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

6th Generation Intel-Based VMs – Dv6/Ev6 Now Generally Available

Azure has announced the general availability of the Dv6 and Ev6 series Virtual Machines (VMs), powered by the 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8537C (Emerald Rapids) processor. These new Intel-based VMs offer three different memory-to-core ratios and come in 84 different sizes, ranging from 2 to 192 vCPUs with up to 1.8TB of memory. Customers can choose options with or without local SSDs across the new VM families, including:

• General Purpose: Dsv6, Dlsv6, Ddvs6, and Dldsv6 series.
• Memory Optimized: Esv6 and Edsv6 series, with constrained core variants for high data throughput workloads.

These next-generation VMs deliver:

• Up to 27% higher vCPU performance and 3x larger L3 cache compared to previous Intel-based Dl/D/Ev5 VMs.
• Azure Boost capabilities, including:
  • Up to 400K IOPS and 12 GB/s remote storage throughput.
  • Up to 200 Gbps VM network bandwidth.
  • 46% larger local SSD capacity with 3x read IOPS.
  • NVMe interface for local and remote disks.
• Enhanced security through Total Memory Encryption (TME) technology.

These improvements significantly extend Intel-based VM performance in Azure, providing customers with high-throughput, high-memory, and high-security computing options. The new Dv6/Ev6 VMs are now available in multiple regions across North America, Europe, and Asia, with further expansion planned.

Upgrade Existing Azure Gen1 VMs to Gen2-Trusted Launch (preview)

Azure has introduced public preview support for upgrading existing Azure Generation 1 VMs to Generation 2-Trusted Launch, improving security without requiring full VM redeployment.

Trusted Launch VMs enhance security by enabling:

• Secure Boot: Protects against rootkits and bootkits.
• Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM): Strengthens OS integrity and enables attestation by measuring the VM’s boot chain.

This upgrade option provides foundational compute security for existing workloads, allowing organizations to strengthen their virtual infrastructure without disrupting operations.

Networking

New Pricing for Azure Virtual Network Manager Now Generally Available

Azure has introduced new pricing for Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM), a centralized network management service that enables users to manage virtual network connectivity, security, and routing at scale.

Starting February 11, 2025, all newly created Azure Virtual Network Manager instances will be charged based on the number of virtual networks where an active AVNM configuration is deployed. This replaces the previous subscription-based pricing model. Charges will only apply when using configuration features such as:

• Connectivity
• Security Admin
• Routing

This new virtual network-based pricing aligns costs more closely with actual usage, providing greater flexibility for a broader range of customers.

Transition for Existing AVNM Instances:

• Existing Azure Virtual Network Manager instances can opt-in to the new pricing model.
• No automatic changes will be applied to existing AVNM instances before February 2028, allowing businesses to maintain their current billing structure until then.

This pricing adjustment ensures a more scalable and cost-effective approach for organizations managing large virtual network infrastructures in Azure.

Fallback to Internet on Private DNS Zones Now Generally Available

Azure has introduced Fallback to Internet on Private DNS Zones, a new feature that simplifies network isolation and enhances Private Link and Private DNS adoption. This fully managed solution eliminates the need for IaaS-based DNS servers, providing seamless public DNS resolution when a Private DNS Zone returns an authoritative NXDOMAIN response.

Key Benefits:

• Automatic Public DNS Recursion: When an authoritative NXDOMAIN response is received, Azure’s recursive resolver fleet provides public DNS resolution.
• Fully Managed Native Solution: No need to deploy and maintain IaaS-based DNS servers.
• Simplified Private Link Integration: Enhances usability and adoption of Private Link and Private DNS configurations.
• Configurable via API, CLI, and PowerShell: The feature is already available, with Azure Portal support rolling out in the next two weeks.

This resolution policy is enabled at the Virtual Network Link level. In the Azure Portal, users can enable this feature by selecting “Enable fallback to internet” in the virtual network link configuration.

With this enhancement, Azure provides a more flexible and efficient DNS resolution experience for customers implementing private networking solutions.

Azure Firewall Updates – Increased IP Group Limits Now Generally Available

Azure has doubled the IP Group limit in Azure Firewall policies, increasing the maximum from 100 to 200 per policy.

Key Benefits:

• Better Policy Organization: Allows management of more IP addresses within a single firewall policy.
• Greater Flexibility: Optimizes configurations for complex network security needs.

This enhancement improves scalability and efficiency in managing large-scale network security policies, providing greater flexibility for enterprises using Azure Firewall.

Azure Firewall Updates – BYOIP Support for Secured Virtual Hubs (Preview)

Azure Firewall now supports Customer Provided Public IP (BYOIP) for Secured Virtual Hub deployments, allowing administrators to assign and manage customer-managed public IPs for new firewall instances.

Key Benefits

• Full Control: Customers can own and manage the lifecycle of their firewall’s public IPs.
• Enhanced Security: Enables DDoS mitigation for better protection against cyber threats.
• IP Address Flexibility: Public IPs can be allocated from an IP prefix pool, offering more control over network configurations.

This update enhances security, flexibility, and manageability for customers leveraging Azure Firewall in Secured Virtual Hubs.

Storage

Azure File Sync v20 Agent Now Available

The Azure File Sync v20 agent is now flighting and available on the Microsoft Update Catalog. Servers configured for automatic updates will receive the latest version when available.

Managed Identities Preview Enhancements

Azure File Sync support for managed identities (preview) was first announced in November 2024. Since then, Microsoft has introduced the following improvements:

• Portal Integration:
  • You can now configure Azure File Sync with managed identities via the Azure Portal.
  • This feature will be gradually enabled across all regions in the next few weeks.
• Storage Account Security Improvements:
  • The following settings on your storage account are no longer required and can now be disabled:
    • Allow storage account key access
    • Allow Azure services on the trusted services list to access this storage account

These updates enhance security and simplify management by enabling a more secure, identity-based authentication approach for Azure File Sync deployments.

Modern Version of the Azure Storage Data Movement Library Now Generally Available

The modern version of the Azure Storage Data Movement Library has reached General Availability, delivering a streamlined and efficient data transfer experience for Azure Blob and Azure File Storage users.

This update introduces enhanced capabilities, including:

• Progress Tracking: Monitor real-time transfer status.
• Pause and Resume: Gain flexibility in managing data transfers.
• Checkpointing: Resume transfers from the last saved state in case of interruptions.

Additionally, the library now shares infrastructure with the modern v12 Azure Storage libraries, improving integration with Azure Identity packages to align with modern security standards. These improvements simplify and enhance data movement in Azure.

Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage and Azure Ultra Disk Storage Now Available in New Zealand North

Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage and Azure Ultra Disk Storage are now generally available in the New Zealand North region, enhancing Azure’s global storage capabilities. Premium SSD v2 delivers sub-millisecond latencies for IO-intensive workloads at a low cost, offering the best price-performance ratio for general-purpose block storage. Optimized for demanding workloads like SQL Server, Oracle, SAP, big data analytics, and gaming, it ensures high performance, enterprise readiness, and cost efficiency. For regions where Premium SSD v2 is unavailable, Microsoft provides a survey for customers to express interest. Additionally, Azure Ultra Disk Storage, now available in the same region, offers high throughput, high IOPS, and consistently low latency, further empowering enterprises with scalable and performant 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.