the company reports it is positioned furthest for Completeness of Vision. Microsoft attributes this recognition to a focus on building production-ready, agentic applications that are grounded in enterprise data and tools, integrated into real business workflows, and governed with end-to-end observability. According to Microsoft, Microsoft Foundry is its unified platform for building, deploying, and governing AI applications, with emphasis on four pillars: secure grounding to enterprise data and tools (including Foundry IQ and Foundry Tools with a large set of connectors), multi-agent orchestration and workflow execution via Foundry Agent Service, organization-wide visibility and policy enforcement through Foundry Control Plane, and the ability to build and run models from cloud to edge using Foundry Models and Foundry Local. Microsoft also highlights deep integration with common developer and productivity tooling such as Visual Studio Code, GitHub, Azure, and Microsoft 365 to support building and operating AI applications at enterprise scale.
Storage
Azure NetApp Files cross-zone-region replication (CZRR)
Azure NetApp Files (ANF) cross-zone-region replication (CZRR) extends the existing cross-region replication and cross-zone replication capabilities by enabling volume replication both across regions and across Availability Zones within the same region. This combined approach helps organizations strengthen disaster recovery and business continuity for critical cloud volumes. To set up protection, two protection volumes are established by creating the appropriate replication relationships—such as one cross-zone replication relationship and one cross-region replication relationship, two cross-region replication relationships, or two cross-zone replication relationships—while ensuring the source volume is placed in an Availability Zone when configuring a cross-zone replication relationship.
Azure NetApp Files advanced ransomware protection (preview)
Azure NetApp Files (ANF) advanced ransomware protection (ARP) is available in Public Preview and is designed to help organizations proactively detect, respond to, and recover from ransomware threats affecting cloud volumes. The feature monitors Azure NetApp Files volumes for suspicious behavior using file extension profiling, entropy analysis, and Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) patterns. When potential ransomware activity is detected, the system automatically creates a point-in-time snapshot to support rapid assessment and recovery. Notifications are delivered through the Azure Activity log, and attack reports are retained for 30 days. The capability is available in Public Preview in all regions, and while there is no specific additional charge for ANF ARP, deployment sizing should account for the considerations required to support the feature.
Azure Storage Mover: Azure Blob container-to-container migration (preview)
Azure Storage Mover has introduced Azure Blob container-to-container migration in Public Preview, enabling organizations to move data between two Blob containers within the same or different storage accounts, subscriptions, or Azure regions in a secure and scalable way. With this capability, customers can reduce reliance on custom pipelines or third-party tools by automating cloud-to-cloud migrations directly from the Azure portal, while also gaining real-time visibility into migration jobs and progress. As a fully managed service, Azure Storage Mover handles the underlying infrastructure, scaling, and reliability to lower operational overhead, and—because it is a cloud-to-cloud scenario—no agent deployment is required. The feature also supports high-speed, parallel transfers, helping accelerate large dataset migrations, especially when moving data across regions or between storage accounts where high throughput is required.
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.
